Today's a big day. It's Malaya's first birthday party. Ok so it's not on her actual birthday, but it's the thought that counts. Mariah didn't dare do it on Saturday or Sunday. Those are two very important days. She doesn't want today to be sad. It's supposed to be a happy day so she's going to leave it like that.
Ms. Troung is excited. Her great-grandchild is turning one. She's been there from the beginning. She saw Luke and Mariah grow up and start there own family. She saw the difficulty they had being teen parents. She's seen the whole journey. It's scary how fast Malaya is growing and she wants her to slow down. She's going to miss the moments when she was little.
No matter how tough he is, Luke knows he's going to cry. It's either going to be today or Saturday. At this point it might be both. He's a parent and seeing his kid grow. That's a bittersweet moment. He remembers the moment Mariah told him that she was pregnant. From that moment forward he knew he was the dad. Not biologically, but mentally. The connection that he's had with Malaya is like he's her biological father. Her smile makes his heart beat. He would do anything for that little girl. That's his baby, biological or not.
All the planning is done. All that needs to be finished is decorating and setting up. Everyone pitches in with that, including Niyah. She's been spending more time with Alex, which means spending time with his family. They mean a lot to him. She doesn't mind at all. She misses having that sense a family togetherness. Plus, how could she turn down the opportunity to do something for one of, if not the cutest babies she's ever seen.
The party starts. Malaya is overwhelmed by the amount of people there, so she stays to the people who she knows. Clinging on to Mariah's hip for the first part of the party. She starts to warm up and walk around. She used her voice like she's learning to do and says hello to everyone she sees. She's tired out by the time it's time to eat cake. The show has to go on though so Mariah puts the cake in front of her. Malaya looks at it in confusion while everyone sings happy birthday. She finally gets the courage to touch it. She doesn't like the feeling of the icing, so she sticks her hand in her mouth to clean it off. She realizes that it's tasty. She sticks her finger in for more. Then she sticks her whole hand in. That's the reaction that everyone wants. She tries to shove both hands in her mouth but Luke takes it before she chokes on the cake. Mariah starts handing out slices to everyone.
The party comes to an end. This is where the hard part starts. The hard part isn't cleaning up streamers and balloons. It is cleaning up boxes of pizza and mess that the little kids left. The hard part is what comes the next two days. The next two days are going to be more than an emotional roller coaster. No matter how much joy a one year old puts into their life, the next two days are going to take that all away.
Lauren watched the videos that everyone posted for Malaya's birthday. She misses that little girl. She still follows everyone on all social media except for Alex's. She blocked him after their rendezvous after he apologized. She didn't want to fall back into that cycle. Seeing his face sometimes bothers her. Blocking him doesn't mean that she doesn't do her snooping around. Burner accounts come in handy. She still follows Teala also, which means she's seen the post. She's seen it on both Alex's and Niyah's page. She knows and sees that he's moved on. It hurts. The one who hurt her, healed her, and hurt her again has found his happy place. With the next two days coming up, she needs some happiness in her life. She's also happy that a chapter has closed. She finally had the clearance to move on. That's why when she gets a text from Alex it turns her world upside down.
I know what you're thinking. It's not that. Alex isn't about to hook up with her or anything. He isn't looking for the old thing back. He's worked to hard for that. In fact, Niyah told him to text Lauren. She knows it's been on his mind with the next two days coming up. It's a traumatic thing and she thinks it's unfair of her to be selfish and not let him check in with the people who went through it with him. She trust him and wants to be the best support system for him as she can possibly be. Alex was nervous about texting Lauren. He doesn't want it to reopen wounds. At the same time, everyone who went through what they did, need to stick together. He can't imagine getting through the next two days alone and he doesn't want Lauren to experience that. It's a hard situation to tackle.
Sherry and Lear are stuck. They want to be the best parents that they can at this time. That's difficult though. They've only known these kids for less than a year. They just adopted them less than a year ago and wasn't there when the situation happened. They're still learning what the kids like and are actually like. They don't know how their going to react these next two days. They also don't know how to help them get through it, but they going to have to figure it out. As their parents they have to figure out how to work this. It's going to be hard but there's no other struggle that they would want to go through to help those kids. They've struggle so much so the stress of the next two days is the least Sherry and Lear could do.
