Only The Beginning

Chapter 4 (For The First Time)

Hey guys! I'm trying to update as regularly as I can. I'm really hoping you guys are liking the story so far. Enjoy!

The next morning I woke up, I reached over to see if Riley was there but his side of the bed was cold. He was up already and has been for a while. I leaned over and checked my phone. No notifications. Of course no one calls me anymore since I started dating my husband. Every one stopped talking to me because there was always an issue with Riley whenever I went out with my friends. I understand that, it gets kind of lonely sometimes only having my kids to talk to.
"Mommy, mommy, I ready to eat." I hear Logan's little feet running from her room into the kitchen. I groan and get up to get ready for the day. I use the potty, brush my hair as best as I can and put on some dark blue jeans, with a white shirt that says 'BOSS'. I head into the kids room, after I connect my iPhone to my Bluetooth speaker, to get them ready for the day too. Lance is still asleep when I walk in the room, I shake my head wondering how he sleeps through his sister's loud noises. I hear Logan in the kitchen cabinets trying to find something to eat so I run straight to where she is and decide to just make her some eggs. Logan and Lance absolutely LOVE eggs. Once Logan is taken care of I go back to the kid's room to finish getting out their clothes.
Leanne finally wakes up after I have done Logan's hair, brushed her teeth, let her use the potty, and got her dressed and ready to go out the door. Lance took a lot less work since all I had to do was feed him eggs, change his diaper, and put on his clothes for the day. I don't have school today considering I've already taken my finals and its Friday morning. I refuse to ever take classes on a Friday, that's unethical. The kids are going to daycare still tho because between school, work, and the babies I haven't had a break in over two months.
I dropped the kids off at school and I head to the mall. The mall, Target, and Walmart are my happy places. I go into Claire's first since I work here. I'm the Assistant Manager at this store, so when I walk in I am greeted by the new sales associates that we have. I wave hi to them and search for a pack of earrings and cute headbands for Logan. She's only two but she has almost just as much hair as I do and it's super curly, I hate just putting it in ponytails or braiding it so I thought headbands would be a change for her.
"Hey Lira, what are you doing today?" My manager and best friend Briara (Bree-Air-Uh) says startling me.
"Hey dude, you scared the crap out of me. I'm here to get headbands and earrings for Logan."
She looks at me and frowns. "Where is Riley? Isn't he off today too?"
"I actually don't know where he is right now, he was gone before the babies and I woke this morning." I state matter of factly, while shrugging.
"I'm going to kill that guy, I swear." At this point Bri is pissed off on my behalf.
"At this point I'm not even bothered Bri." I said going back to looking through the millions of pairs of earrings we have. Someone really needs to reorganize the earring trees, I know it's going to be me tho, I'm the earring tree queen. No one in the company does trees like me.
"That in itself is a problem Lee-Lee. He shouldn't be leaving without saying something to you. I hate the way he seems to be so cold to you these days. He used to be so different. When you guys first got together he made sure that a smile was on your face all the time and he hated being away from you. And I will cut your lips off if you try to defend him or say things changed because of the babies. If anything the kids should have made him love you even more since you were strong enough to undergo two c-sections in two years." She is breathless by the time she is finished.
Once Bri gets started its kind of hard to get her to stop, especially when it's about someone she loves.
"Bri calm down, aren't you off soon? Don't you want to hang out with one of your favorite people ever?" Trying to take her mind off Riley. I'm trying to keep myself from getting upset and sad about it too. I know everything has changed but at this point I've done everything I could have to try and make it work. I've tried counseling, praying, fasting, trying to have sex everyday for a week, going on dates, he just doesn't see,pm to want to do this anymore.
"Yeah I'm off in like 30 minutes, can you wait for me downstairs in the food court -"
"At a table in front of Panda Express." I finish for her while rolling my eyes. "Yes, Bri I will be in the same place I always am when I wait for you."
"Cool dude, are you going to get those earrings and those headbands?" She points to the Trolls earrings and headbands that are in Dept. 3 right next to Claire's Club. I hadn't even seen those in the wall. How did I miss that?!
"I'm definitely getting those! They're so cute and she's going to love them!" At this point I'm lit because Logan is going to completely freak when she sees them. I buy the earrings and headbands and head down to the food court. I get in the Panda Express line, I might as well grab something since it's 11am. There's no harm in eating an early lunch. I get closer to the front of the line and decide I might as well order Bri's food too. She's the only friend that I really have left besides my friend Erie from high school, but she just had a new baby so she's been cooped up in the house her whole pregnant. It was pretty funny seeing her so frustrated with being pregnant. Bri's been there through absolutely everything and she's the only one that knows what is going on with Riley and me.
I get our food, two plates of half rice, half noodles with double orange chicken, and a small box of honey walnut shrimp. Hey, we may or may not eat a lot. Okay, let's be honest Bri and I eat wayyyy too much, but we couldn't care less. I go and sit in the booth that we always sit at and I start eating. Someone clears their throat and I look up to see Mario standing there with a smirk on his lips and a little girl that looks about five holding on to his hand.
"You're sure hungry aren't you?" He's almost laughing now, and it makes me laugh.
"How did you guess? Was it the fact that I was shoving food in my mouth, or was it the mountain of food you see before me?" Sarcasm dripping from my every word.
"A little bit of both. Don't worry tho, you're still beautiful even while stuffing your face." He's laughing even harder now, clearly proud of himself and enjoying bothering me.
"Well thank you sir." I say slightly embarrassed, but I continue, "Who is this beautiful little girl?" I ask, turning my attention to her.
"This is Lylah, my daughter." That explains why she looks so much like him. Brown curly hair, deep coffee colored eyes, and perfect brown skin. He looks so proud to claim her, and I smile widely at them.
"Well Ms. Lylah, you are absolutely stunning!" I tell her and she smiles brightly and comes to sit next to me.
"Daddy I like her, she tells me I'm pretty, but she is super pretty." Lylah says looking at her dad with her big brown eyes. Mario fixes his mouth to reply but he's cut off by Bri calling my name.
Oh great. Here we go.