Chapter 2
Twenty Years Later
The darkness of the night sky crept into the well lit orange room, candles burned slowly, causing a slight aroma of jasmine to enter the air.
A slab of unknown meat sat in the slow cooker, James Potter sat patiently watching the alexa that sat on the kitchen counter. His feet tapped against the mahogany wood, his mind was blank.
Three young girls, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup sat transfixed on the tv in front of them as Cocomelon played. Scattered messily around them was a jumble of toy dolls that he knew he would have to clean up later.
An Alarm broke the sharp silence that overtook James as he launched forward out of his chair. He opened the oven, a heat taking over his face as he grabbed the pastry dish out of it.
The door behind him opened to reveal a tall man, his hair had grown longer since when James met him. It was black, heavily contrasting his pale skin that seemed to sparkle in the orange light. His lab coat was wrinkled, something James immediately noticed due to the fact that he ironed it this morning. He set a mental note in his mind to wash it before his Husband left to work the next morning.
“Papa!” The three girls yelped in unison as they rushed towards the obviously tired man in the doorway. He smiled, pulling them all up into a hug and spinning them around carefully.
“Hello girls, how was school today?” The man asked, at this point James blanked out, his mind wandering. This exact scene had played out countless times, at first he enjoyed the routine, but now it seemed to bore him.
The girls began all speaking at once, their message was incoherent, even to Utonium, who you think would be used to this after 7 years.
“Girls please go clean up for dinner, i need to talk to your father.” James ordered, offering a fake smile. The girls grumbled, floating off to the bathroom around the corner as James walked back over to the counter.
Drake Utonium, James’ husband, was the lead scientist at Xcorp. James wasnt exactly sure what he did at work but he didnt care to ask. It had been 3 years since the two had met at a bar in Chicago, they had a nice conversation and then things went on from there.
James packed up and left the town he had known as his home for almost his entire life for New York. He has lived the life of a 60’s housewife ever since, a thing he can't exactly say he enjoyed.
“Buttercup got in trouble at school again.” James sighed as he set the table, Utonium pulled out the chair and sat down. He immediately put his hands to his temples, rubbing them as though trying to make sense of the words he just heard.
“This is the sixth time this month.” James raised his voice “What are we gonna do about this Drake?”
“I dont know, what is there to do?” Drake closed his eyes, moving his hands from his temples to rubbing his whole face. “I'll talk to the teacher again.”
“That didnt work last time what makes you think it's gonna work now?, i feel like you’re not taking this seriously.”
“They’re my girls, of course I'm taking this seriously.”
“Then act like it!” James shouted, silence took over the room as the three girls floated back into the room. Blossom sensed the tension in the room and quickly moved to her seat at the table to move the conversation along.
James placed the plates on the table and handed them to the 4 sitting down. The meal was simple, meatloaf and macaroni, he didnt really have too much time to think of dinner considering he had to pick up the girls early.
“Ew, meatloaf? you know i dont like that stuff.” Buttercup pouted “I want chicken nuggets.”
“No, Buttercup, just eat what I made.”
“But i dont like it.” Buttercup stood up on her chair and began chanting for Chicken nuggets. James looked at Utonium out of the corner of his eye who seemed to purposefully be ignoring the situation.
He realized it didnt end here, if he gave buttercup nuggets then bubbles would want some, and then blossom would want some. If nobody ate the dinner he made then there would have to be leftovers for dinner the next day where the situation would repeat.
After that happened then the girls would know all they needed to do to get what they wanted was shout and throw a tantrum about it. Seeing no other way out of it he placed 4 chicken nuggets each into the air fryer, sighing in defeat.
~~~
After dinner James escaped to the bathroom, he opened his phone and clicked on a contact with a lightbulb emoji as the name. With zero hesitation he opened the keyboard beginning to type his message.
JMSPTR: i need u, r u up?