Group Therapy

43 - Hate.

"Hey buddy!" I chuckle and bend down to hug him before standing back up.

"You're leaving now?" he pouts.

"No, not yet. Don't worry bud." I smile.

"But you're still leaving soon." his chocolate brown eyes meet mine and I immediately feel guilty despite having no control over this situation whatsoever.

"You can call me anytime when you need me, okay?"

"Okay." he mutters and I wrap his small figure into a hug.

"Now come on, why don't you show me what you and Aella were playing?"

The mention of play cheers him up and he grabs my hand leading me to the back yard "This way!"

"So we're playing house, the back yard is our house." he walks over to where the lawnmower is "This is the kitchen."

Then he proceeds to show me their bathroom and bedrooms.

"Do you wanna play with us?" they both ask in unison.

"I would love to!" I sit down on the grass alongside them.

"Okay so I'm the mommy, she's the baby," Aella points at a doll laying on the ground "And hunter's the daddy."

"No. I can't be the daddy." Hunter tells Aella.

I lightly chuckle at his words, excepting his reason being he wants to be the mom so he could handle the doll. He always liked to play with dolls along with his other toys.

"You're the only boy here, why not?" she asks.

"I don't know how to be the daddy, I never had one." Hunter shrugs.

Oh.

His words hit me harder than I thought they could and I fight the urge to say something about it, I'm not sure anything I could say could really help that.

Aella and Hunter start arguing on who plays the father before I decide step in "Alright easy there you two, I'll be the dad."

Aella laughs "But you're a girl."

"Says who?" I take a strand of my hair and put it over my mouth pretending it's a mustache.

They both giggle and Aella exclaims "Okay you're the daddy! I'm the mommy, she's the baby and hunter is the big brother, like Ace!"

"Okay, I'll be the big brother." Hunter agrees and they start playing.

"You're the daddy, you'll be coming home from work and I'll give you dinner." Aella instructs.

"Will do." I stand up and walk out of the back yard before walking back in and saying "That was a long day at work!" in a fake male's voice.

Aella holds in a giggle and walks over to me with a tiny plate of plastic food "Thank you honey! Here's your plate." she exclaims.

"For what?" I ask.

"That's what my mommy says to my daddy when he comes home from work." she shrugs, handing me the plastic plate.