In a room in an apartment in a complex in Austin, Texas lived a 19 year old, well built man known to others simply as Bro Strider. He had a name, but no one ever knew it. He worked mainly, as far as everyone knew, as an incredibly sought-after DJ working odd jobs at various night clubs.
Very good. Very highly recommended. Very loud, according to his neighbors. Strangers never really went to his apartment. The new girl who moved in across the hall went to ask for a hammer one time. When he opened the door with his usual pointed glasses and stoic expression his apartment was filled with creepy, colorful,
large-rumped puppets. Everywhere. She left without a word and got a hammer elsewhere.

Of course, this is just what his neighbors thought of him. In reality, he's a perfectly nice person. His best childhood friend could attest to that. His friend is a couple years older than him, married, and recently had a child. For this reason Bro sarcastically calls him Dad, or, because of his job as a successful business man, Mr Egbert.

Bro lived alone for two years. Then, somehow, he didn't. Because of the baby. Not his baby, of course. It was one of the weirdest experiences of his life. A young woman had run up, forced a baby into his arms, and run off. He called the police and they looked some stuff up, but although they identified the mother, they couldn't find her anywhere. The police said she must have left the state or something. So they asked Bro whether he wanted to keep him or put him up for adoption. The adoption centers were closed for the night, and the next day was Independence Day, so if he wanted to think about it, he's welcome to take him home. If not, one of the officers would be happy to keep him until the adoption centers opened. Bro agreed to keep him at least until Wednesday morning, so they gave him some formula, food, diapers, and advice, and sent him on his way.

There was no crib in his apartment, of course. Instead, he made up a bed in her sock drawer. Bro had never had a baby before. He didn't sleep all night for worry, and then when he finally started drifting off around 3 AM, the baby started to cry. Bro spent about 10 minutes trying to soothe him before deciding he might be hungry. He heated the formula to the suggested temperature and let out a sigh of relief when the baby was finally quiet. However, a few minutes later he started crying. A hasty internet check revealed that Bro had forgotten to burp him. To his dismay, he didn't read about the spit up. Now it was all down his back.

Bro put the baby back in the sock drawer and took a hasty shower before slinking off to bed, exhausted. He managed to sleep until 10 before the baby started crying again. This time there was an unpleasant smell coming from him-a dirty diaper. Bro had seen much worse in some of the clubs he's worked at. He felt like he was well prepared for this. He undid the diaper and gagged. This was so much worse. How did something so small hold that much.

Bro picked up the phone. He had no choice. He had to call Mr. Egbert for advice. He has a son of his own, he must have a few tips. The phone was answered by his wife, Juliet. He asked for her husband and waited patiently for him to come to the phone.

"Hey, Dad."

"Hey, Bro, what's going on? You haven't ca-"

"I have a baby."

"WHAT?" There was some frantic whispering on the other end until Juliet came back on.

"Who's baby is it?" she asked.

"I dunno This lady I had never seen before came up to me…" and he explained the whole story. "And now he's in desperate need of a diaper change," he ended, forcing himself to sound calm.

"Oh, I see. Well...Number one or number two?"

"Uh...Three, I think."

"Okay. Well, let's get down to business." And she walked him through the whole process. As Bro finished up and put the baby back in the drawer, Juliet asked, "So, are you going to keep him?"

"I don't know yet. I get until tomorrow morning to decide."

"Well, call us when you do, okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Juliet. Bye."

"Take care."

Hey, guys, I'm Rachel!

The first two chapters are going to be a bit short, sorry. They're mostly there for set up. I'll be trying to update once a week, but don't get your hopes up... Finals are coming up so I might not be able to post quite as often as I would like. Once a month for sure, though.