Young Love

4

Ariana, meanwhile, is getting ready for her son Liam's first soccer game. The little boy is a sports fanatic, and he loves nothing more than playing and watching tournaments with Uncle Fredo.

"Have you got your kit bug?" The brunette woman stresses, looking Liam in the eyes while he tucks into his fruit loops. He looks about ready to fall asleep in the middle of his breakfast.

The four-year-old nods and blinks at his mommy slowly through his gorgeously thick eyelashes.

Ariana is getting impatient. Her son is taking absolutely ages to eat one small bowl of cereal, and they have to leave for the match in ten minutes.

"Where is it then baby? We have to go." She questions, sliding her phone onto the counter to search for the missing soccer kit.

"Um, under the couch."

Ariana furrows her sculpted eyebrows and shoots the boy a puzzled look before kneeling down by the couch in the lounge. Sure enough, his little blue soccer kit is screwed up underneath.

Shaking her brunette head, Ariana chuckles to herself and pulls it out. Well, so much for representing his team, the logo is covered with dried mud and the shirt itself is creased.

"C'mon then, let me help you get dressed and let's go."

-

"Go on buddy!" Ariana cheers, watching her small son kick the down-sized soccer ball past some others kids and towards the goal.

The young mother is so incredibly grateful for Fredo, who taught Liam how to play. When her boyfriend was sent away, she feared that he would never get the chance to experience anything like this.

When the little boy goes to kick the ball, his studded foot slips in the mud and he lands on his bum with a hard thump.

Ariana stands up to help, but Liam isn't to be disheartened. He jumps up with a grin on his cheeky face and carries on playing against the other children.

The brown-eyed-woman's heart swells with pride for her baby boy, especially in the end when the other toddler team win 1-0 and most of the children throw a tantrum, all except for Liam.

He runs up to the stand where his mommy is located and Ariana engulfs him in a warm, soothing hug, rubbing his back comfortingly. The little boy sniffles and Ariana ruffles his thick curls lovingly.

"It's okay baby. Wanna go get ice cream from the mall?" She asks.

"Yeah!" Liam seems to forget all about losing and beams, jumping up and down excitedly.

Ariana chuckles and leads her son away from the rainy soccer field and towards the warmth of the mall.

When they reach the parade of shops, Ariana is keen to do a bit of shopping before taking her son for ice cream. However after his soccer game, the little boy is tired and grumpy.

Quickly changing her mind to avoid a tantrum, Ariana takes her small son by the hand and leads him through the busy food court to the colourful ice cream parlour.

"Which flavour do you want buddy?" The brunette asks Liam patiently and he squeals, looking up at the flavour board thoughtfully.

"Strawberry mommy." He finally decides.

"What do you say?"

"Please?" Liam hesitates, but grins when Ariana nods and ruffles his hair, moving along to the counter.

After she's ordered a small strawberry ice cream, Ariana manages to get her son out of the parlour and back into the busy food court, bustling with activity.

Unfortunately, surge of people causes the brown-haired boy's ice cream to fall to the floor in a gooey, melting mess.

Liam looks at it with wide eyes, his lower lip trembling, before bursting into a frenzy of tears. Today is just not his day, poor kid.

Ariana sighs in dismay and crouches down to pull her baby boy into her comforting embrace, rubbing his back.

"Aw c'mon baby, I just used up all my spare change. Let's just go home and eat ice cream instead." She begs, hoping to God that Liam will cut her some slack and not kick up a fuss.

But the boy just cries harder and shakes his head, making Ariana's heart melt. What is she supposed to do?

"Mommy!" He wails miserably, close to dropping onto the ground. Ariana bites her lip and lifts him up, cradling him and ignoring strange looks from other people.

Before she can do anything though, something stops her.

"Well look who it is!" A familiar voice causes Ariana to turn around in utter surprise. She looks up to see Justin holding onto his small daughter's hand tightly.

"Hello again." Ariana giggles, bouncing Liam up and down on her hip in an attempt to calm him. "Look Li it's Bella!"

The little boy glances up from his mommy's chest to look at Bella but turns away, continuing to wail.

The little sandy-haired girl looks slightly upset at her rejection and pouts sadly.

"Daddy, what wrong with LiLi?" She quivers, pointing desperately at her friend, not wanting him to be upset.

"I don't know baby." Justin answers, smiling at Ariana as she rocks her son carefully and squeezing Bella's hand.

"He dropped his ice cream." Ariana replies with a small chuckle, pointing to the sticky strawberry puddle on the food court floor.

Justin pouts, knowing all too well what it's like to handle a grumpy, screaming child, and walks towards the mother and son.

"Awh it's okay bud, shall I get you some more?" The young man asks Liam, who looks up slowly and nods, wiping tears from his freckled-cheeks.

"No, you don't have to do that." Ariana sighs gratefully, looking up at Justin with a shy smile on her dimpled-face.

"No, it's fine. I know what it's like." He laughs, pointing to Bella, who is still staring up at her best friend with an inquisitive expression.

"C'mon LiLi!" The four-year-old girl squeals excitedly, making both Liam and the parents smile. The little boy jumps down from his mother's grasp and grabs onto Bella's hand.

"Hey mom? This is Ariana." Justin turns back to his mom and introduces Ariana to her. The women both snile at each other politely while he jogs off into the parlour with the two children attached to his sides.

"Nice to meet you." Ariana grins, examining the older woman's features, noticing the striking resemblance of the mother to her son.

"You too. I'm Pattie, Justin's mom."

The two mom's chat for a little while until the happy trio return with huge smiles on their faces.

"So we can arrange another play date." Justin offers Ariana his phone with a nervous laugh and she enters her number, giggling.

"See ya."
"Bye."

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Just a reminder that updates won't always be this fast as I have some things coming up that may prevent me from writing💍

EDITED💕