Shattered Secrets

The morning came with bright sunlight and a blaring alarm that sounded at seven am. I groaned loudly as I rolled over in my sheet and felt the cool morning air. I made a sound that would never be considered pleasant as I stepped out of bed and my feet hit the cold wooden floor. I walked from my room to Bronx's quickly so I could wake him for school.

"Baby," I called as I entered him room and flipped the light on, "Time to get up."

Bronx didn't even stir at the sound of my voice so I sighed and sat on the edge of his bed.

"Bronx," I said firmly, shaking him, "Get up."

"No."

I groaned. "Get up."

"I want to sleep."

"It's time for school."

"I'm tired."

"Too bad."

"No."

I sighed exasperatedly and yanked his blanket off of him. "Up, Up, Up!" I chanted as I began to tickle his sides, his red and white shirt riding up as he squirmed to get away. His childish laughter echoed through the room as he rolled around and tried to push me away from him. A lot of sunlight was streaming in through his window, where his curtains were left up over night, and I grinned as the light shone down on us as he rolled.

"Mommy! Stop it!" he demanded, laughing so hard that tears came to his eyes.

This time I complied and let go of him. He sat up quickly and glared at me. I smiled and hauled him from his bed. With him on my hip I made my way down the stairs and into the kitchen where I sat him on a stool.

"What do you want for breakfast?" I questioned, leaning on the breakfast bar.

He shrugged and had a look of pure concentration on his face. "A hash brown."

I groaned, "In that case we'll just stop at McDonalds on the way to school, yeah? Go get dressed..."

Bronx grinned and nodded rapidly before he slid off of the chair and raced up the stairs, sliding on the hardwood floor on the top.

"Carefully!" I called after him as I went into the living room to pack up his things. I put his spelling work sheet in his yellow folder and stuffed it into his Ninja Turtles backpack. I placed the small bag by the front door next to his shoes before I went up stairs to help him do his hair.

When I rounded the corner into his room I sighed at the sight of him. "Bronx," I said firmly, "Get off of the computer, right now."

Bronx looked over at me and his eyes grew wide. "Okay," he said quickly, knowing he was caught. I pulled him by his wrist over to his dresser where I had laid clothes out the night before for him to wear. I unzipped his blue feety pajamas and lifted him out of them before I pulled a cute, blue plaid shirt over his head. I helped him get his little jeans on and then I pulled him across the hall into the blue bathroom. I sat him on the counter and began to brush his hair upwards, spraying it with hair spray so that it would stick.

It took about twenty minutes to do his hair and brush his teeth and by that time we were already running late seeing as we had to stop and get breakfast. The two of us rushed down the stairs, pulled our shoes and coats on, grabbed his bag and we were out the door and into the car.

Bronx jabbered the whole way to McDonalds about anything and everything that came to his mind. Eventually we pulled up the drive thru and I finally had a reason to ask him to be quiet without offending the emotional four year old.

"Bronx, honey, Mommy can't hear," I stated as I rolled the window down, listening to the teller lady announce some special they were having with 'real fruit smoothies.'

"Can I get two hash browns and a breakfast burrito with the little packets of hot sauce, a chocolate milk and a rootbeer? Oh, and ketchup.." I said into speaker quickly, rummaging around in my bag for some money.

"Sure thing, that'll be five dollars and 89 cents at the first window please," The lady's chipper voice replied, astounding me that she could be so happy on a Friday morning.

I pulled the car to the first window where I paid and then I took the place of a black BMW at the next window. The man at this window handed me our drinks first and I passed Bronx's back to him before I set mine in the center console and reached for the bag of amazing smelling fast food. "Thanks." I called as I drove away, taking of down PCA on my way to Bronx's school.

"Eat quickly," I murmured as I handed Bronx a hash brown that I had smothered in ketchup. He scarfed that down and had the second one gone by the time we pulled into his school's parking lot.

Begrudgingly I left my half eaten burrito next to my rootbeer as I pulled Bronx from the car, groaning when I noticed his fingers were sticky from the ketchup. I leaned down and grabbed a couple of baby wipes from the container that I always kept on the floor. After I wiped off his hands I tugged him into the busy school and scooped him into my arms so that I wouldn't lose him in the crowd as we rounded corners and walked down full hallways in order to get to his class.

"Have a good day, okay?" I murmured as I set him down and kneeled to his level so I could hug and kiss him goodbye before he scurried off in to the colorful room full of rowdy kindergardeners, forgetting all his inhibitions about not wanting to go in the first place. I stood up after he disappeared and left the school the same way I came in. The ride to my father's law office was as quick as always and about 20 minutes later I was walking into the four story that was conveniently placed 15 minutes outside of Huntington Beach in a place called Santon.

I rode the elevator up to the second floor, thankful that my my father's main office wasn't at the top, because of my fear of heights. "Morning, girls." I greeted as I took my seat at my desk. Maggie and Nadine were already chatting about something and they stopped temporarily to say their hellos.

"Have you seen Greg, today?" Maggie asked, a giant grin on her face.

I raised my eyebrows suspiciously and shook my head slowly, "No..."

"Oh." Maggie murmured, turning away from me and shuffling some papers around on her desk.

"What?" I asked bluntly, "What is it, Margaret?"

"Nothing, Nothing," she murmured, "He's just glowing today."

I rolled my eyes and settled my attention on some files about previous cases that my father asked me to put away the day before.

The morning dragged on and eventually my father was walking out of his office with his hand on Greg's shoulder, smiles on both of their faces. "What are you two so over-joyed about?" I questioned with a smile, standing up and walking over to them.

They looked at one another briefly before looking at me. "Nothing, sweetheart," Greg shrugged, "It's Friday."

I couldn't argue with that so leaned up at the same time Greg leaned down to press a kiss to my lips quickly before he said goodbye sweetly and left to do his job.

I bit my lip and looked to my father who I hadn't seen once since I arrived at eight o'clock this morning, four hours ago. "Ready for lunch?" he questioned, a proud smile on his face as I nodded dumbly.

"Sure Dad," I said as I watched him walk past me, expecting me to follow.

My father told the ladies that we'd be back in about 40 minutes and that they could have lunch when we returned. I got into my father's car and we drove to Arby's instead of sending someone out to get our food for us like we usually do.

"What's the occasion?" I asked jokingly as we drove two blocks to the delicious restaurant.

My father laughed lightly and shook his head, "Nothing, darling. I just wanted to talk to you about Bronx's fifth birthday, it's coming up in a few weeks, right?"

I nodded simply.

"Well," he continued, "I was thinking that we could throw him a party at your Mother and I's house in L.A."

I nodded again. "Sure Dad. Just a party though, nothing too big alright? Just the family."

My dad agreed and soon enough we were in the restaurant eating sandwiches and fries. I scarfed down my food greedily in a true unladylike fashion while my father stared at me in astonishment.

"So I hear you've got a concert coming up this weekend," my father noted before he took another bite of his food.

"Yeah," I grinned, "Tomorrow actually."

My Dad smiled at me before he said, "Is it that boy band that you were obsessed with in high school? Seven Sins or something?" he asked, waving his hands around in the air as I laughed at him loudly.

"Dad, their poster was only on my wall forever, you could of at least learned their name. It's Avenged Sevenfold."

Dad nodded animatedly. "That's it. Where did I get sin from?" he asked like it was the most outrageous thing in the world.

I giggled. "Their lead guitarist is called Syn, but with a 'y'." I told him then took a sip of my rootbeer as he smiled.

"So you get to see those guys again, huh? Don't they have your face memorized by now, Nissa?" he joked, as he took his credit card out so that he could pay the tab.

"Ha. Ha," I laughed sarcastically, putting a fake grin on my face as I stared at him dully.

He just shrugged and chuckled.