It's been a few days and we've kind of told everyone about what's going on with the whole "engagement" thing.
It didn't take long for me to realize that that's what Yeah Yeah and Benny were against each other on so I decided to take him out, just the two of us, to find out why he has a problem with it. We agreed that we'd meet at Rino's and have lunch together.
"I'll see you tomorrow!" I yell as I walk towards the exit of V8 (the name of the store I work at).
"Bye!" Florence calls out before I close the door behind me.
She'd definitely become like a cool aunt type person to me. Especially since I've gotten back.
Rino's is only 3 doors down so it took no time at all for me to get there and find Yeah Yeah already sitting in one of the booths by the back wall.
"Hey." I greet as I sit down opposite him.
"Hi." he greets back. "I already got your order in."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great and I appreciate it but let's shove the damn elephant out of the room." I say.
He only nods so I know I can continue.
"Why weren't you okay with Benny proposing?" I ask.
"It's not that I wasn't okay with him proposing, I want you guys to end up together more than anyone, I just thought it was too soon." he explains. "When he came and asked me if I thought you would say yes I told him I knew you were still 17 at that point. I told him that he should wait until you guys were out of college or could drink or something."
"I mean, we're not even close to doing anything yet." I tell him.
"Yeah, yeah, I know but... I just wanted to look out for you." he says, looking down at the table shyly.
I gently nudge his leg with my foot under the table and regain his attention.
"Thanks, man." I say with a small smile.
He starts smile with his whole face and I stand up from the table.
"Come here." I tell him and he stands up before crashing into me.
"I love you." I hear him mumble into my shoulder. "You're like my big sister."
"Good." I say before we pull away and sit back down.
"Is everything okay now?" I ask.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll stop giving Benny the cold shoulder." he agrees.
"Thank god." I exaggerate the tone.
"You excited for the graduation later today?" he asks me.
"Sure. I do like that I didn't have to wake up early for it." I respond.
The waiter comes over to the table and puts our food down when I feel a buzz in my pocket.
I see that it's Ivy and answer it as Yeah Yeah waists no time in digging in.
"Hey." I say into the phone.
"It's happening." she tells me a little panicked.
"What's that?" I ask confused.
"The baby popped the bubble." she says before a groaning out of pain.
"You sure?" I check. "It could just be Braxton Hicks contractions. You know. False labor and all that."
The only reason I'm having any doubt is that this baby isn't supposed to be happening for another month.
"No ma'am. This is real. There's amniotic fluid all over my bathroom floor if you don't believe me." she says through quick breaths.
"But I just got my food." I complain.
"LILY!" she yells at me through the phone, making my eardrums vibrate a bit as I flinch away from the phone.
"Yeah, alright." I say, coming up with a plan on the spot. "Where are you're parents?"
"They're at your house. I was gonna meet them there but I started gushing things." she answers.
"Kenny's at home too." I mumble to myself. "I'll be there in a few minutes."
I hang up without hearing her respond and stand up from the table quickly.
"Is everything okay?" Yeah Yeah asks with a full mouth.
"Ivy's water broke." I say, collecting my things.
"What?!"
"Yeah." I confirm that he heard right.
"What do you need me to do?" he asks after swallowing, ready to move as fast as he can.
"I want you to get all this stuff packed up, we don't need to waist good food, then go to my house. Everybody should be there so tell them Ivy's gone into labor and that I've already started to take her to the hospital." I tell him. "And tell her parents to pack a hospital bag. She hasn't gotten around to it yet."
"On it." he says before looking around for a waiter.
I run out of the restaurant and immediately go road runner once I'm out the door.
I guess we're not doing graduation later. I know none of us are gonna wanna miss this.
It took me around 5 minutes to get to Ivy's house and I walked in after unlocking the door with my spare key.
"Ivy!" I call out, darting my eyes around frantically.
"Bedroom!" I hear her voice call and rush into her bedroom.
I open the door to find her sitting on the bed with her legs in a squat position.
"There anything we need to grab first?" I ask her.
"Not right now but can you call my mom and ask her to get my hospital bag put together when we get in the car?" she asks, reaching out an for me to help her stand while the other is place on her stomach.
"I already have Yeah Yeah on that." I answer before lifting her up and letting her lean on me before we go to the garage. "Where are you're parent's car keys?"
"On the wall near the door." she tells me and I lean over to grab them.
I help her get in the car before quickly walking to the driver's side and getting in myself.
I start the car and pull out of their driveway.
Ivy is taking big, short breaths to try and numb any amount of the pain.
"So how was work?" she asks me practically yelling.
"You really want to talk about that?" I ask back at the same volume.
"I'm trying to distract myself!" she tells me as another contraction seems to hit.
"Right! Right. It was good. How was your day?"
"Fine before this baby decided to come out a month early!"
We really could not get to the hospital faster.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had got her there with plenty of time before the others came rushing into the waiting room of this floor in the hospital.
"How is she?"
"Is she okay?"
"Why aren't you in the room with her?"
"Has she started pushing yet?"
All sorts of question came pouring out of my parents and Ivy's. Kenny put in one or two as well.
"She's as good as she can be." I say when they quiet down and get them to listen to me. "They asked me to step out of the room so they could feel for the head and make sure everything is in the right place. Last I heard, she was 4 centimeters dilated."
Everyone else lets out a sigh of relief as I continue to eat out of my vending machine snack I got just before they arrived.
"Anybody called Tory?" I ask them.
"I did when we were in the car. He's on the way." Marisa answers.
"Good, good." I say, digging in my pocket to get the car keys out before tossing them to Darren.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"That is the stupidest name I've ever heard."
"What, like yours was so much better? Do you even like this kid?"
"Oh, do I like this kid?"
It was no surprise to anyone that once the subject of baby names was brought up, Kenny and Tory got into it.
My parents had gone into the waiting room and Yeah Yeah just went out to the bathroom. Bertram is supposed to get here any minute now.
"Talk to me." Benny whispers so he doesn't disrupt anything.
"Bout what?" I ask.
"Anything you've been thinking about." he answers. "I know your mind's busy. You haven't said anything in an hour."
"All I've been thinking about is how lucky this kid is." I tell him honestly.
"What do you mean?" he asks.
I glance at him before saying anything to make sure he really wants me to get into this and he nods.
"When I was a kid... my mom left, my dad was never there. The only parental figure I had was your mom so... you know... I barely had enough pieces of parents to make a whole one." I sigh before continuing. "And here's this baby who has like... three whole parents who care about it so much that they're fighting over who gets to love it the most and it's not even born yet. It's just... the luckiest baby in the whole world."
Benny hasn't said anything for the few seconds after I stopped talking so I look over to him to see him staring at me with a hint of sadness in his expression.
"I'm sorry, mi vida." he apologiezes.
"About what? Not like you had it much better." I point out our similar upbringings.
"I know but... you definitely had it worse." he says and I only nod, knowing it's the unfortunate truth.
"The party's here!" Bertram says as he enters the room with a shopping bag.
"What's in the bag?" Darren asks what we were all wondering.
"Oh, nothing. Just some" he pulls out a pieces of little person clothing, "BABY CLOTHES!"
"OH MY GOD!" Ivy squeals, putting her hands out so Bertram will hand them to her.
"Is that what took you so long?" I ask him, standing up to be near Ivy as she looks at the serval in the bag.
"Yeah. I'm gonna be the best uncle ever." he tells us.
"Uh, hello." Benny says and motions to himself.
"What? I don't see you with any baby clothes you bought with your own money." Bertram points out.
"I got a whole baby walker at the shower with my own money." Benny retorts.
"Just because it was more expensive doesn't mean it was the better gift." Bertram says and Benny looks at me flabbergasted as the rest of us just laugh. "I called the school by the way and told them we wouldn't be able to make it. They said we can go pick up the diplomas tomorrow at like two."
"Cool but someone's gonna have to get mine since I won't be discharged for the next few days." Ivy says.
"I got you." I tell her and she puts a hand up for me to high-five and I do so. "How's that epidural working out?"
"I'm definitely better. I can still feel the contractions but it's more like pressure than any actual pain." she replies.
"How's my favorite birthing team doing?" Ivy's doctor comes in.
Some of us responded with some "we're doing good"s and some "fine"s.
"This is Tara." she gestures to the female doctor standing next to her. "She's gonna be the babies doctor and help us through the birth."
"Okay." Ivy says with a shaky voice.
She's been sounding like that since we got here so it's not not normal. Part of it is probably all the meds she's on.
"Alright, Ivy... you ready for what happens next?" the doctor asks her.
"What do you mean?" Ivy asks in return as we all become alert.
"You've hit 10 centimeters. We're gonna start pushing."
Everyone gives hollers of encouragement and happiness since we're about to meet the kid we've been talking about for the past 9 months.
"We can only have two other people in here so you're gonna have to chose now." she tells her.
"Lil." she looks up at me. "Would you?"
"You know it!" I tell her and she grabs my hand, holding it tight.
"Mom?" she asks to the woman on the other side of her bed.
"Of course, honey." she tells her.
"Yes..." Darren drags out in relief and we all turn to him. "I love you but I've already been present for this next part and it wasn't pretty."
"It never is." Ivy's doctor agrees. "Now that we have our two, I'm gonna have to ask that everyone else leaves the room so we can try pushing on the next contraction."
I look over to Benny and he kisses my cheek.
"Good luck." he whispers jokingly before walking out of the room with everyone else.
I look down to Ivy to see her incredibly tense. Which I understand, don't get me wrong.
"Hey." I say, bending down so we're on the same level.
"Yeah?" she asks.
"I'm gonna give you some tough love right quick." I warn her.
"Is it gonna help?" she asks me and I nod. "Go for it."
"I'm gonna be straight with you. This'll probably be the most physically difficult thing you're ever gonna do. I'm not gonna tell you it won't hurt cause we both know this is gonna feel like the devil bitch slapped you in the crotch. But I will say that you need to be as calm as possible and just suck it up. The more of that you are, the sooner this'll be over with and the sooner they'll stitch you back up."
"They're gonna stich me up?!" she whisper yells.
"You knew that." Marisa reminds her.
"Oh, yeah." she says.
"No matter how much this is gonna hurt, it's only gonna help get him or her out of there faster." I tell her.
"You're right. I just have to suck it up." she says.
"You know what, I take back what I said. Don't suck it up. Woman the fuck up. Cause no man is ever gonna be able to do this so that automatically makes you better." I say, trying to make her feel better.
She laughs slightly, letting me know I was successful in my efforts.
"That's a fact." she agrees. "Hey, listen-"
"If you're about to thank me, you better shut that pretty mouth." I tell her.
"But you know that I'm grateful for everything you've done, right?"
"You can thank me when you're on your deathbed. Or when I'm on mine. Which ever comes first."
"Alright! Let's get going."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'd like to think that it was my words of wisdom that helped her to pop out her little baby boy in less than 5 minutes of pushing.
It's been about 2 and a half-ish hours and we've all gotten to hold him.
I was officially dubbed the godmother and Benny the godfather but that didn't come as a surprise to anyone.
Bertram did take the opportunity to throw it in Benny's face and say that he's definitely gonna be the better uncle since Benny is technically the godfather but will only be called "Uncle Benny" by the kid.
The matter of his name was never settled on and as far as I'm aware they still haven't hit upon a decision but it's being discussed much quieter now that there's a 2-hour-old in our midst.
"You good to go?" I ask Benny while resting my head on his shoulder.
"Whenever you are." he tells me and I stand up.
"You guys leaving?" Ivy asks us with a slight sadness.
"Yeah." I tell her.
"You're gonna be back tomorrow though, right?" she asks.
"Duh." I answer.
"Yeah. I'm gonna miss this little man." Benny says in a baby voice as he goes over to Ivy and lightly squeezes the baby's belly.
I smile at him and he comes back over to me, interlocking our hands and putting his head on my shoulder.
"First thing. Right Lily?" Kenny tells me more than asks and I nod my head tiredly. "Just checking."
We walk towards the door and I look back at Ivy and wink at her before we walk out.
What a day...
*Y'all..........
The next chapter is the last one so I'd like you all to do me a solid and go over to my page and respond to the two latest messages I've posted.
Preciate it!!