Dead Beat~//n.mara

𝕋𝕨𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕪-𝕖𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥

Desiree was exhausted. She forgot how tiresome almost two year olds could be. Desiree had just got Meridee into a new playgroup and Des could already tell her baby-girl was loving it. Although Des was having a hard time keeping up. She didn't remember 'Mommy & Me' being this difficult.

Desiree also hoped that the playgroup would be a good place to meet like-minded moms, but she was sorely mistaken. All the moms were super "LA", vegan, soccer moms, with way too much time and money on their hands. It was safe to say that Des felt like the odd woman out.

Desiree ended up leaving early because she was hungry and didn't pack her and Meri a "playground lunch" like the rest of the moms. She could tell she was being judged, but it's not like it would be the first time Desiree's parenting was criticized. She was a single mom after all.

Desiree ended up going to Chic-fil-a, just for something quick. And of course the drive through was absurdly long so they decided to go inside.

Of course going inside a Chic-fil-a comes with its own set of problems. And as soon and Des ordered Meri took off towards the play area.

"Shit." Desiree mutters under her breath. She wasn't planning on embarrassing herself and running throughout a fast-food restaurant to catch an almost-two year-old today, but that was the situation she seemed to find herself in. For a baby Meri was unbelievably fast and Des wasn't able to catch her until Meri smacked face-first into a little boy.

"Shit." Desiree said louder than she had meant to, considering she was surrounded by kids all under the age of seven. She picked up Meri and tried to console the young boy who had not been claimed by a parent.

"Um, who's little boy is this?" Desiree desperately looked around trying to find out who this curly haired little boy belong to, but all the parents just gave Des a sympathetic look and the little boy just continued to wail. Des didn't think Meri hit the boy that hard, maybe he was just crying because he didn't know where his mother was.

Carrying a large tray, a woman wearing a band Tee, jean shorts, and a flannel came running into the play area.

"Oh Mijo. What's wrong baby? What happened?" The woman said with much concern.

"Are you his mom?" The curly haired woman nodded. "My daughter bumped into him he was all alone in here." The woman put down her food on the bench and scooped her boy into his arms.

"Damn. Elio my precious baby are you alright? Did that woman leave you here by yourself?" She hugged the boy tightly and kissed his cheek. "LA man, you think you can trust people and then, poof, they disappear and leave your child alone on a playground." The woman shook her head. "Thanks for keeping an eye on him for me."

Des nodded. She was a little confused. Did this woman just leave her child with a stranger? It seemed extremely irresponsible and definitely something Des would never do, but the more she observed the woman the more she felt bad for her. The girl looked extremely tired and young, younger than Des.

"Are you um, okay?" Desiree gave the girl a sympathetic look.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm uhm... fine. I know Lio is hungry though, we'd better go-" The woman stood and looked behind her, but much to her dismay, her food and tray were gone. "Shit! Somebody stole my fucking food! That was the last of my monthly..." The woman stomped her foot and drew a lot of attention to herself. Many parents gave the woman disapproving looks and covered the ears of the children near them.

"Uh hey." Des quickly stood and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. "I can get you and your son some food and you can eat with me and my daughter."

"Thanks, but I don't take hand outs. I appreciate you looking after my son though." The woman picked up the toddler and smiled to him. "C'mon Lio, let's go raid Abuelita's kitchen."

Des watched the girl leave, and she wasn't shocked when she saw a pink floral wallet on the ground where the mother was once standing. Desiree scooped up Meri and the wallet and jogged our to the parking lot before the woman got far.

"Hey! Miss, you left your wallet inside." Desiree handed her the wallet and she grinned.

"Oh my goodness thank you! I would've been screwed if I lost that. Woulda been the third one this year." She smiled. "Now I've gotta repay you."

"Okay... come back inside with me and let me buy you and your little boy some lunch."

"Fine girl if you insist." Desiree smiled, proud that she could do an act of good today.

"I'm Desiree and this is my daughter Meridee."

"I'm Solana and this is Elio." The toddler smiled and waved his chubby little fingers at the woman. "Nice to meet you."

-

Lunch with Solana was really nice. Desiree found out a lot about the girl and found the two had a lot in common. Solana was a year younger than Des and raising Elio on her own with the help of her mother after his father left them for some "bimbo in Reno" as Solana put it. They even found out that Solana used to be apart of the playgroup Desiree recently joined.

"Those bitches were so passive aggressive towards me and Lio. Well more like straight up aggro. They were always making some racist comment and talking about Trump around me and my son, like he's not even full Mexican, he's white! His dad's a greasy Italian Mafia prince from Yonkers!" Solana exclaimed exasperatedly

"Really? That's crazy, my baby daddy is Italian too. Mine's from Jersey though, and as far as I know has no Mafia ties."

"See that's where I went wrong. All New York men are garbage." Solana rolled her eyes and Des couldn't stop herself from laughing. Desiree couldn't help but laugh when thinking about her resident New Yorker friend that was a bit of a man whore himself.

It had seemed that Elio and Meridee had hit it off as well as they were both giggling profusely and throwing chicken nugget crumbs and waffle fries back and forth to each other.

"No, no Lio. Don't throw your food, especially not at pretty girls whose Mom paid for our food." Solana scolded her son and pulled the soggy waffle fry from his hand.

"Ah it's fine. Knowing Meri she probably started it. She loves having food fights with her dad and uncles." Des reminisced on the memory of Nick, Austin, and Edwin dodging broccoli being thrown at them by a one year-old. Zion was less than happy to see that mess.

"That's so cute. And I just want to say thank you again for everything."

"Don't worry about it." Des waved her off, but Solana persisted.

"No. I told you I don't take handouts. I need to do something to make it up to you." Solana pleads and Desiree sighed.

"Fine, but this is gonna sound kind of... pathetic." Des took a deep breath and just decided to come on out with it. "Would you be my friend? I've been living in LA a while and I really don't have any friends other than my boyfriend's friends' girlfriends." Des sighed and looked down embarrassed.

"Girl, we're already friends, but if that's really what you want, I think I can do that for you." Solana winked a smirk tugging at the left corner of her mouth.

"Thanks, that's repayment enough." The two girls exchanged phone number and parted ways. And the whole way home Meridee was saying Elio's name over and over, looks like someone's got their first crush. Nick surely wouldn't be happy about that.

Lo's Hoes
Y'all Austin rlly had a BABY. I love that for him. And bro twitter beanz are wilin cancelling anyone who hasn't spoken up about George Floyd. Like leave that man Austin alone he has a baby to worry about and Ansley already spoke up about it so let Austin breathe he's stressed u can tell by his acne 😔 anyway... vote and comment ❤️