Lena
"Babe, look at this one!" I exclaimed tugging on JJ's sleeve, pointing to the picture I was holding in my hand. JJ leaned over my shoulder, smiling as he pointed to it. JJ sat on the couch watching sports, while I dug through a bin full of pictures I had printed.
"That was our graduation day..." He kissed the top of my head. "You were so mad at me that day." He chuckled, I rolled my eyes remembering exactly why I was mad at him too.
"Yeah, because you freaking showed up late and high out of your mind!" I slap his leg as he chuckled. "Man, that was a good high," He reminisced, "Hey look at this one." He said leaning over me and pulling out another picture.
"That was when I moved into my dorm at university," I said as he held it in front of me. I was wearing a sweater JJ had made for me, it had his face on the front and in the back it read JJ'S GIRL in big bold letters. "That sweater was ridiculous." I shook my head, giggling at how annoyed my face was compared to the big toothy grin on JJ's face as he smiled towards my Mom who took this picture.
"I take offence to that, I made it just for you." JJ gasped in fake hurt, I smile up at him. "No! You made it for all the boys at my university, just to make sure they stayed away!" I corrected him.
JJ grins down at me, "I'm happy to say that the plan worked." Leaning over my head and kissing me upside down. I couldn't help but start giggling as the thought of Spider-Man came to mind while he kissed me.
"What's so funny?" JJ laughed at me, pulling back a bit. "You know in Spider-Man..." I didn't even have to finish before realization clicked in JJ's mind, "You nerd." He laughs, eyeing the bin again.
"I don't even know why you printed all of these, we have phones for a reason." JJ moves off the couch to sit next to me, I ran a hand through his hair as he pictures up a handful of pictures and flipped through them. Some going all the way back to our childhood, others more recent.
"Because it's more sentimental looking through pictures, J!" I whined, offended that he questioned my pictures. JJ chuckled, holding up one picture and dropping the rest. "This one's my favourite, Mrs. Maybank."
My eyes land on a photo from our wedding one year ago, as cheesy as this sounds... We had it in the same area he asked me to be his girlfriend, one reason is that it was cheaper... The other being because it was more sentimental.
I know, I know. JJ Maybank got married?! Shocked me too when he popped the question.
"Ah! It's mine too, Mr. Maybank." I placed a soft kiss against his lips, the picture was of us standing at the alter, our first kiss after saying I Do. It really was one of my favourite pictures of us.
"Can you believe that you're going to be twenty-seven next month?" I fake gasp, smiling against JJ's lips. JJ groans, throwing his head back. "Don't remind me that I'm getting so old, Lee B!"
"Hey! You're basically calling me old too, I'm the same age as you dumbie." I flick his forehead. "Yeah, but you're still hot. You don't even look like your age... Which is amazing for me." He winks at me.
"Oooh! So you're saying if I did look like I aged that I'd be ugly then? Hm?" I joked, crossing my arms in fake offence. "I.. No! I didn't mean... No-" JJ stumbled.
I smirk. "I'm kidding! And to be clear, you don't look like your age either. Just as hot as you were years ago." I wink, pushing myself up. "We should clean up, the idiots will be here shortly," I announced, dusting off my pants.
As I bend down to pick up some of the pictures, JJ's hand slaps my butt making me shriek. "Yum." He huskily mumbles in my ear before standing up with me, just as he places a kiss on my neck, we're interrupted before it can go any further by a noise upstairs.
"Mama!" JJ pulls back at the sound of our daughter calling me from her bedroom. Smiling to me before placing a kiss on my cheek, "It seems that you're needed. Here, I'll clean this up." He says, shooing me off.
JJ and I have gone through a lot together since we started dating. We finished high school still dating, and during my first year of university before we broke up due to the distance... That was probably one of the hardest times of my life. Those two years were difficult without JJ in my life like I wanted him to be.
We stayed in touch though and when I came back after university ended at the age of twenty-three, we picked up right where we left off. JJ attended a community college, something he wasn't so proud of himself but I, on the other hand, was over the moon about it.
When I become pregnant with our little girl... Emilia Logan Maybank was completely unplanned but not unwelcome. JJ was a nervous wreck though, as our due date got closer he began to wonder if he would be a good father... Or if he'd end up being hated by his daughter like he hated his father.
I look at him now, and you would never know he had that kind of childhood. Not with the way he acted with Emilia.
So here we are, almost twenty-seven years old and living in a perfect-sized house on The Cut. JJ working as an Electrician, while I work at the Elementary School teacher I met John B and JJ at. It's truly crazy to see how our lives turned out.
"Hi sleepyhead," I grin as I walk into her bedroom, her eyes as blue as her fathers bore back into mine as she sat upright in her bed. Still sleepy having just woken up from a nap, she rubs her eyes with the back of her hand and a soft yawn fell from her lips.
"Mama." She smiles at me, extending her arms and clenching and unclenching her fists at me gesturing me to pick her up. I giggle, lifting her and placing her on my hip.
Emilia shoved her face into my neck, arms wrapping around me as she yawns again. "Want to go see Dada?" I whisper to her, instantly her head peeks up and eyes wide in excitement as she nods her head rapidly.
"Yes, Dada." She agrees as I place a kiss against her nose. I fake a gasp when I hear new voices downstairs, looking back at my bright-eyed daughter who also heard the sounds.
"Are your uncles and aunts here?" I ask her, a teasing tone to my voice as she starts jumping in my arms. "Uncle B!?" She shrieks as I make my way out of her bedroom after checking if she needed a diaper change.
She visibly became more excited as we walked downstairs, the mix of her father's voice and what I made out to be Sarah's and John B's in our living room.
"There she is!" John B exclaimed as Emilia and I come into the living room, John B takes an exciting little girl out of my arms as Sarah pulls me into her embrace. "I've missed you, girl!" She hugs me tightly.
"I've missed you too, Sar." I laugh pulling away from her, John B had handed Emilia off to JJ before pulling me in for a hug as well.
"Oh my gosh, look at you! You're glowing!" I gesture down to Sarah's baby bump, pressing my hands against it. She laughs, rubbing her own hand over her stomach. "Yeah I know right! I can't even see my feet anymore!"
"I can't believe you're due in two months, already! It feels like you just told me yesterday!"
Before Sarah could answer, our front door gets pushed open. "Party's here!" Kiara shouted, Pope, standing right behind her.
"AUNTIE KIE!" Emilia screams running towards Kiara on her tiny legs, almost stumbling making me hold my breath. Kiara caught her before she fell face-first into the ground, laughing at the adorable little blonde.
Sarah leans into me. "Should I take offence that she seemed more excited to see Kie than me?"
"How crazy does this feel?" Kiara asks me and Sarah as we sit with our feet buried in the sand. "We used to sit on this beach with joints in our hand, now we sit here sipping wine like bougie bitches." Sarah agrees, making me laugh out loud.
"I don't know if we're still young enough to say things like bougie anymore Kie." I joked as she gave me a wave of her hand. "Girl, please."
"Speak for yourself, I can only have water because of this little bean." Sarah lightly taps her stomach, a smile growing on her face as she looks down at it.
"No, you know what's even crazier?" Sarah takes a sip of her water, nodding toward the ocean. "Seeing JJ act that way with a child of his own."
I glance over at my husband in the water, holding Emilia in his arms as he jumps her up and down. The smile on his face made my heart flutter, watching him lift her stomach to his face before blowing into her stomach the way that makes her laugh like crazy.
"Who would have thought he'd get his shit together?" Kiara adds in, "He's truly a great father, isn't he?" I gush, as John B and Pope make their way back up to us from the water.
My eyes never leave my family... My family. It still felt so surreal to say, as JJ spun with our daughter in the air. With the volume of her laughter is heard all the way up here where I sat, I could see the single dimple on her cheek that resembled her father's– Just on the opposite side.
"He is, L. He loves you guys so much."
That summer that everything happened... Was the worst, yet best one of my life. I had lost so much but also gained a lot– Had that summer never happened, maybe Emilia wouldn't exist. Maybe I would have never gotten to call JJ mine.
So much has changed, Kiara and Pope didn't date for very long– Agreeing that staying friends felt more natural for them, they never let it affect their friendship and I truly admired that. Kiara was now dating a woman on Mainland where she now was lived. It took her a while to come out as Pansexual to us, to even want to talk about it. I remember the look on her face when she realized how supportive all of us were, how he loved her just the same.
Finally, Pope is happily engaged to his fiancé, Francisca... They both lived on the Mainland as well. So needless to say Pope and Kiara spend more time together, just as we do with John B and Sarah.
All our lives seemed to come together, but we never drifted apart. We always managed to get together at least four times a year, John B and Sarah lived in Figure 8 so we saw them much more often– But it was times like this when we could all come together that everything felt so normal, so emotional.
They were my family as well, they would always be my family. I don't think I would change that summer, I wouldn't change it one bit because it all happened for a reason– This, the life I have, was the reason it happened.
I lean against the door as I stare at JJ leaning over Emilia's crib, his fingers tracing circles on her forehead... A gesture she loves, something she got from me. "I sleep with my teddy, Dada," Emilia mumbles to him, snuggling the teddy bear that John B had brought her close to her chest.
I smile to myself, "You love your teddy?" JJ chuckled silently as Emilia nods her head, her eyelids fluttering as JJ soothed her to sleep with the touch of his fingertips on her forehead.
"Mama bath me tonight," Emilia mumbles, slowly falling asleep. It was something she's always done, anytime either of us put her to bed. She liked to talk herself to sleep, telling us random things about her day. I honestly think it might be the only thing I look forward to the most.
"I love you, princess," JJ whispers to her, still tracing circles on her forehead. "I wove you, Dada." Her eyes fluttering closed, her arms slowly falling from the teddy bear's neck as she fell asleep.
JJ stands over her crib for a few extra minutes, unaware that I'm behind him. "I love you more, Emilia Maybank..." JJ whispers more to himself. "Maybank..." He repeats, sighing.
"It's still hard for me to believe that you and your Mommy are Maybank's too... For a long people saw the Maybank name the same way they viewed crime and filth..." I held my hand to my heart, chewing my bottom lip as I listened to him speak softly to her.
"Your beautiful mommy made a man out of me, she was the reason I'm here today. I promise you, Emilia Logan Maybank. I'll be the best father I can be, I'll never let anything hurt you." My heart throbbed at his words, I swear I fell in love with him all over again every single day.
I watch as JJ positions the bear under Emilia's arm again, slowly backing up from the crib. "You and Mommy are the best girls a man could have ever asked for... Goodnight, Emilia." He whispers.
I make my way to our bedroom before he catches me standing there, climbing under the covers as his footsteps make their way to our bedroom.
JJ smiles at me as he closes our door behind us and jumping onto the bed, his arm wrapping around me and pulling me onto his chest. I giggle as he places wet kisses all over my neck.
I don't know how we got here, I always envisioned JJ in my life but I don't think I ever imagined it ever being this good.
If someone told me that the little boy who stuck his head in and threw a stink bomb in the classroom his best friend had detention in... Would become my husband later on down the road, and the father to our beautiful little girl— I think I would have laughed right in their face.
He likes to give me credit for the man he has become, but he's been that way all along. Because of the person he is, that has always been my JJ. I have always seen the best of him, I always knew he was destined to be more than how he viewed himself.
And now here we are...
I lay on JJ's stomach with my head on his chest, his fingers tracing circles on my exposed back as I listen to his heartbeat. "Can we have another baby?" He randomly asks me, causing me to look up at him with wide eyes as I place my chin on his chest.
"What?" He gives me a toothy grin, his eyes full of hope and admiration– A look that I love, the hope in his eyes made me think back to all the times where JJ never had hope... He didn't believe in hope but here he lays beneath me, hope and happiness in his heart.
"Can we try and have another baby?" He repeated, "You know it'll be fun trying." He wiggles his eyebrows making me slap his chest. "You dirty little idiot." I laugh, happiness flowing through me.
"You really want another baby?" I asked just to clarify. He nodded his head, throwing an arm to rest on the pillow to hold his head up.
"Why not? Look at that beautiful girl we made in the next room." He shrugs, "Emilia is perfect. Let's make another perfect baby, give John B and Sarah's baby a run for their money." He winks, I gasp. "JJ!"
"I'm kidding! I'm kidding! But seriously, Lee B. What do you say? Do we want another mini us running around? I always wanted a sibling growing up, I think Emilia should have one too."
I stared at him smiling softly and admiring those blue-eyes I've been in love with since I was thirteen.
"We have all the time in the world, baby. Whatever happens, happens." I say, kissing his lips before laying my cheek back on his chest.
"We do... We have forever." JJ whispers. "...Want to fuck?" I laugh out loud, laying down onto my back and pulling him on top of me.
"Hell, yeah." I tell him, pressing his lips to mine.
"Wait, wait... Should I go outside and climb in through the window? You know, for old times sake?" JJ smirks at me, winking as I think back to every memory I have on JJ climbing through my childhood bedroom window.
I shake my head at his goofiness, "Shut up and fuck me, JJ."
The broken girl and the broken boy now had forever to look forward to. The wars within them had finally eased by the hands of the one laying next to them. In the end, all they needed was each other,
their piece of happiness.
Their forever...
Paradise on earth, one might say.
Lena "Lee, Lee B" Maybank
JJ Maybank
- - - -
HOLY CRAP! It has been a run time writing this story for yall I'm not even kidding. I love your comments, I read every single one.
I really hope you were satisfied with the ending (but I may be thinking of making a second part to the epilogue, we'll see tho!)
Im sad to end this, but I enjoyed every second. I cannot thank you guys enough for reading, and I look forward to beginning new JJ fan fiction for yall to read!!
love to all,
Xoxo,
A