Kairo
I sighed as I opened my eyes from yet another sleepless night. I looked toward Amelia’s sleeping figure and wished that it was someone else instead. It’s been about four years since she left, but she’s all I could ever think of. Is this the consequence of my selfishness four years ago? If I wasn’t so stubborn, would I have been happier now?A lot of questions still linger in my mind— Has she been doing well? Is she living a better life now? Does she have someone else who holds her in her sleep?
The last question made my head hurt, so I got up from bed and splashed my face with cold water. I didn’t bother waking Amelia up. I just went downstairs to the kitchen to have my usual breakfast.
I thought about what happened during the past few days. Amelia and I’s child, Devyn, just celebrated his 4th birthday, and it’s one of the rare moments where I felt genuinely happy. I might feel indiffere
EmeryI sneezed upon waking up; the dust on the ceiling must have fallen while we were sleeping. I looked at Arlo’s cute sleeping figure and brushed the dust away from his face.We have a lot to do today. First, we have to get the house cleaned up, then we have to go to the mall to buy some clothes and other necessities, and after that, I need to find a babysitting service that can look after Arlo while I try to hunt for a job.But before any of that, I need to cook some breakfast for the both of us. It’s a good thing that I’ve packed some dry pancake batter; otherwise, we wouldn’t have anything to eat this morning.I went down quietly to the kitchen so as to not wake Arlo up. Then after cooking some pancakes, I gently shook him awake so we could start the day.We finished eating our breakfast, and Arlo was now sitting on my lap, playing with a Rubik's cube that he was able to pocket before we left our old hou
EmeryToday was Arlo’s first day in the daycare center, and he was excitedly munching on his cereal next to me. I stroked his hair.“Are you excited?”He tried to calm down and hide his excitement, but I could see the slight shine in his eyes.“No, mommy. I’m cool.” He responded.I giggled. When did this young boy learn how to be cool? He surprises me more and more each day. How can a four-year-old read the situation?“Yeah, sure. You’re the coolest of them all.” I carried him and twirled him around while he pouted with his mouth full.“Don’t do that anymore, mommy. I’m a big boy now. I don’t need to be carried.”I didn’t let him down but instead showered his face with kisses. “Arlo will never grow up. He’ll always be mommy’s little baby.”He frowned and muttered, “I’m not a baby.&r
Kairo“Where are you going off to again?” I asked, tired from pulling an all-nighter because of the pack’s paperwork.“Out,” Amelia answered coldly, not even bothering to look back at us.Devyn and I were currently eating breakfast when Amelia, who was all dressed up, passed us and drank water. She didn’t even acknowledge our presence, and by the looks of it, she was going somewhere again.“Didn’t you promise Devyn yesterday that you’d bring him to his new school? It’s even his first day, so why are you going out?”She sighed, “You take him.”I looked at her in disbelief. “What? But I already took the day off yesterday to take care of his enrollment! I even gave you the chance to meet with your friends so you can accompany him today.”I looked toward Devyn and saw that he wasn't eating his breakfast anymore. His eyes were loo
Emery“No, wait for me! Take me back.” Cindy, the little girl who I was playing dolls with, said while chasing my doll with hers.“It’s your fault. I will never go back to you!” I replied and made my doll run faster.We were currently acting out a scene wherein the ex-boyfriend runs after the girl she rejected when they were younger. I don’t know what came over this little girl, but she said she wanted to reenact a scene in a movie that she watched with her mom.However, this time, instead of the girl just running away, the couple actually gets back together.I don’t know what type of movies an 8-year old watches with her mom, but I certainly did not expect to break out into acting so early in the morning.I guess this is still better than playing with mud with the boys outside.I watched, amused, as Cindy followed my doll and tried to hug her. Since her wish was to get th
EmeryWe fell into an awkward silence once again as we sipped from our teacups at the same time. I don’t know why, but I was quite disappointed with his answer. For some reason, I was hoping that Amelia’s pregnancy was a whim and Devyn wasn’t his child.I was actually quite surprised when he confirmed that Devyn is his son because they don’t resemble each other at all. While Kairo had cold blue eyes and dark hair, Devyn had light blonde hair and honey-colored eyes. The child didn’t even look like Amelia, his eyes were wide, and his lips were small, different from Amelia’s sharp eyes and wide lips.Shit, why am I thinking like this? Why am I analyzing their family? I should be happy for the both of them since they’re still together after a long time.“That’s great,” I answered after a long time. I glanced at the two children playing on the floor and smiled. “He looks like a good kid
Emery“What are you doing here, Kairo?”He scratched the back of his head and looked at me sheepishly, “Uhm, I followed my mom here because she’s been going out frequently these days. She always says that she has some important matter to attend to, and I wanted to see it for myself. I didn’t expect to find you here as well.”I looked at Luna Lilinana for help. I hope that she can get my signal and send her son home.She went beside me and said, “Okay, now that you see what I’ve been up to, then you can go home.” She tried to push Kairo out of the door, but that really wasn't possible because Kairo’s strength was incomparable to hers. “Don’t be a stubborn child and go do your work. Don’t you have a lot of work to do?”He shook his head, “No, I don’t really have much work today because I finished them all last night. I think that I can stay here f
Arlo It was my second day of school, and I didn’t want to go. I don’t want my classmates asking where my real daddy is again. I didn’t tell my mommy about the other kids asking because I didn’t want her to be sad. That’s why I still went to school even if I didn’t want to, to make my mommy happy. My mommy dropped me off at the gate where Teacher Logan was. I greeted him with a bow and went inside the classroom. When I went to my seat, Prince was no longer sitting beside me. I looked around the room and saw that he was already sitting in the front seat. He turned back to me and stuck out his tongue. I frowned. Why would he do that? I didn’t do anything bad to him. I heard him talking to his friends, and I became even sadder. “My mommy told me not to sit next to kids without daddies. She says that they are bad.”His friends nodded while looking at me. I bowed my head down because I didn't like the way they were staring at me. I w
EmeryThe tension was so thick; it couldn’t be cut by a knife. We sat side by side, our children next to us, and none of us looked at each other nor spoke. Logan must have sensed the heavy atmosphere, so he cleared his throat and started explaining the full details of the occurrence.“I’m sorry for interrupting both of your lunches, Miss Emery and Miss Amelia, but I believe that this problem will only be truly solved with the presence of both parents.”“Damn right, you interrupted my lunch.”“It’s no problem.”The both of us spoke at the same time, causing us to look at each other. But, I quickly broke the stare-down because we were here for a different reason. We weren't here to fight.“So I was saying, this recess time, Arlo was found pushing three children down on the ground. I was only planning on calling Miss Emery, but Devyn insisted th