These Moments

Early Morning Blues.

   

                                 Early Morning Blues.

     

    It feels as if I've only been asleep for a few minutes before I hear the sound of one of my children's familiar hiccupping cries. Huffing out a sigh, I prop myself up on an elbow and glance over at the alarm clock on the nightstand.

  The clock reads 2:32 a.m.

Apparently I'm going to have to learn how to be a morning person. I highly doubt this is going to be easy. 

 "Hmm..."

I direct my attention to Laila, who's curled up against my side, her wavy black hair fanning out across her pillow, and fight back a smile. At least she's able to sleep somewhat, if I can't.

 "Who's crying?" she asks, her voice muffled by my shoulder, still half asleep.

"I don't know," I yawn, running a hand through my equally tangled hair. "I'll be back."

Laila hums in response, clutching the blankets around her more tightly as I stumble my way out of bed. I roll my eyes and kiss her forehead on an impulse before leaving the bedroom, heading down the hallway to the twin's room.  

  It doesn't come as a surprise that Lena, mine and Laila's seven week old daughter, is the one who's crying. She's the more vocal one of the two and constantly makes the most random noises out of the blue. It's quite cute, if I'm going to be honest.

  Andrew, who's younger than his sister by about eleven minutes, is fast asleep on his side of their crib, his tangled black hair sticking up in the oddest directions. I fight back a smile as I attempt to smooth back his hair, but of course, to no avail. 

  Lena instantly stops crying as I lean over and carefully cradle her in my arms, making sure her velvety star covered blanket is still tucked around her. 

  I give her a raised eyebrow look. She just blinks drowsily up at me, yawning adorably as she squirms in my arms. 

   This happens quite a bit. Lena will wake up in the odd hours of night and won't stop crying until I get up and rock her back to sleep. Laila takes over sometimes, but it takes her longer to get Lena to stop crying and fall back asleep. With me, though, it's almost instantaneous. 

  Everyone else finds it humorous and comments about how it must be awful being up the entire night, but I don't mind. I don't mind at all. Having moments like these with my daughter, just the two of us, with no interruptions, are more than a guy can ask for. 

  I carefully sit in the rocking chair across the room, tucking a leg up underneath me while laying Lena against my shoulder. She instantly grabs onto the collar of my shirt, letting out another yawn. 

  It's moments like these that make me thankful for everything that's happened in my life so far, even if I'm only twenty one. I met the girl of my dreams when I was sixteen, and we've been together ever since. Sure, our life isn't exactly one without fighting or troubles - Laila and I have a knack to constantly bicker about who ate all of the strawberry toaster strudels - but we make things work. We've never yet gone to sleep without resolving our issues or settling some fight that we've had over something insanely stupid.

  And then when Laila had gotten pregnant - she'd told me by writing it down on a scrap of paper and chucking it at my head - everything had become ten thousand times more complicated.

  There had been a fair few times when Laila had almost lost the twins.

Those moments had been the absolute worse. The walls I'd spent years building up to keep people out had come crumbling down instantly. I'd shocked the hell out of my mother, no doubt, since I'd clung to her like I was suddenly six years old again. 

  Even though I'm twenty one, and Laila's twenty, knowing that we were going to be parents and then having the chance that was going to be taken away from us without us even getting to know our children was enough to make it seem like the world was ending for us.

  When the twins were born six weeks early and had to be put in the NICU for 28 days was the only time I'd ever cried since I was still a little kid. 

  Holding Andy and Lena for the first time had only reaffirmed the fact that this was where I was supposed to be in life. 

  If someone had told me years ago that I'd end up being with a beyond amazing girl and have a son and daughter - with my once childhood rival, no less - I would've laughed and called them stupid.

  But now, though? Everything was a little easier to wrap my mind around.

    I jolt awake with a startled gasp at the bright light that flashes across my eyelids for half a second, nearly scared out of my wits. Glancing around wildly, I see Laila leaning against the doorjamb in the doorway of the room, a silver digital camera clutched in her right hand. She's looking smug, which makes me just the slightest bit wary.

 "What?" I demand, my voice laced with sleep. "What are you doing?"

 "Just took a picture, that's all," Laila answers with a shrug and a small smile. 

  I scowl. I hate having my picture taken. I'm not photogenic in the slightest, I think.

Laila bursts out laughing as she catches sight of the look on my face and drops the camera on the twin's dresser as she crosses the room to my side.

  "Don't look so surly, Justin," she advises with a grin. "I'm sure Lena will love to have that picture when she's older."

  Oh.

 I must've fallen asleep in the rocking chair with Lena last night. Judging by the watery morning sunlight drifting in through the curtained windows, that was some time ago. Lena is still fast asleep against my shoulder, but she doesn't wake up when I carefully pass her off to Laila. 

  Andy's just given a rather indignant squawk from their crib, his way of letting us all know that he's awake. I drag myself up from the rocking chair and across the room to scoop Andy up into my arms. He's blinking intently up at me with bright blue eyes and decides that it would be a good idea to reach up and yank firmly on my hair. 

  Laila bursts out laughing as I let out a yelp, trying to gently pry Andy's little fingers off my hair. 

"Ready for another day full of screaming, slobbery babies?" Laila asks me conspiritorially as we leave the twin's room with our kids in arm. 

  I roll my eyes and give her a look, unable to keep from cracking a smile. 

"Sweetheart, I plan on spending the rest of my life with you. Screaming, slobbery babies included."

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  Sooo....yay or nay? I don't know!! I was suddenly hit with the inspiration to write this, and I don't exactly know why!! I just hope it's not that horrible or cheesy or anything, D:. I liked writing it, actually, and I hope you all liked reading it. (: 

   To the few people who read "One Of The Boys", I'm sorry it's been so long since I've last updated - I'm just stuck in an awful bout of writer's block. : / I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. I have a couple of ideas that I hope turn out okay. The world will probably never know.

I'll probably be posting little short stories like this often whenever I get the random urge to, but they probably won't all be about Laila or Justin. They'll probably be about EVERYONE.

  Let me know what you think, please!!! 

 Comments and votes are always greatly appreciated! (: