The teacher's baby

23.

Hayden

"Are you really gonna be okay?" Mr. Nelson asks while standing by the bed fully clothed, with his coat and shoes on, and holding his portfolio in his right hand.

"Yes, I'll be *cough* fine." I say with a hoarse voice while lying tucked into bed with Grayson in my arms.

"Okay. You can call or text me if you need anything. I'll even come by during my lunch break to check on you and make sure that everything is okay."
He gives me a caring smile before turning around and walking towards the door. Then he turns around and looks at me once more.
"There's also yoghurt in the fridge and some bread in the pantry that you can eat if you get hungry. If you find something else that you like, you can have that too, of course. But most importantly is that you rest and drink a LOT. Okay? Is that alright?"

I nod.

"Good." he says."However, I need to go now. So goodbye, Hayden... and Grayson. I'll be back in a couple of hours."

"Goodbye." I say quietly and cough. He then walks out of the room, and not long after, I can hear as he opens the front door and walks out of the apartment, leaving me here alone.

Owen

I hate leaving Hayden by himself because I'm worried that something bad will happen when I'm gone, especially now that he is sick. But I have been gone from work for two weeks already, and I was also at home the whole day yesterday, so I had to go to work today.

When the last lesson before lunch is almost over, a sound from my phone can be heard, indicating that I have received a text message from someone. It can obviously be from anyone, but I can't help but think that this one is from Hayden. He maybe has gotten worse and needs me to come home. Luckily, I'm on lunch break soon, so I would be able to do so if needed.

When the lesson is over, I immediately unlock my phone and see that the text isn't from Hayden but from William.
We haven't talked to each other since Tuesday morning, and now I feel ashamed because I'm the one who should have  contacted him and not the other way around.

I've been such a bad daddy lately, and I hate myself for it because William deserves better than that.

I have not been able to give him the care and attention I'm supposed to give him because I've been busy with work and busy taking care of Hayden instead. 

William is probably angry at me right now, and he has every right to be. The text is probably him telling me that he doesn't want me as his daddy anymore.

I let out a deep sigh and open the text message.

"Can I ask you a question?"

I'm relieved that it's not what I thought it would be. I mean, there's still a possibility that he wants to question my role as his daddy, but there's also a million other things that he could possibly want to know in the moment.