"Owen and Alana," Mr. Adair called out.
We were getting our partners for the baby project that our teacher had been talking about for weeks.
"Carmen and Chandler."
I sighed.
I couldn't do this with Chandler.
We had been friends for the first fifteen years of my life, but everything changed when my mother died last year.
She was like a mother to both of us. Chandler had actually come around to calling her mom.
Our friendship had been planned basically because my mother and Chandler's mother had been friends in college and then they got pregnant at the same time.
They went to appointments together and when Chandler and I were born, we were exactly one week apart.
Our mom's couldn't have been happier.
They planned play dates and Chandler and I went along with it because we knew each other forever.
Until last year.
My mother found out that she had leukemia and after a long and dreadful fight, she passed away.
On my birthday.
I cried for days and didn't let anyone in my room.
I missed school and let all of my friendships drown.
Including Chandler's.
The bell rang and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Home Ec was the last class of the day and after I got the baby from Mr. Adair, I could leave.
I got out of my seat and walked over to the teacher. Chandler was already there, taking the baby from Mr. Adair.
"Congratulations Mr. Riggs and Miss Darwin. You have had a baby girl and the assignment for the night is to give her a name. Happy parenting!"
Chandler scoffed and we walked out of the school building, down the road, and to the familiar home that I had called my second home for a long time.
I smiled and pulled out my phone to text my dad about how I would be at Chandler's house He replied quickly with an "okay."
The familiarity of the house brought back the memories that I had spent here with my mother and Gina, Chandler's mom.
As I shook the thoughts away, Chandler stepped onto the porch and handed me the baby to give him free hands to unlock the door.
"Do you have any idea what you want to name her?" he asked me.
I shook my head, "No. I was thinking that we could go online and see what names we liked and then compare."
He nodded and the door clicked open.
I was met with the faces of Gina, Grayson, and William.
"Oh my goodness! Is that who I think it is?" Gina exclaimed.
"Hello," I said as she squealed and pulled me into a hug.
When she let me go, William and Grayson hugged me.
I smiled at how they hadn't changed a bit. The only thing different about them was that the pain of losing my mother was etched on their faces.
I could tell because it was the same look that I often saw on myself or my father.
"What brings you over here?" Gray asked me.
"School project," I replied.
"Okay," Gina said, "Well, we will get out of your hair. Call if you need anything."
They left and I looked over to see Chandler sitting on the couch with his laptop out.
"Chan, what's the Wi-Fi password?"
He gave me a silly grin.
"What?" I asked, genuinely confused.
"You haven't called me Chan in a while," he responded.
I looked down and blushed, "Password?"
"RiggsFamily123."
An hour passed with Chandler and I looked at names before we decided that we were done and we would compare.
"Okay, so I came up with Sierra, Chanelle, Brynne, and Marissa," I said.
He nodded and I motioned for him to reveal his list.
"I came up with... Lorelei."
I stopped, "What did you say?"
"Lorelei," he repeated.
"Why my mother's name?" I asked.
He smiled,"Because she was the one who brought us all together and kept us together. She wouldn't have wanted us to drift apart because of her death."
Tears welled in my eyes and I bit my lip trying to hold them back.
"You know it's true, Car. What would she have said if she knew what was going on with us?" he asked me.
I gave a sheepish smile, "She would have told us to get over it and her death shouldn't be the death of us."
He laughed, "That does sound like Lorelei."
He took his fingers and gently brushed a strand of my brown hair and pushed it behind my ear before looking into my dark brown eyes with his baby blues.
"You look lot like her," he said in a whisper before pulling me into a kiss.
When he pulled back, I smiled.
"Lorelei, then?" he asked.
I nodded and kissed him again, loving every moment that we were spending together now, making up for the time we spent apart,