This Is Our Family

Part 11

Just as Maya and Carina had finished getting dressed, Karter wandered into their room.

"Mom? Mama?" KJ asked as she slowly walked to sit down on her moms' bed.

Carina and Maya both walked over and sat next to their daughter on the bed. Carina on KJ's right side and Maya on KJ's left side.

"Sì bambina. Is everything okay?" Carina gently asked KJ.

Maya spoke up, "What's going on, KJ?"

KJ gave her moms a small smile.

"Everything is fine! I just wanted to ask if it would be okay if I hung out with Jordan tonight?" Karter asked hesitantly.

Maya and Carina looked up at each other and locked eyes.

Carina started to reply, "I don't see why not, bambina. But, let me and your mom talk about it and let you know, sì?"

KJ groaned in annoyance and said, "Why do you have to talk about it? Would you have to talk about it if I was asking to go hang out with Tuck or Payton?"

Maya shifted backward on the bed to look at her daughter.

"Well, you're not kissing Tuck or Payton, are you?" Maya retorted.

Carina gave Maya a scolding look.

Maya continued sounding irritated, "Mama and I could just not talk about it at all and just not let you go."

Carina stepped in to stop an argument from beginning between the teenager and her mom.

"Bambina, we're not saying no, we just want to talk about it to make sure we're on the same page," Carina said calmly. "Could you step out of the room and find something to do so your mom and I can talk, please?"

Karter stood up and stomped out of the room groaning in annoyance the whole way out.

Maya also stood up from the bed and yelled behind KJ as she stomped out, "Karter, drop the attitude or it'll just be a no!"

Carina reached out and grabbed Maya's arm to turn her around towards her. She turned Maya around and grabbed her hips to pull her closer to try and calm her down.

"Bambina, getting frustrated with her isn't going to make things any easier," Carina said gently.

Maya groaned in frustration.

"She was just fine 30 minutes ago. What changed within that time that she's now giving us attitude?" Maya asked Carina confused.

Carina giggled at her naïve wife.

"She's a teenager, bambina. I don't think there needs to be a reason her moods change so quickly," Carina continued to snicker. "So, what are you thinking? Are you okay with them hanging out by themselves?"

Maya gave her wife a disapproving look.

"Well, no. I would much rather an adult be around, butttt I think we need to trust that she'll make the right decisions, and so I think we let her go," Maya said to Carina as she fell back onto the bed.

Carina looked at her wife very surprised. She was expecting to end up having to convince Maya to let KJ go hang out with her boyfriend. Carina has always preached "sex positivity" and wanted to raise their children with a healthy relationship regarding sexuality. Carina could see Maya was doing her best to let her guard down and trust that their daughter would be smart.

"That was easier than I expected," Carina said to Maya.

Maya looked up at her wife, "Easier than expected? What do you mean?"

"Honestly, I was expecting to have to convince you to let her go," Carina smiled.

Maya playfully smacked her wife on the butt.

"Heyyy. I'm not THAT protective!" Maya laughed.

Carina gave her wife a side eye in disagreement.

Maya playfully gasped and stood up from the bed pulling her wife backward back on to the bed with her. As they hit the bed both women began to laugh, and they just lay there for a few minutes.

"We should probably go tell her she can go before she has a meltdown," Carina told Maya as she helped her up off the bed.

-

Carina and Maya walked up the stairs toward their daughter's room. Carina was practically dragging Maya and she reluctantly followed Carina. When they reached KJ's room Carina knocked gently on the door and opened the door a crack.

"Can we come in, bambina?" Carina asked KJ softly.

KJ rolled over in her bed to look at her moms.

"Yeah, I guess," KJ said hesitantly.

Maya and Carina walked over to KJ's bed and sat down next to their daughter who was sprawled out in bed.

Carina began, "Your mom and I talked, and we are okay with you going to hang out with Jordan tonight..."

Maya chimed in, "BUT, even though it's summer, it is still a Sunday night, so you need to be home by 10. And Mama and I want to know where you're going to be."

Karter shot up in her bed very excitedly.

"He wants to take me to the park to have a picnic and then we were planning to go to the roller rink," KJ replied to her mom.

"That sounds like fun, bambina," Carina said as she nudged her daughter's shoulder.

Maya and Carina both stood up from the bed and began to walk toward KJ's door to exit her room.

Maya turned around and said, "No going anywhere else unless you let us know where you're going, okay?"

KJ shook her head at her mom and rolled her eyes, "Yeah mom, whatever, I got it."

Carina let out a small laugh as she pushed Maya out of the room. Carina then turned around and leaned up against the open doorway.

"Bambina, please be safe, in all ways. And make smart choices and only choices that you are comfortable with, sì?" Carina said to KJ softly so Maya couldn't hear her.

"Mama, stopppp! You don't have to worry about that," KJ responded embarrassed.

Carina took a couple of steps back into the bedroom.

"Bambina, we need to talk about it. We don't need to have the conversation right now, but now that you're dating it's something that's important for us to discuss," Carina semi-lectured her daughter.

KJ threw her head back and groaned in frustration, not wanting to have this conversation with her mama right now.

Carina leaned down and kissed KJ on the top of the head.

"Alright, alright. We'll have this conversation another time, sì?" Carina giggled. "By the way, you might want to dial back the attitude next time you come to ask us to do something, yeah? Otherwise, it won't be mom that gets on to you, it'll be me...and I'm A LOT scarier than your mom," Carina chuckled as she began to walk back out of the room.

"Sì, mama. Mi dispiace," KJ said to her mama apologetically. "And by the way, you're not that scary!" KJ laughed and yelled out to her mama as she walked out the door.

Carina yelled back as she walked down the hall, "That's what you think, bambina!"