Finding My Happy {COMPLETED}

10.

SEAN'S POV

It's been a few days since Kierra's lunch with her Dad ended up turning bad, so I've been trying to cheer her up since their blow up. Today I decided to take her out to dinner and a movie because she's been cooped up in the house feeling depressed.

We were coming back from dinner and now headed to the movies.

"Ki." I called out as I drove. She was staring out the window not paying me any attention.

"Kierra." I raised my voice a bit. She was startled and quickly looked over at me.

"Sorry babe. You said something?" She said.

"I'm just seeing how you feeling babe. You've been in such a funk since that lunch with your Pops and I want to fix it." I said. I turned down a street and merged onto the highway. Traffic was heavy, but it was a Friday night so I expected us to be caught up in traffic.

"I'm sorry I've been neglecting you babe. I've loved all the things you've been doing for me this week and tonight's dinner was really special. It's just...it's my Dad ya'know? I really can't believe he doesn't support us and would seriously drop me from everything I do for him at the church." She said.

All I could do was just listen to her share her feelings. I don't really have any answers to give because her Dad pissed me off to be honest, not even gone front on that.

"Maybe you shouldn't put so much energy into this.." I said.

"What you mean?" She asked.

"Don't give so much energy into what your Dad spoke about us. We know where we stand, we're committed to each other, so we gotta protect our space even if that means setting boundaries with family." I said.

"I understand that babe but you know how super close I am with my family, especially my parents. How can I just distance myself from them completely?" She said.

"Your Dad disrespected our relationship. That's not enough to create some boundaries? I'm not saying completely forget them but don't share too much of your life with them without expecting their opinions in it." I didn't mean to raise my voice a bit but it wasn't clicking for her.

I looked at her for a second before pulling up into the movie theater parking lot.

"Don't yell at me Sean!" She said. I parked and turned off the car.

"Babe, I'm sorry for yelling. I didn't mean to raise my voice but for the past week you've been moping around and you can't think too much of this. We gotta continue living our lives." I said. I pulled her face close to mine and gave her a kiss.

"Okay, I'll work on creating space with my parents. I haven't established boundaries with them and I need to for the sake of our relationship." She said.

"Right. So you good now?" I asked.

"Yes, are we late for the movie?" She asked.

"Nah, we made it just in time. Let's go."

KIERRA'S POV
Next Day

I was having a work lunch date with my best friend Shamika as we brainstormed upcoming photo shoots for Eleven60 and my next travel dates for singing & speaking.

We were at Panera Bread and sat outside.

"Girl you know I hate being outside and here you go choosing to eat outside." Shamika complained for the 10th time.

"If you don't hush! Always complaining, just enjoy the scenery." I said. As soon a I said that, a bee buzzed in our face. I laughed and swatted the bug away while Shamika turned up her nose.

"See, wait until our food gets here. We gone have flies and bugs all up in our food cause you wanna enjoy the scenery." She said.

I shook my head and sipped my water as she went on until I thought about what happened last night with Sean and I.

"Girl so before we eat and talk business, I need advice on a conversation Sean and I had during date night." I said.

"Okay, you know I don't like speaking too much on other people's relationship, even if you are my best friend so I'll ask this. Is this a super serious conversation or something that's not too heavy?" Shamika asked. I loved that she was cautious and wasn't a nosy friend that felt the need to insert their opinions on others.

"No this is about what happened with my Dad a few days ago that I told you about." I said.

"Ah okay, well continue." She said.

"Okay so we went to dinner and it was really nice but that whole day I really wasn't myself."

"You were spaced out and in the clouds?"

I nodded my head. Our food was brought out to us since we were sitting outside and I said a quick prayer before eating some of my tomato basil soup.

"So anyways, I was not really present, and then we got in the car to go to the movies. Sean asked me why I gave so much energy into what my parents think of us and I was telling him that I value the closeness I have with them." I explained.

"Okay and what he say about that?" She asked.

"He said that I needed to create boundaries with my family to protect our relationship." I responded.

"Do you agree with him?" She asked. I nodded my head before speaking.

"I do. But it's also like how can I stop being so close with my parents when that's all I know. It's tearing me up inside because Daddy has tried calling me nonstop and I keep avoiding his calls." I said.

"Well for one he hurt your feelings and disrespected your relationship. You should definitely call him back on your own time but you do realize you kinda go along with what your parents tell you to do?" I frowned when she said that.

"No I don't. What are you talking about?"

"Don't get all mad at me. I've known you for too long to lie in your face. Your relationship with your parents is as if you're still a little girl under their roof. You haven't switched into having an adult relationship with them. They treat you like a little princess and it's all fine and dandy until they disapprove of who you're dating. Then the relationship dissolves because of what they speak over your life and then you're unhappy." She said.

I didn't speak for a moment to really soak in what she said. She was speaking facts and I never realized it until she said it. Because my Dad doesn't want me to date Sean, I inadvertently started distancing myself from him. I love him and I shouldn't have to choose between my family and man.

"Thanks for telling me the truth about myself Shamika. I never really connected the dots until now."

"You're welcome sis. Sometimes we gotta take a step back from ourselves to look at our lives. It's not easy to do but we gotta always be honest with ourselves." She said. "So what are you gonna do?"

"I want to protect my relationship so that means I gotta accept the consequences my Dad gave because if I give in, then I'm losing my happiness just to appease my family. I'm too grown and I shouldn't even have to face consequences but I will to protect my peace with Sean and Marsai." I said. She smiled her goofy smile at me.

"Why you looking at me like that all goofy for?" I laughed.

"You love that little girl, huh?" She said. I beemed and now I wore a goofy smile on my face.

"Girl you know I do. Since she was a baby, that was my baby. Sean picked a trash baby mama but Marsai is my heart. I really feel like that's my child." I said.

"Aww you and your little family are so cute. Y'all just need to get married at this point." She joked.

"It's too soon to think of all of that but I do love them. Our dynamic is different and people won't understand us, but I gotta learn to stop caring about outsiders." I said.

"Who would've thought it took us coming to Panera Bread for you to get your Oprah aha moment." Shamika said. I rolled my eyes and threw a piece of my bread at her.