∞∞∞
∞∞∞
"Who comes to McDonald's and orders a salad?" Riley complained. "I mean, really?"
"Your NINI." Jennie answered with effortlessness.
The handsome boy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well—"
"Because your NINI finds the idea of clogging down her arteries at this age quite repulsing." Jennie added.
"At this age?" Riley asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"I'm still young, you know?" Jennie drawled, taking another bite of her menu of choice. "Even though I have you."
Riley laughed. "I know. You're younger than other mothers out there."
"I may be."
"Which is why, technically." Riley stressed. "You should understand me and agree to send me on that trip!"
"Technically~..." Jennie responded, unfazed.
"NINI!" Riley whined, slouching down in his seat.
Jennie rolled her eyes.
Lisa laughed as she continued to watch them with their usual squabbling.
"Riley Jase, nope!" she said in a firm tone. "Arrasseo? You're too young. I'm not going to be there. What if something happens?"
"You're so overprotective!" The tall Thai laughed, reaching over the table to grasp one of the brunette's hands. "You're shoo squicchyyy cute, I swear!" Lisa uttered in her aegyo gestures.
"I'm not overprotective!" Jennie defended. "I just care about him!"
"Of course you do, Jennie~." Lisa answered, smiling. "But he's a big boy. And just like all the other kids his age, he's going to be just fine."
From her deadly catlike glare, Jennie's eyes softened, and for a moment, she truly considered Lisa's words, but then she saw the tall blonde wink at Riley, and she rolled her eyes, snatching her hand from the tall Thai's grasp.
"You two are trying to work behind my back~." Jennie accused, eyes narrowed as she gestured between them. "You think your LILI can help you. But your LILI's not going to, because I'm not going to let her."
Riley's mouth dropped open. "But, NINI—"
"Shut up and eat." Jennie commanded.
While the tall Thai's son pouted and sunk his head into his shoulders, Lisa maintained both her grin and her carefree expression, winking yet again in Riley's direction.
∞
I came to stand in her doorway after tucking Riley in his bed that night. The door was wide open, giving me a perfect view of her as Jennie sat on the bed and fiddled with the strap of her high heels.
I knocked, either way.
Her silky khaki hair slid over her shoulders and around her cute puffy face as she straightened to meet my gaze.
"We need to talk~..." I announced.
Jennie rolled her eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you—and your son—that he is not going on that trip?" Jennie said, clearly upset, as she stood and stormed across the room, to her closet.
I straightened my posture and my bangs, watching her as she yanked the door open with barely concealed annoyance. "Jennie~, he—"
"Look." Jennie snapped, turning around to face me. "You will never understand. So don't waste your energy. Go to bed. Or just leave. Go away Lisa!"
"You're right..." I answered in a forceful tone. "I'll never understand if you don't explain it to me."
For a moment, she was silent. And then, placing her hands over her hips, she seemed to take my firm response as a challenge. "Riley is all I have." Jennie said simply, dark brown eyes hard as they watched me. "You have no idea how much my life changed when he was born and I held him in my arms for the first time. He filled up a hole I hadn't even known was there." Jennie paused, licking her lips and taking in a shaky breath that I knew I hadn't been meant to see. "I don't know about you and I don't care about you—but I don't want to fail."
Riley is all I have... I don't care about you... - Those blunt and somehow harsh words echoed in my mind.
Slipping her heels from her feet, Jennie tossed them inside the closet before closing the door. She turned around with every intention to walk across the room and lock herself in the attached bathroom, but I was already making my way towards her, so Jennie was forced to stop.
"Jennie..." I murmured.
"You know what my parents did to me." Jennie continued her explanation. "What you don't know is how much it hurt—how much it still hurts. And I don't want Riley to feel that—ever. I would rather have him say I'm overprotective and hate me and remember, for the rest of his life, that I didn't let him go on a trip with his classmates when he was six."
"Nini~..." I whispered, and the old nickname went unnoticed as Jennie hurried to interrupt me once again.
"I'm scared, okay?" Jennie said, her palms turning upwards as if it was a fact of no importance. "I'm scared that, someday, something or someone is going to take him away from me. And I won't be able to stand that. Are you happy now?"
"Nothing's taking Riley away from you..." I told her, grasping her upper arm in order to keep her in place as she brushed past me.
"Not one?" Jennie challenged. Her catlike eyes seemed to accuse me—and her next words sent a painful pang through my heart. "Because that's exactly what I thought about you. Everything could have happened. The entire world could have been turned upside down. But you would have never remained there, never by my side. I'm not taking chances anymore."
"You didn't lose me~..." I soothed, cradling her small face into my hands as I slowly brought her closer. "I... I'm the one who made too many mistakes, who didn't know how to appreciate you."
Jennie shook her head. "I have part of the fault, too." She said. Her words were firm, resigned—so unlike my own, agitated sentences.
I swallowed hard as my gaze relentlessly searched hers, and my hands trembled as they glided gently over her khaki hair. "That's the problem." I whispered. "You don't."
The words seemed to break her, and Jennie looked down, suddenly unable to maintain eye-contact. "I gave up." Jennie whispered after a long silence. "I shouldn't have. I should have stuck by your side like I promised before God... like I promised you."
"Not at all~..." I hastened to say, taking a step even closer. My fingers slipped into the soft hair at the nape of her neck, aiding me in coaxing her to meet my eyes once more. "You did the right thing. Who knows where we would have been now if you hadn't opened my blind eyes like you did?"
"There were so many questions." Jennie confessed quietly. "And so few answers, I could have gone crazy."
"But Riley..."
"He solved everything. He made me pull myself together. Once I found out I was pregnant, there was no other option."
"You're an ideal mother." I told her, and tilted her chin up when she attempted to avert her tear-filled feline eyes. "It's alright to be scared. It's pretty normal because that's the one that is going to help you grow and it will let you know that something is worth it."
"Is it?" Jennie whispered insecurely.
I hastily nodded. "Yes~."
Jennie exhaled shakily.
My hands moved to her shoulders as I continued to steadily gaze down into her regretful catlike eyes. "This will make him happy."
"I know. I just..." Turning around, Jennie severed our connection, moving towards the window. "He was always within my sight before. And when he wasn't, I knew he was inside my apartment, safe and sound."
"Jennie..." Murmuring her name, I closed the distance between us; my hand came to rest over her lower back, where I gently stroked the soft material of her dress, her khaki hair tickling my fingers. "Riley could never feel the pain you did. His NINI truthfully loves him."
As her own arms held close her protectively around the middle, Jennie looked down, giving no indication whatsoever that she had heard me.
I sighed. "Come here." I said, coaxing her into my embrace.
It took a second for her to relax, but then my hand slid through her hair, and she practically melted into me, her arms wrapping around my waist and her head sniffling to my collarbone.
"Everything is going to be alright. You've done an amazing job until now. And now you have me by your side, too. You're not going to fail."
There was no verbal response from her part, but the way her embrace tightened and her head shifted to bury itself in the crook of my neck told me everything I needed to know.
"It's okay..." I whispered in her ear, hands running soothing circles over her back, nose buried in her fragrant hair.
After so much time, I had forgotten how smol bean-like and frail she felt in my arms. I had forgotten how insecure she actually was beneath her tarnished 'Resting Bitch Face' façade, how easily everything could affect her and make life overwhelming. Jennie never showed it. She fell, but she never lingered; she got up and went on, every single time. But that didn't mean it was an easy process.
And if there was one thing in the world that I, Lalisa Manoban loathed with every fiber of my being, that was seeing the woman I truly loved upset.