chapter nineteen

"good morning my sweet little," a happy tatum cooed into her ears.

lydia stirred awake, being forced to slightly open her eyes as she felt herself getting picked up and thrown over the boys shoulder. she was barely awake to register what was going on, but tatum was wide awake by now and had awaited her awakening much too long for his liking. earlier he had awoken to the pleasant sight of the girl cooped up in his arms, assuming that she had been drawn to the warmth of his body while she was asleep. he knew that this was probably not intentional, but he decided to take it as that.

he had lydia in his possession for one day by now, and was completely overwhelmed with the joy that came with having her around. she gave him the motivation to do things he normally wouldn't do, and she didnt even know this. that's something he admired about his little, in fact. she never intentionally improved his life in any way, but unintentionally, she did everything for him. she was exactly what he wanted, exactly what he needed. and he knew more than anything that he wasn't ever going to give that up.

as he carried the small girl over his shoulder and into the living room, he was smiling to himself. she was awake because of the action of him scooping her up, but she was still asleep for the most part. she mumbled things under her breath alongside quietly whimpering to herself as he carried her. he absolutely adored the smell of her, as he was extremely pleased to be able to smell her sweet vanilla scent as he carried her.

setting her down on the couch very gently, he admired her once again. she had tiredly laid into a sleeping position on the couch, falling back asleep quickly and with ease. tatum silently smiled again, retreating back to the bedroom to grab ahold of the comforter for her to lay with. he had absolutely no problem with his little sleeping, he just needed her to be in a place where he could see her. the kitchen held a direct view of the couch that he had placed her on which put him at ease.

tatum could be a very anxious person sometimes when he didn't take his medications. and ever since he met lydia, he had stopped taking them. though it had only been two days since he had met her, he was so caught up with her that he had simply forgotten to take them. he was okay with this though, as he felt like his meds did nothing to benefit him.

being the anxious boy that he was, he didn't like to stay in bed too long after waking up. it made him feel like it gave lydia time to plan an escape, though this was impossible due to the fact that she was sleeping. but that's the thing, what if she wasn't sleeping? what if she was just pretending so that she could get away with planning something? obviously, he couldn't have this, which led him to taking her into the living room so that he had clear sight of her from the kitchen as he made the two breakfast.

as he gathered the ingredients and cooking materials he would need, he sighed. thinking back to yesterday made a cloud form over his head. when lydia attempted to go on her cell phone without him noticing, it made him nothing less than angry. in fact, he was so angry that he had to consume his energy with doing other things to avoid accidentally hurting her from his fit of rage. tatum never really saw himself angry anymore until he met her. it made him angry that she already wanted to be away from him, as if he had harmed her.

though he could sometimes be irrational, especially while angry, he was aware that lydia possessed the right to be afraid of him. in fact, that's exactly what he wanted. he wanted her to be so afraid of him that she would absolutely never dare getting away from him, and he knew that would be easy. she was scared somewhat easily, and he liked that. he enjoyed when she shook when he was near her, he liked when she stuttered out of fear when they were together, and he liked that she constantly looked at him to know that she was not upsetting him.

he needed her to depend on him, and she already was.

tatum was brought out of his daze of thoughts when he heard a ding coming from the bedroom. he immediately looked to his little, quickly assuming that she was attempting to pull a stunt like yesterday. but she was soundly sleeping on the couch where he had left her, which caused him to sigh a breath of relief. he had locked both his and her cell phone in a safe that was being held in the closet of the bedroom they shared. he didn't know if it was his phone that was going off or if it was lydias, but he decided to check it anyways while the pancakes cooked on the stovetop.

he entered the room, making his way to the closet. his hand was brought to the safe as he punched the code in rather quickly. all he had hoped for was that it was not a text from lydias mother or father, as he knew that they were very involved and protective parents. he wasn't afraid to text them on her behalf either, he would just rather not use his time on coming up with stories for them over text. checking lydias phone first proved that it was not her device, which left the notification to be coming from his own phone. he placed lydias phone back into the safe and pulled out his.

hello and good morning tatum, may i stop by to give you your weekly settlement?

he thought a moment before responding.

i'm sorry grandma, but i'm at the house in ridgewood currently doing some renovations. can we settle things when i get back?

after pressing send on the message, tatums heart dropped as the sound of a loud knock on the front door rang through out the house.