This is a one-shot that sequels off of IWALY. You don't have to have read "I Will Always Love You" to understand this, it's just a one-shot. It's the first time that I've ever written a story on my phone so I'm sorry for any errors. I also wrote this at 1am well texting so friends so I'm sorry for any grammatical or tense errors. For some reason I always switch back and forth between present and past tense (same with 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person) unless I really concentrate. Sorry. So without further ado:
Happy Birthday
"Ellen, wake up," I whisper softly. She fidgets a little in bed before burrowing down deeper, like a cute little mole, blocking out both my voice and the sunlight. "Ellen baby, wake up." Again my pleas are left ignored and she continues to snore lightly, face first, against the pillow. For a moment I'm nervous she might suffocate from lack of oxygen.
"Hey babe, I got this," whispers Jade in my ear. Even now I still get shivers down my spine when she whispers to me. It reminds me of all those nights she'd whisper sweet nothings in my ear as I came down from another brilliant climax, even better than the last.
I see my beautiful wife silently tip-toe towards the figure of our sleeping daughter. Carefully, she lifts a pair of super-sharp, metal scissors off the night stand that I had tried to convince her not to buy Ellen last Christmas. Of course, she didn't listen and gave them to her anyways. A horrible thought runs through my head of Jade beheading our daughter or cutting off all her hair, but the idea is soon silenced. Jade is a great many things, but she loves Ellen with all her heart. Quickly, the sound of the two sharp scissor blades snapping together erupts around the room and Ellen wakes with a start. I chuckle. Of course the sound of scissors wakes her up. Like mother, like daughter. Jade sends me a smirk before getting down on one knee and facing Ellen.
"Hey baby, Happy Birthday," I say quietly, grabbing her petite hand and holding it in mine.
"Mornin' Mom," she says with a yawn. "Mornin' Mommy." In my head it always seems weird that Ellen refers to me as 'mom' and Jade as 'mommy.' Jade is hardly 'mommy' material, that's more me, but yet Ellen takes more after Jade so she thinks of her more as mommy.
"Hey darling, we've got my famous chocolate chip pancakes and a bunch of presents waiting downstairs for you," says Jade excitedly.
Ellen's eyes light up at the word presents as she quickly throws off the covers. I laugh. I swear, she'd sell me and Jade over to some slavers in Africa if they promised her chocolate chip pancakes and presents.
Slowly, both Jade and I follow our little bullet downstairs. By the time we reach her she already has a stack of pancakes on a plate beside her and she is on the floor, eagerly waiting to open the small amount of presents.
I laugh. "Not yet sweetheart. You have to wait until later," I say. Her smile instantly droops and my mothering side feels really bad.
Jade quickly steps in, "You have to wait because we're having a party later today and you're going to get even more presents! A few of your friends will be there, and don't you want to gloat to all of your friends about what amazing gifts you received and rub it in their faces by opening them right in front of them?" The idea of gloating and more presents so clearly makes Ellen extraneously happy and she smiles a huge, wide grin and shoves a pancake into her mouth.
Mouth full of pre-chewed disgustingness she replies, "Yay!"
"After you finish eating why don't you go get dressed in your bathing suit so that when all the people come they see how gorgeous you are?" Jade coaxes. Ellen nods eagerly, scarfs down her pancakes like a starving wolf, and bounds back upstairs to get changed.
An astounded smile crosses my face, "I never understood how you could make her do whatever you want," I say, stupefied.
"Well I can't help it if my amazingly good looks and charming personality make me SUCH good role model material that our daughter can't resist following through on my every whim," Jade crows in glory.
I attempt to tackle the ego right out of her as I begin a tickle war against her tummy. "Quiet you!" I continue to tickle her as she screams out in protest. I don't let up until I ask, "Do you give in?"
And she responds, "Yes!" I smile in triumph and give her a sweet peck on the lips. Soon it becomes a heated make-out session, and even though I know Ellen could come down at any moment I just can't resist that sweet coffee and mint flavor.
All too soon the kiss is cut off by the pester-some sound of out doorbell. I quickly roll off of her, give her another chaste kiss, and get up. As soon as I'm on two feet I offer my hand to Jade. Her soft, pale hand takes my peace offering and yanks me back down to the floor. In a flash she's back up and running to get the door, yelling an out-of-breath, "Coming!" A smile breaches my face as I get up, wipe the dirt off my clothes, and follow Jade to see who it is. I'll get he back later. I'll make her wait until she's begging for me to enter her and i'll take my sweet time making her come. Hah!
"Hey Jadey!" I hear the all-too familiar voice we hear every weekend from playdates between Ellen and Einstein. I rush to the door to give my old ex a giant hug.
"Hey Cat," I say enthusiastically. I quickly cut off our embrace to give her husband, Robbie, a hug and ruffle Einstein's hair in greeting.
"Where should I put Ellen's gift?" Robbie asks in a chipper voice. He motions to the small gift he's holding in his hands.
"It's asuper lucky jersey that saved my life once," inserts Einstein with that quirky fact.
"Right over here Robbie," I say, leading him over to a small table soon to be filled with gifts. "Ellen will be right down."
"Ellen! Aunt Cat, Uncle Robbie, and Einstein are here," yelled Jade. The sound of fast-moving feet echoed through the corridors, signaling that Ellen had heard and was coming. Oddly enough, Einstein, who very much takes after his father, is considered 'cool' to Ellen, unlike Robbie ever was in Jade's opinion. He is practically her best friend, and for that I'm thankful. He's a good influence.
"Hey Ein," said Ellen enthusiastically. "There are chocolate-chip pancakes in the kitchen!" She grabs Einstein's hand and drags him to the kitchen. Only saying hello to Cat and Robbie as an afterthought.
"Oh my God, chocolate chips pancakes! Jade can I...?" Cat asks, shooting her a hesitant look.
Jade smiles graciously, "All her friends like pancakes, that's what I made the entree for everybody, so help yourself."
Cat squeals eagerly, gives Jade a platonic kiss on the cheek, and runs over to grab some pancakes. I laugh. Cat will never grow up.
"You seriously made chocolate chip pancakes the entree?" Robbie asks skeptically. My bodacious goth nods her head.
"Sounds strange, huh?"Jade asks with a chuckle. Robbie nods his head in confirmation. Now, back in high school I would've been scared for Robbie's personal safety at this point, but by now he and Jade were actually fairly close friends. "Come on you dork," she nudges him towards the kitchen.
About twenty minutes later the doorbell rings again and Mary, Jade's friend from first grade, appears on our doorstep with her mother, our good friend Sam Benson and her husband Freddie.
"Hey Mary," I say, kneeling down and taking the present from her hands. "Ellen and Einstein are in the kitchen." In her bathing suit, Sam hands Mary her towel, and the young girl runs off to join her friends.
Soon enough Michelle (Faye and Diana's daughter), Renesme (Bella and Edward's daughter), Alyssa (Spencer and Ashley's daughter), Jake (Kat and Vincent's daughter),Meghan (Oliver and Helena's daughter), and Elvis (Andrè and Aria's daughter named after the king) had arrived and all the kids were in the pool. Only waiting on one person.
"Howdy," a voice calls. Last person. In saunters Beck with his new, second wife Jane. They really are a perfect couple. I never liked that bitch Alyssa Vaughn he married first, Jane is a nice, humble, down to earth girl. Most importantly, she isn't in the industry like Alyssa was. Their son Tony follows in closely behind them. Cute kid, looks a lot like Alyssa.
"Hey Tony," I say nicely.
"Hey Aunt Tori," he replies kindly. "Where's my sister?" I smile. It's so weird. Back when Jade and I wanted a kid Beck was the only guy we really trusted. Well, there was André but he was too weird to ask to donate some sperm to create our child. So we asked Beck to jack off into a jar, we took the semen, mixed it with mine and Jade's, and Ellen was created. Neither of us hide Ellen's parentage from either her or Tony, so they automatically think of each other as half siblings.
"In the pool with all the other kids," I reply. I take the present from his hands and he runs off to join all the other kids.
"Nice to see you again, Tori,"says Jane with a gracious smile. We shake hands and then I give Beck a hug.
"Hey ya'll, how's it going?"
"The works, ya know," says Beck nonchalantly.
"Are you kidding?" Jane turns to Beck in a playfully-disbelieving way. She turns back to me. "This amazing man just got contracted to do the newest Hunger Games movie as Finnick!"
I can tell Beck is trying to play it off as nothing but you'd have to be stupid to think that's nothing. "Oh My God!"I give him another squealing hug. "That's amazing! You're saying yes!"
Beck laughs. "Yeah, it's a role of a lifetime. I'm fairly confident in my decision."
"Sweet! You HAVE to tell Jade! She'll be so happy for you. And Cat might just love that character more than her own husband, you have to tell them!"
"Yeah, of course," says Beck. I lead him into the kitchen to watch the kids play in the water as the adults drink wine, eat pancakes, and talk.
About two hours later I'd mingled with everyone at least twice and it was time to bring out the cookie cake.
Quickly, I mumbled to Jade to go grab it from the fridge with me. In no time we's stuck the six candles in and we were lifting it up and out onto the patio.
"Happy Birthday to you," Jade and I start to sing. "Happy Birthday to you." The rest of the parents and children join in. "Happy Birthday dear Ellen!" A giant grin lights up our soaking wet daughter's face. "Happy Birthday to you!" She hurries out of the pool, wraps her towel around her, and runs over to us. We set the cake down and she gives both of us a quick, wet hug before blowing out the candles.
As Ellen eats her cake and opens her presents (so far a lucky jersey, a pair of scissors, a cool black T-Shirt with her favorite band on it, a friendship bracelet, a how-to-make-fireworks manual, and a book she'd been wanting full of pictures of different diseases and other doctor-death stuff) I can't help but reflect about how awesome life is. Cat's a world famous singer whose constantly supported by her husband Robbie. André is a famous musician and producer with a lovely wife who's a best selling author. Beck is an amazing actor, most known for playing 'Beck' in Jade's movie "I Will Always Love You" about losing her memory. Jade has an Academy Award winning movie with another on the way. I'm a proud Top 10 Artist who recently came out with a new single with Ed Sheeran. I have a beautiful daughter who just turned six, she has an amazing voice, a passion in writing and science,and spectacular friends. The world is as it should be. How could things get better?