The Eccedentesiast

Chapter Fifty-four

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Chapter Fifty-four
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"Happy birthday!"

The boys jumped on her bed. She bounces multiple times to the point where she slipped past them and landed on the floor.

"Assholes." She grunts, sitting up while she rubs the back of her head. "Whyyy?" she drags out.

"It's your birthday, stupid." Connor pulls her up from the floor and she sits at the edge of her bed. "We have so much planned." He jumps in place like an excited cheerleader.

"Can't we be excited when I turn twenty-one?" She lays back.

"Come on!" Gabriel pulls her back up.

"I want to sleep. I need sleep."

"I'm surprised you didn't stay with Emiliano last night." Daniel raises a questionable brow.

She huffs and glared at the floor. "He said he was planning something. I'm not supposed to be there while he does whatever." She presses down on her messy hair.

"Is it a party?" Brian pulls her closet doors open.

"I don't know. Hopefully, it isn't."

"Do you want to choose your outfit or should I?"

Emma bolts off the bed. "No, you'll make me look like a fucking clown."

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"Happy birthday," Michael speaks into the phone.

"Thanks, Dad."

"Hmm. Your mother would be so proud of the woman you've become, Emma. I'm proud of you." He leaned his hip against the counter. "What time are you coming over? I'm throwing you a party." He chuckled and threw one of the cherries that were in a bowl inside his mouth.

"No." She groans. "I don't like parties."

"Don't worry, Em, it's the only family." He sighed. "How were finals? You haven't spoken to me about that."

"I don't know." He heard her shuffle around. "I feel like I did good, you know? And then I feel like I messed up my chance of having a future. Even if I was just a freshman."

"You did great. I believe in you no matter what." He smiled, but then thought about what he and Andy talked about. "Uhm." He cleared his throat, pushing himself away from the counter and walking out of the kitchen. "So, you and Emiliano."

"Fuck."

"It's fine." He turned the corner and entered a living room. He ran his fingers over the dusty chimney. "I don't think any different of you. Yes, he's older—way older. But all I and your mother ever hoped for you was a stable future, one in which you want to live."

"I promise you I'm happy." She laughed. "If anything I've never been happier. Dad, I live with four guys who believe in magic. I love a man who loves me because of who I am. I have you, too—a dad who protected me from anything he could think of. Without you . . . me and mom would never be happy. You made all of this happen."

He chuckled silently. Hearing those words come out of her mouth made him feel complete. He's never had a child of his own, but Emma made him feel like he wasn't missing the love from one. She was his daughter and he was her father.

"Are you crying?"

"No," he lied. "I'm chopping onions." He tapped his fingers against the wall. "See?"

She laughed. "I'll be there by three."

"Fine. Call me when you're close."

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