Luke's POV

Delilah drove Michael and me back to my house once her shift was over. Michael finally calmed down and is no longer crying. We stopped at his house to pick up some of his stuff, and thankfully, his mom wasn't home.

"I'll see you guys later," Delilah says as she pulls up in front of my house. "Are you sure everything is alright, Michael?"

Michael nods and gets out of the car slowly.

"I'll see you tomorrow, probably," I tell Delilah as I open up the door. "Can you drive Michael to school tomorrow? I don't know if he'll go, but I'll let you know."

"Yeah, of course. Call me if you need any help with anything," she says.

"Will do."

I get out of the car and start walking to Michael but run back to the car.

"I forgot something," I say as I tap on Delilah's window.

Delilah scrunches her eyebrows in confusion and rolls down the window. I quickly lean over to kiss her. She laughs when I pull away.

"See ya," I say, smiling.

"Bye, Luke," she says, smiling too.

Michael is standing at my front door, waiting for me. It's not locked, but I don't think he wants to go in without me.

I walk inside, and Michael follows.

"Hey, is it okay if Michael stays the night?" I yell, hoping my dad is somewhere around.

"Yeah!" I hear my dad yell from his room.

"Okay, let's go," I tell Michael, heading up to my room.

"Are y-you sure it-it's o-okay?" Michael asks quietly.

"Yeah, I don't mind at all. You can sleep there," I tell him, pointing to the bed on my floor. I haven't bothered to take it out yet since Calum's left.

"O-okay."

"Will you go to school tomorrow? It's okay if you don't."

Michael shrugs. "I'll g-go."

I was expecting him to say he wouldn't go. I'm surprised he's actually willing to go to school.

"Oh, okay! Delilah will pick you up tomorrow morning then."

"Th-thanks for d-doing all th-this."

"No problem."

"Y-you've b-been to one of th-them, r-right?" he asks quietly. I don't understand what he's asking about at first, but then I realize he's talking about an institution.

I sit down on my bed and sigh. I don't really like talking about my experiences there that much. I try to push them out of my mind. I decide to not tell Michael how I really felt about it, just incase he does end up going.

"Yeah, I have," I say. "They're not that bad. It's a lot of other people around our age that are dealing with problems too. You see a lot of different doctors, and stuff, and they're nice, I guess. It was just really boring for me. Since I didn't talk, I didn't make any friends. It was basically exactly how it was outside in the real world, except I had no communication with anything except the doctors. At least at home my mom and Calum would talk to me. They try to get to know you and understand you." I shrug. "But, I wouldn't really let them. Other people get a lot of help from those sorts of places though."

"Do I-I need t-to go to one?" Michael asks.

I shrug. "That's your choice. It might help, it might not. You would probably have more help with your stutter and anxiety. You are getting better though."

He nervously bites his nails. "M-maybe."

"You are, I promise."

*

"How is he?" Delilah asks when she comes the next morning to pick Michael up.

I shrug. "Better. He's just worried now."

Lucy runs up the stairs, still in her pajamas.

"Oh, yeah, she wanted to say hi," Delilah says, laughing.

"Hey, Lucy," I say, picking her up since she has her arms stretched up to me.

"Hi!" she yells. I don't understand how she's so energetic this early in the morning. "Delilah told me I could come see you but then I have to go home but I don't really wanna go home but I have to," she says quickly.

Delilah laughs. Michael walks out of the bathroom and waves to Delilah.

"Ready to go?" Delilah asks him.

He shrugs and nods slightly. He yawns and rubs his eyes.

"C'mon, Lucy, time to go," Delilah says.

"I don't wanna leave Luke, though! We just got here!"

"Yeah, I know you don't. But I have to get to school."

"I don't have school today though! Why can't I stay here?" Lucy pouts. She only goes to preschool three days a week.

"Because, you can't."

Lucy hugs me tighter and refuses to let go.

"Do you wanna stay? You can if you want," I tell her.

"Luke, no," Delilah says.

"I can do it this time, I promise. We won't play hide and seek. I won't take my eyes off her for a second," I tell her. "I have nothing else to do. And clearly she isn't going to let go anytime soon, right, Lucy?"

"Right!"

Delilah sighs and thinks for a little. "But your dad is already at work. You won't have anyone to help you."

"I can do it."

She stays silent for a little. "I guess she can stay. Just make sure you never take your eyes off her."

"I won't lose her this time," I assure her.

"Yeah, he won't lose me this time!" Lucy says.

Delilah laughs. "Alright. I'll be back around 2, okay? Are you sure you can handle her all day?"

"Yeah, totally sure."

"Totally," Lucy says, copying what I say again.

"If you need anything, my mom is home today. I'll let her know Lucy is staying here, though."

"Okay, thanks. Are you excited Lucy?" I say.

"Yeah, very!"

"I'll see you later," Delilah says, laughing.

Delilah and Michael leave, and Lucy and I go sit on the couch.

"Did you eat breakfast yet?" I ask Lucy as she sits on my lap.

She shakes her head. "Nope."

I figured she would have already eaten. Now I have to find something she'd like for breakfast.

"Are you hungry?" I ask her.

"Yep!"

I pick her up off my lap and carry her into the kitchen.

"Let's see, what do you want?"

"Pancakes!"

I balance Lucy and hold her with one arm as I look through all the cabinets. "I don't think we have pancake mix, Lucy."

"No pancake mix?!"

"Nope, none."

She frowns. "Well, that's no fun."

"What about waffles? I think we have some in here," I say, opening up the freezer. I find a box of waffles, thankfully.

"Okay!"

"How many do you want?"

"Two. No, one."

I laugh and take out three waffles, one for her and two for me.

"That's three, Lukey!" Lucy says, laughing.

"I know, I'm eating some too!"

"Oh, yeah. Silly me!"

I put the waffles in the toaster and sit Lucy down on the counter. She laughs at the fact that she's so far from the ground. I get the waffles ready and sit Lucy down at the table. I get her some milk, too, since that's what she wants to drink.

She stares at the waffles while I eat mine.

"What's wrong?" I ask her.

"You need to cut them!" she says, laughing.

"Oh, right. I forgot."

"Silly, Lukey!"

"You must like the word silly today, don't you?"

"Mmm hmm."

I cut her waffles into tiny pieces and put some maple syrup in the corner of her plate. She doesn't want the syrup poured over her waffles, she wants to dip it instead.

Once we're done with breakfast, which takes a very long time because Lucy is a slow eater, we watch some TV. Lucy picks some Disney princess show, and she sings along to half of the songs. She's sitting on my lap and keeps hitting my knees. I don't think she realizes she's doing it.

"Stop hitting me," I tell her, laughing.

She gently hits my knee again and laughs.

"Ow!" I yell, pretending it hurt.

She laughs again and hits my other knee.

I pick her up and swing her around.

She giggles. "Luke, stop it!"

"Promise you won't hit me anymore?"

"I promise!" she says, still giggling.

I put her down slowly, expecting her to hit me again. But she doesn't. She runs over to the couch and climbs up so she can sit down. She taps the spot beside her for me to sit.

"What do you wanna do?" I ask, sitting down beside her.

She shrugs, "I dunno."

"You dunno?"

"I dunno!"

I laugh and check what time it is. It's only been about two hours, I have a lot more to go.

Lucy decides that she wants to play a game, and after searching throughout the house, I can't find any games, but I did find a balloon.

"What do we do with that?" Lucy asks, following me around the house. I won't let her stay alone. I'm determined for today to run smoothly.

"You'll see."

It takes me awhile to blow up the balloon, and Lucy finds it hilarious every time it deflates. It's hard to blow it up with my lip ring.

I finally finish and struggle a little tying the end. When I'm done, Lucy looks up at me.

"Now what?" she asks.

"We have to try to keep the balloon in the air for as long as we can."

"That's silly!"

I laugh and toss the balloon up in the air. I gently tap it with my finger so it doesn't fall too far.

Lucy laughs and waits for it to get closer to her. She jumps up and pokes the balloon before it hits the ground. She giggles loudly after.

I hit the balloon with my nose which makes Lucy laugh even more. She tries to hit it with her nose, too, but she misses, and it falls to the ground.

"Oh, no!" she shrieks. "We're not very good at this."

I toss the balloon back up, and Lucy hits it a few times when it gets to her. I kick it up with my feet, and she laughs even more. She's laughing so hard she can't focus on the balloon.

After a few minutes, Lucy gets bored with trying to keep the balloon up. We go back to sit on the couch, and I bring the balloon with me.

"What else can we do?" Lucy asks. She's always eager to do something.

I rub the balloon against my hair, and the static causes my hair to stick to the balloon. Lucy laughs and jumps up to grab the balloon from me.

"Let me try!" she says.

I rub the balloon against her hair, and she laughs even more.

"That feels funny!"

A few hours pass, and somehow the balloon ended up with a face drawn onto it, then it was named Purpley (even though it's blue) and then Lucy popped it with a pen and is crying over the loss of her friend.

"But Purpley was my friend. I didn't mean to kill her," Lucy cries. She's sitting in my lap, and I'm trying my best to make her stop crying.

"You didn't kill her," I say, trying not to laugh. "You can still see her face. Look, it's right here," I tell her, pointing to the shriveled face on the broken piece of balloon that's on the ground. Lucy put all the pieces together and tried to tape the balloon so it was whole again.

"She looks sad. I'm sorry Purpley!" Lucy cries.

I pick up the material and stretch out the piece so it's wider. "No, she's happy. See? She just lost some weight, that's all."

Lucy sniffs and shrugs. "I guess so."

"I know so," I tell her, tickling her sides to try and make her laugh.

She laughs a little and slaps my hand away.

"C'mon, let's go have some lunch. How does that sound?" I ask Lucy. I get off the couch and Lucy follows. She reaches for my hand and holds it gently.

"Can we make a lunch for Purpley too? Then will she get bigger again?"

"Maybe."

"Okay. She wants peanut butter and jelly."

"Is that what you want, too?"

Lucy nods and sniffs again.

"Okay, peanut butter and jelly it is then." I start getting all of the stuff we need to make the sandwiches.

Lucy tugs on my hand to get my attention. "Yeah, Lucy?" I ask, turning around and bending down a little.

"Today was fun," she says, smiling again.

hello hey hope you liked this I didn't proof read sorry for any mistakes :)

people keep asking about the announcement I still haven't made but i'm still gonna make it don't worry

make sure you guys follow me on twitter @ singsongash so you know more about when i'll update bc if you do you would've known I've been sick and haven't been able to do like anything lol (while you're at it follow my insta @ aer98)

ily

-ashley