three hearts in one home (l.s.)

28. Playgrounds and swinging teachers

The next week’s are a blurry of exams, late night study sessions with Niall, watching Zayn and Liam flirt and not seeing Louis and Jonah enough.

When it’s finally Friday and I’m done with my last exam for now, I fall onto the couch, feeling completely dead.

Niall sits down next to me with a sigh. “Fuck, this was the worst week of my life.”

He rolls his eyes and drops his head against the soft fabric of the couch. “I’ll text Amelia now, haven’t seen her in too long.”

I suddenly remember why this week was so bad and pull out my phone to text Louis.

Me: finally done with exams
    you free?

Lou: not yet
     this evening maybe
     need to finish sth for
     work, j is already getting
     impatient

Me: maybe i wanna see your son 
    not u

Lou: im actually very insulted
     rn
     u would take him?

Me: playground?

Lou: thank u haz

I smile at my phone, holding it in my hand as if it was important to me.

“You’re either in love with your phone or texting Louis”, Niall says, “I’m guessing second option or it would be rather creepy.”

I chuckle and get up from the way too cosy couch. “I’ll see Lou and Jonah.”

On my way there, I can’t stop smiling and I actually don’t know if I’ve ever been more excited over meeting someone than every time, I get to see them.

“Harry”, Jonah shouts when he opens the door and smiles, “Daddy told me we’ll go to the playground, I was already so bored because daddy is only writing things on his laptop.”

I grin and pick him up to press a short kiss to his forehead.
“Yeah, you’d like that? We could maybe even use the big slide.”

Jonah makes big eyes and nods eagerly before running of to his room. I follow him but walk into the kitchen where Louis is sitting on one of the chairs, writing something down on his laptop.

“Hi, love”, he says when he sees me and when I hug him, I feel so relieved and all the stress from the last week suddenly falls of me.

“Hi”, I whisper, “Missed you.”
I sit down on a chair next to him and lean over to get a look onto what he’s doing.

“Drama”, he says, “Do you think you could read over it once, later? If you think it’s too stressful, I know you had much to do with uni already, that’s fine.”

“’Course I can.”
He smiles and I give him a quick peck on the mouth before Jonah comes running into the kitchen, Stacey and Jeffrey in his hands. “They wanna go too.”

“Then we should take them. Can Jeffrey even go yet, I thought he was still a baby.”

He rolls his eyes. “Harry, Jeffrey is now a big baby. He can not go the big slide but definitely he wants to go.”

“Okay, then we’ll take them with us, yeah?”
He nods excitedly and runs into the hallway to get dressed.

Louis tugs on my hand so I move my chair a little closer to his.
“Thank you, darling, really.”

Darling. Darling, darling, darling.

“You don’t need to thank me. I like spending my time with him.”

“Yes, I do, believe me. There were like two guys I dated while I had Jonah and none of them were nearly as supportive as you are. You might think it’s normal, but it’s not, Harry, it really isn’t. You’re special.”

I might already die of blushing, when he adds: “Special to me. To us.”

I’d kiss him very long and deeply if Jonah wasn’t waiting in the hallway so I just smile, press his hand once and walk out of the kitchen before something very stupid slips out of my mouth.

“Now come on, J, lets go.”
He nods excitedly and I have to jog down the stairs to be able to follow him.

Arriving at the playground, Jonah immediately runs towards the biggest slide and waves to me. “Hazzie, come on!”

I run towards him, breathing getting harder with every step. This is probably the best workout I’ve had in months.

“Honey, I’m a sloth, remember? I can’t be that fast.”

He scoffs and rolls his eyes before carefully sitting down Stacey and Jeffrey on the ladder to the slide, making sure they won’t fall off.

“Perfect”, I say, “Now, lets go up? Are you sure you’re not too scared to go down the slide?”

He shakes his head while starting to climb up. “Harry, I can even do rollercoasters, you are the scared one.”

I laugh and follow him until we arrive on top of the rather steep tube slide.

“Okay, it’s very high”, Jonah determines when looking down and frowns, “We need to go together, Hazzie.”

I nod and sit down, placing him in my lap. “You can scream if it’s scary.”

“I’m not like you.” He giggles and presses his fingers into my thigh, nodding. “Okay, go.”

It’s not as bad as expected and Jonah giggles the whole time before climbing up the small tower again just a minute later. This time I wait at the end, catching him and throwing him into the air once when he arrives.

“Fun”, he says, eyes glowing and hair sticking to his forehead, “Now maybe swings.”

We run to the swings, Jeffrey in his and Stacey in my hand. I lift him onto the right swing and push him two times so he starts moving before sitting down on my own.

“Bet I can swing higher than you”, I say and watch him trying to move his legs synchronized with the swing. “You gotta teach me, Hazzie. Can’t do it alone.”

“Um”, I say, “Okay. When the swing goes forward, your legs do too. Like this.” I try showing him but my feet keep brushing over the ground, “And when you go backwards, your legs do too.”

It probably looks extremely uncoordinated; my legs are way too long for this and I can’t remember the last time I used a swing.

“I don’t get it. You’re a better swimming teacher then swinging teacher”, Jonah says and chuckles.

“At least I am good at something”, I say and he rolls his eyes, still trying to get moving.

“’Course you’re good at something.”
“Yeah?”

“Yeah, lots of things. You’re good at taking care of Jeffrey and you’re good at doing the crocodile voice, can you do it tonight?” He doesn’t wait for an answer but continues listing things, I’m good at.

“You’re also good at not being scared of rollercoasters and spoiling me with cotton candy. You’re good with taking care of me when daddy is sick and also when he’s healthy again. And you’re good at being my friend.”

~~~

another chapter later yes or no?