The Life and Death of Girl Unknown (UNDER REVISION AND EDITING)

Chapter 10: Rock a by Baby I the Treetop. Part II.

Chapter 10: Rock a by Baby I the Treetop. Part II.

I groggily wandered down the short shadowed hallway to the living room where Juice was sitting at his laptop with his nose firmly placed into whatever he was doing. Daylon was peacefully slumbering in his swing with the music playing a lullaby.

"Daylon has the Doctor's this afternoon." I reminded him without warning. Juice tore his eyes from his screen to meet mine for a moment before going back to what he was doing.

"Yep." He replied popping the 'p'. I sighed and rolled my eyes at him before going into the kitchen. It wasn't worth talking to him now when he was so busy working while on his day off. So instead I made myself a cup of coffee and cleaned up a little bit. The work of a mother is never done.

"Where's Percy going after School?" I heard Juice ask. I turned to see him coming into the kitchen with his coffee mug hooked around his pointer finger.

"Gena's." I shortly replied.

"Gena from across the street?" He added lowly refilling his mug. I don't know if it's the hormones in my body acting up or if I was just generally annoyed by such an idiotic question.

"Yes; Gena from across the street. Who the fuck else would I be talking about?" I finally snapped at him coldly. Juice looked at little stunned as he stood there with his mug sitting on the counter in front of him. I realized what I had done and stood there, frozen. I couldn't believe I just said that.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly after a moment of shock between the both of us. I finally became so tired and flustered by the events that have taken place this week that I just snapped with a questionable laughter that pinned the corners of my mouth back painfully. I shook my head at him and leaned on the counter.

"No, I'm not fucking okay, Juice." I spat at him while falling apart at the seams. "-I'm not okay." I restated with exhaustion washing over me in a wave of emotions that streamed from my eyes painfully. Juice immediately wrapped his arms around me to allow me to bury my face into his collar but I was face-to-face with the sickly looking bruise on his neck. But every time I tried to push myself away, Juice would pull me in again. I could feel myself losing grip on reality, everything was starting to fade into darkness. My body kept losing tension until the point Juice had a sweep me off my feet bridal style. I heard him sigh softly before carrying me from the kitchen. He carried me down the hallway to our bedroom and set me down on the bed. I think it was his side since the pillows smelt like him. He sighed again and brushed my hair from my face when he cupped the side of my face.

"I'm sorry I did this to you." I heard him whisper before the bedroom became silent. I sank into the bed, allowing myself to flourish into his scent that covered the pillows under my head. It seemed like five minutes went by before Juice's voice woke me up. My eyes peeled open to see his smiling face. He was sitting at the bedside with Daylon in his lap. I sat up like a spring when I caught sight of time on the bedside clock. Juice moved himself and Daylon out of the way before I could mistakenly kick them in my panicked frenzy. I slept most of the morning away and now we have to get ready to go to Daylon's appointment. I didn't realize how fast I could get ready until I had to move at the speed of sound. I was ready before Juice had Daylon ready in his car seat. Juice put Daylon in the backseat while I waited in the passenger set of the black SUV. The day was warm and I felt refreshed, but there was something in my stomach that told me something was wrong.

Juice and I sat anxiously in the Doctor's office, the paediatric until of St Thomas. Doctor Smith had Daylon lying on the scale to weigh him and measure him. The infant wasn't happy having to be in nothing but his diaper. Doctor Smith listened to his lungs and heart, since a heart condition runs in my family we were worried about him but the OB/GYN clarified that his heart is fine. But when he was born he had some fluid in his lungs and that worried us even more than the heart thing.

Doctor Smith picked the baby off of the table and gave him back to me with a cheerful smile. I dressed the small boy and comforted him to ease off on the crying.

"The fluid in his lungs in gone which is good news, although he is a bit small for his age but that's nothing to worry about. I'd like to monitor his growth; so I'd like you to come back in 5 weeks." Doctor Smith told us to feed him a bit more but nothing appears to be wrong with him. But that didn't shake off the feeling of doom hovering over my head like death waiting for his next victim.

I snuggled the baby boy back into his car set after dressing him again. He seemed content now. I was proud of Juice, last time we were here Daylon had to get blood drawn me that almost killed him to see his son screaming like that. This time seemed to go better. But there was a pain in his eyes when Daylon started crying through discomfort.

Juice took the novelty of putting Daylon into the base of his car seat. I was still rather sleepy so he told me he'd drive. But the moment I attempted to relax something popped into my head randomly. When Juice hopped into the driver's seat my eyebrows narrowed slightly and my lips puckered. He looked at me curiously; his eyebrows furrowed in reaction.

"What?" He blurbed mindlessly. I kept my stare strong but my features softened.

"The other day when I had that run in with my dad, before that, you said you wanted to meet up with me because you had something to tell me." I reminded him of what happened a little over a week ago. He swallowed hard and shot his usual blank but thoughtful stare out the windshield for a moment before finding mine again.

"And?" What's with him and these short quarter assed questions in the form of replies? I sighed in disbelief and rolled my eyes before giving him a cheeky smile.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" I questioned in the simplest form to comprehend. His head ducked down between his shoulders then looked back up at me.

"Our relationship. Where are we going with it?" He finally asked a proper question. But that wasn't what I was hoping he'd say. My stomach began to twist and fill with butterflies. My heart started to race and my brain reeled. It didn't make sense, if Juice was trying to tell me he wanted out of this relationship then why does he keep showing affection towards me?

I sat there speechless, frozen in time as I tried to scramble up an answer. My brain seemed to be broken with only one word popping up in large buzzing neon signs outside of motel rooms in the middle of the night.

"I was hoping we'd be moving forward in this relationship." I stuttered nervously. I was just praying that this wasn't going to put a wedge between us. Time almost moved slowly but his signature smirk crossed his face as his face glowed with joy and blush.

"That's what I wanted to talk about a," Juice was cut off by my cell phone ringing in my purse. I wanted to ignore it but I fished it out easily to see it was Gena; she was probably calling to tell me Percy made it there safely. I answered it without thought.

"Hey, did he get there safely?" I greeted lively. Juice watched curiously with oval eyes.

"Percy isn't here. I got worried so I called the School, they said he was there all day. So I asked some kids on the bus." Gena told me frantically. My heart stopped, it was suddenly grasped in an icy blast. Tears immediately filled my eyes.

"Gena please tell me he just missed the bus and he's at the School." I prayed out loud.

"Everyone said he never got on the bus. Someone said they saw him in the parking lot. I'm driving around right now to see if he's walking. I'm so sorry, Maria." Gena practically begged for my forgiveness. I tried to stay calm but it was useless.

"We're on our way, we will meet you at the park."