Jacqueline West, an average girl, who could barely take care of her self finds her life twisted upside down. Taking care of a kid while going to school is something neither she nor Blake Archer knows how to do. Jacqueline always thought you needed l...
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NINETEEN
~ Cutting Tensions ~
I laid on the couch downstairs browsing through my phone while both the boys slept upstairs. I sent a quick message to Lottie, letting her know that I was at Blake's house and the date got cancelled.
I turn to my side as I receive a text from Dante.
Can I call?
Upon reading this message, I call him. I don't want him to think that I didn't want to go on a date with him.
"Hey, is everything ok?" He asks, immediately after picking up.
"Hey, yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean to bail but my..." what do I say? That my kid and the so-called father of the kid aren't feeling well? "family isn't feeling well"
"I thought your dad was on a business trip, did he come back or is it your mom?" He asks out of concern.
"No, not them. I don't know how to explain it to you" I let out a small laugh, thinking of an explanation in my head.
"hmm... do you secretly have a kid and don't want to tell me?" He jokes and I can't help but laugh at the irony.
"Something like that"
"wait- what? I was joking" He stops laughing.
"I don't know how to explain it to you, but I have a kid, who's not really my kid, but he might as well be" I try to explain without too much detail. Thinking back to it, it's been almost two months since Chris came into our lives. The happiest two months of my life so far.
"Wait, is this some lost kid? Someone was telling me about this whole thing with some dude named Blake" He inquires.
"Yeah, Chris got lost so Blake and I have been taking care of him"
"So, are they the family that's not feeling well...?" He asks, as if he shouldn't.
"Yeah, they both came down with a fever. They're sleeping right now" I tell him, as I yawn.
"Oh, so are you and Blake...?" He starts, unsure if he should ask, and unsure if he wants to hear an answer
"Are we what?" I question, unsure of what he's trying to say
"I mean, do you guys like each other...?" he slowly lets out as I hear small footsteps coming from the stairs.
"Mommy!" Chris exclaims in a nasally voice as he sees me. He lies down beside me on the couch as I wrap my arms around him "Daddy's snoring too loudly" he says, hugging me.
I can't help but laugh at Chris's annoyance and the thought of Blake snoring so loudly that it woke Chris up.
"Dante, I'm going to go. We'll talk later ok. I'm sorry again." I apologize to him once more.
"Ok, and don't worry. Take care of your kid" He tries to joke before he ends the call.
I place a kiss on Chris's head "How are you feeling now?" I ask, playing with his hair
"Better, but daddy made me a nasty sandwich this morning" he scrunches up his nose, remembering the taste.
I laughed "guess what, I made daddy eat it too" I try to cheer him, to which he giggles. Of course, I added some seasoning the chicken to make it taste better so it wasn't as bad as what Chris had.
"Mommy, I missed you a lot. And so, does daddy. He was crying yesterday because he missed you. Please don't fight with him again." Chris tells me. My hand stops mid-track.
Blake missed me? He was crying because of me? No, that can't be right. He probably misunderstood something. But why would he say that?
"What makes you say that?" I ask him
"Yesterday, after he came from school. He got mad when I said I wanted to see you. He said he doesn't like you. I asked him why and he said because you don't like him. And then he started crying. He said he fought with you and that he missed his chance" Chris starts playing with my fingers.
His statement made me even more confused and hurt. I didn't know how to respond so I started playing with his hair again.
"You really need a haircut" I tell him as I play pull up a lock of his hair to better see how long it had gotten.
"No, I don't! I don't want to" He shakes his head to get his hair out of my hands.
"How about we get daddy to get his haircut too. He could use it as well. You two can get matching haircuts." That brought a smile to his face and eventually made him agree.
I turn to my side and cuddle Chris as I yawn. We lay there silently, and I slowly closed my eyes.
---------
"I can't tell her bro. I kissed her the day I broke ... how she looked at me... messed up... It won't make a difference if she knew or not" I faintly hear someone talking, not being able to catch everything that was being said.
I turn to my side, wrapping the soft blanket around me as I slowly opened my eyes. I look around the room and take in a big stretch before sitting up. I look to my side and see that Chris is fast asleep on the couch. I wrap the blanket around him, checking his temperature with my hand.
Good, it seems to have gone down a bit.
"Can you talk to her for me. She's her best friend. I can't stand this anymore. It's killing me man." I walk into the kitchen and see Blake sitting on the counter stool, on the phone. I give him a small smile as I turn on the stove at low heat to warm up the soup. Blake ends the call as soon he sees me.
"You're up" He looks at me with a smile and dreamy eyes.
"Yeah, I can't believe I fell asleep" I rub my eyes, trying to get the sleep out of my eyes. "How are you feeling now" I walk over to him, putting my hand against his forehead.
He looks at me at my touch, refusing to look away and not giving a response. My heart skipped a beat at his stare, and quickly pulled my hand away.
"Uh- yeah, b-better" He stammers.
"I hope you don't mind. But..." Was I really going to ask? My dad's going to kill me when he finds out. But I need to be with Chris. I could take him home... but Blake... "Can I sleep here tonight? I would just worry about Chris and -" I stop myself before I tell him that I'd worry about him.
"Yeah, of course" He replies with a smile, though he looks a little disappointed, as if he was expecting me to say something else.
"Thank you" I take a seat in front of him.
I was expecting it to be a little more awkward than it is. It's weird. I felt like I was at home with my future family. Usually, I don't feel this awkward with Blake around, but right now, there was a weird tension. He looked at me as if he wanted to say something, but it seemed like he would decide against it.
"How's that app of yours coming along?" I ask him, remembering the project he told me about. He smiled at me before answering.
Just like that, the tension was lifted. I do feel bad that I had to cancel my date with Dante, but I'm glad. I'm glad that I'm here right now. There's no other place that I would rather be. With Chris and Blake.
