My Muted Mate. *editing*

Chapter Seven.

The door to Tyler’s room burst open. “Get him to shut up, Abigail!” my father yelled.

"I’m trying!” I told him. “But think he might have an ear infection! I don’t know what to do!” He groaned and walked over to us, taking him out of my arms. Tyler started squirming in my dad's arms. I could tell he was getting mad.

“Stop it!” he yelled, slapping the side of Tyler arm roughly. It made me jerk from him and Tyler only cried harder.

“Tyler Crow, if you don’t stop crying right now, I swear—”.

I reached out to take him. “Daddy, please—ahh!” I screamed when he pushed me back. I hit Tyler’s table stand, which was next to his crib, on the edge and pain increased in my back.

“Do you want me to give you reason to cry?” My dad asked Tyler and started smacking his back.

I ran up to my dad and tried to stop his hand. “Daddy, stop it! You’re hurting him!” I pleaded with him.

I wanted to rip my hair out at each smack he gave Tyler on the back. My eyes watered up and I tried harder to take him until I successfully got my hands under his armpits and ripped from him my father’s grasp. My father’s hand came across my face, in the same place he hit last night, and I cried in pain, but held Tyler close to me.

“You’re staying home today,” he ordered. “You’ll go to the doctor’s with your mother since she’ll probably be out most of the time. Check what’s wrong with him. If I have to wake up another morning ‘cause of his damn crying, it’ll be even worse for the both of you.”

"O-okay,” I whimpered, not looking at him as he left the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

A few tears left my eyes, but I stopped then, not wanting to cry anymore. I placed Tyler in his crib as he continued crying and went to the bathroom. I wet a bath cloth with some cold water before going back into his room. He was fussing with me when I pulled his shirt up and pressed the cold cloth on his back to reduce the redness. I just hope he doesn’t end up with bruises.

All the way until nine thirty, Tyler wouldn’t stop crying! His cries would lower here and there every so often. But it was loud all the time in between. And during those times, I would try to find a way to ease it, but nothing worked. My mom was slightly sober as we walked towards the local doctor’s office that was a few blocks away. I was holding Tyler on my hip and his head was on my shoulders, his crying soft right now. Mostly tears were just coming out at the moment.

*

“Mom, hold him!” I yelled in frustration.

I tried to put the spoon full of apple sauce and half of the pill of antibiotic the doctor gave us for Tyler’s ear infection in his mouth, but the brat kept trying to knock the spoon away because he didn’t want to take it. She grabbed his arms and held him back against the high chair. I took my advantage when his mouth was open from crying and I closed his mouth. He swallowed it, but his crying only grew and so did my big ass headache. I can’t wait for this to be over.

I spooned up some more apple sauce and placed the other half of the one antibiotic in the middle where it stuck. I told my mom to hold onto him good and tight as I put the spoon in his mouth and closed it. He swallowed it again quickly.

My mom let him go and groaned. “This is why I didn’t want to deal with another baby. They’re all pain in the asses,” she said like Tyler and I weren’t here.

I wanted to look at her humorlessly, saying, "You dealing with a baby? I've been the one taking care of him since he was a few days old!" But I didn’t.