butterfly// 5SOS

11

Michael

"Dad, today was the best day ever! I'm walking to school with my friends on Monday, and we played football," Elijah said, running over when I walked in the door, "It was so good,"

"That's really nice to hear," I said, hugging him tightly, "I knew you'd be okay,"

"Mum gave me this bracelet that you guys ordered,"

"Yeah, it's a tracker because you don't have a phone yet. You lift this up and press once for us, and twice for emergency services, okay?"

"Yeah, it's made me feel safe- is that a photo of me?"

He walked towards the mantlepiece and picked up a frame with a photo I'd taken of the boys playing football.

"Yeah. I'm going to shower buddy, okay? We're having takeaway to celebrate so have a think what you might want. It's your choice,"

On the way upstairs, Lauren ran towards me and jumped up for a cuddle, so I picked her up and held her close to me for a couple of minutes, until she wriggled away again.

Crystal and Jasper were no where to be seen, so I assumed they were out the back, and got in the shower. Ever since I was a kid, Fridays were my favourite. It used to be because mum and dad let me have sweets at the weekend, but now it was that I actually got to see my kids during the day, and spend time with them.

As I was pulling my joggers on, the bedroom door opened and Crystal walked in, Jasper following.

"I want my reward to be passed over to Elijah. You two need to take him out and spend time with him, and have time alone,"

"We need to have family time, together!"

"No, he needs a stronger bond with you guys than he has with me,"

"Why? We aren't sending you away bud, we love having you here,"

"Well one day I wont be... I'll be at uni or in a different town,"

"It's okay to have a strong relationship. You're still here three years before uni,"

He shrugged and looked down, Crystal kissing his head- school must've been a bit crappy for him. We all went downstairs and Elijah was still looking at the photo of him, so I surprised him with a hug from behind.

"Excuse me mister, your binder is still on,"

"I want to keep it on,"

"You'll hurt yourself if you do that, okay? Go and take it off then we will choose a takeaway,"

As he turned, I kissed his head, then he trudged up to his room, stomping on each step; Crystal looked at me and sighed, but we weren't going to argue because we wanted to show him that even if he got mad, we weren't going to copy.

"Mummy, did you say takeaway?" Lauren asked hopefully, "Pizza?"

"Whatever Elijah would like to have! You've been a good girl this week, we are very proud,"

"Yay!"

"It's really nice to hear from your nursery that you are being a kind friend to everyone," she said, picking her up. Lauren was a sweet kid, she really was, but she really struggled with certain things and we were hoping to get her support soon so that we could help her.

"I go round and play with everyone,"

"You're too cute,"

"Is it nearly Christmas?"

"It's like... two months away, Lauren," I chuckled, "Hey you, what's wrong?"

Jasper was furiously typing on his phone, and when I jokingly went to peek, he shoved it in his pocket and turned to look at Elijah walking back down.