Michael had really done such a good job of dropping off and picking up Parker from school until the one day that he decided to take a nap.
It had been three weeks since Parker started school, and Michael felt like he could have won the award for dad of the year because of what a good job he was doing. In the those three weeks he'd gotten into a habit of waking Parker up early enough and feeding him (they still had pizza for breakfast) and then getting him dressed and at the school on time. Michael felt like everything was finally falling into place.
And everything was falling into place, until Michael took that nap. He really only had one thing to do that day, and that was to pick Parker up at exactly 2:30 when his day at preschool ended. Michael usually got there at 2:15 and stood outside with the other parents, just in case the kids got out a little earlier than normal, which never happened. Every day he'd get there early, pick up Parker right on time, and then take him back home where they played Mario Kart and ate ice cream. It was pretty simple, but of course Michael had to fuck it up.
Michael woke up from his nap at 3:00 and immediately panicked because he knew that Parker would be panicking over Michael not picking him up from school on time, so he ran straight out of his apartment without grabbing his car keys or putting on shoes.
He had to come back and grab his car keys, but still didn't bother putting on any shoes.
Michael drove faster than what was probably legal and somehow made it to the preschool two minutes earlier than he'd expected to get there. Not that it made anything much better, because it was 3:15 and Michael was 45 minutes late to pick up Parker.
He literally ran down the street to the preschool, where Michael prayed that Parker was still waiting there and hadn't been kidnapped by some gross man roaming around the streets. That wouldn't be good and he'd definitely get yelled at for that.
When Michael arrived in front of the school he was panting like crazy from running down the whole block and he even tripped a few times before he finally saw Parker, sitting on the ground against the wall of the building with two other girls. One younger, one older.
"Daddy!" Parker yelled, standing up from where he had been sitting.
"Hi, Pac-Man." Michael said, trying to catch his breath. He walked over to Parker, who was already running over to him. He held his arms out for Michael, begging to be picked up again and even though Michael still felt like he was dying from running over there he grabbed Parker and scooped him into his arms. "I'm so sorry I was so late, I fell asleep - "
"You're Parker's father?" Michael looked past Parker to see the one of the girls standing up, the older one. She slowly walked over to where Michael and Parker where standing, taking the younger girl's hand.
"Daddy," Parker whispered, leaning closer to Michael. He turned and pointed towards the younger girl. "That's my friend Kitty."
"That's Kitty? But she - you told me Kitty was a cat!" Michael said, clearly confused. He glanced at the older girl, who Michael secretly thought was really, really hot, and she just rolled her eyes at him.
"I lied." Parker shrugged.
"Her name is Katie." The older girl spoke up, and then Michael began to understand why Parker called her Kitty. Kitty sounded a little like Katie, it made sense, at least for a four year old.
"Right." Michael nodded.
"She's my friend." Parker said, a big smile on his face. "But don't worry, Daddy, she's not my best friend. You'll always be my best friend."
"Okay, Parker, why don't you say goodbye to your friend now, and then we can go get some ice cream." Michael said, because he really wanted to make it up to Parker for leaving him here for so long.
