Moving Forward

One Question Two Answers

Niomi woke with a start at 2am as she felt knots of nausea take shape in her stomach. She looked toward her deeply slumbering boyfriend of over six years, Marcus Butler and ran ever so discreetly into the bathroom. There seemed to be no time to close the door, so Niomi just knelt over the toilet and released a pile of vomit; which was the color and consistency of oatmeal that contained an array of things from the meals of the day.

This continued for approximately half an hour before Marcus woke to use the toilet and he found Niomi rocking gently in the corner. The two of them had been having issues lately but Marcus decided that at a time like this, they could be put aside.

"Nimbob, what's wrong? What's got you feeling so poorly?" Marcus asked as he offered a hand for her to get up off the floor.

"I haven't got a clue, to be quite honest. But I'll just blame it on the Nandos" Niomi responded groggily as Marcus escorted her back to bed.

~X~

The following morning as Marcus left for a meeting with Alfie and Jim, Niomi decided to venture out into Super Drug to pick up a home pregnancy test. After the vomit incident last night and realizing that she was a week late, she figured it wasn't hard to put one and two together. Even though she and Marcus hadn't been intimate in forever, Niomi thought that it was a good idea to check and rid herself of any paranoia.

Upon entering the store, Niomi instantly detested the thought of the employees assuming she was just in there for one thing. So, she purchased a couple other items before checking out such as: blush, concealer, lipstick and a new stick of deodorant for Marcus.

Niomi meekly approached the checkout counter and was greeted by a tall attractive brunette named Mabel; whom Niomi assumed to be her age or at the very least a year younger. Once Mabel had rung up all of Niomi's items, she handed the worrisome blonde the white plastic Super Drug bag and said "I'm sure it's going to be okay"; a comment to which Niomi could only reply with a small nod before making an official exit.

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As soon as Niomi arrived home and noticed that Marcus wasn't home yet, she ran straight for the bathroom upstairs and took the test. Whilst Niomi was occupied in the bathroom, the outside world didn't seem to matter. All that she could think of and all that she could hear was: what would happen if the test was positive? How would Marcus react? Would this baby bring them closer together and possibly bury the problems that they had been having?

Niomi was so consumed with anxiety that she didn't realize that the timer had gone off on her phone and that Marcus had arrived home from his outing with Alfie and Jim. As Niomi lifted her eyes off of the chesnut brown tiled floor, she quickly glanced at the plastic stick in her left hand. Sure enough, it was positive.

After having a couple minutes to attempt to process the fact that she was an expectant mother, Niomi ran down the stairs to share the news with Marcus. However, she was found heartbroken and ultimately shocked to discover that he was packing up a suit case. In Niomi's eyes, this could only mean one thing.

"Where are you going?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"This isn't working anymore, Nims; we both know that. We're just two different people now" Marcus asnwered glumly as he refused to make eye contact.

"Perhaps we can work this out. We've made it almost seven years together. What's so bad that we can't work out now?" Niomi asked as her hazel eyes began to well up whilst keeping in mind the future of their unborn baby.

"Face it, Niomi. It's over and I bet you can't give me even one good reason to stay" Marcus responded with a huff as he stormed out of the house with his suitcase.

It took no less than five minutes for the feeling of Marcus' absence to really settle in. Niomi knew that this was coming, however she didn't expect it to hurt this much. She assumed it was because the fight was so sudden and that she would now be left to raise the baby by herself.

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Later that night was Niomi's first night in a long time as a single woman and she admitted that it felt odd. For majority of the evening she was left lying wide awake in bed at the fearful thought of having to raise the baby on her own. But at approximately 2:30am, she finally fell asleep and envisioned two possible futures for herself and the baby.

Option A:

The baby could have everything they could ever want and Niomi would be able to navigate the journey of single parenthood with the help of her friends and family.

or

Option B: She couldn't imagine the baby not having both parents and having to do this on her own. She would have to resort to giving the baby up for adoption if Marcus really never came back around.

Since finding out that she was going to be a mother some day soon, Niomi started to really consider what would be best for her unborn child. Perhaps the child's best chance would be with her but at the same time, it could very well be with someone else. Niomi figured that the only way she would get really attached to the baby was if she went to go for an ultrasound.

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A couple of weeks later, out of sheer curiosity and some encouragement from Zoe, Tanya and Louise, Niomi went for an ultrasound just to make sure that the baby; whom she had nicknamed Little Genius (as a play on her last name, Smart) was alright. The minute she saw the grey image of her unborn child floating around her uterus on the monitor, Niomi's heart began to swell and her eyes filled with tears of joy. There was no doubt that she had become attached to Little Genius and she decided to keep the baby and raise it by herself.