Born and gone

5

Author note:
Please share with friends etc, I write for other people to enjoy!

I knocked on Jackson's door at six on the dot... he opened the door smiling with makeup all over his face. I burst into laughter as he opened the door wider and did a curtsy.

"What happened?" I said laughing as he let me come in.

"Our daughter happened." He said as my smile slowly faded.

"Where is she?"

"The main room."

He lead me out of the large opening area of the lobby to his house and into a living room the same size as my whole apartment. It was all white with light grey flooring and glass all over one side looking across the manhattan sky line.

"Wow." I said as I looked around into the open plan kitchen. I stepped down into the room to see Lacey on the floor playing with toys as more toys were against the wall. On the coffee table was sweets and cake and lollipops and all I could feel was my blood boiling. "Lacey, it's time to go home."

"But mummy I want to stay." She said standing up with a firetruck in her hand.

"I know, but you can come back another day."

"Fine." She sighed as she stood up and gave Jackson a hug as he smiled widely, a smile that screamed complete joy. "Bye Jackson!"

"Bye, kiddo." He said as I smiled at him and Lacey held my hand as we began to leave.

"Did you eat your lunch?"

"No, Jackson said he'll buy me whatever I could dream of eating so I had ice-cream." She said as we got to the door.

"Okay, wait here baby." I said as I went back to the living room. "You can't buy her love, Jackson!"

"What are you talking about?"

"All the toys, the all you can eat diabetes buffet and telling her you can buy her whatever she wants to eat, that's what I'm talking about. You missed five years of her life , Jackson and I understand you might be doing this out of guilt but I'd rather you didn't give her the world when for all we know you could leave again when it suits you."

"I'm not leaving-"

"oh haven't we heard that before?!"

7 years earlier

"I'm going out to see Jackson!" I yelled running down the stairs, my heart racing every time I thought about seeing him again.

"Okay have fun and be careful!" My mum shouted as I just walked out the door.

"Hey beautiful." He said as he stood on my porch.

"I told you, you can wait in your car." I said as he shrugged before opening the car door for me.

"But then I wouldn't be able to look at your ass as you got in."

"Ew, you're such a creep." I said laughing as he got in the other side.

"I know but you're going have to deal with it because Im not leaving." He said as I couldn't help but smile and tried to cover it by leaning on my hand by the window. "Did I just make you smile?" He said as he drove off towards the car park by target.

"No." I said coughing and straightening up.

"Well if I did you shouldn't hide it... All I want to do is make you smile."

"Cringe." I said as he rolled his eyes.

I went in my pocket and pulled out a joint I had rolled earlier.

"Woah." He said as I looked at him wide eyed.

"Sorry do you not smoke?"

"Yeah, I just didn't expect you to." He said as I put it away again. "You're a wild one aren't you."

Present day

"Oh haven't we heard that before?"

"I know but I'm not leaving this time, Fallon. There's a little girl involved now, I can't do that to her."

"But you did! You did it to us both , just because she wasn't born yet doesn't mean you didn't leave your child."

"I was scared, okay?! I was fucking scared that having a child and being with you would stop my growth in my career."

"Yeah, well I hope it was worth it. All I'm saying is Jackson, that little girl isn't going to be bought. She doesn't mind not having many toys cause she loves to read and sing and play pretend. She's a smart kid, and really funny... Get to know her, instead of just throwing toys R us on her."

"Well why don't you both stay tonight? We can all catch up."

"Yeah, mummy I want to stay at Jackson's house." Lacey said running up to me.

"How much of this conversation did you hear?"

"Just that bit." She said as I stroked the top of her head and smiled. "Please mummy, I want to see what it's like having a normal family."

"Baby, there's no such thing as a normal family."

"I want to spend time with my mummy and daddy at the same time." She said as I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at Jackson who swallowed deeply and wore a saddened expression.

"Okay. Just one night."