Harry Styles
When I found out I was gonna be a dad, I would have never expected to go to Liam Payne of all people for advice.
But here we are.
I'm at wits end. I'm driving myself crazy with self doubt and guilt.
I had to talk to someone, and it couldn't be Lydia. I didn't want her to be disappointed in me.
"So, let me get this straight." Liam takes a sip of beer. "You think you're gonna be a bad dad so you want me to help you?"
"Unfortunately, yes, that's where I'm at." I respond.
"Well. I think I've got just the thing." he smiles, filled with confidence.
This should be good.
"Why don't we practice." he says with open arms as if I'm supposed to understand what the fuck he meant.
"Practice?"
"Yup. You're gonna practice being a father. We'll use a fake baby and everything."
I tilt my head and arch my brow. "A fake baby? Liam, where are we gonna find a fake baby?" I shake my head in annoyance.
He pulls his lips to the side and looks around the room, then he rushes to the kitchen and opens the fridge.
He takes out a whole entire watermelon.
"Here!" he smiles, cradling the watermelon.
This cannot be real. I have to be dreaming.
Liam is definitely not pretending a watermelon is a baby right now.
"Pretend this is your daughter. She just came out of Lydia. Fresh out of the womb."
"You're fucking gross." I roll my eyes as he hands the melon over to me. I hold it in my two hands, not knowing the next move.
"Cradle it, Harry. Like a baby." Liam directs.
I glare at him and hesitantly hold the watermelon as if it was a kid, using both my arms to support it.
God, I hope Lydia doesn't come downstairs.
"Okay, what now?" I ask, clear annoyance in my voice.
"Uh, well, I don't know. I wasn't around when Elijah was this young." Liam says, running his hands through his hair. "Maybe just walk with it and bounce it around."
"Oh, yeah. I'm sure that'll do it." I sarcastically remark.
Maybe I did make a mistake asking Liam for advice. I love the guy, but he's not very sharp when it comes to stuff outside of killing, kidnapping, and mobbing.
But, he's the only one with a child as of right now. I'm kind of out of options.
I walk around with the 'baby', bouncing it lightly in my arms just like Liam told me to do. I felt like an idiot. Probably looked like one too. But I want to be better and be the best father I can because it's what Lydia and our baby deserves.
After a couple minutes, I actually felt like I was doing okay. My confidence was starting to build...
Until my grip slipped on the watermelon and my fake baby went crashing to the ground.
And splattered all over the kitchen floor.
I look down at the mess of watermelon, frozen in my place. I slowly turn my head to look at Liam, who held the same shocked expression.
"Well. That's one way to get a baby to be quiet." he mumbles.
"This is hopeless" I throw my hands up in frustration and start to walk away.
"Wait!" Liam stops me, grabbing me by the shoulder. "I have another idea."
"Liam, your last idea involved a fucking watermelon and look how that turned out."
"No, it's a better one. We're gonna go pick up Elijah and you're gonna see what it's like to take care of an actual kid." he explains.
Oh fuck me.
I realized that I didn't have a choice when Liam began pulling my to his car. There are so many things I'd rather be doing and I was starting to regret asking Liam to help me.
We get into his car, and I text Lydia—who was upstairs asleep—to let her know that I left to go 'run some errands', just so she wouldn't be worried when she woke up.
Liam goes to turn on the radio but I immediately slap his hand away.
Liam listens to music from the 80's and I cant fucking stand it.
If I'm being forced to do this whole 'practice dad-ing' thing with him, then we'll sit in silence. I don't need to hear Michael Jackson singing about someone named Billie Jean...whoever that is.
"So..." Liam starts. "explain to me what happened...because I clearly remember Lydia having a miscarriage when you guys were attacked that one night."
Liam and Eliza were the ones that saved us from that Phantom. They saw the whole miscarriage happen, and took us to the hospital too.
But they didn't know about the twin.
"We were having twins. We didn't know it. The doctor called us back to the hospital and as it turns out, one twin survived the miscarriage." I explain.
He nods and forms his lips into a line. "Damn."
The miscarriage was hard to think about. It didn't really affect me as much it did Lydia. She was heartbroken, and seeing her like that made me heartbroken. I've never seen her so disoriented and tired. She was so mentally drained.
Now she's going to be a mother and she couldn't be more excited. She was born to be a mom. She'll be so good at it.
Liam pulls up to Eliza's apartment and leaves me in the car. I sit and impatiently wait for him to grab his son from Eliza.
Liam had a car seat in the backseat, and it was admittedly weird seeing it just sitting there.
I'll be in the same situation soon.
Liam comes out, his son in his one arm and resting on his hip.
He was this guy dressed in ripped jeans and a sleeveless flannel and sunglasses with tattoos littering his entire body carrying an eleven month old baby.
Is that what I'm gonna look like?
Liam opens the backseat, buckling Eli into the car seat.
I've seen Elijah a few times since I came back. I don't know if he recognized me or not.
He still looks just like Liam. He's smiling a lot now, and laughing. He has a wide, three-toothed smile that is actually pretty cute, I won't lie.
He's sort of talking as well. He can say 'mama' and 'dada', but I don't think he really knows what he's saying.
"So what exactly are we gonna do with him?" I ask as Liam gets into the drivers seat again.
He shrugs. "Uhm, take him to the park or something? I don't know."
"Well what do you usually do with him?" I furrow my brows.
Again, he shrugs. "Eliza's usually with me. She kinda handles that stuff."
"Great." I mumble, looking forward out the window.
"Why don't we get ice cream or something? He can have small licks of mine. Eliza and I are trying to expand his palette anyways." Liam suggests.
I wasn't opposed to the ice cream idea. Besides, I could take some home for Lydia. She's been kind of hooked on sweets lately.
Lydia White
I woke up to a message from Harry saying that he and Liam had run out to do some errands. I wasn't sure what he would need to do but I'm sure it's nothing major.
Eliza had also messaged me, saying she didn't have Elijah right now and she wanted to meet up.
If she didn't have Elijah, then wouldn't Liam have him? Why is Harry with Liam and his son?
I asked Niall to drop me off at Eliza's place, and he politely agreed.
Eliza and I drove around town for a little. It was a really good time for us to catch up.
She gave me a lot of advice on mothering. She did it by herself for almost six months. She said that it's scary, but once you hold your baby in your arms for the first time then it's like nothing else matters.
She said her soul purpose is to raise Elijah properly. She wants to be proud of him. So far, she is.
"We should get ice cream. There's this place where Liam and I always go with Eli." Eliza says.
I've been loving anything with sugar in it recently, so I quickly agree to the idea.
It was nice to be normal like this, going out for ice cream with my best friend.
"We haven't gone out like this since I met Harry." I say. Not that I was complaining about it, I love Harry more than anything, but this was nice. I missed having moments like these with my best friend.
"I know, that fucker literally stole you from me." Eliza teases. I laugh at her remark.
I know she's happy because I am.
We arrive at the ice cream shop. It was an adorable, 50s inspired diner with black and white checkerboard floors. It even had a jukebox.
Upon walking in, I was more than excited to have some sweet goodness fill me and my baby up.
Except I walk in to see probably the weirdest sight in my life.
Liam and Harry were here, and Harry was feeding Elijah—who was in a high chair—vanilla ice cream while Liam watched in awe.
This is what he mean by 'errands'?
"Harry?" I say, approaching the boys with Eliza right behind me.
"Mama." Elijah babbles once he sees his mom, vanilla ice cream covering his cheeks and nose and chin.
Eliza smiles and picks him up, resting him on her hip.
"Hey, babe." Harry smiles, standing up from his seat and grabbing my hips to pull me in for a quick peck on the lips.
He seemed to be in a really good mood.
Eliza sits next to Liam, while I just sit on Harry's lap.
"If you were going out for ice cream you should have told me. I would've come with you guys." I say.
Harry shrugs, pointing towards a bowl of cookie dough ice cream on the table. "We didn't exactly plan on getting ice cream. But I did get you some."
My stomach almost growls in excitement as I reach and grab the pink, cardboard bowl filled with my favorite flavour of ice cream.
"What were you guys doing if you weren't planning on getting ice cream?" Eliza asks, bouncing a smiling Eli on her lap.
Harry and Liam exchange a weird look.
"Well," Harry trails off.
"You see, we- uh..." Liam adds.
"We needed a new....watermelon." Harry finishes.
I furrow my brows. "We just got a whole one. You guys ate it already?"
Again, they exchange a look.
"Something like that."
//
they're all so happy, wonder how long that's gonna last....
any predictions ?
i love you all, hope you're staying safe and inside!!