Is It Worth It? (Sequel to 12th Avenue)

27

LAUREN

It's been a little over a week since everything happened and things are not easy at all. I wanted to hang out with the kids today and was currently getting ready for that. Elijah had a dentist appointment so Normani just kept him for the day, I'm gonna meet them at the park.

In the midst of all this, I've been staying with my parents and constantly have to be scolded about what I did.

I leave the house and make my way to the park they're at. Once I get out the car I spot them and start walking over there. I reach them and and Eli jumps from the slide, onto me. I wrap my arms around him and kiss his cheek.

"Hey Eli," I smile.

"Hi mamá!" He yells.

I put him down and look to Normani, who's giving me the meanest look I've ever seen her give to anybody.

I wave, "Hey."

She gives me a dry response, "Hey."

I nod, "What you been up to?"

She folds her arms, "Nothing."

I hold my hands behind my back, "How've you been?"

She scrunches her face up, "Are you serious?"

I sigh, "I wanna apologize for what happened. I never meant to hurt you in any way."

She nods, "But you did."

"You betrayed my trust so bad," She adds.

"Why can't you forgive me?" I ask.

"I can't forgive you that easily" She laughs.

"What can I do to show you that I'm really sorry?" I ask while looking down at her stomach.

While I wait for her to answer me I continue to look down at her stomach, thinking about the baby forming in there.

"I don't know and I don't care what you do," She says after a while.

I shake my head and chuckle, "I tried to work this out, but I'm done."

"You tried to work this out?" She laughs.

"Hell yeah! Here I am tryna convince you that I'm willing to do whatever to fix this and you don't give a shit!"

"Got that right," She fakes a smile and arches her brow. "You had so many chances to stop us from going down this road and you didn't."

"If I knew it would be like this I would've never married you, you think everything has to go your way and it doesn't. I'm done Normani, you always been a stubborn bitch!" I yell.

I immediately regret what I said and try to quickly apologize, "I didn't mean to-"

She puts her hand up and cuts me off, "Stop. Since I'm a stubborn bitch, delete my number and you can get the kids through one of your friends or family. I'm signing the divorce papers and you will too whenever they get to you. Have a nice life Lauren, sucks it had to end this way."

I furrow my brows, "You can't do that, we have another baby on the way! I have every right to be involved in this whole pregnancy, face to face."

She shrugs, "I'll gladly send you copies of the sonograms."

I grind my teeth, "You're a fucking bitch, you know that?"

"Okay."

She blankly stares into my eyes and I know I really fucked up this time. She's not even showing any emotion with her eyes. Elijah turns around and glares at me while balling up his fist, shit, now my son is mad at me too.

Before I can get my mouth open, he punches me right in my dick. I groan and grab it through my jeans, freezing in place.

"Elijah," She sternly says.

"It's fine," I manage to get out.

"I don't wanna go with mama," He goes back to Mani while still glaring at me. He jerks at me and sticks his tongue out, "She's mean."

She takes his hand and sighs, "Get Amaiyah from school Lauren."

I raise my brow in acknowledgment and leave the park, I get in the car and let out a deep breath. Why is my marriage like this?

I pull up to the school and go in, signing her out while the receptionist called the teacher. A few minutes pass and Amaiyah walks out with her teacher.

I smile and pick her up when she runs to me, "Hi pumpkin."

She latches onto my neck and kisses my cheek, "Hi mama!"

"Were you good?" I ask.

"Yessss," She grins and bats her lashes.

I look to her teaching and she laughs with a sigh, "She was the only one that behaved."

I high five Amaiyah and kiss her forehead, "That's my girl!"

We get in the car and I make my way to Aaliyah's school, once I get her we go to a pizzeria. We eat inside and they decide to play with the spices on the pizza. They jump from topic to topic and I just pretend to understand what's happening, nodding and smiling.

Out the blue Aaliyah asks, "Ma where's Mani and Elijah?"

I bite my bottom lip and think of something easy to tell her.

"Her and Eli are planning stuff for y'all birthday."

Justine, Mani, and I were thinking about just having their birthdays together since it's all in October. So that worked out perfectly.

She nods, "Oh, okay."

I silently nod and lightly clench my jaw, every last bit of this situation is messed up.