January 27th 2022
Chapter 27
Our Twists Around Friends
"Thank you so much for fixing her wing. She loves those things, she's been wearing them around the apartment ever since I finished them," Lauren Grayson told Maya as she held her sleeping butterfly girl.
"If you saw the look on her face when she showed up here this afternoon…" Maya nodded, smiling sympathetically to her daughter's little friend.
"You know, I try not to project the parents on to the kids, but I went to school with Adam Gray's mother, and she was just the type to do what he did today," Lauren sighed. "She was a real piece of work."
"Queen Bee?" Maya guessed.
"Regional manager for all the queens," Lauren nodded.
"Wow…" Maya chuckled and winced at once.
"Yeah. The things she'd say and do to the rest of us… Here I was, thinking that she'd grown out of that phase. Maybe she has, maybe her son just needs to learn his limits… and he's four years old… Either way, I'm not going to let this fly without talking to the school, make sure this doesn't become a habit."
"Well, you've got back up if you need it," Maya told her, even as one look to the other woman told her that high school bullies could not hold up to a mother whose kid had been upset like Winnie had.
"And I really appreciate that," Lauren nodded, reaching over to touch her arm with a smile that ran deep with her gratitude. Maya responded by raising her arm back until her hand could clasp the other woman's and give it a squeeze. We're in this together.
Watching the Graysons drive off, Maya breathed out. What little she knew of them by now was that they'd gone to her own high school, though Lauren and Adam Gray's mother had been after her time. And while she could not speak of the latter's trajectory in life, the former had seen her trajectory altered by a lost scholarship after injury, followed by an unsuccessful and brief marriage from which Winnie had been born. Now Lauren was raising her daughter on her own, while her former husband never cared to see his daughter, never helped to provide for her in any way, leaving her to do her very best to do it all on her own. Whether she'd say it aloud or not, she didn't have to. She was struggling to keep up, but she was doing her best.
Many times, over the years, it had felt to Maya as though the universe would tend to repeat itself in some ways… to leave echoes in her path. She would look at Lauren Grayson now and she would see her own mother, couldn't help it… Would that mean that she had taken up the position that Topanga Matthews had done, one friend in the choppy seas of School Moms? If so, then she would proudly take up the role.
History repeating felt like the theme of the night just now, thinking of the whole scene that had happened in the living room earlier. She wondered what Mr. and Mrs. Petrelis would say if they knew that not one but both of their children were to be teenaged parents. Nothing good… There was still no telling what Nika would do, whether she would raise her child or put it up for adoption. What could be known at least was that, unlike Ella and Theo, unlike… Katy and Kermit… she would have people there to support and help her, whatever her decision.
And then she thought of Theo, meeting his daughter, thought of her granddaughter meeting her father… What tended to happen when Tori met strangers happened here as well. She needed to warm up to them, and until she did, she clung to those of her family who were around her. Adding to it the fact that she was sleepy, she just stayed there in her mother's arms and held tight, even as she looked at the young man stood before them.
When Ella had told her that this was her father, Tori had stared at him for a moment, then back up to her mother like she wanted to make sure she understood right. She'd never had a father before. She'd referred to Lucas as such, when she'd been saying her first words, because how could she not assume it back then? They'd all done their best to gently course correct her, until he'd taken up his rightful place as Pappy Luke. Now here was this new person, and she was being told that he was her dad, and that was all good and fine, but she still didn't know him.
Theo handled himself very well. He didn't insist too much, didn't try and do anything like pick her up when she clearly wasn't ready for it. But he spoke to her, told her how happy he was to meet her, asked her if she had a good time for Halloween today… He still looked like his heart was about to beat out of his chest, and maybe like he was about to cry, but he kept himself together, for the sake of his little daughter. He'd gotten to meet her, and that was already a big step.
By the time he and his sister would head out for the night, Theo would have the address to Ella's apartment, as she would have his, along with a promise to get together again from time to time, allowing Tori to warm up to these strangers who were family. Like the day in the mall, with the exchange of numbers, once the Petrelis siblings were gone, Ella looked like she needed to let out such a breath. This had been a major step for her, but it had felt like the right one, and it had gone about as well as it ever could. She'd turned to her parents, and they'd said as much as she'd reached for them and been embraced by them.
With the games ended and costume contest awards given out, the remaining guests, the friends and family, all retreated into the house to finish out their Halloween night. It was by no means the mad press of their college days' parties, and maybe it was just that they weren't kids anymore but… this was good, this was just what they needed right about now. Actually, because they were still very much on Triplet O'Clock, Maya and Lucas eventually left the party in the hands of their friends, trusting that they would see everyone out and close up on their way out.
Riley and Dylan had already taken off with their trio of little Orlandos, so when they walked into the nursery, they came upon the babysitting grandfather for the night, peacefully sitting in the rocking chair, working at crosswords by the glow of a night light, while his little great granddaughters all slept in their cribs. He looked up when he saw his granddaughter and her husband in the door. Maya signaled to keep quiet a moment while they came in and got a look at the girls. They had been changed out of their costumes by now, which would be just as well for the next time they'd wake and need feeding or changing. All through the day, since they'd been put in their costumes, Maya had kept doing her best to ensure they wouldn't end up ruined by some stain or another, as though she could claim total control of that. As glad as she was that, in the end, they'd somehow managed it, she was mostly relieved that this part was behind them.
"Your first Hallowannie…" Lucas whispered, and it made Maya smile as she moved to see her grandfather out.
"You know, I'm really happy that you were here with them tonight," she told him as they went down the stairs.
"It was really no trouble at all," Tanner Clutterbucket insisted.
"No, I didn't mean it that way, I just…" Maya shook her head, searching for the words. She couldn't tell him about everything else that had happened while he'd been upstairs, how it had her reflecting on her own life, and her family's… But the fact that he could be here now, this way, as he and her grandmother had been for the past few years, might never have meant so much as it did now. "It means a lot that they have you," she finally said, and she smiled at the way his moustache twitched. He understood what she meant, and that meant a lot to him, too.
When she made her way back up the stairs, Maya came upon Lucas walking slowly up the hallway with Marianne in his arms at the commonly recognized pace of someone trying to get a child back to sleep. That in itself was a very familiar sight, though tonight it came with the bonus that he was still in his costume, and just now he had put his long cape to good use, wrapping their birthday girl in it. She had to take a picture before he noticed her, and she would absolutely be picking up her pencils to draw them this way… tomorrow, definitely not tonight.
Lucas went on walking along with Marianne even after she'd definitely fallen asleep, which Maya suspected had more to do with him being in his fatherly feelings. He needed to hold on to their little pumpkin who'd been born on one such Halloween night a whole four years ago. In that time, Maya was able to change out of her costume and go about tending to the triplets when they started to wake again. By the time she made it back to their room, Super Lucas had set aside his cape and the rest of his persona of the day in favor of sleepwear. He was sitting up on the bed, Marianne asleep on his chest.
"I don't know what she's dreaming about, but she keeps kicking me," he reported, keeping his voice quiet.
"Nowhere too painful, I hope," Maya chuckled as she turned off the lights and came to join him.
"Her legs are long enough now that she shouldn't," Lucas reassured her with a smile.
"Kind of missing those baby days when she'd still have her legs all pulled up… Good little bundle…" Maya breathed. Some days, time seemed to move so much faster, and this one was one of them, this one made the last four years feel like they'd gone in the blink of an eye. "We did alright today, yeah?" Maya asked, airing the thought aloud as it came to her. With everything that had happened tonight, it felt like they might have lost a bit of the mission in the end, the goal to give their girl a wonderful birthday…
"Do you know why she was awake earlier?" Lucas turned his head to look at her. "She wanted to go back down to the party. I think she had the best day she could have asked for."
"Good… That's really good," Maya hummed. She reached out, rubbing lightly at Marianne's back. There would come a day where she would be taller than her, they knew she would, but even if she towered over her, she would always be her little pumpkin, her Hucklebucket…
"Sixteen years…" Lucas whispered, and she turned a new smile up to him. Yes, it had been that. And then in the morning… That time moved so fast, too, like she could look at him and see that boy, sixteen-years-old, actually, staring back at her like all he ever wanted to do was to kiss her.
"Half your life," Maya pointed out. "Every year now tips the scales in our favor. Mine already has more with than without. Feels pretty good, if you ask me." He laughed and she lifted her hand to his mouth before he ended up waking Marianne or the babies. His response, as she knew it would be, was to kiss her palm, and a moment later she pulled it away, so she might stretch up and meet one kiss with another. He couldn't wait to have more with than without, too.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
