I'm so fucking tired, and yet my mind won't shut off.Once again, I'm wide awake in the middle of the night. I thought making bottles before bed would help me get a little more sleep, since I wouldn't have to actually think when it was time for Chance to eat overnight.But it doesn't really matter because my mind won't stop spinning. All I can think about is Sarah and the last conversation we had.The movement of the turnstile inside the microwave is almost hypnotic as the bottle goes round and round. It lulls me into a false sense of calm. And just like that, the memories start to invade my mind again."You're doing what?" I screech into the phone. I'm going to be late for work if I'm not careful, but once again Sarah has to be talked off a metaphorical ledge. "Quincy, I know you're mad," she said. "But things have changed - ""You are less than two years away from a degree," I chide. "Two years! Why the hell are you going to throw away two-and-a-half years of college to go to vocat
Practice is a lot of fun lately. Why? The rookies. We're watching them closer than before. Pushing them more, forcing them to show what they're made of. It's awesome.There's a lot of trash talking by the veterans, and you can tell the newbies are scared as shit. They have no idea where they stand, so they should be. Will they be benched for the next several seasons? Will they be practice players only? Will they be the next starter or even the next star? No one knows.One of them stands out among the rest, though. Rowen Flanigan. The kid is probably six one, so he is already on the tall side for a soccer player. His bright red hair, seriously white skin, and bright green eyes draw attention. If his name wasn't a dead giveaway about his Irish heritage, his looks would be.But that's not the only reason he stands out. The kid is a machine. As a draftee straight out of college, not only is he keeping up with the veterans, it looks like he may run circles around our current starting right
"Thanks for helping me clean out the apartment," I say to Geni as I tape up the final box. For the last few days, we've spent all our free time at Sarah's place.Once I tracked down the building manager and provided proof that Sarah had died, he gave us a full thirty days to clean it out. We didn't need thirty days to do it. There wasn't much.We had taken all the baby stuff before the funeral because I obviously needed to get Chance set up as soon as possible. A small crib, a swing, some clothes. It all looked secondhand, but it was clean and in good condition. The apartment was in a decent location. It was small but well maintained. There was healthy food in the fridge. The lack of bottles leads me to believe she was exclusively breast feeding, explaining one reason why he cries so much. She even had a few pictures of her and Chance in cute frames around the apartment. I made sure those came with us before anything else.I was really proud of my sister for what she had accomplished
"So how's it going with the baby?"Laurie, our caseworker from the Department of Family and Protective Services, sits with me on the couch in my apartment. Her kind smile is non-threatening. I like her. I feel like she has our best interests at heart. She's visited with us a couple of times over the last month, and I always enjoy talking with her.While I had been granted emergency custody of Chance the night of the accident, there is still a long road ahead of us. In order to obtain permanent custody or adopt, the state still has to do a complete home study, I have to take some parenting classes, and a few other things have to be processed to get through the red tape.They're still looking for Chance's biological father, because the law requires it, but Laurie assured me they weren't having any more luck than I was. That will make the entire process a lot faster since I'm Chance's only blood relative, which I am grateful for. Laurie is a really nice woman and seems to really want to h
I hate shopping on Saturday nights but once again I'm the dumb-ass who didn't plan ahead. I should hire a maid or someone to do my shopping for me.With my baseball cap pulled low over my eyes, I wander around the store, swinging through the grocery aisles before making my way over to toiletries. I can hear what sounds like a baby giggling. It makes me smile and reminds me I really need to call my sister, Blanca, in the morning. I haven't checked on her since she got married a few weeks ago, and I want to see how Aaron is doing as a new stepdad. He's a great guy, but she was adamant they wouldn't live together until after they were married. Something about the kids getting too attached before things were finalized.I get it. She had a really rough divorce from a total douchebag, who left her and the kids high and dry. They don't need to get their hearts broken again. I glance down the aisle as I pass by the baby items and barely register a woman with a giggling baby in a carrier stra
Quincy shakes her head in humorous disbelief. "I swear this kid has the constitution of a grown man."I bark a laugh as Quincy holds her nose and says, "Ohmygod, Chance, what did they feed you at day care?""Come on," I say, pushing past her and pulling her cart to drag it behind me. "Let's go over to that bench and get him cleaned up. There is no way anyone wants you to let that smell permeate through the store."She follows me over to the same bench we sat on before and unstraps the baby from the carrier while I spread the changing pad out on the bench and pull out a diaper and some wipes."How old is he now?" I ask as she sets him down gently and undresses him from the waist down. He looks up at me, and I'm sure he's trying to figure out why I look upside down. He smiles and reaches for my face when I lean down to talk to him and keep him distracted from the mess his fingers could be getting in down below."Four and a half months," she says as she grabs him by the ankles and hauls h
"I'm thinking we need to go bolder. Let's do purple streaks this time."I wrap the cape around her neck and snap it in place. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Sue. Remember what happened when you decided to do blue streaks? You were calling me the next day to get what you called 'that damn Easter egg color' out of your hair.""I don't know," she says as she looks in the mirror, fluffing out her hair. "I don't think I took enough time to get used to it. I think I jumped the gun on that."I look over at Geni, who is doing an all-over color on one of her regular customers. She winks at me. This is a conversation she has overhead between Sue and me numerous times."You will look like you are trying to chase your youth if you go with pastel colors," I say and brush her hair. "If you really want bolder color, we can do some really dramatic auburn lowlights and offset it with blonde highlights."If it was any customer other than Sue, I wouldn't be so open with my assessment. But Sue wa
I haven't been this excited about a date in a very long time. Don't get me wrong. I'm an extrovert by nature. I love going out and meeting people, going on dates, and of course, sex. But the idea of spending time with Quincy made it really hard to stay focused during practice yesterday.She's not the type of girl I normally go for, but the type of girl I normally go for will also drop her panties with just a smoldering look sent in her direction. I can thank David Beckham for bringing professional soccer the fanbase it has these days.I climb the stairs to the second story of her apartment building. It's an older complex but it's smaller, too. Three units on top, three on bottom. I knock on the door, noticing the landscaping is up-to-date and the building is kept up nicely. It's also in a pretty good neighborhood. It makes me feel better to know she's not living in a dump with a four-month-old.The door opens, revealing a frazzled looking Quincy, who is holding an almost naked Chance.