Jackie's POV
Today was the last day for me to write my exam for the year and I was glad. I needed the rest away from school to take care of myself and the baby. I was due in a few months and the agility I once had was not the same again. I got tired easily, I slept too much, I was always feeling feverish, and my body felt heavy. My clothes could barely fit me anymore and my appetite was low. Andrea was always helping me to the hospital and making sure I took every supplement and met up with the checkups. I knew that if I was living alone, I would not have been able to do anything or felt lazy to go to my ob-gyn.
I dropped my book on my lap and looked toward the busy entrance of my faculty. Students were flocking in and out of the entrance to the building. The buzz for the last exam of our faculty was visible. I sighed and turned my head to the other side. I smiled when I saw Paul still sucking from the bottle I was holding to his mouth. His eyes were droopy and on me while he sucked lazily. He grinned, showing his gums.
"What's funny?" I said in a baby-ish voice, leaning forward. "Tell mommy too so she can---"
I blinked and leaned back at the word I had said a few seconds ago. It was becoming a frequent habit. Once in a while, I would always refer myself as his mother. His mother was alive and away, leaving an infant with people she knew nothing about. Paul was cute and adorable. I had immediately connected with him. Over the days I spent with him, he was more of a child of mine. I felt like we had a special bond. Legally, I knew he was not mine nor biologically but when all this mess was over, I would find means to adopt him or find his mother. The latter felt bittersweet.
I smiled and fed him his bottle again. He sucked faster and closed his eyes. I was about to lean forward to kiss his forehead when a sharp knock on the window shook me. I pulled the bottle away and looked to the window. I could only see a chest and waist. I furrowed my eyebrows and wound down the window.
As the body bent, my face dropped into a deadpanned look---Matt. He was smiling, his eyes full of mischievousness. I hated the sight of him. Overnight, he changed. Well, just as everyone who came into my life did.
"What do you want? You must be so obsessed with me to always be around me when you tell me to stay away." I was pissed at his presence. I wanted to end this year without any negative feeling.
"Just wanted to say hello... Never expected you to come write the last exams for the year."
"Matt, leave."
He smirked. "It seems you're doing alright. Has baby daddy even checked up on you three? He is a pain in my ass back in New York. Well. He is a pain in every one's ass, especially you."
I frowned and glared at him. His eyes were full of the same level of mischievousness. He was here to taunt me again and I did not have the time to entertain the likes of him.
"What? Got nothing to say?" He laughed. "You know. I am still open. I can still date you, pregnant and all. I did say it before. It's so sad he left you like this... young and pregnant. It's pitiful. You should probably go on a show or something, at least by the end of it all, you might get a man or fame. Looking at things, Lucas has already abandoned you since there's rumors, he has a new woman."
"You talk a lot."
"I am only saying the truth... You little girls who get pregnant with any man you sleep with are the ones who ruin the image of better girls. Look at you, what will you now become?"
I quickly uncorked Paul's bottle and angrily spilled the content onto his face and the window. He was stunned with milk all over is face and dripping onto his shirt.
"Don't you ever come near me again or I will call the fucking cops." I was panting, hot and heavy anger in my heart for him and everything going on.
Matt chuckled. "Truth hurts."
I wound the window up and glared at the headrest of the front seat. My eyes started to droop with tears in them as all the words he had said started to flow into my head. He was right. Lucas abandoned me. My life was as if I was back to when mom never cared for me, leaving me all alone for myself. It hurt me so bad to think of things at this stage of my life.
"Well, it is my fault for falling for a bad boy."
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After the exam, I drove to a supermarket to get some stuff that I needed with the money that Lucas had sent. Even if he had hurt me, I would spend his money, I deserved it. As I pushed the cart with Paul on my left hip, I browsed the many options on the shelves of the kid's aisle. I needed to buy more clothes, shoes and baby soaps and creams for Paul. As my eyes caught a pretty, blue stuffed animal, I smiled and approached it.
"You like this, Paul?" I asked and he smiled at me. "Yay. You do."
"Really? He did that. Awe."
I turned my attention to two girls on the other side of the aisle. One was heavily pregnant like I was, and the other looked like her friend. They were holding tiny baby clothes.
"You know, I never knew that being pregnant at twenty would be this great. I was scared that Kent would run away but so far, he has been nice. "
I eyed them as my thought drifted back to Lucas and my situation. The girls said something and giggled.
"At least pregnancy didn't stop you from achieving everything you wanted to become. Look at you, a pregnant designer!"
I gripped the cart's handle tight then started to walk away. I walked as fast as possible away from them. I wanted nothing to do with what they were saying. When I got to a different aisle, I stopped and put Paul in the cart. I tightened my hold on the cart and mulled over what they had said.
She was pregnant, her boyfriend or husband was there for her. She had a career at her age. She was not mentally stressed or disturbed about anything. And me? I was stressed. Pregnant, without the father of the baby, a babysitter for another woman's child. I began to imagine myself leaving with two kids, doing nothing and struggling like my mother before she met that devil of a man. The image frightened me, and I shook my head.
"No... It can't happen/ I need to do something."
With that, I continued shopping.
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A few minutes after shopping, I pushed the cart full of what I bought toward my car, humming a song to Paul sitting in the little section close to my front. I reached the car and opened the trunk with my car key then started to offload the items into the trunk. I grabbed a pack of Paul's diaper and faced the trunk to drop it, then a touch in my back made me flinch and spin around. My eyes widened at the sight of Ruth. She was smiling and waving at me.
"Hi!"
"Ruth?" What was she doing here?
"Long time," she said and wrapped her arms around me in a small hug. She pulled back and grinned.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Redside?"
Ruth nodded. "Yeah, but I wanted to surprise you. Well... I already did before, and I scared the crap out of you."
I narrowed my eyes as I tried to remember anything that she did recently. I raised an eyebrow at her in confusion.
"The elevator, silly."
"That was you!?"
"Sorry... I wanted to see you then I saw you and that guy kiss. I got angry that you may have moved on so easily from my brother and I did that to make you worry. Please, forgive me, it was wrong of me to do. I ended up finding out that the guy is weird and forced himself onto you from my Uber's dashboard."
I crossed my arms and glared at her. Why was she getting angry at me moving on from her brother who cheated on me and hurt me? Family will always be family. I wish siblings who supported me.
"Please, stop thinking. I don't know what you're thinking but I didn't do anything intentionally. It's just... it's surprising that you and Lucas broke up after everything that psychopath put you two through. I also don't know what is happening with Lucas and---"
"Did he send you?" I was not in the mood to hear anything about him.
Ruth blinked. "What?"
"Did your brother send you to me?"
Ruth opened her mouth to say something but shook her head and motioned toward the other side of the car. I furrowed my eyebrows and shifted my gaze to where she had pointed. A woman, around the age of my mother stepped out from the front of the car and slowly made her way to where we were. She was pretty, looked rich and had a slight resemblance to Ruth.
"This is my mom... Axel and Lucas' mom too. She wants to see you."
My heart froze in my chest. What did she want?
"Hello, Jackie. I finally meet you."
I gulped.