"Natalia Jauregui Frangipane, you have all of five seconds to get your butt downstairs before I take away internet privileges for an entire week!" Lauren called out, her voice ringing through the house and earning herself an eye-roll from the other mother of her child. "She's learnt this tardiness from you," The raven-haired girl arched a brow at Ashley. "Just so you know."
"I'm sorry I don't keep her on the choke-chain leash you do, Lauren." Ashley sighed, rubbing a hand over her face as she heard the hasty pitter-patter of footsteps that told her her daughter was rushing down the stairs.
"It's not about keeping her on a leash, it's about teaching her the importance of things like punctuality and respecting other people's time." But Lauren knew her words were falling on deaf ears.
The truth of the matter was; she and Ashley simply had different parenting techniques and following their divorce, they'd come to accept that there wasn't much one could do about the other. Lauren understood that Ashley would always be flippant and dismissive of their daughter's bad behaviour and that she would almost always have to take on the role of being the disciplinary parent. It was part of why they'd split.
See, Lauren and Ashley had lasted all of five years together before they simply accepted that things would not work out. The first three years had been bliss. They'd been lost in that kind of love that sort of consumed them, so they never really took into account how incompatible they were. Everyone else sort of saw it but Lauren loved how wild Ashley was, she loved her spontaneity and she loved that Ashley could find every opportunity to snap a photo of her and be amazed by the image. And Ashley had loved how easily Lauren would follow her without hesitance, their lives were always an adventure and so when Lauren suggested starting a family merely six months after their marriage, the older girl was all on board because it seemed like another amazing adventure to her.
They'd both agreed that adoption was the route they'd take and that was how Natalie came about. Their reactions to becoming mothers were starkly different. Where Lauren leaned into the maturity of motherhood, Ashley made a point to stray away from it. Lauren began to take life more seriously and Ashley had the strong belief that their daughter should be raised with the knowledge that holding onto one's childhood was of the utmost importance.
And so fight ensued only months after Natalia entered their lives at the innocent age of two.
Lauren recalled the exact moment her marriage broke, she recalled the exact moment when she knew that she would have to cut the cord if she wished her daughter even a semblance of a normal life.
She'd just tucked the little girl into bed and she was about to slip out of the room until she heard her named called out to her. It was barely above a whisper and Natalia had been pretty quiet up until that point, so for her to call out to the green-eyed woman...well, it caught her off guard.
She remembered turning around and seeing the little girl sitting up with tears welling in her eyes and she just knew. She knew they'd caused that, they'd hurt her with their whispered arguments she'd probably overheard, with their cold silences towards one another, with their broken love.
So Lauren sat her wife down and she looked her in the eyes and she saw the very same girl that would demand they take five shots in a row only to later pull her onto the dance floor. She saw the girl that would take her on week long road trips so they could go diving off cliffs or camp out on beaches or just...take pictures that were now sprawled all over their apartment. Lauren sat Ashley down and she said the words that had been playing on both of their minds.
Tears were shared, regrets were spoken and confessions of lost love were finally vocalised.
So they got divorced with the agreement that despite their ill feelings towards one another, Natalia would always come first. She would be their priority, so they would have to put any resentment for each other aside to ensure their daughter lived the best life they could possibly offer her.
