The Good Life

One month later

*Jack*

Alex’s alarm went off at five-thirty am like it did everyday he had to go to work. It successfully woke me and Izzy up along with him. Izzy still hadn’t got out of the habit of sleeping in the bed with us and I don’t think she would anytime soon. This was the first day Alex was returning to work since the winter break. I kind of felt sad that he was leaving us for most of the day because I was used to spending time with him and Izzy all day.

Alex let out a sigh before getting up and going to the bathroom to take a shower. I looked over at Izzy who laid her head back on Alex’s pillow, but she didn’t fall back asleep. I think she was waiting on Alex to back out of the bathroom. I, on the other hand, quickly closed my eyes and fell back asleep.

I woke up to the sound of Izzy crying and Alex trying to calm her down.

“Shh you don’t want to wake up Papa do you?” Alex said to her.

“Too late.” I mumbled and turned on my lamp already knowing why she was crying. “Daddy has to go to work, Izzy. He’ll be back later.” I told her as I grabbed her out of Alex’s arms and put her back in bed.

“Daddy!!” She cried and reached up for Alex.

“I’m sorry baby, I have to go or I’ll be late! I’ll be back before you know it!” He promised. He kissed her on the cheek and came over to kiss me goodbye too. He then walked out of our room to leave.
Izzy slid out of our bed, before I could stop her, almost falling because the bed sat up a little too high. She ran out our room and towards the door that lead to the garage after Alex, but I heard the door close before she could reach him. Alex probably had to force himself to leave because he hated making Izzy cry.

I walked to where Izzy was as I heard the garage go down, a symbol that Alex was gone. Izzy’s cries became louder than before. She was sitting on the floor in front of the door just crying her little eyes out. It made my heart hurt to see her like this.

“He’ll be back later, Izzy.” I told her as I picked her up and carried her back to bed. She didn’t do this before Alex’s break because she was used to him leaving and coming back, but she got used to him being home for those few weeks so it made it hard for her to see him leave today.

I laid down in our bed and laid Izzy on top of my stomach and rubbed her back as she continued to cry. I was so tired, which made sense because it was a quarter to seven. Izzy continued to cry and sniffle for the next almost ten minutes, then she finally fell asleep meaning that I could finally go back to sleep.

***

I woke up at around nine am when Izzy decided to push her tiny hands into my ribs to sit up. “Ow” I cried and sat up to move her hands. She was fully awake now and wiping her eyes. They looked red from her crying for so long.

“Do you have to go potty, Izzy?” I asked her. I’ve been trying to get her into the habit of telling me when she had to go. I still made sure she wore Pull-ups because sometimes she couldn’t make it and sometimes she wet herself in her sleep.

She nodded her head and lifted her arms so I could pull her out of the bed. I took her to the small potty training toilet in our bathroom that Alex and I bought. I pulled down her down her Pull-up and she sat on the toilet. I waited patiently for her to finish up and when she did I cheered.

“Yay! You did it, mamas!” I praised her and she giggled. I cleaned her up and we went to the sink to wash our hands.

When we finished cleaning up we went to the kitchen to get breakfast. I made oatmeal for both of us and we sat down in living room watching Blue’s Clues as we ate. Izzy could feed herself kind of. She couldn’t hold the spoon right and most of the oatmeal didn’t make it to her mouth, but she was learning.

My phone rung and I looked down to see it was Tay calling. It was a little odd that she was calling me this early, but she probably had a good reason.

“Hello” I answered.

“Hey Jack how are you?” She asked. I could hear Kellin in the background trying to talk to her. He stayed with Tay most of the time because her sister and her sister’s boyfriend were constantly traveling. Tay said did mission work in India so it wasn’t like they left Kellin with her because they were bad parents.

“I’m fine, thanks. What about you?”

“Good! I was wondering if you and Izzy could do me a favor.” She said.

“Of course we can.” I laughed.

“Oh thank you! I have a doctor’s appointment at ten-thirty today and my mom and I aren’t talking to each other at the moment” She laughed. “So do you think you two can keep an eye on Kellin for me until I get back?” She asked.

“We’d be happy too. Should I come pick him up?” I asked.

“No I’ll drop him off at yours, I just need to change him from his pajamas and we’ll be right over.” She told me.

“Alright. Bye!” We hung up.

“Izzy, Kellin is coming over to hang out with us, Okay?” I said as I sat my phone down. She nodded her head because she had oatmeal in her mouth.

Tay came over about twenty minutes later with Kellin. “Thank you, again for this Jack!” Tay said.

“Oh it’s no trouble at all!” I assured her. “We’re just now eating breakfast, has he eaten yet?” I asked.

“Yep! I fed him so you wouldn’t have to worry about it. And I brought his car seat in just in case you decided to go somewhere.” She smiled. “Kellin you be on your best behavior for Jack and do whatever he says, okay?” She told Kellin.

“Okay.” He said back. She kissed him on the forehead and waved to Izzy and me.

“Do you want to watch Blue’s Clues with me and Izzy, Kellin?” I asked him.

“Yeah!” He exclaimed and followed us back to the living room.

I sat them both on the couch and let them watch TV while I thought of activities to do to keep them busy. Of course the TV kept them busy but I didn’t want them to sit down in front of it all day.

Seeing Kellin sit there with Izzy made me think of Mike and Vic. I still missed the Fuentes. We called them on Christmas to see how they were doing, but Vikki said they were still unpacking and settling into the city. She said the boys weren’t taken the change of scenery so well, and they didn’t like their new school but she was sure they would change their minds after a while. She also said that she liked San Francisco, but she missed San Diego and wished they could come back. They were all miserable in a new city because of a selfish mistake Emilio made which really pissed me off every time I thought about it.

I got undistracted when I heard Izzy and Kellin yelling at the TV. “A clue!” They both said pointing up at the TV since it was mounted onto the wall. I laughed and quickly took a picture on my phone.

I remembered that I needed to exchange an outfit Cass and Rian bought for Izzy at Macy’s in the mall because it was a little too small for her. Izzy was growing it seemed like every day so the tights to the outfit needed to be a little bit longer.

I waited for Blue’s Clues to go off then I got Izzy dressed so we could make a quick trip to the mall. Thank God Tay gave me Kellin’s car seat. I made sure to grab the bag of clothes and receipt before we left. I placed the seat in the backseat of my car behind the driver seat since Izzy’s was behind the passenger seat. I picked Kellin up and put him in and strapped him in first, then I moved to the other side to do the same for Izzy.

The mall wasn’t crowded since it was still early and the teenagers were in school. I held Izzy and Kellin’s hand as we walked to Macy’s. They were both being so well behaved until we went to the clothing section and I let go of their hands. They started running around the store and running under the clothing racks. I sighed and grabbed the correct size for Izzy before going to get them. I bet I look like one of those parents who have no control over their children.

“Izzy! Kellin! Come here right now!” I said in a very stern voice. They both came to me out of breath from running around. “No running inside, you might fall and hurt yourselves or break something okay?” I told them and they both nodded their head. I went to the cashier and she easily switched the two sizes for me. I thanked her and we walked out trying to get to the car.

“Papa! Cookies please!!” Izzy exclaimed as we passed The Great American Cookie.

“It’s too early for sweets and you two are already way too hyper.” I said trying to keep walking, but they stood there trying to stop me.

“Please!!” Kellin begged.

“No kiddes lets go.” I tried again.

“Pleaseeeee!!” They both begged together.

I knew I was probably was going to regret this later, but they were both so cute and I’m a push-over. “Okay you can both have one.”

“Yaay!” They both cheered.

We waited in line until it was our turn to order. “Hi can we get two chocolate chip cookies?” I asked the guy behind the counter.

“Yeah that’ll be three-twenty-nine.” He said and I handed him a five dollar bill.

He put the cookies in separate bags and handed them to me then I handed one to Izzy and one to Kellin. They both thanked me before devouring them. We tried walking out the mall again, but we ran into Alan in front of Forever 21.

“Hey stranger” He said as he walked over to us.

“Hey Alan!” I greeted him.

“Aw who is this little Munchkin?” He asked gesturing to Kellin.

“This is Kellin. He’s one of Izzy’s friends.” I told him.

“That’s so cute!” He said.

“What brings you to the mall?” I asked him.

“Austin gave me a Forever 21 gift card among other things for Christmas so I wanted to come look around a bit to see if they had anything worth buying. What about you guys?” He said. He and Austin finally told everyone they were dating at Cass and Rian’s New Year Eves party. I mean we all already knew something was going on between them, but they officially said it like last week.

“I had to exchange some pants Cass bought Izzy for Christmas. She’s growing all the time now.” I told him.

“Yeah soon she’ll be a teenager.” He chuckled.

“No I never want that. She can stay this age forever.” We both laughed.

“Well I’m going to let you go because they look like they’re about to die of boredom.” He gestured to Izzy and Kellin. I looked down and saw bored expression on both of their faces.

“Yeah I should get them home.” I said.

“Okay. You know we should hang out more; Austin thinks it awkward if I hang out with him and the guys now that we’re dating.” He laughed.

“Yeah of course!” I was flattered that he actually wanted to start hanging out with me. I actually really liked Alan, but since he worked with Rian and occasionally went their guy night thingys with them I felt like he was more their friend than mine.

I took Kellin and Izzy back home around the same time Tay came to pick Kellin back up. I told her we were just at the mall and that I gave Kellin a cookie so she could be prepared for him to bounce off the walls. She just laughed and thanked me for watching him for her.

“It was no problem, we enjoyed his company!” I told her. I gave her back Kellin’s car seat and they left.

“What do you want to do until Daddy gets home?” I asked Izzy. We still had three hours until Alex got off.

“Hair!” She exclaimed. She wanted to play with her hair salon.

“Why not!”

***

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs while Izzy and I watched Aladdin in the media room. The doors opened and Alex was standing there with a smile on his face. Izzy quickly jumped from the couch and ran to him which he was expecting. He picked her up and kissed her all over her face.

“I missed you all day!” He told her. She snuggled her face into his chest continued to hug him tightly.

“She missed you too.” I told him.

“And I especially missed you.” He sat down next to me and kissed me.

“How was your first day back?” I asked him.

“Oh God it was great! I found out that next school I’m going to teach Junior AP students. I hope they will be more motivated then the class I teach now.” He sighed.

“I’m sure they will be.” I told him.

“What did you two do?”

“Well Tay brought Kellin over because she had a doctor’s appointment. So we went to the mall to exchange those pants Cass and Rian bought for Izzy.” I said.

“You sound like a stay at home mom.” He laughed.

“Oh hush!” I laughed along with him. “I ran into Alan there and he and I are going to start hanging out together. I figured I needed more friends since I don’t talk to Zack anymore and I haven’t talked to Matt since the stone ages.” Nothing bad happened between Matt and I, we just slowly stopped talking to each other and our friendship kind of ended which is really sad.

“Yeah Alan’s really nice. I think you two will become close.” Alex said.

Izzy was still laying her hands and head on Alex’s chest. Since she skipped nap time she was starting to fall asleep on him. “I wonder how she’s going to react when she starts school and has to leave me.” I wondered out loud.

“I don’t want her to get older, what if she becomes rebellious and then decides she hates us.” Alex worried.

“Look at her! Does she look like she’ll ever hate you?” he looked at Izzy who was asleep still cuddling into his chest.

“Not at all.” He whispered and kissed the top of her head.

Notes