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          “It’s so crazy how quickly things can suddenly seem like they’ve been that way forever,”  the brunette continued to nod in agreement, a soft giggle quick to escape her crimson colored lips as she noticed just how much fun little Mia seemed to be having already. It was a particular sentiment that hit pretty close to home to her when it came to her own relationships. Having Danny come back into her life and suddenly having Mia become a great part of it, too. It was pretty crazy to think about how they were barely even still on speaking terms last year. How the universe really had somehow managed to turn their entire lives upside down in a total instant — her attention soon enough once again being turned back on Mia as the little girl came running back to her. 

          “Let’s get you out of your little jacket,”  Aubrey told Mia, shrugging the light fabric off the toddler’s shoulders with ease as she helped her get a little more comfortable.  “Here you go, baby girl,”  she smiled, pressing a light kiss against the tiny brunette’s cheeks as Mia demanded a hug from her.  “Now go have fun with Ella,”  she encouraged her. It was weird how even interacting with Mia gave her total butterflies. A certain level of complete and utter happiness she had only ever really experienced being around her boyfriend.  “How have you been, anyway?”  Aubrey asked, swiftly turning the conversation back to Kipley.  “I feel like I haven’t really seen you since Danny’s birthday.”

Kip took a deep breath as Aubrey asked how she was doing. “Honestly? I’m just...taking it day by day. It’s not easy having your best friend move across the country. I went from girl’s nights with boxes of wine, to face time and whining about how much I miss her. But...she’s living her dream, so I try not to get her down too much. That just wouldn’t be fair.” Kipley shrugged. “Other than that, though, I don’t really have anything to complain about. I’ve got an adorable kid, a cute dog, a roof over my head, and a job that doesn’t suck. I get to see cute puppies and kittens all day, and I’m working on hopefully becoming a tech. I drew blood on Copley the other day, and only needed to stab him a couple of times.” She chuckled.

“But what about you? How are things?” Kip asked, tilting her head to the side.

“well, murderer or not, she sounds like the sweetest little thing. if i have the chance to meet her one day, let alone teach, i’d be very lucky. that might be just what convinces me to stay put,” madi said with a laugh. it was true though, she loved kids and something watching their little minds work gave her a different kind of satisfaction she wasn’t sure she should give up. 

“She is pretty cute. Sometimes I just hold her up and kiss her cheeks and remind myself that I made that perfect little peanut. I’m sure we’ll run into you around town sometime. We’re always out and about. Deja Brew is our go to morning place. I get my coffee, she gets a donut hole. Generally I need to remind her not to inhale the donut hole.”

It was safe to say April had been a pretty eventful month. In between Kassi moving out to Los Angeles and Lee relapsing and yelling awful things at Moonie’s doorstep, he sure had a lot to deal with emotionally. Yet, as soon as May arrived: Moonie’s focus was completely on his little sister. Not that he wasn’t feeling that way every single day of his life, but May meant Mimi’s birthday month. And with that, it came the birthday party preparations. Mimi loved to have a party every year and she had become popular among her group of friends for always throwing really fun ones so, it was an expected event and Moonie’s family always tried their best each year to throw the most amazing ones for her. 

This year was no different, they had worked hard for this and it paid off. His sister was the happiest girl there was right now, and her friends were too. Of course, amongst the guests there were people who weren’t blood related but still were family to both Moonie and Mimi: one of them being Kipley, his best friend since childhood, and her daughter Ella (who also happened to be his goddaughter). A smile invaded him when he spotted them arriving to the party scene. “Well, the stars that were missing in our sky are here now”, he announced, Mimi running towards them to greet them too. “How are our two favorite girls doing?” // @kipleyrowe​

Kip was glad April was over. Nothing good ever came of the month, and this year hadn’t proved any different. The weather had been chilly and dreary, and her best friend had moved across the country. Hopefully May was going to be a better month for the blonde. At least Mother’s Day had been nice. She’d spent the day at the park with Ella, the two of them playing on the slides (Ella was finally brave enough to go down on her own), and when they’d gotten hungry, Kip had gone and picked up her mother and they’d gone out to eat at some new Italian restaurant down the street from her place. Her mother hadn’t been the best mom while Kip was growing up, but she didn’t completely mess her up, so she figured she owed her that much. Plus she was always a help with Ella. The little girl adored her ‘Nana’.

Sliding into the next weekend, Kip was excited for Mimi’s party. She’d let Ella help her pick out a present, and they’d settled on a new Princess Poppy doll. She figured all kids were into Trolls lately, so it was a safe bet to go with Princess Poppy. (Of course, she’d had to get one for Ella, too, because the toddler just didn’t understand the concept of ‘it’s not your birthday’. Every day was a birthday in Ella’s books.) Standing out on the stoop of their house, Kip couldn’t help but laugh at Ella’s face lighting up the second she saw Moonie. With a shrill shriek, the little girl threw her arms up. “MOO!” Kip looked at Moonie and handed over the toddler. “She’s all yours.”

💞- A memory about their children

Labor sucked ass. Kipley swore to herself she was never, ever doing this, ever again. It didn’t matter if that meant she was going to be celibate for the rest of her life. Never, would she ever, shove a watermelon sized head through her cooch again, as long as she lived. This had better be worth it.

Everyone kept telling her it was almost over, but she figured they just didn’t get it. It didn’t matter if it was another ten seconds, ten minutes, ten hours, any length of time was too much. She was exhausted. She’d been at this for almost a full day, and she felt defeated. Everything hurt and she just wanted to sleep. But the pain was too much for her to even take a ten minute nap. Sleep was forever a thing of the past for her now, she supposed.

Another contraction hit, and the doctor was yelling at her to push once again. “Stop yelling at me!” She cried, as she bore down, her face turning red, and then suddenly…relief. A cry. And surprisingly, the cry wasn’t coming from her. She looked down and there was this pink, screaming baby. …her baby.

The doctor placed the baby on Kip’s chest and Kip grabbed for her, the tears coming down her own face now. “Hi, baby…” She sniffled, and suddenly, she couldn’t imagine the world without this little girl in it. “Hi Eleanor…it’s okay. It’s okay. Momma’s here…” She kissed Ella’s little head and gave her her finger to hold, knowing from now on, it would be her and Ella against the world.

💛- A memory that makes them feel angry

“Where’s Dad going?” Little six year old Kip stood in the hallway, watching as her dad packed a suitcase in his bedroom. They’d never been a close family. Her parents were never affectionate towards each other, or even her, really. Her mother was more so involved than her dad, but she still craved that love from him. She’d greet him at the door when he came home from work, holding little drawings or holding her arms open for a hug that never came.

Today felt different, though. There was the usual distance between her parents, but as her dad was in the bedroom, she could feel tension. Her mother was just standing there, glaring at him as he packed. “Is he going on another work trip?” Her mother just shrugged, her arms crossed. “Something like that.” She mumbled. Kip realized she wasn’t going to get any answers from her, and wandered into the bedroom.

“Where are you going, Dad?” Her father didn’t answer as she stood there. “Are you going to be back soon?” Looking at the little girl, her father huffed, growing irritated. “Jesus, Kipley. Get out of the way. Always in the damn way.” Tears came to the little girl’s eyes. “I was just asking a question…” She mumbled, stepping aside. Her father just threw his hands up in the air. “I’m going out, Kipley. Does that satisfy you? I’m just going out. I don’t know when I’ll be back. Eventually, okay? Eventually. Now just…get out.” The tears fell harder and the blonde ran to her bedroom and slammed the door shut. It was a few minutes later that she heard the front door slam, and she watched as her father went to his car, and never turned around. He didn’t even say goodbye.

💚- A memory that makes them feel guilty

She was twelve. Facebook was something new to her, something that all the kids at school were getting into. Kip figured she would check it out, just to see what all the fuss was about. So, she made herself a profile, started looking up kids from school that she knew, and then decided hey, why not look up other people she knew. …which somehow landed her looking up her dad. She hadn’t seen or heard from him in six years. Honestly, she didn’t think she’d find him, he was probably too busy for something as silly as Facebook. And yet…there he was. Edward Rowe. Pictures of him, smiling, happy, with a family. Her heart was shattered.

Sure, she knew it was a possibility. He’d left, and his ‘eventually’ for coming back was clearly a lie, she’d realized that a couple years after he’d gone, but still. He was living a life happy as could be. There were pictures of family vacations, pictures on the beach, sitting by a big Christmas tree…and here was Kipley and her mom, eating macaroni and cheese and hot dogs most nights out of the week because her mom could barely pay the bills.

She was so angry, she didn’t even think about what she was doing. All she knew was that she was hurt, so someone else needed to hurt. Luckily for her, his kids were listed. And she wondered…did they know about her? Or was she an unknown? Her parents hadn’t been married…was she a secret love child? Or was it the other way around? Were they ‘they other family’? She clicked on the first kid’s name. Nate. And threw all care to the wind. Friend request sent.

And why not add fuel to the fire? After sending the friend request, she hit ‘message’ and decided to start a family reunion. “Hi there. My name is Kipley Rowe. And I don’t know if dear ol’ dad has ever mentioned me, but I’m your sister!” Message sent. …a week later, Edward’s profile listed him as single. She was glad he was hurting, but she honestly felt pretty bad for his other kids. …she knew that hurt. And it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

💕- A memory about their significant other

“You are making some very good points here.” Madison smiled, listening to her story which brought her to laughter. “That is hysterical. Kids could literally get away with anything because they use their cuteness against you. I don’t think I could recall ever being upset with one of my students. It is just impossible.”

“Oh, Ella could get away with murder. She’s only fourteen months old, but the kid could run her own comedy show. She wouldn’t say much, but the shit she does, let me tell you. I’ve had to walk away a few times because I shouldn’t be laughing at the things she’s doing, but you just can’t help it.” Kip rarely got angry with Ella, and when she did, it was mostly because she was overtired herself, and she wasn’t really angry at the toddler, she was angry at the situation. At least lately both of them had been sleeping better...finally.

          “Oh my gosh. Mia. Look at that cute little puppy,”  Aubrey cooed, her features bright and playful as she quickly put Mia down onto the living room floor right in front of her. It was almost too adorable to witness just the kind of reaction the two little girls seemed to bring out in each other. The fact Mia almost immediately seemed to want to run after Ella a sure indicator of an adorable little sisterhood in the making, if ever the brunette saw one. Something which definitely brought nothing but joy to her, even if she was a little sad Danny hadn’t been able to tag along for their fun little outing together.  

          “I totally would have brought our dogs too had I known they would be such a hit among the crowd,”  the brunette laughed, her gaze for a moment following the two girls as they happily squealed at each other.  “Does she follow him around all day too? I don’t think Mia ever really stopped running after Daisy ever since we adopted her last September.”  

Kipley watched as the two little girls ran after each other, Copley in the mix as well, and she smiled. Sometimes she felt like she and Ella were isolated from the world, which was probably her fault. It was hard to be a single mom and maintain friends. People without kids didn’t want to be around kids, they’d rather be out having fun and going to bars and parties. And then the people who did have kids were all older than her, and just looked down at her. It wasn’t easy, and was one reason she was very glad for Aubrey’s company.

“Then it really would have been a party in here.” Kip laughed. “Copley loves other dogs, but he doesn’t realize he’s not all that little, and gets overly rambunctious. He gets the zoomies and runs into everything.” She watched as Ella threw her arms around the dog’s neck and she reached down, pulling her off. “Do nice to the dog, Ella. Easy.” She looked back up at Aubrey and nodded. “Like a duckling following its mother. They’re inseparable. Copley’s only been here a couple months, but I can’t remember a time when he wasn’t here.” 

Moonie: Yes... I meant exactly, that.

Moonie: ... it wasn't just twice though 😅 haha oops who said that??

Moonie: We did use protection this last time, hehe. We did learn our lesson after the only time we didn't 😅😅😅

Moonie: Kip is always wise and powerful 💛 but yes, you are right. I need to stop worrying now.

Moonie: In the meantime it's just you, me and Ella against the world here in Springhill 👨‍👩‍👧🔥

Kipley: Dear lord what am I going to do with you two.

Kipley: You'd better have. I'm too young to be an Auntie Kip!

“ hi, sorry to bother you, do you think you could help me out? ” Zooey asked, shyly approaching the stranger nearby. “ I’m trying to find some toy for my kid, and quite frankly I have no idea what I’m looking for. It was some kind of troll or dragon or … wizard ? Any chance you know what the kids are into these days? ”

Kip had a strategy down when it came to Christmas shopping. Do it year round, so you don’t need to wait till the last minute and get everything at once, and end up at your mother’s for dinner because you’re too broke to feed yourself. So that’s where she was now. She’d gotten a bit of a bonus this week, and so she figured she’d get a couple of things for Ella out of the way now. Hearing a voice, she turned around and smiled. “Well...I know my kid is obsessed with Princess Poppy from Trolls. Could that be it?” She reached over and held up the pink princess troll from the movie. “The new movie just came out, so maybe that has something to do with it?”

“So,” Madison sighed as she spoke to the person sitting across from her outside Deja Brew, “What do you think?” She paused to a take a sip from her coffee before continuing, “I love teaching the little ones, but I feel like I need to try something new. Should I jump into teaching high school teenagers, or stick to my babies?” @shstarters​

“Stick with kids, absolutely. Teenagers suck. I’m dreading the day my kid grows up into a teenager. They’re mean, and ruthless, and let’s face it. Tiny humans are way more entertaining. The other day, Ella learned a new word. She ripped her diaper off, put it on her head...it was clean, luckily...and started running around the room yelling ‘nakie’ at the top of her lungs. Now, if a teenager did this, it’d be pretty concerning. But a toddler? Hysterical.”

                     open ; @shstarters​

“his tinder bio said, and I quote: 25, gay, will suck dick for a mcdonalds milkshake. there was a picture of him sucking dick while holding a milkshake.” jun wheezed with laughter at what he saw when him and a friend made a fake profile on tinder just for the fun of it. “i can’t unsee it!” 

“That’s nothing. Back in my Tinder days, an icebreaker question was ‘what is your favorite day’, and the guy responded with ‘Taco Tuesday’. And what was he eating? ...you guessed it. A ‘taco’.” Kip shuddered at the memory. “What is it about hookup apps that bring out the weird in people?”

Moonie: Hoping the same. Now we'll have our sleepovers through a screen I believe 😪

Moonie: I know. I think the same. Things got a little bit awkward after... you know. Even if we wanted it or not. As soon as we involved other things, well... so yeah, I agree we needed this for our own good. I do need to sort them out.

Moonie: That's true, I should totally stop worrying about it. But I care too much about her, all I want is her being okay and I really hated to be the cause of her not being okay when it all recently happened. You know exactly what I'm talking about. But I guess we are past that now...

Kipley: You mean after you stuck your p in her v and almost gave Ella a cousin not once, but twice?

Kipley: You were both consenting adults and knew what was happening. You're not the cause of anything and you need to stop guilting yourself into thinking you are.

Moonie: Same. I'm certain we'll end up Facetiming every night.

Moonie: Of course you do...

Moonie: Well, you know everything. And I can't help but feel that I've already hurt her, you know? And that makes me feel like shit. Hope it's not true but... the thought is there, in the back of my head. And that's the last thing I've ever want.

Kipley: Hopefully time goes by fast and it'll be like she never left.

Kipley: I think you're thinking too much into it. But I do think it'll be good for you two to kind of have some distance for a little while to sort out your feelings.

Kipley Eileen Rowe -