this chapter is a little bit longer, enjoy and review :)
That night Scarlett refused to settle and James rocked her from side to side in an attempt to soothe her. "what do you want?" he whispered to her "I've fed you, burped you, changed you, are you just trying to keep me up all night here?"
"probably" Kyle replied half asleep.
"will you take her for a bit?" James asked him handing her over to Kyle as he sat up on the bed to take her.
"honestly, your being very naughty for your daddy!" Kyle scolded lightly "we just want some sleep but you keep crying and waking us both up!" Scarlett hiccupped and started to settle a little.
"I love the way she calms down when she sees someone a bit different!" James says "she must feel like she's getting more attention or something!" he added as he lay down on his bed sighing.
"I'm sure she loves you!" Kyle said noticing that his friend seemed upset by this fact. "I'm sure she just wants to see people and may be feeling a bit restless" he said as he rocked the baby against him, like he had seen James do. "you're a fantastic dad and I'm sure Scarlett will love seeing her daddy when she is a bit older, maybe because you look after her all day and night and she only gets to see us for a little bit during the day, then seeing us will seem special, that doesn't mean to say that she doesn't love you!"
"I suppose" James said in response mulling over what Kyle just said.
Kyle stood up and put Scarlett back in her cot and she was asleep in seconds.
"Kyle?" James asked as they lay in the darkness
"Yeah?" Kyle asked from his bed opposite James's. "What is it?"
"Kerry!" James said "I don't understand why she is so hateful towards me and Scarlett, and why she is acting so totally crazy these days!"
"you see James, Kerry felt betrayed that you hadn't talked to her about getting Scarlett before making the decision, although you didn't need to, it's your life, your child, Kerry obviously thought that for some reason you should have come to her to ask her and felt left out!"
"oh, maybe she thought I didn't care about her anymore or enough to ask her" James mused "so why is she acting so different now?" he asked
"well, I have a few theories" Kyle responded "the first being that Kerry felt that she had to exclude herself from our group because we all supported you and your decision, clearly their would have been arguments and rather than face up and change her views, she decided to leave the group" he glanced over at James to make sure he understood. "so now she's on her own, no real friends and she clearly doesn't want to make any friends, so she feels left out, so she changes her clothes and goes for the shock factor. I personally feel that this is because if she thinks that if she does this, then less attention will go to you!"
"but I'm not doing it for the attention" James replied "I'm doing it to help a child have a good life and also because having a family is a huge dream for me" James replied honestly.
"I know it is, trust me I know, but Kerry clearly feels betrayed and left out so she's becoming bitter and angry"
"Do you think she will come round sometime soon?" James asked
"honestly I don't think so, she's stubborn" Kyle said "you could try talking to her but I doubt it would make a difference!"
"thanks mate" James replied honestly.
"you've got something amazing going and I'm so happy and proud for you, so just let Kerry mess up, just keep your own interests at heart, she's in the wrong and you have nothing to feel guilty about, you're not the one making her get into trouble, its all her own doing" Kyle said "now come on, lets get too sleep, we're going shopping in the morning and then cracking on with your class work!"
"sure thing, night night Kyle!" James said rolling over to get some sleep.
"goodnight James" Kyle said doing the same.
James was woken by Scarlett at half five in the morning as she cried her little lungs out. He had just finished untangling his legs from the duvet when Kerry came bursting in
"shit that brat up!" she shrieked "I'm getting up for school in less than two hours you know and I'm fed up of her screaming the house down, of course you two lazy buggers don't have to get up do you because you winged it so you weren't in school!"
James was clearly to preoccupied with calming Scarlett who was only aggravated and scared by the screaming girl so Kyle took control
"for gods sake Kerry" he yelled as James took Scarlett into the relative quiet of the kitchen. "it's a baby, babies cry so get used to it, and I'll be willing to bet everything that I own on the fact that looking after a baby is much harder than just doing your make up and going to school!" he shouted at her as Ewart walked in to the room to observe the slanging match between the two, he decided not to get involved unless it got out of control.
"well you'd better keep that brat quiet!" she snarled. "before you go for your lovely shopping day!" she scoffed "yeah so much hard work!"
"actually, I'm starting to understand why James didn't ask you what your view was on him taking Scarlett in, you clearly have no understanding of what its like to be a parent!" Kyle yelled back "sometimes he's so tired he can't even stand up without feeling dizzy, sometimes he gets so scared because Scarlett seems so distressed and he doesn't know if there is an underlying problem, he's so scared of something happening to her!"
"I wish it did!" Kerry shrieked "maybe then I could get some sleep!"
"hey" Ewart said "sit down on that bed right now Kerry!" he said pointing at James's bed
Kerry paled, she hadn't heard Ewart enter the room and she knew that she was in big trouble.
"okay Kerry, lets just clear up some of these misconceptions you've got!" he said as Lauren entered the room and glared at Kerry. "first of all, being a parent is so hard work, it's tiring, time consuming and quite daunting and I think James is doing an absolutely fantastic job" he said "secondly don't you ever wish something to happen to Scarlett, no matter how much you resent her, you obviously feel Scarlett has taken your place, and she has, because when James needed you the most, you refused to accept his decision and so he was forced to do it on his own. He is so brave and so strong for doing what he has done, I respect him so much, and as a parent I can understand all his worries and his fears and to be perfectly honest I think that he has enough on his plate without you adding to them and making them worse. Babies cry Kerry and sorry if it interrupts your beauty sleep but this mission is your punishment, you aren't here to enjoy it so get back to bed and get to school later, any more of your lip and I will get a punishment for you" he said. Kerry silently walked back to her room and went back to bed.
"she's lost it!" Lauren said and Ewart sighed.
"I think shes just very confused" Ewart said "I think more 'family' time might be needed to try and bring her round"
"that sounds like a good idea, provided Kerry doesn't use it as an excuse to create more tension between herself, James and Scarlett" Kyle responded
"get some rest guys, I'm going to go and check on James" Ewart said leaving the room and walking down to the kitchen where he saw James crying soflty to himself. Kyle had followed Ewart and upon seeing the situation he slowly took the now quiet Scarlett out of James's arms, gave his shoulder a squeeze and a small hug before heading upstairs to put Scarlett in the cot.
Ewart hugged James and then sat him down at the kitchen table
"whats the matter?" he asked
"I just feel like I'm getting everything wrong" James sobbed
"well you are not!" Ewart said firmly "you are a fantastic dad and you are doing a brilliant job of looking after her, don't worry about Kerry, she's just trying to hurt you and I know that your tired and things get to you more, but you cant let them." Ewart said "now then I want you to go upstairs and sleep and have a fantastic shopping time later okay?"
James nodded and wiped his eyes before heading back upstairs to bed
It was ten o clock when Kyle and James headed out to town to go shopping, they managed to get the pram on the bus and Scarlett was being very well behaved.
"I want to get a few books to read to Scarlett and a few dvd's for us to watch" James said on the way there.
"sure thing" Kyle said "I was hoping to get a few t-shirts"
"actually" James said "I think there is a photography studio somewhere, I might pay for a few photos of Scarlett and a few of me and her and a few of you me and her!" James said thinking
"let's go there first then" Kyle said as the bus pulled up to their stop.
James looked through the pictures, he had got a lovely picture of Scarlett smiling at the camera and he had got it in a lovely picture frame to hang on his bedroom wall, he had also got a framed one for Lauren and a framed one of Kyle, James and Scarlett which he handed to Kyle.
"you are the godfather mate!" James said by way of explanation
"thanks you so much" Kyle said looking at the photo and smiling proudly. "your daughter is very photogenic" he added looking at the smile that graced Scarletts face in the photo "and she has a beautiful smile!"
"thanks Kyle" James said as they headed into the busy shopping centre.
So in varying languages:
Review, revisar, bewertung, revoir, revizui, rivedere and hersien!
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