Disastrous

Twenty Six

"Mum?"

My mothers short frail arms wrap around my waist the second I acknowledge her. She's weeping uncontrollably into the lower chest of my shirt, her basically four-foot-nothing height not allowing her to wrap her arms around my shoulders.
"Mum, uh, it's okay.." I pat her back and she sobs even harder. Her blond hair is cut just below her ears and not straightened to perfection like usual. It looks more like she's been sleeping on it, or running her hands over it again and again.

I gulp as my father rounds the corner with two suitcases in each of his hands. He looked slightly pissed off but that wasn't surprising, especially if he knew how upset my mum was. He would blame it on me and quite frankly I did too. I called my parents days later to tell them about the early birth of my son but didn't give much more information but that. Surely they would want to see him but I had completely blown it off, too wrapped up in the situation between Shay and I.

"Nice to see you son." My fathers accent is so strong I nearly forget my voice used to sound the exact same. With so much time spent in New York, my accent slowly began to deteriorate until it wasn't as bold as before.

Unexpectedly, dad throws an arm around my neck and sandwiches mum between us in a hug. At the moment of family bonding, I feel the door being opened wider from behind me and Shay steps into the hall of our building with Rory bundled up in her arms. He's wrapped in a dark blue blanket, nothing visible but the soft rosy skin of his face and his vast amount of fluffy dark hair.

"Oh, my lord." My mother sniffles and squeezes her way out of our human sandwich. I'm too stunned to move and my dad seems to be in the same position. We both just stare, his eyes wide and locked on my baby. Mum shuffles over to Shay and gives her the hugest smile I've probably ever seen her give, before she begins to cry again.
Shay smiles softly back at her and asks mum if she'd like to hold Rory. Finally deciding to move, I glide behind Shay and rest my hands loosely on her shoulders as she hands off Rory to my mums extended arms.

She's cooing all over him instantly, and soon enough my father is bent at the waist to be at Rory's height in mums arms. He's dropped his bags to the ground and is stroking his grandsons cheek, smiling brightly with tears in his blue eyes. It all seems surreal and slightly weird to me that this was happening with me instead of one of my siblings. My son was my parents' first grandchild so it wasn't odd to me how adored he was by them already.

"Let's go inside, yeah?" I suggest as mum begins to bawl. I didn't exactly want to have to explain to my neighbours why we were having a crying party in the hallway.

Rory is placed back in Shay's arms and I quickly pick up my parents' suitcases. It was safe to say they had planned on staying at our place by the huge amount of crap they brought upstairs with them. I definitely wasn't excited about that.

"He is so beautiful. Gosh Niall, you could have at least sent us a picture!" Mum frowns, sitting on the couch next to Shay. She continues to stare at him as he's slowly rocked back to sleep, blue eyes fluttering behind dark thick lashes.

"Sorry mum. Just been busy with him is all."

"Has he had his christening yet?"

Shay glances up at me when my father asks this and I gulp. I didn't even have a clue what Shay wanted to do about that, if she wanted to do anything at all. My parents were both strong Catholics and if I remembered correctly so were Shay's, but her and I were a little less religious.

"Not yet.... But we plan on it." Shay speaks up for both of us. If only my parents knew that we really hadn't planned on anything at all... Or if they knew that Shay was actually a one night stand that I hadn't planned on even remembering let alone see again; they would be crushed.