A Missed Opportunity

32

✧𝙽𝚘𝚊𝚑✧

It's my son's birthday party. His birthday was Thursday and me, him, and his mom had dinner together, but he refused to acknowledge that day as his birthday. He thought it'd be more fun to act like the day of his party was his actual birthday. We didn't stop him.

Today isn't just his birthday though, it's the first birthday I'm spending with him. I can't help but think about how his eighth birthday shouldn't be the first time for us. I still stand by what I keep telling Kiara. I'm not mad at her for this. I can't be mad at her for making her own judgement call that wasn't even that off about me. Even still, I'm a little upset today. Just because almost everyone here knows this is our first time being together for a birthday.

I try blocking that out though, distracting myself with the fact that Cameron is ecstatic to have his new friends from school to play with outside of the school. He's also excited to show me all of said friends and the weird shit they have all apparently learned to do while at school. One of them can do a backflip.

I should mention that in eight-year-old terms, a backflip is doing a summersault. I think they might've mixed those two up.

As soon as my son decides to attempt the summersault himself on the gross carpet that thousands of kids have probably hurled on, I rush over to scoop him up and throw him around a little to try and distract him from the fact that I just cut off his summersault that could end up breaking his neck. Kiara presses a relived hand to her chest from afar when I glance at her. She didn't want him down on the gross ground like that either.

I expect him to run off again once he's back down on the ground, but he pauses and looks towards the tables we have with balloons and black and yellow plastic tablecloths. His eyes get wider when he notices someone and turns to start running over. "Katie!" He beams. I chuckle as I watch them both run up to each other, Katie already showing him a stuffed turtle she's got. I follow him over just to say hi to my aunt who is already opening her arms expectantly.

"Nugget!" Aunt Jenny calls as I come closer. I sigh at the name she uses in front of everybody but find it in me to let her call me it.

"Hi, Auntie." I dryly return as I let her tuck herself under my arm for a better hug than the side hug I give her.

"Aw, look at them. It's like they're actually related or something." She hums as she looks over at Cameron and Katie. He's already leading her over to his group of friends so she can play with them. "Okay, where are your grandparents?" She asks as she pulls away from me to look around. "Mom owes me twenty bucks." She hums.

I frown. "She's, like, eighty, Auntie."

"And? She lost a bet, and it's time to pay up." She scoffs, stubbornly crossing her arms while she scans around. I roll my eyes at that while I wait for her to realize they're not here yet. "If she didn't want her funds to run out, then she shouldn't have betted on a horse she knew would lose." She reasons.

"You're an asshole." I dismiss, shaking my head as I offer my hand for the giftbag in her hand. She hands it off to me, absently reaching up to pull her sunglasses off her face and up to rest on the top of her head.

"Whatever." She dismisses me carelessly. "They're not here, so show me to the birthday boy's mom."

"Right there." I nod towards Kiara who sits beside Aaliyah and Alex while I walk away from my aunt to go put her present down with the others. She's loud as she hurries over to excitedly say hi.

More excited than she was for me, that's for sure. What a little jerk.

Once I've dropped the present down beside the others, I join that little group at the tables where Aunt Jenny is already squeezing her way in between Aaliyah and Alex. Alex knows the drill by now and scoots away at the last second before she ends up sitting on one of them. She truly does not give a shit.