Don't You Go and Carry On With Your Life

Alex

"Alex this is the second time you're making me leave our home. I'm sick of having to hide." Tay complained. Apparently she stayed home today from work because she had terrible morning sickness. So when I came home from work and saw her still in our home I begged her to stay in a hotel again.

"Tay please just this last time and I promise I'll work towards telling Kellin and Jack later."

“Why would you need to tell your ex-husband?” She asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

“…I don’t know it just seems like the right thing to do.” I shrugged.

". . . You're floating on thin fucking ice." She fumed. She went to the closet and grabbed her suitcase. "If you don't tell them soon, I will." She threatened and I sighed not really taking her seriously.

"Thank you for understanding." I sighed.

"Mhm." She hummed angrily.

"Um so should I take off for your doctor appointment or anything soon?" I asked her as she packed.

"Hmm? Oh no I um haven't been to the doctor yet."

"Aren't you supposed to go every month or something like that when you're pregnant?"

"I thought I didn't have to go until I was three months." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"I'm not sure. Just look it up and let me know what day you're going." I told her.

"I'll try to work a doctor’s appointment around my schedule."

"Okay. You should go before they get here." I said and she rolled her eyes.

"Have a nice weekend, asshole." She told me before she walked out with her things.

Thankfully she was finished and gone twenty minutes before Kellin and Kylie showed up.

"Hey!" I greeted them when I opened the door for them.

"Dad!" Kylie exclaimed and jumped up and down for me to pick her up.

"Hi." Kellin grumbled.

"You seem grumpier than normal." I told Kellin and he sighed.

"I'm just frustrated with Daddy." He sighed, finally opening up about something to me.

"What happened?" I asked, cautiously.

"Well first he went all crazy on me because I failed one quiz and forgot to turn in a homework assignment. Then he flipped out on me because I felt too sick to go to school so I skipped. And he grounded me because I missed my curfew last week. So now I can't go with Vic to our friend's Halloween party this next weekend." He complained.

"He's being a little unreasonable." I said, trying to stay on Kellin's side. I really missed us bonding together and I was willing to do anything to attempt to get him to trust me again. Even if that meant allowing him to get away with a few things he shouldn't have done.

"Right??" Kellin stressed.

"Well… what if I called him to see if I could get him to let up a little on you?" I suggested.

"You'd really do that for me?" He asked excitedly.

"Yeah, I see how much it bothers you." I said and he smiled.

"Thanks dad!" He exclaimed. "I'm going to sit my bags down, I'll be back." He said and went upstairs.

It felt good to see him smiling because of me. Now all I needed to do was call Jack and see if I could get him to let Kellin go to that party. I sat Kylie down and picked up my phone to dial his number.

"Hello?" He answered after the third ring.

"Jack, hey." I said.

". . . Hi." He said suspiciously.

"Hey, I was um calling to see if I could talk to you about Kellin?"

"Ugh yes I need help getting him under control." He sighed.

"No it's not that." I said.

"Then what is it?"

"I was wondering why you're being so hard on him? So he skipped one day of school, failed one quiz, and missed his curfew. We did practically the same things when we were in high school." I said and he scoffed.

"No you did those things in high school, I didn't. And he didn't just miss his curfew, he came home three hours late and he was drunk. He was also covered in hickeys." He said matter-of-factly.

". . . Oh. He didn't tell me that."

"Yeah I wonder why." He said sarcastically.

"Okay um just let me talk to him. I'll try to figure out what's going on with him."

"This is him acting out because of the divorce, Alex."

"Yeah I figured. Just . . . Just let me try to talk to him."

"Fine." He said and hung up.

Kellin was coming back downstairs around the same time I got off the phone. "Was that him? What did he say?" He asked.

"He um said he would think about it." I lied.

"Ugh he's so complicated. Well thanks for trying." He sat down on the couch with Kylie and me instead of going back to his room.

"No problem." I said. Now that Kellin was kind of talking to me, I figured now would be the best time to ask him to come to work with me. Wednesday was take you child to work day and I figured bringing Kellin would be a great way to spend more time with him. "Are you guys getting out of school for take your child to work day next week?" I asked him.

"Yeah they have forms for us to fill out if we're going." He shrugged.

"How about you and Kylie come to work with me? I'm sure it'll be better than spending all day at school." I suggested.

"Uh I’m not sure." He answered.

“Come on it’ll be fun. You can skip school without getting in trouble for it.” I joked and he chuckled. “Plus I can tell Jack how you spent all weekend with me doing your homework and studying and then maybe he’ll be so impressed and let you go to that party.” I bribed.

“Okay, yeah I’ll go.” He agreed.

************************

Wednesday (Take your kids to work day)

Kellin

Kylie and I had just walked into the law firm where our dad works. Today was take your kids to work day and I would rather suffer through work with him then suffer going to school. I still hadn't forgiven my Dad for cheating, but he was actually taking my side and helping me with Daddy. That kind of made him not seem like that much of a jerk. I didn't want to go to work with Daddy because his job seemed boring and I still wasn't talking to him. He still hadn't changed his mind about letting me go to my friend's Halloween party this weekend.

I would really rather be spending time with Vic right now but he was probably at work with his brother. I hated being away from him after, especially after I finally lost my virginity to him a few weeks ago. It felt like he was the only one who actually cared about me now. Plus, being with him helped ease the thought of my parents being divorced.

"Why did I have to bring Kylie? She won't understand anything going on here." I complained as I followed my dad to his separate office.

"Because it's bring your kids to work day and it didn't seem fair to leave her at home." He answered and I rolled my eyes. He handed me the donuts he promised he would buy me for breakfast and I smiled. I sat Kylie down once we made it into our Dad's office and she ran to his desk.

"So this is my office where I spend most of my time looking over cases." Dad told us.

"It's big." I said as I looked around. He had a big cherry wood desk at the front of his office and chairs on the other side for clients.

"Yeah we all have a lot of office space."

I walked over and looked at all his degrees hanging up. I had only been to his office once before when I was younger. I started wondering if he ever cheated on Daddy, with that lady, in his office. It was kind of uncomfortable standing in here without knowing for sure.

There was a knock on the door a few seconds later. My Dad's friend and coworker, Rian, came in with his daughter, Carla. Carla was only two years younger than me I think.

"Hey you brought them!" Rian exclaimed as they walked in.

"Yeah I had to bribe Kellin with donuts to get him out of the house." Dad joked.

"Where's Kylie?" Carla asked.

"She's behind his desk." I said.

Dad walked behind his desk and Kylie giggled when he found her hiding under it. "You are so silly." He chuckled and picked her up. "Tell Rian and Carla hi." He told her.

"Hi!" She exclaimed.

"Aww!" Carla walked over and tickled Kylie's side. Kylie always tricked people into thinking she was a sweet and innocent baby and not the daredevil she really is.

"She is the antichrist." I joked and Carla laughed.

"That's impossible, she's so cute." She said and my Dad let her hold Kylie.

"Why didn't you go to work with Zack?" Dad asked Carla.

"I went with him last year so Liam went with him this year I wanted to come with my dad. I usually just use this day to skip from school." She chuckled.

"That's smart." I said and my dad playfully rolled his eyes.

"Well we were just stopping by. I'm gonna go show her the practice courtroom we have downstairs." Rian told me dad.

"Alright. Let's try to meet up for lunch." My dad told him and he agreed.

"Is there anything specific you want to see?" Dad asked me.

"Nah not really." I shrugged. I wasn't really interested in criminal justice stuff. I sat down at his desk and propped my feet up.

"You're just going to sit there all day?" He asked.

"I was thinking of taking a nap at some point. You can show Kylie around, I'm sure she'll appreciate it." I chuckled.

"Yeah I'll take her around to everyone's office so they can meet her." He said.

He picked Kylie up and left to go show her off to his coworkers. I laid back and got comfortable enough to enjoy my time alone. I was lightly sleeping when I heard a knock on the door. I woke up, as the person was pushing open the door.

"Oh sorry, I'm looking for Alex." A lady said, she looked kind of familiar. She had long brown hair and dimples in her cheeks. Was she his old assistant? She looked like the lady that was in our house with him when he was moving out, but I didn’t get a good look at her that day.

"Oh, he left a little while ago to go talk with a few of his coworkers." I told her.

"Okay. Um do you mind if I sit in here while I wait for him to get back?" She said with a fake smile on her face.

"Uh yeah sure come in." I said.

"Thanks. You must be his son, Kellin?" She asked.

"Yeah." I answered.

"Alex has told me so much about you." She said and I nodded. I wasn’t in the mood for small talk, especially if she was who I thought she was. "Has he given you the good news yet?" She asked and I frowned, confused as to what she was talking about.

"What good news?" I asked.

"That we’re expecting." She said, while lightly rubbing her stomach.

I stared at her in disbelief. It was almost as if my brain couldn't register what she had just told me. "I'm sorry what?" I said.

"I'm pregnant. I thought he would have told you by now, he promised he would."

"No he didn’t." I got up without another saying another word to her. I grabbed my keys and walked out of my dad’s office. I couldn't leave without Kylie so I went through searching for my dad and her.

I found them a few office buildings down from his office. "Come on, Kylie." I told Kylie, ignoring everyone else in the room. She walked over to me and I picked her up.

"Kellin what's going on? What are you doing?" Dad asked, but I ignored him and walked out towards the front of the building. He followed behind still trying to get me to stop and talk to him.

"Kellin stop! Why are you leaving?" He asked, as he continued to follow me.

I finally stopped once we were outside of the building. I didn't want to embarrass myself by yelling at him inside. I buckled Kylie into her car seat and turned towards him.

"When were you planning on telling me that you got that women pregnant?" I asked. He took a step back and looked at me in disbelief.

"Who told you that?" He asked.

"That lady! She's in your office right now rubbing her stomach and making it known that she's pregnant!" I yelled at him.

"Kellin I swear I was going to tell you." He lied.

"Yeah of course you were. You know what dad, just do me a favor and stay the hell out of my life." I spat at him. I got in my car and started it before I had to listen to more of his excuses.

"Kellin, wait don't go. Let’s talk about this!" He yelled as I quickly drove off to get away from him and that whole situation.

Hot tears streamed down my face as I drove in the direction of our house. I called Daddy through the Bluetooth in my car because I felt like my heart was going to stop. I knew he could talk on the phone while he worked.

"Hey Kells." He answered.

"Daddy!!" I sobbed on the phone.

"Kellin what's wrong??" He panicked.

"Daddy I-" I cut myself off with my own cries.

"Kelly crying." Kylie said.

"I know Honey." Daddy told her. "Kellin are you driving? I can hear the wind hit the car." He said.

"Yeah." I whispered, barely able to get the word out.

"Pull over before you hurt yourselves." He warned.

I drove down until I saw a McDonald's parking lot. Then I pulled over and parked in one of the spaces.

"McDonald's!" Kylie exclaimed.

"Tell me what's wrong, Kellin. Do I need to leave work?" He asked worriedly.

"No." I sniffled. "I just left Dad's office a-and that lady came in; his old secretary. She told me that she’s pregnant. Dad got her pregnant!” I said and he gasped.

"She said that she’s pregnant?" He questioned.

"Yeah." I answered.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. "Did she say how far along she is?" He asked.

"No but she doesn't look pregnant yet. I just can't believe this is actually happening." I said and my phone started beeping saying I had an incoming call. I looked down and saw that it was from my Dad. "He's calling me, I'm not going to answer." I let his call go to voicemail and then he called again. "Ugh he won't leave me alone. Daddy, I don't want to go home. I know he's going to come over and try to talk to me and I don't want to talk to him." I complained.

"Go to my mom's house. He's too afraid of her to go over there." He told me, making me lightly chuckle.

"Yeah I'll do that." I said. I put my Dad on "do not disturb" in my phone so I wouldn’t get any more of his calls.

"Okay text me when you get there. I um have to get back to work." I could tell he was forcing himself off of the phone.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked and there was another pause.

"Yeah of course." He said in a shaky tone.

"Daddy-" I tried to comfort him, but he cut me off.

"I have to go." He sniffled and hung up.

I wanted to call him back, but I knew he wouldn't answer. I was just going to have to talk to him as soon as he got off from work.

"Do you want McDonald's, Kylie?" I asked and wiped at my eyes.

"Yes." She said and I pulled into the drive through line. "Why you crying?" She asked.

"Because of Daddy." I answered her.

"Why?"

"He made me sad." I told her.

"Why?" She repeated making me groan.

"Because he hurt my feelings."

"Why?"

"Kylie if you ask my 'why' one more time we're not getting McDonald's." I threatened.

"Nooo!" She whined and sat back quietly, making me chuckle.

I ordered our food and drove us to our grandma's house.

Notes

To be fair, Tay did warn Alex she would tell Kellin if he didn't..