The Stunt [h.s]

Chapter Twenty

Elsie's POV

February 26th, 2021

***

My little girl is four today.

If you would've told me four years ago that everything would be okay in our little world I would laugh at you. I was petrified to be a mom and I never thought that I would be any good at it. But here I am entering my daughter's room with a party hat on my head and another in my hand getting ready to wake her up. This girl is the light of my life and I don't think I would be here without her.

I would still be in a relationship with David watching as he slept with every other girl but me. But I wouldn't leave because I would be too scared. I could imagine a million different scenarios of what would happen but I got lucky. I got my Halle girl.

Walking over to her bed I kneel down on the floor next to her and begin to kiss her forehead, waking her up. I watch as her eyes flutter open at my fifth kiss and immediately a smile takes over her face. "Happy birthday my sweet girl." I bring the hat up from the ground and place it on the center of her head before pulling the string around her chin. "How are you four years old today?"

"I'm growin' up, Momma! I'm a big girl!" A smile overtakes my face as she sits up and wraps her arms around my neck.

"No, not yet Halle. You will always be my baby girl no matter what." I pull her in closer to me not wanting to let her go. We sit there for a little bit longer but after a little longer Halle gets impatient and is pulling away.

"C'mon Mommy, I'm hungry!" She is quick to get off her bed and out her bedroom door making me rush after her. We walk down the stairs hand in hand to the kitchen where we start to talk about what she wants for her special birthday breakfast. While she talks it really clicks on how old she's getting. Each of her words is so well spoken for her age, only getting caught up on a couple of words. "Why are you crying, Momma? Today is a happy day!" I don't even realize the tears are falling until Halle brings it up and I'm shaking my head with a smile on my face, assuring her that I'm alright.

"I'm just so happy, Halle. These are happy tears." I watch as the gears turn in her head and before I know it she's running over to hug my legs.

"That's okay! As long as they are happy ones. No sad tears on my birthday!" Nodding my head, agreeing with her I bend over to place my hands under her armpits to lift her up and place her on the counter. "Momma, can we make pancakes for breakfast? Wait no, chocolate chip pancakes!"

"Of course, we can! Let's start on them so we can be ready by the time our family comes over, okay?" Halle nods enthusiastically, clapping her hands in a way to place her excitement into something. I walk around the kitchen getting everything needed to make them from scratch, thanking whoever is listening for letting there be chocolate chips in the house. There was no way I would be able to deny her one wish she had for breakfast cause we didn't have a key ingredient.

Halle and I stir the ingredients together helping the process go by a little faster, not as much as we did stop several times to play around. But sooner or later we are sitting at the table eating the pancakes and talking about anything that comes to Halle's mind. It's moments like these that I wish someone could be here to take a picture of us. The smile on both of our faces shows just how happy we are at this moment and I wish I had someone to capture this moment. But at the end of the day, if I have to pick between love and Halle, it will always be Halle.

Once we finish eating I pick Halle up and place her on my hip and bring her up the stairs to her room. Since I've gotten home I've held Halle a lot more as I know that pretty soon she's going to be too big for me to hold. The thought makes me sad but that's part of growing up that all parents hate but there's no way to stop it. We let time go by picking out different outfits that she would want to wear later than going to my closet to pick what she wants me to wear. We are very subtly wearing matching pink outfits covering our bodies—I know, what a shocker. We are both pulling our socks on when the doorbell rings for the first of many times today.