I curse the one who rings on the door of my apartment this early in the morning. Before I even realise what's going on, a killer headache hits me and I ask myself why don't I own a gun so I could end this shit.

The doorbell rings aggressively and I yell loudly "Yeah yeah! I'm coming!" That was one huge mistake. The words echo in my mind with heavy bass and loud screeching and I end up landing back in my bed with hands on my ears and forehead.

The moment that awful feeling passes, I take a deep breath of relief and sigh. I eventually get up and it's then when I realise I am still fully dressed. What the fuck happened?

I walk to the front door and open it with leaning on it "Speak." I say to the... well, whoever came to bother me.

"Wow, you seem to be really beaten up. Tough night?"

I open one of my eyes "Pats? What are you doing here so early?" I close my eyes again and let her in. I am kinda slow registering everything, so I barely manage to leave Aidan without any broken bones when I close the door. When did this kid come here?

She is walking in when she says "Early? It's 10 am." She stops and turns to look at me, caressing Aidan's hair "Please, don't tell me you already forgot!"

I furrow my brows at her as I sit down and pinch the bridge of my nose. I'm going to throw up. "Forgot what?"

Patty looks down at Aidan and smiles at him lovingly. For a moment I think this could be our son. Then I mentally kick myself in the nuts - no time to think about that. "That you and Aidan are going to spend a day together." When she lifts her eyes her look is distant, especially when she looks at me "Daniel called you yesterday in the evening, around 11 pm and he said you were all up for it."

I snort and rubs my eyes "Ye-ah, uh, I was kinda drunk. Really drunk. Why is the room spinning?"

I hear a loud sigh coming from her lips and her footsteps when she approaches the counters behind which I am sitting. I can even imagine her roll her eyes, which she probably did. "I can see that. Thought you had some self-control."

"Hey, I do, but yesterday- let's just say I wasn't really worried about controlling myself," I say and chuckle.

When I look to the side, Aidan is standing next to me and staring at me with a big smile. "Hi!"

I smile a little "Hey, buddy." And I ruffle his hair. Yeah, it's my signature move for kids.

"Are you going to take me to an amusement park?" He asks enthusiastically and I don't know what to answer.

When I see Patty's strict look, I quickly answer him something she wants to hear. "Uh, no. Some other time, okay?"

Aidan forms this huge frown and big puppy eyes but says nothing more. The moment Patty looks away, I turn to the kid and give him a wink. The little one giggles and quickly shuts up when I show him to do so by placing my index on my lips.

"Look, I-uh, why do I have to look after him, anyway? Are Danny and you planning something?" I ask and narrow my eyes at the weird thing he places before me in a glass.

"Drink." She orders me then sits down next to me and starts explaining "We are going to my parents and Aidan would be incredibly bored there." She shrugs "Thought he'll be better off with you here. He does adore you." Patty says and gives me a soft look. I know that look...

I lift the glass and take it down all at once before I nearly throw up. Luckily, I just end up coughing and cringing my face off "Ugh, what was that?!"

"My recipe for a hangover. You don't want to know what's inside." She finds it incredibly funny and ends up laughing uncontrollably. Just like she used to laugh whenever I stole a quick kiss from her. But that was a long time ago.

"Real funny." I say and wipe my mouth or at least the corners of it "But, yeah, I'm all up for it. You can pick him up tomorrow."

"Really? You wouldn't mind?"

I shake my head and look at Aidan, who's playing Indiana Jones and climbing over my couch and under it "Nah, he's a joy to have around."

Patty squeals a little and kisses my cheek. I momentarily look at her, a bit confused. By the look of her, she seems to regret the kiss as much as I do. And I do regret it, she's Daniel's. "Uhm..."

I cough in awkwardness "Yeah, huh."

"Mhm... I-I better go."

"Yeah, for the best," I say and I get an offended look. I lift my hands "Hey, just in case!"

I see her roll her eyes before she goes to Aidan, kisses his cheek and then walks to the door "We'll come by tomorrow and pick him up. Bye bye, sweetie!"

"Bye, Mommy!" Aidan squeals and waves.

Then she looks at me and tilts her head "Bye, Nathan."

"Bye, Pats." And off she goes. When I am alone with Aidan, I go to his playground - my living room, and find him hiding under the couch. "Can I ask what you're doing?"

He looks at me angrily "Shh! Crocodiles are looking for me. If they hear me, they'll find me and eat me!"

I look surprised and worried "Oh, no! You think they're close?"

"I don't know." He shrugs and looks around like an adventurer "But this is the best hiding spot I could find."

I nod "Mhm. You know what I think?" I say and get his attention. "I think-" I pretend to think really hard, "I think they wouldn't find you if you were... Hm, let's say... in an amusement park."

His eyes widen in childish joy, they even start to shine. He climbs out with the speed of light and starts jumping around me "We're going? We're going? We're going?"

Oh god, shut up... My headache returns and I realise I drank that shit Patty made me for nothing. I feel like crap again. "Yes, yes. Just let me put some fresh clothes on."

"Yaaaaaay!!!" He screams and starts jumping on the couch.

I go to the bedroom as quickly as possible and first take a breather by sitting on my bed. Holy fuck. I rub my eyes, stand up and open my closet. I take one of the white shirts and plain blue jeans. It's classy, it's casual and it makes my butt look great. Before I face the kid again, I take a quick stroll to the bathroom and I nearly get a heart attack. I do look old with stubble. I grab the razor and remove my facial hair quickly. And I am 20 again.

"Okay, let's go," I tell him once I see Aidan in front of the door, shaking from enthusiasm.

"Yaaaaaaaay!" He screams again and I die again.

I open the door and let the wild animal run around the main hallway. He eventually calms down and walks beside me. That's the moment when I tell him "Just don't yell that much, okay?"

"Okay!"

***

Aidan never stopped jumping around. The only way I can make him calm down is to send him on rides and let those completely drain him out.

"Where do you want to go first?" I ask him and he points at three different rides at the same time, Dragon's Breath, Grim Reaper's House of Horrors and Spy's Gun. "We can't go on all at once, you have to choose," I tell him and give him something to think of.

His silence and calculations give me enough time to take a painkiller for my headache and wash it down with water from a bottle. "I wanna go to that one!" He exclaims and points with his hand to one of the rides.

"Spy's Gun? Wanna go to that one?" I ask again before he tells me he wants to go to the Underwater Kingdom or Tricks & Illusions.

He thinks again and it makes me want to grab him, shake him and tell him to make up his mind. But I give him a break, he's just a kid. "No. I wanna go to the horror house!"

I squint my eyes a little and check the ride from afar "You... sure? I'm not sure you can go inside." I say and think if Patty ever finds about this, how many times would she kill me. But I'm his cool uncle, I'm supposed to give him things his mother would never approve. Then, on the other hand, he's still preschool, the house of horrors really might be too much. "Aidan-" I sigh and crouch down to him "I don't want you to have nightmares. Can't we go on a different ride?"

He looks around again and I pray for him to change his mind like he always does about everything, well, almost anything. "But-"

I sigh and take his hand "Okay, let's go." Might as well keep his eyes shut with my hands if I have to. But when we're close enough to see the Grim Reaper's shiny red eyes and hear his evil laughter, I see a lot of parents with their children who are of the same age as Aidan. But they go in with him. Of all days, they pick the one I'm sick. I take a walk to the guy handling all is ok on that ride and ask him "Can I ask something?

"Yeah, of course." He says and comes closer to me so he can hear me.

"My nephew wants to go on that ride, but I'm not sure it would be okay for him. How scary actually is it?" I press Aidan close to me since the whole group of people is coming from the ride. Just making sure nothing goes wrong.

He laughs and shakes his head "He'll be okay. It's made for kids anyway."

I look at the boy next to me, who's curiously looking at people. He doesn't notice when I turn to him, so to get his attention I gently close his open mouth. He flinches and looks up to me, grinning widely. Yeah, yeah, you're my Cheshire Cat. "I trust you're a big boy. So-" I smile "Let's have a look inside."

Aidan grins and starts jumping with joy. Again.

We take a seat in the fifth wagon, despite his objections. He wants to sit in first or the second one because it's supposed to be scarier. I put him in the fifth one exactly because of that, 'cause it's scarier in the first ones. He doesn't fight me, he knows better than that and besides, he's way too excited about the horror house, while I am still unsure whether I did the right thing or completely screwed up.

The train starts moving and the dark curtain slowly unveils, woman's screams escort us in the first part of the horror house. I glance at Aidan every second, especially when skeletons jump out, or evil laugh surrounds us from all corners of the room. He seems to be doing okay, he's a little afraid, but that's what horror house is all about. Just in case, I put my hand on his small arms, giving him some kind of feeling of security. 

The first part wasn't that scary, it was just a bit of thrilling every once in a while, but the train starts moving faster until the wind is actually so disturbing you can barely look forward. Songs of ancient tribes travel with us, masks of pagans levelling down, then flashing lights in the corner reveal one of their sacrificial rituals, the victim beheaded and gutted in the most gore kind of way. Even I cringe at it, while Aidan starts shaking a little. 

I tell myself the ride is soon to be over and I pray for a miracle to happen, I gotta get him out of here, that clearly was a bad idea. But the horror house barely showed what's got, it just gave us a small taste of it. Again, train speeds up, but even faster than before. The fact there are no seat belts scares the shit out of me. 

Tribal songs become louder and louder, lights are flashing all the time as the train takes wild turns, almost throwing Aidan and me from our wagon. I hold him firmly and try to tell him it's okay when a pile of bones falls in our wagon and dark liquid sprays on us. Aidan fiddles and releases a squeal of fear, holding onto my arm for dear life. It's okay, it's just a horror house. 

Then train, music, everything abruptly stops, throwing us forward, luckily no one of us hit our forehead with the sudden push. I look around, wondering what just happened, why it all stopped. Other kids and their parents seem to be in the same confusing situation. Then something the most disgusting starts grabbing onto Aidan's and my leg. The sound returns, but they are whispers of hunger for human flesh, which become louder and louder until they are yelling it, craving it, hands of half-rotten skeleton zombies pulling on our legs aggressively. 

Aidan screams loudly and starts kicking and hitting the things, he is panicking and he's terrified. The next thing I know is that the train proceeds to move with slow speed and I can see the dark veil marking the exit.

I grab Aidan and get out of that forsaken train. I carry him out to the light, repeating these words to him all the time"It's okay, it's okay, no one's gonna get you, I got you." Once outside I take him far far far away from the horror house, somewhere where stands with candy and toys are. There I put him down and nearly crumble of guilt when I see his mortified face red from crying and screaming. "Aidan, Aidan, it's all alright, okay?"

He looks at me, but he doesn't seem to register it, so I gently cradle him and press him to my chest. Uncle Nate's got ya... I keep hugging him for a while, then ask him in a quiet and soft manner "You want some nuggets and fries?" I look at him and he nods slowly, wiping his tears with his tiny fat fingers. "Yeah?" I smile widely, glad he is feeling better now. "Good, let's go."

***

We wait in line to order him a Happy Meal and I keep my eyes on him at all times. He still hasn't come across the images he saw in the horror house and keeps his hands in his mouth, biting on it of nervousness. I gently tuck his hand out between his lips, but he instinctively puts it back. In the end, I give up and just patiently wait for our turn to order. As I wait and Aidan is still eating his fingers, I look around, 'cause I got nothing better to do, I might as well find us a place to eat at in peace.

As I scan around the place I find a perfect place outside and hope no one will take it before we come there. Soon, it's our time to order. I get Aidan in my arms and lift him up. "Okay, buddy, tell the cashier what you want to eat."

Aidan looks up at pictures of various hamburgers, the regular ones and the limited editions, of course, he orders half of them. The cashier looks at me confused, probably worried and I just smile uneasily at him "Just give him a Happy Meal with a toy."

Few minutes and his lunch is ready. I don't order anything, I don't like McDonald's that much. I place Aidan down on the ground, who decided my jeans pocket is freaking amazing and starts holding onto it, while I take the plate with his food and together we take a walk. We are just about to reach the free table when another family occupies it and makes me want to groan out loud. Today is not the day for this kind of stuff!

Aidan then points in another direction "Uncle Nate, there's free space."

I look where he points and nod "Seems good." I say and we walk there then take a seat. I open the lunch Happy Meal box and unwrap the wonky packages of each food, so Aidan can just eat without bothering to do anything else, except maybe play with his new toy.

Since we are seated at the large table, a few others are sitting there as well, including a very hot brunette with no one else with her, at least that's what I presume. I choose to ignore her, now it's time to take care of Aidan.

He starts munching happily on the nuggets and from time to time finds time to breathe or to take a sip of his coke. If I were someone else, I'd be probably disgusted with his Neanderthal eating habits, but being his uncle and Aidan being Patty's son, I find joy in looking at him so happy. Maybe also because it was my fault I made him shit his pants earlier. Metaphorically speaking.

He continues to make chewing noises such as nomnom and munchmunch and I ask him to make sure "You feeling better?" He nods and stuffs his mouth with more fries. "Good, that's good. You know, a friend of mine once told me food makes you happy. Is that true?" He nods again and I smile "Of course you're happy now, how couldn't you be? You're eating the Happy Meal. It's happy."

Aidan ignores me, but the brunette next to me does. She giggles silently but loud enough for me to hear her. I turn to her and smile a little, but we say nothing more.

I look back at Aidan and lean closer "Buddy when we get home and Mommy will ask you if we had a fun time... Don't mention the horror house, okay? Mommy mustn't find out about it."

"Oh, she will!" a feminine voice next to me exclaims. It was brunette's voice.

"I hope she won't." I chuckle.

She tilts her head first to one side then to the other one and shrugs "Perhaps not today or tomorrow. But-" She shrugs again, but in a bit more shyly way "Mothers always find out. Even that means finding out in the matter of few years."

I smirk, hope she is wrong and I wonder do I look sexy or worried at the moment "That's downright frightening."

She chuckles and offers me her hand "I'm Kenzie."

I shake her hand, feeling the soft and silky skin of her palm - likes to be treated like a princess, I see. "Nathan."

She nods and looks at Aidan who is drinking coke and staring at her with big eyes of a curious child. "He yours?"

I nod "In a way. Aidan, there is my nephew." I shift in my seat a little, trying to make her look at my fit physique "Amusement park is our little secret." She laughs again and even though I don't care, I ask "Are you here with your kid or-?"

"Oh, no!" she shakes her head quickly and makes various grimaces. Her reaction is escorted with nervous laughter "No, no, uh-, I'm here with my friend. She has kids." Her nods seem like a nervous habit and by the sound of her voice, she seems disappointed about the situation.

I eye her a little, take a quick glance at Aidan just to make sure he's fine, then I look back at her and ask her "How so?" Before she dares to have me for an idiot and answers with My friend and her husband had sex and babies came out of her hoo-hah, I add "Because, you look, well, not exactly like the Hunchback of Notre Dame."

My remark makes her laugh and by the way, her shoulders sink, I know my funny comment didn't just make her laugh but also relaxed her. "Ah, uh, thank you." She doesn't just look at me, she also bites her lip and straightens her back, meaning pushing her breasts out for me to notice it. "You don't look so bad yourself." Then she drops the sexy woman act and puts a strand of hair behind her hair. Gone is the seductress and here is the type of woman I like the best. Natural. " suppose I just haven't met someone whom I'd raise children with." She looks down at the table, but due to being lost in her thoughts, she seems to be staring at a distance. When she is brought back to reality, she scares the uneasiness away with a lovely smile "Your nephew seems to adore you." Ooo-kay, sudden change of a subject. Yeah, I can do that.

I shrug and proudly tug on the collar of my shirt "Not trying to brag, but-" I smile in that cocky hilarious way "-I'm pretty awesome."

She laughs again and leans on the table with her elbow "No wonder, you're very funny." She looks at Aidan lovingly and then back at me "At first I thought he was your son."

HE COULD BE! I heard Patty scream in my mind and I stealthily pinched myself. That didn't happen, Nate. "Well, I do love him like he was my son, I don't deny that-" I smile and before I get to continue with my honesty which is: "I ain't having kids in this lifetime.", I am interrupted by Aidan.

He finished his lunch and was now jumping at my side, begging me to take him to more rides. Really? Right after lunch?

"Aidan, I am talking to a lady. It's not okay if you interrupt people in the middle of their conversation." I scold him and not just to impress her, but to actually give him a lesson. Daniel is apparently quite bad at doing it.

"There's no need to scold a playful child," Kenzie says with a smile and winks at Aidan, just like I did this morning when I lied to Patty about visiting the amusement park with her son. "You boys go play. Hope you'll both enjoy the rides!" She exclaims enthusiastically, causing Aidan to aggressively (not really) starts pulling on my sleeve, trying to drag me to other rides.

I look at her over my shoulder with amusement "Don't encourage him!"

Her laughter fills the room again, but this time she covers her mouth and beautiful white teeth with her hand. When she stops laughing so hard, she first fixes her hair and gives me a small wave "See you around, Nathan."

oh... I hope.

***

This whole day has been a hellhole. Let me sum it all up real quick. I woke up with a killing headache, enraged stomach and vengeful liver due to my drinking feat last night. I lied to my ex-girlfriend who also happens to be my brother's fiance and the mother of his child. Then I took my young nephew to the amusement park and failed to follow my better judgement when making an important decision about the horror house. After giving my nephew tons of nightmare material, I bought him a junk food lunch and right after he ate it, I took him on more rides.

I am COVERED in puke and I smell of acid, nuggets, milk and radishes.

I tried not to scream at Aidan, it wasn't really his fault, I was a dumb, irresponsible uncle, who just wanted to show him some fun. In my car, I keep tissues for... sexual reasons (wink wink), but boy was I glad those were there at this time of need.

Yes, I care about myself, my clothes and my body dearly, but I am not that selfish and egotistical when it comes to children. Children deserve love and care. That's what I try to give Aidan as he's standing next to my car, hanging on my leg. I wipe his mouth and his neck clean then try to at least dry his shirt. I will change his clothes immediately when we get back to my apartment.

"I will take you home, okay? You will rest there for the end of the day, maybe, just maybe, we'll play Indiana Jones later, a'right?" I ask him more to reassure him when he nods sleepily and sickly, I gently pat and pinch his cheek.

"Alright," I say to myself and think if there's anything else I should do before I put him in the car and start driving home.

"Uncle Nate?" Aidan squeals with his sweet voice which was filled with too much pain.

"Yes?" I answer exasperated and sick of this shitty day.

"I'm gonna throw up again."

I turn back to look at him in horrific revelation. Without thinking I grab him and with the speed of light I dash with him under my arm to the nearest water closet. I get him in the first empty cabin and if I were just a moment too late, he'd spread his half-digested lunch all over the place, but luckily that isn't the case. I hold him and scold myself for doing everything that I did today with this boy.

He continues to throw up for a while, in the end, he's not even throwing up anymore, just choking on his saliva and some disgusting green goop. When he is finished, I carefully pull him away from the toilet and get him to the sinks. First and again, I wipe his mouth, this time I didn't have to wipe anything else, then I help him wash his hands. Poor boy is exhausted from all of this.

We will approach this slowly now. I tell myself because I really don't want him to throw up again.

"We meet again."

I look to the side and see Kenzie standing at the entrance of toilets. Very romantic and sexy.

"Hi, there," I say. I am not in my seducing mood right now and she obviously takes the hint.

"Oh, dear, what happened to him?" she asks concerned and comes closer, crouching down and putting her hand on Aidan's cheek. "He looks so tired. Did he throw up?"

I nod, feeling absolutely the worst "Yeah, he did. I shouldn't have taken him to the Builder Beaver after he just had his lunch." I chuckle a little, but it's all forced.

"Awh, poor baby. You gonna take him home right now?" She speaks with such sweet tone, I wish she would use it on me right now, 'cause after a day like this, I certainly needed someone to nurture me like a baby. (I am not into breastfeeding fetish by the way.)

"Yeah, of course. What else am I to do? I'll put him in the car right now and take him to bed to rest." I tell her and making a plan at the same time.

She looks at me like I sell children to slavery and make money out of it "You'll put him in a car?"

"Yeah, why shouldn't I? I gotta take him home."

"His stomach is upset right now, I wouldn't risk it if I were you." Oh. So I gotta worry about new car seat tickings made of fake, but damn fucking expensive leather!

I think hard about any possible solutions. I could risk him throwing up in the taxi, but I want to prevent him from puking. The only sensible way would be... going on foot. I do live close enough.

Kenzie lifts Aidan in her arms and presses his head against her chest "There, there." Then looks at me with a face of an adventurer "Ready to go?" I probably had a cringy expression on my face, so she reassured me "I'll just help you out with him."

A bit longer chapter, but hope you appreciate it! Yeah, no matter how hard Nate tried, he failed. Poor guy, I threw so many things at him. I'm such a monster!

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~Blackie