✨It Doesn't Even Matter✨

How Things Are Now

Wednesday, March 15th (New York, NY) (Mariska's Perspective)
"Hey, Als." My daughter was in our sunroom, reading quietly.
"Hi." Allie's been on meds for five months now. I think they've been helping, but parts of her have changed.
"Are you okay? You didn't come for lunch. I made chipotle chicken sandwiches, just for you." I said while tapping her arm. She didn't reply.
"Allie?"
"I'm just not hungry, Mama. Can you leave it alone, please?" She whispered.
"Alright, but you should eat at some point. Have you packed?"
"Yeah."
"Are you excited? Daddy's gonna join us there."
"Yeah, we've never been to Aruba, and I'm glad Daddy could take time off work too." I smiled. I was excited to see Peter too, it's been a while since he was home.
"Allie? You sure everything's fine?"
"Mom, please stop nagging, I'm fine." She said while flipping a page of her book.
******************
Coco's Boba (4:15 PM) (Amaya's Perspective)
"Thank you!" I popped my straw in.
"Xander! That's not how you do it!" I rolled my eyes and put the straw in.
"I'm sorry!"
"You're so stupid sometimes...and messy!" We both giggled. Xander's one of my closest guy friends. We hang out a lot.
"Did you tell your Mom that we were going here?"
"Nope."
"You're gonna get in trouble, Amaya."
"So what, it's just boba."
"Yeah, until you get grounded."
"I don't need to tell my Mom or Anne...anything. It's my life." He squinted.

Harper: how's the DATE going?!?
Me: shut up! It's NOT a date. Good tho. Wya?
Harper: 76th

"Harper's close by," I told him.

Harper: meet me. I'm with Summer and Duke.

Harper has a crush on Duke, but she doesn't wanna talk about it.

"And she's with Duke."
"Heyyy!!" Harper waved.
"Hi!" We all hugged.
"You guys got boba, I'm jealous!" Duke said.
"Want some?" Xander gave him a sip.
"Yum."
"What are you guys doing?" I asked Summer.
"We were just walking around, bored."
"That's no fun." Xander said.
"I know."
"Hey, let's go to Central Park! We could go on the swings!"
^^^^^^^^^
Central Park
"Xan, can you push me higher?"
"Ok! Hold on tight!"
"Don't hulk out or something." He pushed me and I felt like I was flying. Swings are still fun when you're almost 12.
"Let's have a competition for who could swing the highest!" Harper said.
"Me and Summer are gonna win!" I said.
"Yeah right!" I started to feel a vibration in my pocket. My iPod! Ugh, don't tell me Mommy is texting!

Mommy: Amaya, where are you? Andrew is home but you aren't.

Uh-oh.

"What's wrong?"
"I gotta go, my Mom's texting me. Bye guys!" I sprinted home. I don't want to be like Allie and get in trouble for coming home late a lot. I wanna be really good, especially because Mom and Dad are good now and I don't want to give them a reason to argue. Mom and Daddy would argue over Allie and work a lot. I just want everyone to be happy.

Me: I'm coming home right now
*****************
Toronto, Canada (8:35 PM) (Peter's Perspective)
It's been a few months since the kiss and well...it's been interesting. Things leaked to the press and it was probably one of the toughest situations I've had to navigate. Nobody ever wants their child coming to them and saying: "Daddy, did you cheat on Mommy?" especially when it wasn't true. My kids have had to grow up a bit and I feel horrible because of that.

A couple of months ago...

"She kissed you?" Mariska asked. I nodded.
"And nothing else happened? Did you pull away?"
"Of course I did, it took me a second because I was taken aback...but I pulled away, I promise. I was just in shock for a moment." She put her hand on her heart."
"I was afraid of this."
"Afraid?"
"Yes. With you being in another country....I was afraid that you'd use it as an opportunity to be unfaithful because of the way we were arguing when you left."
"M-"
"I know, I just. I know it's not your fault. My god, thinking about this makes me feel sick."
"I told my boss, she was fired..."
"But?"
"She's going to the tabloids."
"We need to talk to the kids."