Life After | Trilogy

20

Jayceon

I walked out of the rehab facility with my completion papers and a smile on my face. I was determined to get back to my old self. I hopped in my car and headed to my apartment so I could get ready for court.

"Hey babe." Amy met me at the door.

"Wassup." I nodded and walked past her to the bedroom.

I pulled a dress shirt and pants out of the closet and went to turn on the shower.

"Where are you going?" Amy followed behind me

"I have court today." I sighed. "I told you this already."

"Do you still love her?" She asked randomly, catching me off guard

"What?"

"You heard me Jay."

I sighed. "Can we not do this? I'm trying to have a good day."

"Just answer the question."

"She's the mother of my kids and we were married. Of course I love her."

"So why are you here with me right now? Go be with her."

I laughed at her and shook my head. "Believe it or not, I actually don't want to be with her. She's happy and so am I. We only co-parent now. That relationship is in the past and you should let it go."

Chris

"Aye! Ya'll better sit the fuck down!" I yelled

"Them kids bad as hell." My friend Michael laughed

"Don't make me come up there!" I stood at the bottom of the staircase.

The noise quieted down and I walked back into the living room. "I'ma have grey hair before 40." I sighed loudly

"I thought you wanted 10 kids?"

"I do but 5 might be enough." I laughed. "Anyway, I called you over here because you're one of my closest friends and I need your opinion on something."

"Cool." He nodded. "Wassup?"

"I gotta show you. It's in my safe. Follow me." I walked down into the basement.

Lauren

I turned on the back massager as I sat in the chair getting ready to get my feet done.

"How was court?" Riley looked over at me

"Jay passed the drug tests. He can see the kids every Saturday now. Everything seems to be good."

"I hope so. All that hostility between him and Chris was irritating." Amber added

"I know. We can all get along now."

"Who would've thought." Riley smiled and shook her head. "Timid little Lauren from New York turn into this badass boss with a nearly multi-million dollar company and five kids." She paused "And had two of the most popular guys at Georgia state chasing after you." She laughed

"College was crazy." I smiled thinking back on my first days at GSU.

We continued to talk about past events as we got our pedicures. Reflecting back on everything I been through, I can honestly say that I am happy in life right now. I wouldn't want anything to be different.

6:52PM

I pulled into the driveway and turned the car off. Amber and Riley rode with me to the spa.

"Ya'll coming in?" I asked

"Yea." They both responded.

"I'll sit for a little bit." Amber added

I locked the car doors and went inside. Almost all the lights were off and the house was completely quiet.

"I know they not sleep." I spoke, more so to myself.

I sat my bag on the table in the foyer and walked upstairs. Every room was empty. The car was outside so where could they be? I opened the door to the basement but it was completely dark.

I could hear faint laughs that sounded like they were coming from outside. I slid the back door open and looked around. Cameron's little head was peaking around the corner then he laughed and disappeared.

"They love to play." I looked back at Riley and Amber and laughed.

"What ya'll doing out here?" I spoke loudly as I walked towards where Cam was.

Once I made it around the corner, I stopped and gasped, covering my mouth with my hand. Tears began to build up in my eyes, I was in shock. Each one of my kids stood side by side holding a sign.

"Mommy, will you marry daddy?" I read aloud and the tears streamed down my face.

Kody and Lyric were standing in the middle and once they moved, it revealed Chris behind them. He was down on one knee with a huge smile on his face and a box in his hand. He held out his other hand, wanting me to come to him. I slowly walked over to him.

"I don't do this often so bare with me." He chuckled and cleared his throat then began singing to the music that was playing.

"Love, when i look into your eyes
I get butterflies
Almost everytime
baby, you belong at my side
What more can I say?
I'm always thinkin of you
You make it so easy to love you
Baby It's never too hard to
Revolve my world around you
Every night we spend
I dont want it to end
Let it start over again
With you I feel at ease
Things that seemed important don't seem that important
Atleast it's that way to me
You make it so easy to love you." He was standing in front of me at this point. He stopped singing and wiped my tears away.

"I could go on for days about how much I love you and what you mean to me. You gave me five beautiful kids and even though we weren't together for a while you always had my heart. I couldn't see myself spending the rest of my life with anyone else but you. Will you marry me?"

The tears began rolling down my face again. "Yes." I nodded

He kissed me then pulled me into a hug that seemed to last for forever. I honestly didn't want to let him go.