On the other side of the park, Dinah walked off with the ride with a giggling Normani on her back. The infectious laugh drove Dinah absolutely crazy. She pulled her bottom lip in, trying to stifle a laugh, but she couldn't stop it from coming out.
Her girlfriend was random. Completely random. She turned everything into a joyous, fun time no matter what obstacles were being thrown at her. It was one of the many traits Dinah loved about her. Who would've thought one person could break down the most sealed up person on the planet.
Their relationship came organically. The feelings Dinah had for the dark-skinned girl grew stronger as time went on. She was the only person Dinah trusted and the only one to know about her family problems such as her Uncle holding her mom practically hostage because he paid the rest of Dinah's college bill that wasn't covered by financial aid. Dinah tried to take some time off to save up for school and even thought about taking one or two classes at a community college, but her mom wasn't having it. She wanted Dinah to have everything she never got to experience.
Normani on the other hand grew up with a completely different lifestyle. For starters, both of her parents were in her life and both had occupations. Her father worked at a law firm and her mother worked as a neurologist at the local hospital. They were both very smart and very religious. What neither of them had were hearts.
Her parents never settled for anything less than perfect. They expected her to graduate at the top of her class and attend an Ivy League school where they wanted her to study a field that made well over six figures. Even though Normani had the brains for it, she wanted nothing to do with a STEM major. Her passion was in film making, but there was no way her parents would pay to send her to school for that type of things, so they met in the middle. Normani would be allow to attend the University of Florida if she seemed a degree in chemistry.
Normani was glad to be away. Their relationship was stronger when she was until her parents found out she was in a relationship with Dinah.
The two of them started their relationship in September, but spent most of the summer growing closer. Normani never gave them much of an explanation of what happened to John. She told them the distance was too much and they wanted to be single when they started school. They didn't find out until Normani came home for Labor Day weekend. She had shoved a love letter Dinah wrote her early on Friday into her bag and forgot about it until her parents called her on Tuesday asking about the letter they found on her floor.
They gave her two options. She either had to leave Dinah or move out. She went with the second option because love always wins.
"Are you cold?" Dinah asked concerned when she felt Normani shiver against her skin.
"I'm okay," Normani answered as she hopped off Dinah's back and sat down on the empty bench.
"Are you hungry?"
"I could go for some hot chocolate right about now."
Dinah nodded. "I'll be right back."
Dinah walked over to the line of people waiting for hot chocolate. Every so often she looked over at Normani who was either captured by colorful fireworks or making silly faces at her.
After a few minutes, Dinah was walking back to the bench with two hot chocolates in her hands and cookies in her coat pocket.
"You better enjoy these damn cookies," Dinah said as she handed Normani one of the hot chocolates. "I have crumbs all inside my pocket." She pulled the cookies out and tried to wipe as much as the crumbs as she could.
Normani laughed. "You know I could've helped you, so you didn't have to put the cookies in your pocket."
"I like waiting on my girl. You're the only one I'll do it for."
"I'm honored."
With a mouthful of cookies, Dinah replied. "You better be."
"I must really love you," Normani grimaced.
The number one thing she hated the most was watching people eat like an animal and talk with food in their mouth. It's her biggest turn off and usually dropped anyone who hate like so, but Dinah was her exception. She was her exception for a lot of things.
Dinah finished swallowing the food in her mouth and looked at Normani from the side of her eye. "What are you looking at?"
"You."
Dinah stopped for a minute, staring at the girl before taking another bite of the cookie.
"Oh, I see how you are," Normani laughed."
"What?" Dinah questioned, furrowing her eyebrows.
"No kiss?"
Dinah rolled her eyes and leaned in, but was met with Normani's palm pushing against her face.
"No right now," Normani squirmed. "Finish what's in your mouth."
Dinah continued working on the cookie in her mouth. She felt rushed while Normani continued staring at her. It always seemed to take longer to eat something when someone was staring at you or expecting you to talk. After finishing, she took a sip of her hot chocolate to wash the remaining bits down.
"Can I kiss you now?"
"You can kiss my cheek," Normani answered, tapping her cheek. "I don't want your cookie crumbs in my mouth.
Dinah leaned over, lifting her butt off the bench and snuck a kiss on Normani's lips.
"Dinah," Normani spat, jumping up. "What was that?"
"What? Don't act like you didn't like it."
"No, what's that vibrating?" Normani asked, her eyes scanning Dinah's body.
"Huh?" Dinah questioned for a second before realizing it was her phone going off. When did she turn it on vibrate? The question left her head as she answered the call without looking at the caller ID.
"Listen leprechaun, I was in the middle of something. Just give her some juice and throw her in bed-oh hi mom," Dinah flushed as she realized she wasn't on the phone with Ally. "She's fine...yeah, I made sure she ate," her eyes fixed on the people rushing by.
"Yes, I fed her. Why wouldn't I... I'm not trying to make her fat...yes, she's having a great time...mhm...mhm...," her eyes rolled in annoyance. "I'll have her call you tonight. I'm at the Christmas party...yes mom, I'll make sure she calls...love you too...bye."
"Was she calling for Gina?" Normani asked curiously as Dinah slipped her phone back into her jacket."
"No, she's calling about you. She thinks I'm starving you, but she should see my billing statement with all the money I spent on food for you," the Polynesian laughed, earning a playful smack from her girlfriend.
"I offered to help out."
Dinah shook her head. "You're crazy if you think I'm going to let you pay right now. You need to be saving what you have since your parents are no longer helping you out."
The dark-skinned girl stayed quiet and fiddled with a loose string hanging from Dinah's jacket. Dinah instantly regretted what she said, knowing the entire situation was a sore subject.
"I still want to buy my girl food," Normani spoke up. "I don't want to be in a one sided relationship where you pay for everything. Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate it, but I want to do simples things like that for you. I may be broke like every other college student, but I have enough to feed my girl."
"Okay," Dinah nodded. She wasn't going to say no to free food. "You can buy me lunch tomorrow then."
"I won't forget."
The firework show ended without the two girls realizing. They were too caught up with each other and Dinah's Mom. Everyone around them were starting to rush out of the park while tugging tired small children behind. They knew that was going to be them tomorrow when they bring the girls, but tonight they were going to use this opportunity to ride all the good rides while the crowd was low.
Back at the resort, Lucy and Ally were ushering their small group of children into the cafeteria. They looked like a small daycare trying to feed their kids.
They had spent the night occupying the children with various activities. They started off with coloring before moving to Legos and then on to house. You could tell how different Alexa and Regina were from each other. Alexa was fonder of building and problem solving while Regina rather play house, but they took turns doing what each of them wanted to do.
That was until Regina declared Alexa as the "Daddy" in the game and Aidan as their "baby". Alexa threw a fit because she was tired of always having to be the "dad" when they played, and she would much rather be the dog.
It took some suggestions from Lucy until they were able to compromise. Regina could continue being the Mom and Alexa could be the dog. It worked out great until Regina ordered her "dog" to lick Lucy's face.
As time ticked on, Lucy and Ally took the kids on a little trip around the resort. Their eyes glowed with excitement as they danced around on the open beach and saw Stitch aimlessly walking around the resort with another employee.
To end their little adventure, they were now sitting the children down at one of the secluded tables. Deep down they knew giving preschoolers and a toddler sugar before bed was a bad idea, but they were on vacation and all rules go out the window then.
"Can I walk up with you?" Alexa asked as Ally finished sliding Aidan into the high chair. Ally was going to go up alone and grab some dessert while Lucy stayed behind.
"I don't see why not," Ally said, seeing that it would be one less child for Lucy to look after. "Do you want to join us too, Gina?"
"No thank you," Regina answered, her mind occupied with teaching Aidan how to play peek-a-boo.
"We'll be right back," Ally announced before turning on her heels towards the food. Alexa skipped merrily along.
"What do you want?" Ally asked, viewing all the different pastries sitting on the shelf. All the options of the different cakes, cookies, and muffins were a bit overwhelming.
"Chocolate chip please," Alexa replied as she hoisted herself up on her tiptoes and tried to stretch her arm out to grab the cookie on the second shelf.
Ally grabbed the cookie for her and placed it on one of the trays sitting next to them.
"Do you remember when we would make cookies?" Alexa asked as she grabbed a cup of fruit and placed it on tray.
"I do," Ally nodded. "You were my little helper."
"And remember when Aidan and Uncle Jay would sneak in and try to steal them and you would hit them with a spoon?" The small girl laughed as Ally decided on a blueberry muffin for her treat.
"They were naughty."
"Very naughty," Alexa added. After a few seconds, Alexa started talking again. "Is uncle Jay ever coming back? I miss him."
Ally bit the inside of her cheek. It was a topic she never discussed with the child, mainly because the topic never came up. She forgot how close the two of them were. He was practically the only father figure Alexa had in her life for the first four years while Paul ran off.
Ally grabbed a few more treats before moving down the line towards the fridge full of drinks. Alexa followed behind.
"Every time I try to ask mommy about him, she starts talking about something else," she shared as Ally grabbed some waters and juice out of the fridge.
Ally stopped what she was doing and bent down to Alexa's height. She didn't know how to go about it, but she knew she couldn't drop the subject like her sister had been doing.
"Uncle Jay isn't coming back anytime soon," Ally said slowly, mostly for herself. She was ripping a Band-Aid off a Very still opened wound.
The little girls grew. "H-he died?" Her bottom lip quivered and water filled her doe eyes.
"No, no," Ally quickly answered, grabbing ahold of Alexa's hands. "He went away."
"How come?"
"He...he made me very sad," Ally answered as she looked deep into Alexa's chocolate eyes. She could see the wheels turning in her head. "He did something really mean that hurt me a lot."
"Like what? Did he take your cookies? I can have a talk with about that," Alexa replied.
Alexa always saw how upset Ally got whenever Jay would steal a cookie before dinner.
Ally cracked a faint smile. Oh the mind of a four-year-old.
"No, not like that."
Alexa cocked her head to the side confused. "Like what?"
"That's not very important."
"Did he hurt your fairies?" Alexa asked.
"My what?"
Ally had never heard that term before.
"Your fairies," Alexa repeated with emphasis. "Mommy told me your body is filled with tiny little fairies that help take care of you. She told me that they get hurt whenever I get and that is why I shouldn't jump from the fourth stair."
After the constant battle wounds from Alexa being an energetic preschooler, Camila had to think of a way to get Alexa to be more careful. She made the whole thing up on the spot while she was nursing the scrape Alexa got from jumping off the stairs because she thought her magical blue fairy wings would make her fly.
Alexa didn't believe her at first. There was no way someone's body was filled with fairies. How would they even survive in there? Camila made her close her eyes and asked if she saw any such thing to which the little girl's reply was a yes when she saw a pink and blue fairy appear.
It didn't completely stop Alexa from being reckless, but she always thought about the little fairies flying around her. She didn't want to kill them.
"Mommy has fairies too," Alexa added. "And so does Lauren and Regina and Daddy and you. So did he hurt them?"
Ally nodded. "He hurt them, but my fairies are strong."
"Good."
Alexa leaned pulled her hands back and wrapped her arms around Ally's neck, pulling her into a tight hug. "I love you, aunt Ally."
"I love you too, Lex," She replied holding onto her niece tight.
"Can we have dessert now?" Alexa asked, pulling away.
Ally chuckled. "We sure can as soon as I pay for them."
Alexa skipped out to the seating area, leaving Ally alone with the tray full of sweets. She brought the tray up to the register and grabbed her debit card from the card case on the back of her phone.
"Is this all?" The masculine voice asked as he typed each item onto the computer.
Ally looked up at him for the first time, nearly dropping her card. Her eyes grew as stared at his chiseled jawline and then up to his blue hazel eyes. The only imperfection on him was his slightly crooked smile, but that was Ally's favorite part about him. She tried to look around for a name tag, but nothing hung from his shirt.
"Is this all?" He repeated after not receiving an answer the first time.
"No...yeah," Ally shook her head. "Yeah, I'm ready."
"Your total comes out to $22.48," he replied, taking the card from the smaller girl and swiping it through the card reader. He waited a few seconds for the receipts to print out before handing them to her with a pen. "sign the top copy please."
Ally took the pen and signed her name. It barely looked like her signature due to her hand shaking tremendously.
"Thank you. I hope you have a magical evening," he replied, taking the top receipt and pen back.
Ally shoved her card back into her case after missing it a few times. She then tossed her receipt onto the tray and walked away with her cheeks burning from embarrassment.
"It's about time," Alexa said as she sat up on her knees. She grabbed her cookie and Regina's brownie from the tray.
"I hear wedding bells," Lucy smirked as Ally hid her face.
--
I hope you all are having a wonderful start to the new year!
QOTD: Is anyone still interested in me publishing "Wishes" and "Dreams"? I'm still going to leave them up on wattpad for anyone to enjoy, but if there's any interest in people wanting a physical copy let me know.
- Ashley
twitter: dinahaddict