27
Niall’s head pokes in Hughie’s room, his eyes go wide when he sees me. “Danny, hey. Erm…I may have forgotten you were here. Thanks for keeping Hughie occupied.”
“Danny sucks at Mario Kart. You might want to reconsider dating him.”
“Hughie, what did we talk about last time you were here?” Hughie just stares at him. “Boundaries, Hughie.”
Hughie puts down the controller. “Right, right. I don’t ask about boyfriends. You can tell me about them when you’re ready.”
“Good job little lad. Now, listen here. I’m going to talk to Danny, privately, out in the hall. No eavesdropping. You’ll hang out in here and play some games, yeah?”
“Okay.”
“Good. Since you’ve been somewhat behaved, there’s a new Donkey Kong game in the drawer.”
We sit on the stairs outside the apartment, keeping an eye on the door. Other than Hughie inside, no one else is around.
“So, you met Hughie,” Niall says, drumming his fingers on the wall. “I think I need to fill you in on some details.”
“Might be nice. I got some of it, a bit from Hughie. After he made me breakfast.”
Niall chuckles. “He’s a kid but he is wiser than his years, and has learned to take care of himself. I just wish it was under better circumstances.”
Niall goes into the other reasons why he sees a therapist, about his family.
A father who abandoned his family when he was ten to a life of selling and, by default, doing drugs. Who was found dead by the time Niall was thirteen, found with two bullets in his chest outside a sketchy bar.
A mother, who valued her career ambitions over her children, without the desire to even dip a toe into the single mother role.
Who left her children with babysitters and nannies, choosing to go on book tours and host dinner events for her industry friends rather than be home making dinner for her children.
A mother, who provided an unstable environment for her two children to grow up in, with conflicting and sometimes a complete lack of rules.
A sister who, choosing not to heed the warnings presented to her, fell hard into her father’s footsteps.
Skipped over the low-level drugs and dove right into cocaine, heroin, and occasionally meth.
A sister who had multiple stints in rehab by the time she was twenty, and countless additional ones leading to where she is as of ten o’clock yesterday morning.
But, somehow both lucky and unlucky, was able to keep sober long enough for Hughie to be born healthy.
And, despite it all, Niall is the rock. The one who keeps things barely together, with his only vices being reading and social drinks with friends. The one who has, despite it not being his choice, becoming more of a co-parent to Hughie than the typical fun uncle role.
“He said she, your mom, didn’t want to deal with him anymore. That’s such a cruel thing to say.”
Niall sighs. “Yeah, she said it. I was hoping he didn’t hear that. But I’m not all that surprised, given her stellar record as a parental figure.”
“I’m guessing his father isn’t in the picture.”
Niall looks back at the door. “I’ve only picked up on this in bits and pieces, but my sister used to pay some of her drug dealers with…
favors. I think more than one, and she was mixed up with some bad ones.
Even if we could find him, we shouldn’t.
It would just make things so much worse for Hughie. ”
“So…what now?”
Niall gives a sad laugh. “Not much of a choice is there, eh? My sister can’t keep a needle out of her arm.
Mum’s pretty much said she’s checking out, that he either stays here or is threatening foster care.
” He rubs his eyes, which have gone misty.
“And I can’t let that happen, to put him into an even shittier situation than even I had.
I love the kid, but part of me just wonders how to juggle it.
Finding him school here, making sure he’s in activities, finding care for him when I’m working.
Fuck, that’s going to be a fortune. Or maybe it will be cheaper to just hire another employee full-time.
It’s just...it’s just a lot Danny. And I should have been more prepared for this moment than I am. I should have seen this coming.”
We sit there for a bit, as my hand rubs reassuring circles on Niall’s back. Trying to figure out how to assist Niall in solving this child-sized problem.
My hand stops. “I’ll help.”
“What? How?”
“Books and Brews is open to, what, eight most nights? You get him to school in the morning. I’ll grab him in the afternoon between classes, and he can sit in my afternoon class when I have one. Or, on other days, my office hours.”
“Danny, no. I can’t ask you to do that. It’s too much. We haven’t even talked about last night, and now you’re almost offering to co-parent my nephew with me. You’re just starting to turn a corner, maybe, and I just—”
“Niall, stop. Let me help. I basically only know you and kinda your friends here. What else am I going to do? You need help. I can help. He seems like a pretty cool kid, not one of those asshole kids.”
Niall laughs. “Thank you for clarifying you think my nephew is not an asshole.”
I lean my head on Niall’s shoulder. “And, when you’re ready to have the big talk, we can address last night.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. You make it seem like we made a mistake.”
I lift my head off his should. “And what gave you that impression?”
“By saying we need to have a talk. What’s there to talk about, then? I made my intentions very clear.”
I laugh. “Niall, up until last night I thought you had a thing for Michael. My dead best friend. You’ve now told me, or more like showed me, when drunk that wasn’t the case. I’m just kinda taken by surprise and still processing it all.”
“If you don’t feel—”
“I didn’t say that. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it, something like last night, a few times since I’ve been here. I just previously didn’t consider it because I knew Michael had a big crush on you. And I thought you reciprocated that crush.”
Niall smirks. “While I’m flattered, I guess a small decency is that I never had to let him down. And tell him I had feelings for his best friend.”
I again think about the FaceTime calls that came in later and later, much to the detriment of Niall’s sleep schedule. And, likely with what I know now, while he was also responsible for Hughie. And he never burdened either of us with it.
“So, what now?”
Niall stands up, stretching. “If you’re down, let’s go play some video games, get takeaway, and figure out what to do with me having a kid now.”
Niall holds out his hand and pulls me up. “Sure. But I have one thing to take care of.”
“Which is?”
I walk to the door. “Overnighting books from another author. Because there is no fucking way I’m teaching your mom’s books. Even Hughie said they’re just okay.”