Chapter 9
She was having the worst day of her life.
From the moment her alarm went off –Nalani hadn't gotten much sleep as usual-, her day from hell began by stubbing her toe on the dresser. She literally had to bite her tongue and hoped she hadn't pierced it because the twins were still sleeping. It was Tuesday, one of Keela's days off, so she had to get up extra early to make the twins breakfast before dropping them off at daycare.
"MOTHER FUCKER!" Nalani screamed as soon as she'd started the shower, muffling the sound as she hobbled over to the toilet, chancing a glance down at her foot.
Sure enough, the first three toes were already bruising and Nalani knew she'd be limping for the rest of the day. Groaning, she managed to step inside the shower, the pain in her foot throbbing forcing her to fully awaken. She'd barely gotten three hours of sleep, though Nalani was used to it by now, always staying up late at night to ponder the past.
After showering, Nalani felt a little better and ignored the pain in her foot, slipping on a simple black pencil skirt with a lavender buttoned up silk blouse that had long sleeves. She went to plug her curling iron in when something caught Nalani's eyes, causing her to groan again. Her makeup was strewn all over the place and two of the buttons on her curling iron were gone. She already knew the culprits responsible and rubbed her forehead, already feeling a headache approaching.
Once the twins woke up, things just went from bad to worse.
"Momma, where's a daddy?" Matthew had asked while they all ate breakfast Nalani made, seated at the table.
Immediately cringing, Nalani tried her best to change the subject. "Matty, how about we go over what you learned from daycare the other day, hmmm?"
Matthew frowned, shaking his head. "No." The boy wasn't going to be dissuaded easily. "We want a daddy, right Meggie?"
Megan bit her bottom lip, looking apprehensive for a three year old, looking over at her twin brother. "Yeah, where's our daddy?" She took a bite of her food, not thinking anything was wrong.
Nalani did not want to deal with this early in the morning, putting her head in her hands and tried grasping the control that was slipping away. "He's not around, you guys." She didn't know how else to put it and stood from the table, blinking tears out of her eyes.
"Why not?"
"Why momma?"
Gripping the kitchen sink, Nalani knew she had to escape the house before completely breaking down; hating that this day had already come so soon. It seemed as though they'd been born yesterday. Now they were asking about their father, knowing they'd gone to daycare and watched fathers kissing their children goodbye. Nalani didn't particularly like the daycare, though the staff was very kind and more than willing to work around her work schedule.
"Because he doesn't live anywhere near us. Now eat your breakfast." Nalani ordered, still not turning around to face her children as a few tears slipped down her cheeks.
"But…"
"But…"
"Be quiet, Matthew and Megan." She wiped the tears away and turned back to eat her breakfast, nibbling at some toast, her appetite ruined.
Once breakfast finished, it just became worse because the twins refused to comply with anything Nalani said. She picked out a purple shirt with blue jeans for Megan, who refused to get dressed. Matthew wasn't any better and tried dressing himself, only to stumble over putting his jeans on backwards and ended up flying face first into the wall. Luckily, his little hands stopped him from busting his nose, but that didn't stop a huge lump from forming on his small forehead. Nalani had to bandage him up while he screamed and carried on, making her headache turn into a pounding migraine.
By the time Nalani got them dressed in and strapped in their car seats, she was running an hour late, which annoyed her even more. It didn't help that traffic was horrendous and the twins would not stop bickering. Their incessant whining was slowly grating on Nalani's nerves as she pressed the accelerator and gas back and forth, moving very slowly while trying to get a hold of her boss at work to explain the situation.
"Stop touchin' me!"
Matthew grinned maliciously and continued poking his sister, laughing.
"Mom, Mattie's touchin' me!"
"Oh shut up!"
"MATTHEW FELIX MARTIN!"
The little boy instantly closed his mouth and stopped the antics, biting his bottom lip.
"Knock it off both of you! Mommy is trying to drive!" Nalani shouted, glancing at them through the rearview mirror, her blue eyes lit on fire. "Megan Nicole, that goes for you too!"
Nalani had named her daughter after her little sister, her own closure with the untimely death. Felix was her father's middle name, so Nalani went with that, absolutely hating how Matthew Michael sounded and looked on the birth certificate. There was no way she wasn't going to name her children after her father and sister, missing them more than words could say. Of course, Mark popped into her mind, but Matthew William or Matthew Marcus didn't sound or look right on a birth certificate either. Not to mention, Nalani had no idea if he was even the father of her twins and knew she'd never find out.
"Sorry mommy…" Megan murmured quietly, lowering her eyes to her lap, and sniffled as silent tears fell from her eyes.
"Sorry Meggie…" Matthew held his hand out to his sister, their hands clasping together tightly, much to Nalani's relief.
Megan nodded, leaning back against the seat with a sigh. "Sorry Mattie." She murmured, both of them staring straight ahead at their mother with big blue eyes that mirrored her own.
"Sorry mommy…" They both said simultaneously.
"That's my angels, now be quiet because we're in heavy traffic right now." Nalani said in a softer tone, hating that she'd upset her children, but honestly her nerves were on edge. She sighed with relief when her call finally clicked over to the receptionist, pressing her finger to her lips.
"Hello?" A rather annoyed Maureen finally answered, commotion sounding in the background. "HELLO?"
"Maureen, it's Nalani. Listen, I know I was supposed to be there an hour ago, but I'm currently stuck in heavy traffic and I still have to drop my kids off at the daycare." Nalani quickly explained, scowling at a driver who decided to slide right in front of her, cutting her off and nearly forcing her to rearend him. "I'm so sorry, I'll try to be there as soon as I can…"
"It's fine, I'll let Mitch know what's going on." Maureen hastily said and hung up the phone before Nalani could say anything else.
"Stupid bitch." Nalani muttered under her breath, not wanting her twins to overhear the foul language, and clicked her phone shut before tossing it in the front seat.
It made Nalani's blood boil to know that it was such an inconvenience for Maureen to stick around the office for more than five hours a day. Nalani had been called in on several occasions to cover for Maureen because the woman refused to learn how to set her alarm clock. She'd actually went to her boss and complained about how much time Maureen missed from work, but instead of firing the useless employee, Mitch decided to cut her hours as a 'punishment'. Nalani wished she could tell him where to shove that punishment, but refrained for her children, knowing she needed the job.
About a half an hour later, Nalani finally managed to make it to the daycare and sighed when the twins began whining about not wanting to go. "You have to go so mommy can work." She tried explaining, but they just clung to her legs, refusing to let go.
"No! Stay mommy!"
"We love you, don't go!"
It broke Nalani's heart as she tried extracting the twins from her legs, wishing this would stop already. They'd already gone through terrible two's, but honestly the three's were WAY worse than two's in Nalani's opinion. She smiled apologetically when Cindy, the head director of the daycare, came out to help with the situation.
"Come on you guys, there's lots of fun stuff inside for you to play with." Cindy encouraged with a bright smile, her black graying hair pulled up into a bun.
"I'm so sorry about this…" Nalani was on the verge of tears again, the frustration building quickly, but she tried in vain holding them back. "I'm sorry…"
"It's alright, Nalani." Cindy said kindly, her warm brown eyes telling the woman she wasn't the least upset. "We were just sitting down getting ready to do some coloring…"
Nalani could only nod and bent down, both of the twins tossing themselves at her, her arms wrapping around each twin, kissing their foreheads softly. "Mommy loves you both; I'll be back after work." She whispered, knowing she would end up crying herself all the way to the hospital.
"No! We want mommy!"
"Don't go mommy!"
Cindy pulled them away after Nalani extracted their arms from around her neck, smiling gently down at the crying children. "We'll take very good care of them, Nalani; you have nothing to worry about." She assured the woman, already guiding the twins inside. "How about some coloring and snacks?"
"MOMMY!" The twins wailed, trying to pull away from Cindy, and both watched heartbroken as their mother drove out of the parking lot.
Sure enough, on the way to the hospital, Nalani cried as tears blurred her vision while she was stuck in heavy traffic. She received a few text messages from Mitch, who told her to take her time and not to worry about rushing to get to the hospital. Nalani wiped her tears away, knowing Mitch had somewhat of a crush on her, which is why he was lenient with situations like this. He also had a crush on Maureen, the man had too many hormones and needed to work them out on his wife instead of eyeballing every woman in sight.
Nalani was so involved in her thoughts that she didn't notice the Buick swerve into her lane, until it was too late. She'd only been going not even twenty miles an hour, but the impact was enough to hurl her forward violently, snapping her head back. Thank the stars for seatbelts, Nalani's chest burned as she tried getting her equilibrium back on track, blinking, having smacked her head on the steering wheel. Her head was now pounding from not only crying, but more than likely having a concussion from the heavy blow and screaming outside her window.
"YOU STUPID BITCH!"
"Excuse me?" Nalani growled, unsnapping her seatbelt after flashing on her emergency lights, letting people know to go around her if at all possible.
"What the hell were you THINKING?" The woman screamed at the top of her lungs, tossing her hands up in the air, her bleach blonde hair flailing all over the place. "DIDN'T YOU SEE ME TRYING TO GET OVER, YOU STUPID BITCH?"
Nalani finally had enough and scowled, blue eyes flashing. "NO I DIDN'T BECAUSE YOUR STUPID ASS DECIDED TO SWERVE IN MY LANE AT THE LAST GODDAMN SECOND! SO BEFORE YOU START CALLING ME A STUPID BITCH, LOOK IN THE MIRROR HONEY!"
The blonde scoffed and planted her hands on her hips, wearing a barely there strapless pale blue dress that looked ready to pop off of her at any given second. "Just wait until my husband hears about this, he'll sue you!" She shouted angrily, taking a few steps back from the angry woman.
"He can try, but the fact of the matter is that you swerved in my lane, cutting me off and not giving me enough time or room to stop!"
Nalani couldn't believe this was happening just as a police car pulled up, rolling her eyes as the blonde began bawling to the officer about the fender bender. She simply stood there on the side of the busy highway and watched the officer take down what the big breasted bimbo said, mostly lying. Instead of becoming hysterical and wailing like the blonde idiot did, Nalani remained cool, calm and collected, knowing officers were more keen to believe calmer people in a situations like this.
"Alright ma'am, license and registration please." The officer said, his kind sky blue eyes begging her not to become hysterical.
"Sure." Nalani handed it over, already knowing she would need the both, and leaned back against her car while the officer took down the information.
"Tell me what happened here, Mrs. Martin." The officer ordered softly, though had to speak loudly over the traffic somehow miraculously zooming past them.
"It's Miss." She corrected with a smile of her own, trying not to sound short even though she'd had the morning from absolute hell. "I had my eyes on the road and there wasn't that much room between me and a Chevy Silverado. All of a sudden, this convertible swerves into my lane, squeezing between me and the Silverado and I didn't even have time to stop, officer. I barely had time to slam on my brakes before I was already rear-ending her."
The officer nodded, continuing to write down the information. "I have taken both of your statements and you'll have to take it up with your insurance companies." He glanced over at the blonde, who looked positively infuriated. "I will file an accident report and let you two be on your way, unless either of you need medical attention?"
The blonde gaped at the officer and scowled, but kept her mouth shut because he was the authority, simply shaking her head.
Nalani shook her head as well. "I actually work at the hospital and was on my way there. Thank you, officer, it won't happen again."
Nalani was glad SOMETHING went right with her morning and watched as the officer nodded before walking away, slipping back in her car. Her hands trembled violently, but Nalani had to get to the hospital, running over two hours late now for work. She immediately sped toward the hospital, trying not to start crying again because she was afraid if she did, she wouldn't make it to the hospital in one piece.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Maureen demanded as soon as Nalani came running through the doors, her heel breaking off one of her two inch heels.
"GODDAMN IT!" Nalani cursed, her ankle having twisted violently, causing Maureen to even blink in shock. Somehow, Nalani managed to hobble over to the desk, not realizing a huge half crest moon shaped bruise formed across her forehead. "Sorry I'm late." She gritted out, her ankle and toes throbbing.
What else could go wrong today?
Nalani wished she'd never thought that because, at that second, a patient came stumbling up to the desk. "Excuse me, I need he-" Suddenly, the patient in waiting vomited all over the front of Nalani's lavender blouse, causing Maureen to instantly stumble back, Nalani staring down in pure shock.
Then, to put the cherry on top of her fantastic morning, when Nalani looked up she was staring into the cold angry emerald green eyes of none other than her ex-boyfriend, Mark Calaway.