One and Done: A Collection of One-Shots

Daddy

"Mama," came a small voice from the back seat.

"Yes, Oliver," I replied.

"When we be at grandmas?"

I smiled at my son's question. Oliver Noah Brown turns five years old tomorrow. He's so excited for his birthday party that his grandmother is hosting. All his preschool friends are coming. He's never had a party like this before. In the past we've only done a family dinner with a cake. But seeing as this is a milestone birthday it needed to be special. The only problem with that was I was a single mom struggling to make ends meet. Thankfully my parents were understanding and supportive.

They hadn't always been that way though. Oliver was conceived when I was eighteen. Fresh out of high school and dreaming of college. His father was older than me by a few years and took off for California before I could even tell him about Oli. I didn't reach out or tell him about his son because he left to find himself. Which meant I wasn't enough to keep him here.

Elijah Gram is my brother's best friend. He was also my first crush. When I was five, I walked right up to his seven-year-old self and told him I was going to marry him one day. He laughed at me, and it should have been a foreshadowing I should have paid attention to.

When I was sixteen, he found me outside at a high school party crying. He asked me what was wrong, and I told him about how I had just caught my boyfriend with a cheerleader. It took everything in me to keep him rooted next tom me and not hunting down my ex.

That was the first time he kissed me. It was simple and sweet. Just a little something to make me feel better. After that he would casually flirt with me if no one was around or if he didn't have a girlfriend. I always hated when he was dating someone else. HIs whole demeaner would change and I wouldn't exist until they broke up.

Looking back on it our history is very toxic.

On my eighteenth birthday he asked me to be his girlfriend. It came completely out of the blue, but I readily agreed. We kept it quiet because my brother would beat him bloody if he knew what we were up to.

We were together three months before I came home to my brother handing me a card. I gave him a confused look and he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Inside the envelope was a simple index card that just said, "I'm Sorry."

When I asked Tatum where it came from, he told me Elijah asked him to give it to me when he dropped him off at the airport. One week later I found out I was pregnant.

My parents scolded me at first. Just for simply not being more careful. By the time for the first ultrasound, they were over it. They converted the guest bedroom into a nursery and to this day Oli still has that room. It's changed over the years as he rows but it's still his room.

Oliver and I moved out of my parents' house into our small two-bedroom apartment when he was two. I took online classes and worked a parttime job until I got my nursing degree.

"Almost there, buddy," I replied with a glance up to the rear-view mirror to check on him.

"Oh! good! I want caked!"

I chuckled at his enthusiasm. The boy loved sweets. He's the spitting image of his father light sandy hair, brown eyes, and same nose. I find it hard sometimes to find myself in him. HIs personality reminds me of Elijah too, even though he's never met the man.

I pull into my parent's driveway and snicker at the way some of the cars were parked on the lawn. My mother must not have been out here to see them because she would pitch a fit.

"All right, Oli-pop," I say as I'm taking off my seat belt. "What are the rules?"

"Stay in the back yard," he recited, "ask before taking, no hitting, no name calling annnnnnd..."