Happy

"Happy"- Pharrell

Saturday was EJ's birthday party. I was calm and collected. It was EJ's day. That's all that mattered. I know, I've said this before, but I'm positive I'll be just fine. I plan on spending as little time with Ethan as possible. This time around, I had Trevor and Rocky to help with that.

Megan requested for Brandon, Rocky, and me to wear yellow. EJ's birthday party was at Adventure Landing. It's a smaller theme park that has go-karts, batting cages, laser tag, an arcade, mini golf and bumper boats. Megan asked earlier this week if we didn't mind helping manage the kids. Rocky and I agreed of course. EJ picked out Despicable Me invitations, so that's why Megan wanted us to wear yellow to match the theme of the party.

I took it a step forward and paired a Despicable Me graphic tee with high waisted shortalls I borrowed from Sammy. It's silly, but I liked looking like a little minion. I brought Trevor a matching shirt. He wore it with no complaints.

We rode together to the party. When we get there, we're led to EJ's private party room. The room is filled with yellow minion balloons and yellow steamers.

"Hey you guys!" Megan greeted us. "Thank you for your help!"

Before we can even respond, she puts us to work setting up the table. I shook my head. This is the Megan I'm used to. We removed the standard tablecloth on the table and replaced it with a Despicable Me one. Dave, Megan's boyfriend, Trevor and Brandon move tables around for cake and presents. We decorate those as well before the cake and more gifts arrived.

By the time that's done, Ethan arrived with his dad. They drop of presents on the table. I can't wait for the day I see him and not feel a tug on my heart. I pretty much admit defeat on that other part of my body he affects when I see him. I don't think there will be a time where I'm not attracted to him. But I can live with that. I can't live with my heart hurting.

"Hey Minion! Get back to work!" Trevor said, bumping into me playfully. I stuck my tongue out at him

"Oh wow. I didn't even notice. You're dressed like a minion." Megan said, looking me over with a smile.

"Yeah, I figured it's appropriate." I shrugged.

"I love it. I should have had you all dressed like that." Megan smiled.

"Dress like what?" Ethan asked, as he joined us.

"A minion, like Lily." Megan answered.

Ethan looked my outfit over. I willed myself not to blush. Trevor threw his arm around me.

"You do look adorable." Trevor said, grinning at me. I gave him a grateful smile.

"Trevor. Good to see you. Lily didn't mention you were coming." Ethan said, looking away from me.

"Yep. It was last minute." Trevor said, turning away from me to talk to Ethan. "Hope that's okay."

"Yes! I need all the help I can get. Especially since Jake didn't show up early..." Megan answered for Ethan, cutting her eyes at Brandon.

Brandon shrugged. "Hey, I'm here early cause I was volunTOLD. Jake said he'll be here when the party starts."

"Mom just pulled up. Let's help with unloading the cake and presents." Mr. Carter told Ethan. Brandon and Trevor followed them. Megan left with Dave to get the activity passes. Rocky immediately walked over to me.

"How you holding up?"

"Good." I answered, truthfully.

And I was good. Set up was easy. We were all busy getting ready for the kids to show up. And if we weren't busy, Megan found us something to do.

Megan's parents arrived with EJ a little before the party was supposed to start. EJ ran all over the place, playing with the kids that arrived in the arcade. They were all excited to see his cake, presents and race go-karts. Mrs. Carter greeted me warmly, giving me a hug. She asked me about my move, my job, and reminded me I'm coming to her family's 4th of July BBQ.

While I'm talking to her, I noticed Ethan looked a little uneasy. I don't know how to describe it. Just... off. It was enough to make me break my own rule of limited contact to approach him.

"Hey. You ok?" I asked him.

"Yes." He answered shortly, separating arcade tokens on the table.

"You sure? You seem... I don't know. Distracted?..."

"Just thinking." He replied, finally looking up at me. "I didn't think having his party here was a good idea. But it was Megan's choice." He admitted.

"This place looks fun. Megan seems to have it under control."

"Yeah, until all the kids show up. Last year EJ wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Some of the parents just dropped off their kids. We managed because it was all indoor. Can you imagine trying to handle 20 kids here?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, last year, you didn't have minions." I said, sarcastically gesturing over my outfit. The corners of his mouth twitched as his eyes followed my hands.

"But seriously, between all of us. 2 kids apiece. That's 14 kids right there. Not including all EJ's grandparents and parents that will stay. I think we can handle it."

"Let's hope."

I grabbed his shoulders. "No hope necessary! That's what it's gonna be!" I said, shaking him on every word.

He finally cracked a smile. "Alright."

I smiled back at him.

"Ethan" a voice called from behind me. I turned around to see Karen. She is wearing a blue sundresses. Her hair is up in a top knot. It shows off her pretty features and delicate neck.

"Hey Karen." Ethan said, giving her a hug. I prayed to God, Allah, Zeus, and baby Jesus to keep my face neutral. I was hoping not to interact with her at all. Especially not with her and Ethan. I should have stuck to my rule. She planted herself right next to Ethan.

"Karen, this is Lily. Lily, this is Karen." Ethan said, simply.

"Nice to meet you." Karen said, sticking out her hand.

"You too." I said, shaking her hand quickly.

"Lily, there you are. I need you over here." Rocky said, grabbing my arm and pulling my away.

"Rocky..." I groaned.

"I know. I'm sorry. By the time I saw her heading towards y'all, it was too late."

"She's so pretty." My heart hurting is all over again. Just when I thought me and Ethan could be ok to talk again...

"And so are you. If you ask me, you look much better beside him."

Did it matter if Ethan didn't think so?

I didn't have time to dwell on it. All the kids showed up. Megan took control and split the kids up into groups of 6. Me and Trevor took one. Brandon and Rocky took another one. And Megan and Ethan took the last one. It was the parent's choice if they wanted to stay in the party room or walk around with the kids. Ethan really had nothing to worry about. Most of the parents chose to walk around with their kids.

Of course Karen's son, Joel, was in Ethan and Megan's group. So Karen was attached to Ethan the whole time. Our group went to the bumper boats first. Trevor challenged the kids so they all went after him.

After that, we went go-karting. Me and Trevor watched and cheered for everyone. Mostly cheered. Trevor playfully teased one of the boys that was giving him a hard time on the boats. The kid was Miguel. I'm pretty sure EJ mentioned he didn't care for him. And, not surprisingly, his mom chose to drop him off.
We played in the arcade last.

I have to admit, I was enjoying Trevor's shenanigans as much as the kids. They loved him. I wasn't surprised. He was a big kid himself. And hanging with him kept me laughing and distracted from Ethan and Karen.

When it was finally time for lunch, all the kids wanted to sit by Trevor. He happily obliged them. I waited for the food by Brandon and Jake. Showing up late didn't help. Jake was still put to work helping with drinks.

"Where were you earlier? Megan was looking for you. Super dangerous work emergency? Did you have to shoot someone?" I asked Jake, jokingly.

"No. But the day's not over yet." He responded. I laughed.

"Besides, I never told Megan I was coming early. You like kids. Looks like you had it covered." Jake said.

"Yeah, cause I brought Trevor. If I didn't, I would have been stuck with 6 kids by myself." I informed him.

"I would have showed up extra early if I had known I was going to be paired with you. Especially in those little overalls. Takes me back to elementary school. I have a strange urge to pull your hair."

I smirked. I'm getting use to his sexual innuendos. "You would like them. I borrowed them from Sammy."

I walk away from him when Megan and Dave arrived with hotdogs, popcorn, fries and nachos. I grab some plates and start placing them in front of the kids on the table.

"Let me make the birthday boy his plate first." Karen said, grabbing a plate from me when I walked towards the food to help start delivering it to the kids.

I watched her pile his favorites on the plate.

"He's not going to eat that-" I started, when I saw her put ketchup on the bun of his hot dog.

"This is how he asked for it." Karen bristled. I didn't say anything, just started to take food to the kids with Rocky. When I get back to the food table, I made EJ a hotdog the way he liked it: ketchup on the hotdog only.

When Karen came back, I handed her EJ's hotdog with a smile on my face. She took it, without saying anything and left.

"You coulda told her the way he likes it." Ethan commented from behind me. He sat down on a stack of pizza boxes. I looked up, and blushed. Where did he come from?

"I tried. Besides, I recall you always lecturing me how EJ has to learn things on his own. I think that goes for adults too." I said to Ethan. He shook his head, smiling. But he didn't disagree with me.

"Let's get the pizza out. Your boy is about to start a riot over there." Ethan commented.

My boy? I followed Ethan gaze. Sure enough, Trevor is leading the kids in a "We want pizza" chant. I laughed.

"Looks like you got stuck with 7 kids in your group." Ethan commented.

I smiled. "Yeah. But they had a blast."

We left together to pass out pizza.
After the kids ate, the adults made their plates. Me, Trevor, Brandon, Rocky, and Jake stood on a wall of the room, snacking on pizza. The kids crowded around EJ as he opened his presents.

Brandon groaned and Jake laughed at him when Karen's son Joel got EJ one of the games Brandon bought. Megan bought him a remote control car. Ethan bought him a new tablet. He flipped out over the Rangers and Hurricane Harbor tickets. He was so excited to hang with Jake for a whole day. It was adorable. When he got to my gift, I made sure he opened Trevor's gift with it.

"They go together." I explained, as I sat the heavy box in front of him. I told Trevor to buy a couple of snow cone syrups. I had no idea why it was so freaking heavy.

He ripped at the blue birthday paper.

"A snow cone maker!!!" EJ yelled, smiling.

"Open mine, open mine!!!" Trevor exclaimed, imitating the kids. We laughed at him.

When EJ opened the box, his eyes grew wide.

"Yeah!!! I can make snow cones forever!!!!" He cheered pumping his arms.

I gave Trevor a look before looking into the box. It looked like he bought every syrup flavor he could find. Plus snow cone cups, spoon straws, a jar of cherries, condensed milk, nerd candies, pixie sticks, pop rocks and gummy bears.

Me and Rocky both smiled at Trevor. That's exactly how we ate snow cones from the stand in Waco while we were in college. We would buy our favorite candy, eat snow cones, and run off our sugar rush at the playground. Trevor would pair Hurricane Colada with pop rocks. Rocky and Bilal tried to try everything on the menu. They got pretty close. My favorite was cherry coke with cream and gummy bears of course.

"Does this come with free babysitting when he eats all this?" Megan smiled at me and Trevor.

"Sure. Just take 'em to Lily's." Trevor replied. Everyone laughed at that. I nudged him, but laughed too.

"You're awesome." I told him, grabbing his arm.

"I know." He said, grinning at me.



After the gifts were opened, Megan brought out the Despicable Me birthday cake. We all sang happy birthday to EJ. He blew out his candles, then we passed out the cake. I gave my slice to Trevor. He definitely deserved it.

The party room had to be vacated, so we took the kids to play laser tag while the room was cleaned and cleared out. Trevor, Jake, and me supervised (played!) from the inside while everyone else helped load the cars. We had a blast. Trevor riled the kids up, calling for a battle between the different groups.

The kids and their parents started leaving after that. After the last parent left, we left too.

"Lily!" EJ ran over to me as we were leaving.  I turned and scooped him up. I know it looks ridiculous when I pick him up. He's so tall! But I still do.

"Joel is coming over and we're going to make snow cones. Do you wanna come?" He asked, excitedly.

"Not today little man. But make sure you can make me a special 4th of July one, ok?" I replied.

He nodded and I put him down. He ran back to his parents group. He excitedly explained to Joel they have to practice making red, white and blue snow cones. I chuckled watching him. When I looked away from EJ, I noticed Ethan watching me. I smiled at him. He smiled back.

"Ready Lilypad?" Trevor asked, pulling me towards Brandon's car.

"Ready!"



On the drive home, I talked Trevor into hanging out and watching more Game of Thrones with me. He did have plans to go out later. He invited me too. I passed. I didn't feel like getting dressed up again. But he agreed to hang with me for a while.

 He fell asleep on my bed not long after the first episode began. I laughed and took pictures of him passed out. I'm wasn't going to wake him up. I finished watching the rest of the episode.

I then uploaded the pictures of the party, including the one of Trevor passed out on my bed, on Facebook. I tagged everyone in them. I caption Trevor's picture with:

7&8 year olds wore him out! Got chocolate wasted on birthday cake! #Lightweight#HappyBirthdayEJ!!! #ManyMoreToCome!

After a couple more episodes of Game of Thrones, I check my phone. I have a plenty of likes and comments on the pictures. But I notice I have a message too. I click on it first and see it's from Karen. What the?...


Anyone wanna guess what Karen wants? How do you think the party went?