Roses at Midnight 4
"Primrose?!" she rushed into the house, not bothering to knock as she looked around franitically for her adopted daughter, "Primrose?!"
"Miss Nikki!" the little girl jumped off of her father's lap, running to her hug her legs and bury her face in the fabric of her jeans, "Miss Nikki, guess what?!"
"What, dear?" she touched the brunette's head lovingly, planting a relieved kiss on the top of it while keeping her eyes on her male parent.
"We went to the lake, and Uncle let me feed the ducks, and Auntie bought me some cotton candy!" she crowed happily, her big, blue, innocent eyes shining brightly with love for her aunt and uncle and joy over the fun morning and afternoon she'd had.
"That's wonderful, dear," she replied, scooping her up and looking to her dad, "thank you for watching her."
He nodded once, pretty icily to his child, before smiling warmly to her daughter. Prim giggled and waved as she was carried out, not seeming to register that her mother was trying her hardest not to run.
I have got to find another babysitter...she was tapping numbers on her phone, running her hand through her tangled brown curls as her eyes darted around the various pieces of paper she'd printed out.
She had left Prim with their regular babysitter, but that babysitter texted her on the way to the studio, about halfway, telling her that he got call-back for his band and that he was quitting because of it. Since she knew it would be too late to take her adopted daughter with her, she was pretty much forced to call her parents to look after her.
And that was only because she was desperate.
"I wonder what was wrong with Nikki," Carlos wondered openly as he popped the can to a soda, chugging it down and kicking back as he did so.
"Who knows? Maybe it was home trouble," Logan barely glanced up and didn't stop with his math homework...rather, their math homework, since he was trying to help James.
"All I know is that I never got a number," James swiped his lucky comb through his hair, "and I have to be ready next time I see."
Kendall was silent. Jo had broken his heart, yes...and he kind of had an eye for a certain girl named Lucy. But now that he'd met Nikki...he was starting to have second guesses on all his feelings.
What am I thinking? Let James try and have her...it's not like I need love anyway, that was what his mind said.
But his heart didn't agree.
Young Primrose was worried about her mother. She seemed angry as they got back to their home, and she wouldn't talk to her either. So of course the young blue-eyed child was curious and concerned for the women who pretty much saved her life.
As she walked towards the study, she suddenly saw a box in the hallway. It looked dusty and old, and by the way the lid was half off, someone had been looking through it. Getting on her knees, she pulled out a couple of pictures and smiled. It was Nikki when she was younger, looking happy with her parents.
And then she came across a picture that changed everything.
Oh my gosh,...the young women snatched the picture from her adopted child's small hands, "Prim, go play in your room."
"But Miss Nikki, who is...?"
"I said go play, Primrose!" she all but yelled, and the small seven-year-old quickly ran out, looking terrified and teary.
I'll feel guilty about that later...she thought as she sat in the chair, slumping a bit as she stared at the one picture from her dark, gloomy past she couldn't bear to throw away.
The memory replied as cleary as if it had happened yesterday...
6-year-old Nikki was bouncing with excitement. Her curls were bouncy and professional looking, her make-up made her look like a real star, and the dress was flawless. She was finally what she'd wanted to be for four years running: Belle, from the Beauty and the Beast. She was never more happy to be dressed up like her idol for Hallowween, and her dad was even dressed up like the Beast, which made her giggle.
She didn't know it at the time, but this was pretty much the only happy time she'd have been her and her parents.
Her little sister, Amy, was also a princess. She was being Cinderella, with her brown-blonde hair high in a bun and a beautiful blue dress on her small body. She was only four at the time, but she was absoutely gorgeous in her older sister's eyes and cute in others'.
"You look amazing," the older sister commented, taking her white-gloved small hand and twirling her a bit, making the younger giggle loudly.
"But you look beautiful," she wobbled a bit from the dizziness, her soft brown eyes shining like the stars to her single, biggest idiol, "I wish I looked more like you."
"No, I wish I looked like you, Cinderella," Nikki cooed, tapping her small nose lovingly and looping her arm with her arms, "Daddy-I mean, Beast...let us hit the town."
Both small girls giggled at their royal tones as they followed their father, and their mother was content for the moment...she actually smiled as the three members of her family left.
"Cinderella..." a lone tear slipped off of her face and feel onto the picture of her sister, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you..."
Pressing her forehead to the glossy print, the young women began to sob softly, only faintly aware that her adopted daughter was watching noiselessly and solemly from the doorway.