*Leighton's POV*
I was currently sitting on Aaliyah's kitchen floor, crying, whilst eating ice cream.
I was thankfully home alone.
The morning sickness was kicking my butt, and my boobs hurt really bad and I felt constantly exhausted.
Now, you might be wondering why am I sobbing on the kitchen floor with a whole container of ice cream in hand, a big scooping spoon as my utensil of choice.
Let's just say. I suck at making coffee, and I'm now back on the job hunt.
I didn't know what I was going to do, since I had yet to start college. I needed to somehow afford this baby, a place to live and enough things to keep me alive.
I felt like I was drowning every time I got the rejection letter.
I had eaten well over half of the container of freshly opened ice cream, and then I ended up just sobbing harder as I thought about how many calories that was.
I was already going to only get fatter with this pregnancy, and here I was shoving ice cream in my face!
I shakily stood up, grasping the countertops with my fingertips. I put the ice cream away and the spoon in the dishwasher before searching for my keys.
I still needed to get my crap out of Gabe's apartment.
I finally found them, panting as I stood in the kitchen.
Fuck. I was so out of shape.
I then cried thinking about how it will only get worse, and after 10 minutes of crying and trying to calm myself down, cursing at the baby in my stomach for making me sob every 2 seconds, I was finally in the car on my way to my old apartment.
I only had a couple more things there, since most of the stuff was his, which only meant I had so much I needed to buy myself.
I was placing some trinkets in a box, along with a couple more clothing items, when I glanced around the room and noticed the TV, laptop, bed, dishes, couches... literally everything.. that I would have to buy again, which ended in me sitting on his floor, in tears, yet again.
How was I going to afford this?
I now had to furnish my own place, buy the baby things, pay for schooling. food, AND pay the bills?! I could barley afford the rent Sam and Colby were asking for, let alone to go buy a fucking laptop.
I cried for another 20 minutes, myself calming down for a few minutes in between, before I pulled it together and closed the box.
I took a video of myself locking the apartment up and where I placed the key, sending it to Gabe, before carefully carrying my box to the car.
I turned around and stared at the door that read 422.
I guess this was goodbye.
I felt my eyes water and I mentally screamed.
NO MORE CRYING!
I was starting to get annoyed at these pregnancy hormones since I used to not cry that often. I cried sometimes on my period, and then at things that deserved to cry over, but I never cried over stupid shit like this.
Was this going to last all 9 months? How pathetic.
I put the box with the other two in Aaliyah's office, silently thanking the gods that I had the best, best friend in the whole world.
I was watching Master Chef, since Aaliyah would kill me for watching Hell's Kitchen without her, when I felt my phone buzz against my leg.
New:
Sam Golbach: Hey Leighton! It's Sam! I was wondering if you wanted to join the roommates and some of their girlfriends/friends tonight for bowling!
Why so many exclamation points?
I was hoping it would make you more excited and likely to go haha
Oh um I guess I could? I'm not very good at it. I haven't gone in years...
Am I allowed to bring my friend?
That's totally cool! So see you at 9? We want to get there in time to get a few normal rounds in before the party lights come on
Yeah that's fine
Okay! Sweet! I'll text you the address!
I closed out of the texts, seeing it was 5:30pm and that Aaliyah would get home in half an hour.
I hopped in the shower, wanting clean hair for the night, that I haven't sobbed into, wanting to get done with my shower before she got home.
I was wrapping myself in a towel, drying my hair when I heard a knock on the bathroom door. "Hey bestie? I gotta pee!" Aaliyah called out. I opened the door to see her swaying slightly. I laughed letting her in.
I brushed my teeth whilst she peed, tugging my towel closer to my body.
She was washing her hands when I stared at myself in the mirror. "What?" She stared at me, making eye contact with me in the mirror.
"I look weird" I stated and her eyes squinted "No you don't"
"I do! My face doesn't look like my own" I continued to explain, only to see her forehead wrinkle.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know. I mean, maybe I'm just gaining weight.." I sighed, glancing away from the mirror.
"Do you have a bump?" Aaliyah asked
I shook my head, dropping my towel so I was completely naked.
"No bump" I shrugged, grabbing my bra and underwear. I slipped them on, finding myself staring at my body.
"Ohh It's a red lace kinda night" She smirked, myself blushing.
"What? I wanted to feel good before I became huge, kill me!"
"We should take photos!" Aaliyah squealed, all of a sudden getting extremely excited.
"Why?"
"Every mom misses their pre-baby body, so let's capture it! Where's your phone?"
"Um... on the couch? Or maybe the counter?" She left the room and I ran my fingers through my slightly tangled black hair. "Sam invited us to go bowling! You're going so you need to get ready!" I called out, not quite sure where she went.
"Did you hear back from them about the application?" She asked, opening the camera on my phone.
We started taking photos and Aaliyah started telling me how to pose to get good angles. She's always been interested in photography, and was really good at it! But she preferred it as a hobby, rather than a career.
I shook my head. "They did say they wanted to hang out with me, to see if I fit with the group, so maybe that's what tonight is, since I turned down their party offer because y'know.. don't wanna be a party pooper since I'm pregnant, plus I don't want them to accidently slip me alcohol because I refused the first time"
"Do you really think they'd do that?" Aaliyah asked, a frown appearing on her face.
"I mean, I'm sure they'd want me to have fun, and I'm sure that means alcohol, which I can't really have because y'know, I'm with child" I laughed, shrugging.
"You're not much of a drinker though in the first place" Aaliyah noted, myself shaking my head, agreeing with her.
"Alcoholics run in my family, I rather not risk it. I don't mind when others do though. As you know, I've seen you drunk quite a few times" I giggled, biting my lip.
"Okay damn miss thang! Gonna have to find you a new boo!" Aaliyah exclaimed, showing me a photo she had taken.
"Hell no!" I scolded, narrowing my eyes at her.
"C'mon babe! You gotta get laid!" Aaliyah pushed and I shook my head at her. "I DID! That's how I got in this situation!" I made a "bam" expression with my hands, pointing at my stomach, which I found out later made out to be a great photo. I laughed at it for a couple minutes when she showed me.
We had finished getting ready, eating some Potstickers that Aaliyah made whilst I straightened my hair.
When 8:15 rolled around, I felt my stomach get tight with nerves since it was time to leave.
I had put Aaliyah in charge of driving since I was bad at directions, and I just prayed to God that we made it there in one piece.
~
We arrived at a white building that had some pretty lights hanging on the outside. I wasn't quite sure where we were since I had forwarded Sam's text to Aaliyah, but I was excited to meet everyone.
I practically ran to the door, Aaliyah laughing at me as she followed. I found Sam fairly quickly, but didn't recognize anyone else here.
"Hey Leighton! You made it! You must be Aaliyah!" Sam greeted her and she smiled, "Nice to meet you" She said in a cheery tone, holding her hand out for him to shake.
"We hug around these parts!" Sam teased, a slight chuckle to his tone as he pulled my best friend into a tight hug.
"Alright well, let's go get our shoes and find a ball" I pulled Aaliyah away from Sam, heading in the direction to get our bowling shoes, dropping them off with Sam before going on our adventure to find a bowling ball.
"How do you even know what one to pick?" I furrowed my brow, scanning my options. "I know there is a way to know, but I don't remember. I usually just pick one I can lift, that my fingers fit in" She giggled showing me.
"My nails aren't gonna allow me to bowl" I laughed, showing her my pretty lengthy, freshly done nails.
I was by no means a girl who was afraid to chip her polish, but I also didn't feel like having a fake nail ripped off my body all because I wanted to go bowling.
"Gonna have to roll it like a toddler" She chuckled, inspecting my bowling ball and nails.
By the time we picked out our bowling balls, a ton more people had arrived, which was slightly overwhelming. I saw like 30 faces and only knew like 5 of them. I was kind of regretting coming to what seemed to be such a big social event...
Sam introduced us to people near us, telling me who was who and how they were related to the friend group. I tried to take note of which ones were roommates, and make sure that if I was going to remember any of their names tonight, it had to be theirs.
"Sam rented out the whole bowling alley!" Aaliyah told me, sounding extremely impressed. I laughed at her hushed tone as she loudly whispered into my ear, trying her best to hide her excitement.
"I feel weird. I really only know Sam. I barely know Colby and there is like a thousand people here" I whisper shouted at her, scanning the lanes in front of us that were starting to become occupied by guests.
"You know me! Plus, it wouldn't be a bad idea to make some new friends, would it? Come on!" She grabbed my hand, pulling me towards a group of unknown people.
Aaliyah definitely was the more social one in our friend group, and honestly I was grateful. If she was down to talk to the stranger, that usually meant I didn't have to because they'd get distracted by each other.
"Hey Leighton!" River greeted me, pulling me into a hug. Whilst we were hugging he whispered "How's the pregnancy going?"
"I didn't know you were coming! Aaliyah didn't tell me! Why are you here? Do you know Sam and Colby?" I asked quickly, my eyes widened in surprise.
"Sort of. I'm friends with one of their friends. anyway, how's the pregnancy thing going?" He asked again and I sighed, frowning a little. "I keep crying! It's so annoying!"
"Leighton Fox? A crier!?" He teased, faking a shocked expression.
"Shut up" I grumbled
"Leighton!" I heard a familiar voice behind me. I spun around, recognizing her immediately, but cursing at myself forgetting her name.
"Hey Kat" River spoke and I silently thanked him.
"Hey River!" She smiled at him and then noticed Aaliyah. "Who's this?"
"My best friend" "My girlfriend" River and I said at the same time making Kat and Aaliyah laugh.
"I'm Aaliyah, nice to meet you" She smiled at the pink haired girl.
"Where's Colby?" Some random person asked Kat quickly, scaring the crap out of me.
God there was so many people here.
"Bathroom. He's upset at Sam" Kat scoffed and my face scrunched up.
"Why?" I asked, not being able to stop my curiosity.
"They aren't agreeing on something to do with a video, so Colby is a little snippy at Sam. I don't really know why. They rarely have arguments or are mad at each other, and I try to stay out of it since y'know, I'm Sam's girlfriend and I've been friends with Colby for years" She shrugged, pursing her lips and pushing them to the side before placing her gorgeous smile back on her face. "Can I join your team?" Kat asked all three of us, Aaliyah and River nodding.
We all started bowling, and when it came to be my turn Aaliyah pulled out her phone, filming me as she laughed at how I was holding the ball. "That's not how you do it, loser!" She called out, bringing attention to me.
"Shut up! You know damn well why I'm doing this!" I flipped her off and I heard a chorus of laughs surround me.
"Leighton what was that!" Sam cackled next to us, which made more people look at me as I was crouched down, watching the bowling ball spin down the lane.
"I have long nails! Leave me alone!" I called out, feeling embarrassed that a bunch of strangers were looking at me.
"Bestie, do you want the little kid ramp? You can push the ball off that" Aaliyah teased, pointing next to us at the little kid ramps.
"I hate you!" I shouted over the music, rolling my eyes at how much fun Aaliyah was having at my expense.
"Want bumpers too whilst we are at it?!" Aaliyah shouted as I went to bowl. "Listen here you little bitch-" I turned around, narrowing my eyes at her as I pointed at her, trying my best not to laugh.
~
11pm hit and all of a sudden the lights went down and neon lights filled the space, music blaring through the speakers as someone brought pizza.
The look of the greasy pizza made bile rise from my stomach to my throat, myself gagging.
I quickly scurried off to the bathroom, trying to keep it together but I heard someone following me as I pushed open the door and bolted towards a stall.
"Leighton!" I heard Kat's voice call, and I cursed to myself as I vomited into the toilet.
"Leighton?" She called again, and I noticed her jeans under the door, meaning she was standing outside the door.
"I'm okay!" I called out, flushing the toilet and trying my best to stand up and not give myself a swirly whirly.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah I'm sure. Thanks for checking on me" I opened the door, only to be met with a concerned Kat burning a hole into my skull.
I walked over to the sink and rinsed out my mouth before washing my hands.
"Why did you blow chunks?" She asked and I gagged at her phrasing.
"Please never say that ever again or imma throw up again" I held my hand over my mouth, my cheeks puffing out as my stomach tightened.
"Sorry!" She giggled, her eyes crinkling.
I noticed how pale my skin was and mentally sighed.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah I'm good. Let's head back" I gave her a small smile and we walked across the building back to River and Aaliyah.
Aaliyah gave me a knowing look, silently asking if I was fine.
I nodded, giving her a small smile.
"Let's switch teams up guys!" Sam announced.
I bit my lip, looking around, not really wanting to leave River, Aaliyah and Kat.
"Okay We are going to pick a number between 1 and 4, whatever you picked, go stand in that group and then you will all be paired with someone from each group" Sam announced over the speaker, surprising me since I had no idea how he accumulated a microphone.
Sam counted down the three and we all held up a number on our fingers before walking to our group.
I picked four, Aaliyah picked 2, River picked 2 and Kat picked 3.
I was praying to god I was going to get paired with at least one of them, but much to my dismay I was not. My new team consisted of someone named Kevin, Tara and of course the third one had to be Colby.
Colby seemed to be in a better mood since the last time I saw him, but he was currently in mid conversation with some girl.
I tapped Colby on the shoulder, causing him to turn around. "Hm?"
"Are either of them roommates?" I asked, forgetting who I was actually supposed to be getting to know.
"No, Tara is Jake's girlfriend. Kevin's one of Sam and I's friends. Roommates are Me, Sam, Jake and Corey. You know Jake, but Corey is over with Sam and Stas" He pointed to a couple rows over, and I nodded slowly.
I missed my other group.
Sam walked over to us, confusing me.
"Don't put Leighton on your social media. We don't need any drama" He narrowed his eyes at Colby and Colby rolled his eyes.
I could sense Colby was annoyed at Sam, remembering what Katrina had told me a couple hours earlier and for some reason I was feeling very bold. "What's up with you and Sam?" I asked, not really thinking about the consequences.
What was the worst that could happen? He ignores me? Check.
"Sam wants to go to some sort of paranormal place that isn't legal. I don't want to get arrested again but he says it will be good for our channel. I think it's better that we go out of the country to a couple places that our fans really want us to go to, and that we are allowed to be at" Colby shrugged and I nodded, understanding where he was coming from.
"You've been arrested?" I tried to mask my surprise, but I don't think I did it very well...
"It was all a misunderstanding" he sighed.
I raised my eyebrow, nodding slowly.
Yeah, that's what they all say
"You don't believe me" He sighed, standing up and grabbing his bowling ball.
This Kevin guy filmed Colby throwing his bowling ball and getting it in the gutter, making fun of him in the process.
"What was that Colby!" He shouted, laughing.
"I'd like to see you do better brother!" Colby called back, making his way towards the chairs.
"Watch and learn Brock! Watch and learn!" He cockily spoke, walking away.
Colby shook his head, smiling.
15 minutes passed and I kept to myself, listening in on conversations around me.
What? It wasn't like anyone was trying to include me in their conversations. Most of them seemed to be inside jokes that I just didn't understand, so I felt extremely left out. Not to mention that I was pretty sure Colby didn't like me. He seemed very disinterested in my existence, making it hard to approach him. I kept trying to remind myself that it would just be a place to sleep and eat, and I would only be there for 4 months tops. No need to try and get to know him, if he didn't want to get to know me.
I ended up slipping away from the group, going unnoticed, and I sat in a hallway, near the bathrooms by myself, scrolling through photos on my phone and texting Gabe and my Aunt Ginger.
I wasn't sure how long I was sitting here in this hallway, but I was slowly falling asleep, my arms folded on top of my knees that were resting against my chest, my head laying on top of my arms. My eyes were slightly closed when I heard someone clear their throat causing my eyes to pop open, startled. It was a little blurry but I heard Kat ask what I was doing here and instead of replying, I just turned my head away, feeling my stomach clench at whatever the wafting smell was in this hallway.
Kat didn't say anything else but I felt her sit down next to me, and I rested my head back down against my arms and just sighed.
"What's wrong kid?" She teased. I smiled to myself since I could hear the smile in her voice.
"I'm just tired. Ready to go home" I glanced over at her before closing my eyes again.
I felt like my insides were being stabbed. Not like cramps but like my body just decided it was done trying.
"Colby was asking where you went" She spoke softly, draping her arm around my shoulders.
"Really?" I gave her a skeptical look.
"Yeah. He said he watched you go to the bathrooms, and you never came back. I remembered you threw up earlier, and was worried... then came and saw you basically asleep in a hallway" She laughed.
"Didn't know he watched me leave. He didn't seem to care that I was there at all" I sighed and closed my eyes, not wanting to have bright lights in my eyes.
"Huh? That doesn't sound like Colby at all"
I shrugged, keeping my eyes closed.
"Wanna go back and keep playing?" Kat suggested but I shook my head, my eyes still closed. "Leighton, are you okay?" Kat sounded concerned, and I felt her hand rest against my forehead. probably trying to see if I felt warm.
Before I could reply, I heard feet approaching, but I kept my eyes closed, not wanting to have to squint due to the bright lights.
I just wanted to sleep for a while, was that a crime?
"Hey, is she okay?"
Colby.
Why was he here?
"I'm not sure" Kat replied, her hand moving my cheeks.
"Leighton, open your eyes" Kat begged and I slowly popped one eye open, looking over at Colby and then Kat.
"You don't look too good, kid. Colby, can you get her some pizza and water?" Kat asked, and my eyes shot open as I quickly lifted my head. "No! No pizza!" I shouted, startling them both.
"Well you need food. What do you want?" Kat asked,
"Um... French Fries?" I asked softly, noticing Colby nod and walk away.
"Girly, you good?" Kat chuckled, but I could hear the underlying tone of concern.
I sighed, debating if I should tell her.
She'd seen me be an emotional mess, watched me throw up in the bathroom, almost pass out in the hallway and scream in her face about pizza.
She had to have thought I was insane.
"Leighton?" Kat shook me slightly, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Hm?"
"You good?"
I nodded, rubbing my eyes with the palms of my hands.
"Can I tell you a secret? You can't tell the boys" I bit my lip, twisting the ring on my finger.
"Yeah of course" She gave me a comforting smile, a small smile landing on my own face.
I could trust her.. right?
I inhaled deeply before looking her dead in the eyes and muttering out "I'm pregnant"
* * * *
Written on: November 27th, 29th 2021
Published on: November 29th 2021
Republished on: March 12th 2022
Word Count: 3812