deranged series: one shots

present - sixth birthday

~CORA'S POV:~

"Luca!" I yelled as loud as I could as I watched the top of one of his black curls dash out of my room.

I was home from college for the weekend for Luca's sixth birthday party, but since he decided to run out with my phone I was starting to regret it.

I cursed to myself then rolled out of my bed, "Luca!" I yelled again as I rushed towards my doorway. I poked my head out and leaned up against the door frame, "I swear Luca if you don't bring my phone back I'm telling your Dad the second he gets home that you've been bad, and your birthday party will get cancelled for tomorrow!" I stood there knowing that he would eventually come out of his hiding place since I threatened him.

Luca poked his head out of Nick's room, "Okay." He placed his hand out with my cell phone sitting in the palm of his hand, "You can take it Aunt Cora, I'm sorry. I was just playing."
"You can play with anything else besides my phone and laptop, birthday boy." I laughed as I made my way towards him.

"Even your TV?"
"Yes, even my TV." I gently picked my phone up out of his hand then placed it into my back pocket, "Your Dad should be on his way home with the final things for your party tomorrow, want to go downstairs and wait for him?"

Instead of looking excited, Luca brought his head down to look at the carpet, "Do you think my Dad could stop my birthday party from happening?"
My brows furrowed, "What? Why? You love parties."

"I don't want to have a birthday party." He explained to me, "All of my friends will bring their Mommies... and I don't have one."

I sighed as I bit my lip then brought myself down onto my knees to face Luca directly, "You do have a Mommy, she's just not with us anymore. She's in a special place and I bet she's watching over you right now." Ever since Luca started Kingergarten this year, he's discovered that a majority of his friends have a Mom at home and he doesn't. Before, Luca didn't mind that Demi wasn't here with us but ever since he's been around his friend's Moms' during play dates he began to talk about not having a Mom more often.

"But I want her here." Luca whined, "At my birthday parties and at my baseball practices like other Mommies."

I stared at him with gentle eyes not knowing how to respond, Nick never really talked about Demi around Luca, yet I never knew why. It either hurt Nick too much to even think about Demi or maybe he didn't want Luca to really have an idea of her. I'll show Luca pictures of Demi every once and a while just so he can have an idea of her, but I never exactly talked about her either.

"I'm going to show you something," I stood up then held onto Luca's arm to bring him out of Nick's room.
"What is it?" He asked as his grip tightened onto my hand.
"You'll see."

I led Luca into my room then motioned for him to sit down on my bed as I flipped open my laptop, he sat down crisscrossed and placed his hands into his lap as his brown eyes glued onto the screen as I typed. I went into my video files in the folder that I had full of old memories that dealt with my Mom and Demi, I scrolled down all the way down to the file that had the name 'Demi singing Happy Birthday'.

I clicked the file then leaned back as I watched it load, "What is it?" Luca questioned once again.
"Just watch."

The video popped up and started playing right away, the view of the video was facing Demi since she was holding her phone in her hand. Her hair was black and wavy with a part going down the middle,

"Happy birthday to you!" Demi sang, "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday Cora-Cora! Happy birthday to you!" Her tongue peaked out from underneath her top row of teeth as her smile widened with a giggle, "I'm so sorry that I'm a bit late but I just got off stage, I hope you had the best birthday ever! I love you so so much, see you soon!"

I looked down at Luca who had a bright smile on his face, his eyes were still focused on the screen even though the video was over.
"I know she wasn't directly singing the song to you, but I was hoping it would make you feel a bit better." I told him.
"Mommy was a great singer," Luca claimed, "Can I watch it again?"

"As many times as you want." I clicked on the play button once again for the video to play back.

Demi popped up on the screen again and began to sing, Luca giggled this time around as he watched her smile light up. A grin came across my face but disappeared as I saw Nick standing in the door way, "What are you watching?" He interrupted.

The sound of Demi's voice continued to play from my laptop as Luca hit the play button once again, Nick stormed over towards us then slammed  screen down, "Luca! Go downstairs now!"
"But why? It was almost like Mommy was singing me Happy Birthday!" Luca argued, "I liked it."

"Go downstairs," Nick breathed, "Now." His tone had bubbling rage hidden underneath and I could tell that this wasn't going to end well.

Luca began to scoot off of my bed, he kept his head down as he began to walk towards the hallway, "I want my Mommy..." He mumbled, "I bet she was nicer than you."

"Well guess what! She wasn't all that nice!" Nick fumed, I grabbed onto the side of his arm in a attempt to calm him down but he continued, "I'm just trying to protect you from the not nice parts that you have no idea about! Go downstairs now, and from now on don't bring her up ever again until I say so."

Luca broke down into tears as he ran out of my room and down towards the stairs without saying another word, "And you!" Nick spun around to face me, I tilted my head to the side in frustration, "Don't talk about her anymore either. I don't care if Luca wants to know more about her, it's not good for him."

"Not good for him? Or do you mean you? When's the last time you even said Demi's name?" I hissed, "Your way of dealing with everything is erasing Demi's existence competely, I understood at first Nick... but Luca is getting older now, he want's to know more about her. You can show him the good parts now and when he's old enough we can explain the rest. You can't shield him from Demi forever, in two or three years he'll be able to read on his own - he can Google her by that time."

"I'm shielding him from her as long as I can and trust me Cora, it will be for a long time."

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Let me know in the comments on what type of one shots you would like to see! Are there any particular flashbacks you would want to see from Demi or Cora's past? Thank you for reading once again, I hope it is enough since the series is over now and I didn't want to leave you all hanging!

xo