"𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙉𝙚𝙚𝙣𝙨, 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙚! 𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙪𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙄'𝙡𝙡 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥. 𝙄 𝙬𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙥 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣!"
―
She's used to men running for the hills when they find out a...
"Are you okay?" Ricky whispered a few moments after they climbed into a taxi, making their way to Seb and Carlos' apartment to get Xavier.
"Not really," Nini chuckled humourlessly, running her fingers through her brown locks.
There was no point in lying this time.
She felt completely drained.
She groaned as she dropped her hands in her lap, "I completely froze in front of them. There's so much I wanted to say to them but I just.."
The brunette took a deep breath to keep her voice from breaking, "I couldn't. No matter how hard I try, I can't stand up for myself against them."
Ricky's heart broke as he listened to his girlfriend. "Hey, it's not your fault," he told her, grabbing ahold of her hand. He contemplated saying something else but decided against it, opting to ask the girl a question instead, "Do you want to go to the reception?"
Nini sighed, "I don't know to be honest. I don't want to encounter them again, but I also don't want to miss out on dancing with you."
Ricky smirked, "You're right, it'd be a tragedy if you didn't get to dance with me."
"And Xavier's been looking forward to a party ever since his birthday," Nini went on.
"Exactly! And we can't disappoint our boy, can we?"
Nini smiled, "No, we cannot."
So the couple picked up Xavier and made their way to the reception hall where they settled down at a table and had dinner. Tyler and Kayla were doing things a little out of the ordinary, choosing to serve the guests breakfast for dinner: eggs, bacon, pancakes, and son. Xavier was especially excited to be eating all of this food that was supposed to be served during the morning for the first time in his life. It was like this was the greatest thing he'd ever experienced.
Then it was time to dance. The bride and groom made their way to the centre of the dance floor as everyone watched them from their seats. Nini leaned her head on Ricky's shoulder, playing with his fingers as she imagined what their first dance as husband and wife would look like.
Ricky whispering sweet nothings in her ear as she hid her face in his chest wondering how she got so lucky. Her family and friends all watching her with tears in their eyes, Xavier watching them with the biggest smile on his face knowing that his dreams of having a father have officially come true.
She can't wait for that day.
Soon enough, some guests gravitated toward the dance floor too, the small family just watching from afar before they decided to dance as well.
They danced together as a trio for a while, Ricky taking turns twirling Xavier and Nini before a little girl came up to them and shyly asked the little boy if he wanted to dance with and her brother.
Xavier looked to his mom for approval who just nodded eagerly.
As soon as the kids ran away, Nini draped her arms around Ricky's neck as a slow song started playing. "He's gone off with the little girl to dance with the other kids. He's holding her hands, they look so cute!" she gushed, glancing at Xavier behind Ricky's back, beaming.
Ricky smirked, leaning down, "Well then while he's off having fun with his little girlfriend, maybe I could have some fun with my own."
"Oh?" She spoke against his lips.
He didn't reply, instead opting to kiss her as they both enjoyed their quiet moment.
Xavier stayed close enough throughout the evening, hanging out with the other kids and coming back to their table whenever he was thirsty or hungry.
Towards the end of the night, he was seated in Ricky's lap on the verge of falling asleep, sucking on the older man's thumb when Nini excused herself.
"Where are you going?" Ricky asked quietly.
"I'm just going to the bathroom real quick. I'll be right back," she smiled, pecking his lips before briskly making her way through the hall, exciting through big glass doors into the foyer where the bathrooms were located.
She did her business and took a few seconds longer than necessary to breathe. Things were going good so far, she had spoken to a few of her relatives and none of them had even mentioned the fact that she was MIA for three years. One of her aunts did ask about her little boy, but it wasn't in a judgemental sort of way, not at all. She genuinely wanted to know how he was and was all smiles when NIni showed her a few pictures of him on her phone.
She was washing her hands as she thought about what it would be like to run into one of her mothers again or god forbid, her lola.
Nini stiffened when she glanced in the mirror and caught her lola's reflection as she came out from one of the stalls. Malou seemed just as surprised to see her granddaughter standing there. For a suffocating moment, neither of them said anything. Then taking a deep breath, Nini spun on her heels to face the woman that'd told her to abort her son when she last saw her.
They both opened their mouths to speak, but since the girl didn't actually have anything planned to say, she let her lola have the floor.
"Can we talk?" the older woman asked gently.
Nini scoffed, "About what? The fact that you told me to abort my son when he was merely three weeks old in my womb? Or the fact that you called me a whore for falling pregnant at sixteen as if I planned for it to happen to me?"
"I'm sorry."
She laughed heavily, throwing her hands up in the air, "You're sorry? After three years of isolating me from everyone all you have to say is 'I'm sorry'?! You know what? I don't want to hear it. The last three years have been the best of my life. Giving birth to that little boy may have caused me a lot of grief, but it also gave me something I never had before him. True happiness, and it showed me the people who are truly my family. I don't need you, or Dana, or Carol. I have my friends, I have Hailey, I finally have my brothers back and I also have my beautiful baby boy and an amazing boyfriend who loves him just as much as I do.
"So I'm not interested in a word you have to say to me about 'being sorry' or 'making a mistake' because you did. You made a big fucking mistake and I'm not going to let you fix it. I don't want you in my life and I certainly don't need you in my life. I've made a home without you and those bitches you call your daughter and daughter-in-law. Goodbye." Nini finishes off, waving sarcastically with a wide smile on her face as she excited the bathroom.
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hi!! long time no see lol, i'm so sorry for the long break, i just haven't really been feeling inspired/in the mood to write in quite a while and add on the fact that i'm struggling to find the time... you get the idea.
but i'm so proud of this update and so proud of nini for standing her ground with lola ahhh
