It was an accident.

He was depressed, he withdrew. His friends persuaded him to go out and get drunk. He did. On any other occasion, he never would have, but he did. He hooked up. The girl got pregnant, she carried to term. She gave birth. She left the baby with Emmett.

He finished law school while she was in her final month of pregnancy. Now that he was the sole provider for a child, he could no longer fulfill his dream to become a lawyer. He had to find another small job to make up for the lack of money. Two, just to cover the costs of having a kid. Most of his money went to babysitters anyway, whenever his mother wasn’t available to take care of her grandchild.

Emmett was nearing twenty-eight with a now one-year-old child. How had his life come to this?

Emmett has just worked two consecutive shifts at both of his jobs. He has been up for two days straight, has not eaten a single thing, and has only been drinking coffee and RedBull. He feels like he’s about to pass out any second. He is carrying his child in his arms into a grocery store, out of baby food and diapers for the fourth time this month. He can’t spend so much at once, so he makes several trips.

He hears someone approach him and he hears them speak, but he does not process nor care about what the words were.

“I’m sorry, I can’t talk right now,” he dismisses you quickly. “I’m very busy.”

He grabs a pack of baby food and speed walks towards the diapers.