X: The Baby Shower

7:43 pm Friday, May 19, 2023,

Danielle's pov

The look on Tera's face was betrayal, I knew she felt betrayed. This is why no one likes Cassie. Tera teared up, I tried to say sorry but she held up her hand and ran out the door. I started crying while holding my stomach. James came and hugged me telling me everything was okay. I didn't feel okay, I needed to lie down. "I'm speechless. You guys have some serious problems y'all need to figure out. But for right now I think the rest of us need to go, especially Cassie." Arianna says, grabbing Asher's hand and walking to the door with the rest of the gang.

I was crying so much I couldn't see straight. James stopped hugging me and held my face. "Hey, It's okay, she'll forgive us sooner or later, all that matters right now is you and the baby." He wipes tears from my eyes and I slow my hitched breathing. "What if she doesn't? What if she hates me forever?" I ask, tears coming back. "Stop the what ifs. If she doesn't forgive us we'll move on, now how about I make you a nice warm salt bath before we go to bed." He says kissing my cheek. I desperately needed a salt bath. "Ok, fine but can we put some cookies in the oven? I want something sweet." He nods, picks me up, and takes me to the kitchen.

After we make cookies he brings me to our room. We sat on the bed for a while talking about the appointment with the doctor and the baby. We had the party set with everything Cake, the gender reveals balloon, small snacks, Chocolate pretzels, strawberries, Walking tacos, and prizes for our guests. It was gonna be fun. If someone told me when I was younger that I would be living like this at 17, I would've laughed in their face and said they were weird. Now that I look at my life, it's crazy to see how many people are in my life and that I'm grateful for all of them, even Cassie.

I guess even for the people who mess up your life you have to be grateful for them.

I got up and was about to take off my clothes when both I and James heard a noise downstairs. I got scared fearing we were gonna be harmed. "Danielle, go hide in the closet, I'm gonna go downstairs and check out that noise." I sit down in the closet and wait to hold my baby bump.

James' pov:

I gingerly creep downstairs, I'm pretty sure I heard the noise from the kitchen. I walk to the foyer, careful not to make any noise. I saw a man who looked like he was in his mid-twenties. He had curly dark brown hair with blonde highlights, small brown freckles on his nose, and dark blue eyes. I checked to see if he had a weapon that could harm me and Danielle. There wasn't one I could see so the best thing to do was to confront him. "Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" I say, stepping closer to the man. "What do you mean, this isn't your house." It's not fully my house but I live here half the time. I want to protect Danielle and if that means I have to get physical with him then I will. The odds of winning a fight with him are slim, he looks and probably is stronger than me. "Look dude, I mean no harm but if you don't leave right now I'll kick you out." The dude stiffs up, grins, and looks down at the floor. He must think this is an easy challenge, I don't care how much he hurts me he's not gonna hurt Danielle.

"Fine then, I tried to warn you." He looked up at me but before he could say anything I punched him squarely in the jaw, my knuckles were stinging but I could care less. I'm going to be a father very soon. I have to be able to defend my family. The dude stood back up and tackled me, it hurt my back but I was fine. We were tumbling around on the floor for a while, I got the upper hand and punched him profusely. I was going to punch him again but the front door opened and two people stepped inside. The male was a Caucasian with dark brown hair, carrying two suitcases. "Oh my! Vinnie!" The woman says she looks mixed but mostly African-American with shiny black hair. She was carrying grocery bags. Then Danielle's Grandparents (Who I knew) Walked inside holding party decorations.

"James?!" They both ask me in shock. "Mom, do you know who this rascal is that is beating up my son?" The lady asked Mrs. Parks, Maybe that's her daughter.

"Malory, John, Vincent, meet James, Danielle's boyfriend." I get off of who I suppose is Vincent and help him up. They all stare at me with weird looks on their faces. Then a brunette girl with half fancy half modern outfit and sharp icy blue eyes came in halfway. "Dad, there's more stuff in the car I need-, Vinnie?" The girl comes fully inside the house to examine Vincent. "What happened to your face? And who's that dude?" She asks, pointing at me. "Maddie, this is James, Danielle's boyfriend." She looks at me and rolls her eyes and scoffs.

Does she not like me? Is it because I beat her brother? I heard the steps creak. "James Is everything okay- Vinnie your face!" Danielle rushes down the stairs.

"Okay, I'm not understanding anything, can someone please explain?" I look at everyone and they all ignore me except Dani. "Jeez girl, he did that to your stomach? You're bigger than a watermelon!" The girl whose name I suppose is Maddison said. "Thank you? Follow me to the living room." Me, Vincent, Malory, John, and Maddison follow Danielle. "Dani-Cakes, how are you and the baby?" John says, sitting down. Danielle looks at me and smiles. "Well dad, I and the baby are fine, and it's better when we have James." I don't think her family likes me very much. They practically ignored my presence.

9:50 pm

It had been a while, me and Danielle's family chatting away. Her father and brother are asking me questions. We had just sat in the living room talking away and we lost track of time. The main topic we discussed was the baby shower since that was happening tomorrow. We planned on me and Danielle leaving in the morning and going to the gynecologist while her family and our friends set everything up. I was excited about this. "So wait, James, why'd you hit Vinnie?" Maddison asked, I thought it was clear but I guess not. "Well uh, I thought Vincent was an intruder because I didn't know who he was and I was just trying to protect Danielle," I say shifting my seating position. "Thank you for protecting my daughter, son." I nod my head and we keep chit-chatting. "Okay, I'm heading to bed, I'm tired," Danielle says getting up and stretching. She looks so beautiful, I'm glad I chose her. "I think we should all call it a night, we have a long day ahead of us." Mr. Parks says and everybody agrees.

10:20 pm

I get into bed and snuggle up beside Danielle. "Are you nervous?" she asks, turning to me. "No not really, whatever it is I'll be happy, although I do think it's a girl." I smile. I'm really happy with Danielle and I can't wait until school is over to marry her. "I'm so happy with you James. We may have had a rough start but I am really happy." I am over the moon, she said she's happy, and even though I hurt her she's still happy. I think I love her! No, I don't think, I know. I know I love her and I know she loves me too.

I was about to say something but I saw my perfect angel already asleep. I kissed her on the head and went to sleep.

Good night my sweet Angel

11:15 am Saturday, May 20, 2023,

Danielle's pov

I wake up to the sound of muffled talking from downstairs. I'm guessing they already started setting things up. I sat up in bed realizing that James wasn't there. I got up, went to the bathroom, and got ready for the day. For the day I have two outfits, one for the doctor's office and one for the party. I decided to wear something simple. I wore a white wife beater, a red and blue flannel, some mom jeans, and my favorite checkered vans. I collect my purse and walk downstairs.

I get downstairs and see Tera, Liam, Hazel, Solana, Ari, and Melody. They were eating freshly made breakfast. "Hey girl, I just met Maddie. She's so nice." Tera says. "Have you seen Vinnie? He's been wanting to see you." I say grabbing a piece of bacon. We all turn our heads when we hear at the top of the staircase a very loud and dramatic yawn. "Morning ladies, hello Tera." My brother Vincent says as I roll my eyes. Vinnie has always given Tera special compliments and Tera swears they don't do anything together, but I ship them all the way. "Hi, Vincent," Tera says, giving him a peck on the cheek. "So, have any of you guys seen James, we're supposed to go to the gynecologist, we have an appointment in 30 min," I say looking at the time.

"James went to uh-"

"Vinnie, where's James?"

"He's uh-"

"He's at the store trying to find a different shirt than the one he bought."Papa sits down beside me and smiles. "Why? The shirt was perfectly fine." I say standing up in protest. "Because the shirt we had didn't match us and it looks distasteful." My dad says give me a peck on the cheek. "Okay, if he's out, I need someone to go with me," I say looking at my dad, papa, and brother. "Well, uh- Tera or Maddison can go with you." My dad argues. "False, Tera and Maddison are in charge here.

Also, where are Nana and Mom? And why is everyone gone?" I voice. "Mom and Nana are getting the cakes, James is at Khols getting a better shirt, Tera and Maddie are holding the fort down here, and I and dad are helping carry heavy stuff. So that only leaves Papa to go with Dani-Cakes." Vincent says grabbing me and Papa and kicking us out of the house. "Looks Like it's me and you Pops." I get inside the car and start it on my way to the appointment.

Liam's pov

12:01

It was nice to see Danielle's family, they were all so joyful even Maddison. When I first met her she was a little sassy and mean but you just gotta talk to her a little more and she'll loosen up. Not gonna lie she's smoking hot. I'm sure she felt the same way but I couldn't tell. If anything I hope this baby shower lets people meet people, if you know what I'm saying. Just now Danielle and Mr.Richard left. Vinnie and Mr.John were leaving to go find James. He should've been back by now. And it's kinda strange.

Right now we were waiting for Mrs. Danise and Mrs. Malory to bring the rest of the decorations. "This is no use. We're getting nowhere and the party starts in 3 hours, let's start working on something. And tell Tera to get off the phone with her weird lover boy." Hazel says getting up and getting a container. "Alright phones, now, we promised Danielle we'd set up the party. So everyone except Tera will put their phones in the container." Hazel says, walking around and grabbing everyone's phone. "Just because your man Vincent is flirting with Tera doesn't mean you take that anger out on us?" Melody complains. "Oh shut up Mel." I stood up, walked over to Tera, took her phone, and ended the conversation. She looked at me in disbelief, I already saw who she was talking to and I also knew who she was talking to. "Don't talk to him, he's bad news." I hand her the phone and sit back where I was. She was talking to an old friend of mine, Ben, but she didn't know I knew him…

Flashback.....

"Go go go!" He yells running in front of me. The school's alarm goes off. "Ben, I don't like this idea, why can't I give you the answers, the questions are easy for me!" I yell opening the principal's lockbox. "Yeah for you! It's easy for you. Please, if I fail this test my father will make me wait even longer to inherit his business."Ben pleaded. I do feel bad for him. His father neglects him and is very hard on him. If he does fail the test he'll be in trouble but if we get caught for this he'll be expelled and sent to a boarding school in another country. "Hey! You two! Get over here now!" I and Ben look at each other with fear in our eyes...

I hear a knock on the door and Tera happily gets it. She opens the door to reveal Benjamin Montgomery. The person who lied and manipulated me, and he's not the first. I don't want him here, I don't want him near Tera or Danielle. He walks up to me. "Hello Liam, how are you?" He says with an annoying grin. I fake smile at him and walk away. My face was red from anger so I went to the bathroom to cool off.

Tera's pov

Something weird happened between Liam and Ben but I brushed it off. Ben came up and hugged me, ever since we first met he has been a little flirty. "Hey beautiful, do you always dress up for me, or is this just your natural beauty?" He twirls me around and I roll my eyes. "Ben, we've been over this for the 100th time, I don't like you like that." I looked at him to see if he was hurt but played it off. I felt bad but after James, I won't take any more heartbreak, every guy I have been acquainted with I put them in the friend zone. "Now can we start setting up? Danielle's gonna be back in an hour." I say grabbing all the decorations as everyone else nodded their heads.

~~~~~~~

2:13 pm

It had been a few hours since I embarrassed Ben in front of everyone else. He tried to ignore me the whole time we were setting up, if he was doing something and I wanted to help he'd go somewhere else and help someone do something else. I was tired of it, I may have come off a little strong but it's gotten annoying now. I was gonna talk to him but I got distracted by the other girls telling me that I needed to get ready for the party. We all had matching outfits. We had a choice of either blue or pink depending on what we thought the gender of the baby was.

The 1st option was a Watermelon pink shade

The 2nd Option was a Sky blue shade

I wore the blue one because I think the baby is a boy, Though, I'm the only one wearing blue because all the other girls wanted to wear pink. I had no problem being ostracized but it was the fact that I would be the only one other than Liam matching Ben because I and Liam were the only one in the whole party who thought it was going to be a boy and Ben wore blue because that was the only suit he had in his car at the moment.

I finally got in the dress. I was going to pull Ben aside to talk when I heard the front door open. "Hello, guys I'm back from the doctor's!" I saw Danielle with some decorative boxes. She smiled at me and her mom walked in with their dresses. "Hello girls, we're back and we have a surprise." "What's th-, Oh. My. Gosh!" Her grandparents walked in with two big cardboard boxes that held the black balloons. "Y-your having twins?" I don't know why the same feeling I felt yesterday came back. I thought I was over this but I guess not. She stole him from me and she's not even sorry. I pushed past them and out the door tears threatened to fall as Ben chased after me. "Hey, Tera, are you okay?" he inquired. "No, I want to go home. I thought I was okay with this, but I'm not. I'm sick and tired of it." He hugged me and I saw him differently. I saw him as the random stranger who helped me cope, who kept me warm. "Come on, let's get you home." He picks me up bridal style and put me in his car.

Liam's pov

I walk back inside to see Danielle with a worried look on her face. "Danielle, what's wrong? Are you okay?" I sit her down on the couch and she tells me what happened. It's a shock to me but I was mostly worried about Tera, she can't be left alone with someone as heartless as Ben. I don't know why he's back here but he needs to leave and never come back. He's screwing up my life again and I'm gonna stop him.

Flashback…

"Liam Roberts, you are expelled. I never want to see you at my school again." The principal yelled while my parents were in the room.

I was grounded for months. I couldn't even go to summer camp to interrogate Ben, he left me there to get caught. Even if he was the one who got caught he would use his daddy's money to bribe the principal. He never apologized, he acted though as if I was nonexistent.

Tera's pov

3:15 pm

We got back to my place and he waited downstairs while I took a shower and changed into something comfortable. We watched a movie on my bed and ate snacks. We lay facing each other and I decided to ask him questions. "Ben?" I asked him"Yes?" "Do you know what you wanna do for your future?" He looks me straight in the eye. "Yes actually, I'm gonna go to a business school in NYC and inherit my father's business in Texas as he retires, then hopefully I get married to someone I met In college and I'll provide for my family while successfully running a billion-dollar business." He says in one breath. "How about you?" He asks, pushing a loose strand of hair back. "Um, I wanna go to Julliard in NYC then get my major in acting and become a well-known actor then get married and have kids," I say sitting up as he does the same.

"I have a question for you," he says smirking and facing me. I thought he was gonna say some stupid pickup line but he didn't. " What do you look for in a man?" His question caught me off guard because I didn't know. "Um, I guess someone who understands me, who cares about me, who's independent, and who makes me laugh. They just have to be a good person at heart." He inched closer to me and lifted my chin to meet his Icy Blue eyes. They were mesmerizing, like an illusion where I couldn't look away. He cupped the side of my face and kissed me. The kiss was passionate and fulfilling. Is this what I've been missing out on?

Our kiss was turning into a make-out session, I was enjoying this. I got a notification from Instagram, Danielle just posted a reel of James proposing to her and another one of them popping the balloons. Their babies were boys. Danielle Marie Parker was having twin boys with my ex James.

She wasn't sorry about it. I don't think she ever cared. I never want to talk to her again. I blocked her on Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok I blocked her on every social media place we had connections. Out, of the blue, I received a text from her.

Dani: Hey, I just wanted to say I'm sorry, for everything. And I also wanted to tell you that you were right, I'm having twin boys! Why don't you come back to the shower and enjoy some cake with us?🎂

Ter: I forgive you, Danielle. But I don't think I can handle being your friend anymore. I'm sorry.

I block her number and set down my phone. I look at Ben and he hugs me. We sit like that for a while and then I get a random call from Liam. Can everyone Just leave me in peace?

Me: Hel-

Liam: Tera! Are you okay? I've been texting you since you left!

Me: I'm fine. Why does everyone keep asking me that?

Liam: I'm sorry.

Liam: Hey, uh, is Ben with you?

Ben: Yes, why do you ask?

Liam: Tera can I talk to Ben quickly?

Me: Yeah sure.

Ben takes my phone and walks downstairs. I lay back in my bed and fell asleep.

~~~~~~~

Tera's pov

4:53 pm

I wake up to shouting outside my house. I run downstairs and open the front door. I look to see Liam and Ben fighting. "You Asshole!" Liam shouts as he pushes Ben to the ground. "Why the fuck are you here?" I could hear the venom laced in his question as he picks up Ben and holds him by his collar. "After all this time when you fucked up my life. Why are you back?!" He asks giving Ben a hard punch to the face. He lets go of Ben and he falls to the ground. "I'm gonna show Tera the fucking pussy are."I put on some shoes and run outside. I have no clue what the hell is happening but whatever it is, needs to be resolved.

Ben spits out blood and I get scared. I've never seen Liam so angry before. I freeze in shock as I hear police sirens coming toward us. My adrenaline kicks in and I pull them apart, I hold back Liam as police officers come up and arrest me, Liam and Ben.

What the hell did I do?

All I did was stop the fight.