Chapter 6
As always thanks for the reviews. The party chapter will include some new people from Michonne's past.
Long chapters it is folks.
The doorbell went off and I walked to open it, I see Rick, Carl and a little girl in Rick's arm she must have been Judith.
"Hey guys thanks for coming please come in." I say opening the door wide and letting them in.
"Thanks for having us over, this is Andre's present Carl picked it out for him." Rick say's as I take the present from Rick.
"No problem it's nice to have some company and I did invite you guys and who is this little cutie?" I say looking at the blond haired little girl in Rick's arm, she shy's away from me hiding her face in Rick's neck.
"This is Judith wanna say hello Judith." Rick says in a soft voice, the little girl still shy's away from me and I smile. "It's OK maybe she'll warm up to me later on in the afternoon."
"Thank you for the present, I'll make sure that Andre gets it. Its a small party with a few of Andre's friend from school. He'll be happy to see you." We walk down the hall and out the back into the small backyard covered in balloons and streamers, four kids are running around with superhero costumes on. Batman, spider man, cat woman and a ninja turtle. I see Rick smile at the kids and Carl is laughing at the costumes.
"Carl! Mr Grimes!" Andre in his ninja turtle costume says as he runs over to us, his short legs running as fast as they can. He stops in front of me his little chest puffing up in down from running.
"Hello Mr Grimes hello Carl, you guys made it." He says with a big smile. He looks at the little girl in Rick's arm. "Oh a baby, whats her name?" Andre asks politely. Rick smiles before squatting down so that Judith and Andre are at eye level. "This is Judith, why don't you say hello to Andre, Judith." Judith looks at Andre hard before waving at him and Andre does the same. He turns to me with a big smile.
"She said hello momma." He says to me that big smile still on his face.
"She sure did sweetie."
"Andre! are you coming?" The cat woman calls to him.
"Yeah! Carl, come play with us. You can be the baddie." Andre says walking to Carl and taking his hand walking to his friends.
"Why do I gotta be the baddie?" He ask being dragged away.
"Cause you don't have a costume, so that's why." Andre says finally. He turns to me for help and I shrug my shoulders with a smile.
"Come on I'll introduce you to the parents of the kids and some of my old friends." I say to Rick as we walk to table near the house under the shade of the tree. I introduce the kids parents to Rick and they all exchange greetings, Rick knowing some of them from high school.
"Rick this is Paul Rovia, his a friend from Atlanta. I call him Jesus on the account of the way he looks." I say to him. Rick turns to me eyebrow raised. "It's a nickname since college, with the beard and hair..." I drift off. Jesus looks at Rick up and down then extends his hand for a handshake.
"Nice to meet you Rick, are you gonna introduce me to this beautiful girl in your arm." He gestures to Judith. "This is Judith, wanna say hi Judith." Judith looks hard a Paul before waving.
"Aww isn't she a cutie, how old?" Jesus ask. "About six months old." Rick replies, Jesus nods his head at that. "So you know Michonne from college?" Rick asks us and before I can reply Jesus does.
"Oh yeah me and Michonne are lovers from way back." He says pulling me into his side. I see Rick's jaw tense up at that. I look at Jesus disbelieving before shrugging him off. "His kidding, on the account of him being gay." I say un-amused. Jesus is laughing at me and Rick. "Sorry, sorry I couldn't help myself." We are interrupted with Andre running to us again.
"Uncle Paul! uncle Paul! You gotta come help Carl, we need another baddie to defeat. His dead now so you gotta come and bring him back to life." He says in a rush while pulling on his arm. We turn to look at the kids and start laughing that all three of the kids are sitting on an exhausted Carl who's playing dead. Jesus runs off with Andre and the kids are playing again.
"Oh would miss Judith like some fruit to munch on." I say taking a seat on the bench with the other parents. Rick nod's and I fill a plate up with various fruits and place them in front of Rick. Judith looks at the plate and then at me before extending her arms out reaching for me. I look at Rick and he has his eye raised just as I do. I reach and take Judith sitting her on my lap and pull the plate with fruit towards us. Judith picks up a piece of orange and puts it in her mouth sucking at the juices and chewing quietly.
"She's a very quiet baby." I say to Rick who nods. "Yeah, she doesn't cry as much as other babies." I smile as she puts the orange back on the plate and pick up an apple ans starts chewing away.
"I'm also sorry to hear about what happened with you and Lori, divorces are never easy." I say quietly. "How did you find out about it?" Rick ask while watching Judith. "It's a small town people like to gossip, I found that out quickly when I first moved here." Rick nods saying a quiet 'yeah'.
"I hope you don't mind me asking, where's Andre's daddy?" Rick asks me quietly. I turn to him still holding Judith securely while she munches away. "He died when Andre was little, his name was Mike." My mind going back to when the police came to my house telling me that Mike had died in a car accident. I shake those thoughts away and focus on the little girl in my lap eating.
"Sorry to hear that, how did you cope with it all?" He asks me. "For awhile I didn't, my parents and friends helped me out till I found my feet again." He nods at that as Judith offers him a piece of apple to eat. He takes it between his teeth and chews it juices running down his chin. I grab a napkin close by and wipe at the juices. I look up and his staring at me with those intense blue eyes. I pull my hand back and look away as Carl drops next to his dad puffing in exhaustion.
"Where... do those kids get their energy?" He puffs out, his shirt is a grass stain mess. "Sorry Carl they might be a little hyped on sugar, see that esky over there." I point to, he nods. "Why don't you grab you and your dad something to drink." He nods and stands. "Would you like one Michonne?" He asks, I shake my head no and he nods his head and walks off to get the drinks.
"I think it's time for lunch now anyway. OK, miss Judith time to go to your daddy." I try to hand her off to Rick but she holds onto my shirt tight. I try once again but she holds on starting to get fussy.
"She's a stubborn little thing isn't she." I say to Rick who smiles in amusement. "Do you mind helping me with the food?"
"No I don't mind." Rick says and we both walk into the house towards the kitchen. "The food is in the fridge if you can just grab the red container and blue one, I'll just grab the plates and whatnot." I say moving towards the cupboard and picking up the plates and spoons. We both walk out and Rick puts the food on the table. The other parents help out setting the food up.
"OK kids time for lunch you can play later!" I say to them, they start running over to the table and the kids go to their parents who plate them up and sit down to eat. The table is buzzing with laughter as the kids explain how they defeated Carl and Jesus. I sit with Judith still in my lap feeding her chicken pieces with Rick sitting across from us.
"Alright now that everyone has been fed, I think it's time for the cake." The kids including Andre all yelled out 'yeah'. I hand Judith off to Carl who's sitting next to me and get up to go get the cake and candles. I walk into the kitchen to get the cake from the fridge when I realized that my hands are full, as I turn around I jump up seeing Rick standing behind me.
"Rick! you scared me. Is everything alright?" I ask him. "I came in to see if you needed help with the cake." He says lifting the cake from my arms. "Thanks, I'm glad you did I need to get the candles can you just wait a sec so I can grab them." I move off to the cupboard and grabbing the candles for the cake.
"OK, thanks let's go." He nods and follows behind me as we make our way out to the back and get the cake ready, Rick and I get the candle's ready on top the cake and light them in front of Andre. "OK, guys gather around, time for cake." I say to the kids as they shuffle closer to Andre who's getting ready to blow out his candle.
All of the adults and children start singing 'happy birthday' to Andre and as we finish singing. "Alright baby make a wish." I say to Andre, he takes a deep breath closing his and thinking then blows out all the candles in one go. We all cheer around him and his smiling wide looking at me. I pick up the knife ready to cut the cake when Andre stops me.
"Momma can I cut the cake please and give it to my friends?" He asks and I nod at him smiling. I hold the knife as he cuts the cake all the way to the bottom. "Andre you have to kiss the nearest girl cause you cut the cake all they way to the bottom." Rick says to the Andre who looks up at him. Without missing a beat he kisses my cheek. "There Mr Grimes I kissed the most prettiest girl, my momma." He says smiling wide at me and Rick. I look to Rick who's smiling at Andre and me.
I plate up the slices of cake and Andre hands them out. We all sit around the table eating the cake when I notice that all the children are rubbing their eyes. 'They all must be coming down from their sugar high from earlier today' I think to myself. The sun is starting to set when we finished unwrapping all of Andre's present.
"Michonne, I think it's time we get Katie home." Says Sarah holding the little girl in her arms, I look and she is sleeping and drooling on her shoulder. "Yeah that's fine and thanks for coming to the party." I smile at her, I walk her and her husband Luke to the door thanking them again for coming and saying goodbye.
The other parents start to leave with their children until I am left with Carl, Rick, Judith, Jesus and Andre still chatting away at the table. I walk back into the backyard and Andre walks over to me rubbing his eyes."Momma." Andre says to me as I pick him up holding him on my chest rocking him side to side. "Yes peanut?" He looks at me with tired eyes. "I wanna say thank you momma for giving me a great birthday." He leans up and kisses my cheek. I smooth his little Afro back and kiss him on the top of his head. "You are most welcome peanut." He turns his little head towards Rick and Carl.
"Mr Grimes and Carl thank you for coming as well." He says still rubbing his eyes and yawning. "It was a pleasure to come Andre." Rick says softly to the little boy. Night has descended on us now and I am feeling the drain of the day. "Hey Mich you wanna put him down to sleep." Jesus whispers to me while looking at Andre sleeping against my chest. I nod and whisper to him I'll only be ten minutes, by the time I change Andre into his pajamas and put him into bed with his night light on leaving the door open for him. The outside is cleared up with the exceptions of the party decorations, Carl and Judith are sitting at the table the little girl asleep in his arms Carl rubbing her back. I see Rick and Jesus come around the corner where the bins are chatting away.
"You guys didn't have to help clean up." I say to them. Jesus and Rick shake their heads at me. "It was no problem Michonne we wanted to help as thanks for inviting us, though we should be getting home now." Rick says as her gestures to the sleeping infant in Carl's arms. "Oh Mich I put the food away in the fridge for you ok. I'm gonna take a bath and head off to sleep OK." Jesus says kissing me in my cheek while wondering off into the house. I walk Carl and Rick to the the front door, I open it and I watch Carl step out with Judith. "Goodnight Michonne thanks again for inviting us." Carl whispers to me and I wave to him as he take off back to their house.
Rick and I are standing there in silence for a few minutes. Rick sighs and looks at me for a second. "I wanna ask if you and Andre would like to join us for dinner on Friday if your not busy?" He finally ask.
"Sure, we would love to come if you'll have us." I say smiling at him. "Good I'll see you and Andre on Friday then." He smiles in return before leaning in and kissing my cheek. I look up at him as he walks backwards saying 'goodbye' as he turns and walks back across the street to his home. I stand there for a few minutes holding my cheek where Rick kissed me, I shake those thoughts away and head back inside.
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