Whoa Baby
Chapter 56- C'est La Vie
Two Weeks Pass
There was a lot of noise and hustling one late Saturday afternoon. Of course we were already awake, and Colton wasn't down for his nap yet, but there sure seemed to be a lot of noise. Maybe we were just used to the quiet, we were the only ones there these past two weeks after all.
"Oh, it's move in day." JC figured out, eating the last of his slice of pizza that we ordered last night.
"It's been going on for an hour, you're just figuring that out now?" I chuckle, trying to hold a squirming Colton.
"I was ignoring it." He says, throwing his crust away. I sigh, putting Colton down in his playpen, not really in the mood for being pushed and kicked in the stomach. Curious to see all the activity and movement going on I opened the front door and peeked through, looking at the students moving in with boxes and pillows. Parents bustling around more as students stop to greet friends.
The on campus apartments, mainly housing upper classmen, accommodates about a little over two hundred, with five floors and fifty rooms. It must be really unfortunate to live on the top floor, especially coming home, drunk, or with groceries. Unless there's an elevator I haven't seen yet. I just prayed to God that we didn't have loud party neighbors keeping us away all night. Who am I kidding though, this is college, no parents around, and fake IDs.
"Did you already do laundry? JC asks, as I continue to stand in the doorway watching.
"Uh huh." I mumble, watching a girl carry four pillows in her arms and what seemed to be a large overnight bag. I'm sure she has a lot more than just that.
"Can you iron my pants for class tomorrow?" He asks.
"Uh huh." I mumble, watching the girl struggle. She wasn't struggling that bad, I mean she seemed to have her stuff together.
"Are we going grocery shopping now?" He asks.
"Uh huh." I mumble in response. Maybe I should help her. Ugh, but then I'll be caught up with helping her move in and I don't have the time for that right now even though I should be a good person and help her.
"Can you iron my underwear too?" He asks.
"Uh huh." I mutter, if it were me I would want help. Actually, no I'd be fine it's just pillows!
"You are not listening to a word I'm saying." He comments.
"Uh huh." Oh she's fine, she just walked into a room on the second floor. I'm sure she has family here helping her out.
"Case proven!" He shouts, clapping his hands together.
"What are you yapping about?" I ask, shaking my head and turning to him.
"Nothing important." He mumbles, joining me at the open doorway, "Are you going to put Colton down for a nap?" He asks.
"Does it look like he wants to take a nap? I ask, looking over to Colton with a pointed look, mumbles and gurgling on his own as he plays with his toys independently.
"I mean if we don't put him down now he's just going to be cranky later." JC explains.
"Well he slept in this morning so I don't think he's ready for a nap. If anything he'll fall asleep by himself in his playpen." I tell JC, leaning up against the doorway.
"I'm just afraid he's going to be whiny and cranky with me when you go for your doctor checkup." JC says leaning on the other side of the doorway as well.
"What doctor's appointment?" I ask with a confused look.
"You know, the vagina doctor." He says.
"JC can you not say that so loud." I tell him through my teeth, slapping his arm with the back of my hand. "I don't have to until next Saturday." If he must know.
"Well what was I supposed to say, you didn't know what I was talking about." He says, shrugging his shoulders.
"You didn't have to say it so loud for everyone to hear." I respond.
"No one around is even paying attention to us." JC says, little did he know someone was actually overhearing our conversation.
"Are you two, like, a married couple or something?" A guy next doors asks, coming out of his apartment. He must have had his door open or something. "Blake, by the way." He introduces with a smirk, "I mean, it's cool and all if you're married, congrats and all-"
"Married to her? God no."
"I can barely live with him."
"She's a pain in the ass."
"I'll probably kill him by the end of this semester."
"So bossy."
"So hot headed and stubborn and-"
"Aggravating and emotional and-"
"Swears all the time, always yelling-"
"Always on my case, can't get out of my head-"
"Sounds like true love to me." Some girl comments, leaning over the banister railing on the second floor, looking down at us.
"Hey, how you doin' Rachael?" Blake says in a smooth talking voice that reminded me a whole lot like Joey Tribbiani. He nods up to her, leaning back on his door frame.
"Blake, not interested, never will be." Rachael tells him with a small eye roll, "You two seem like the strangest roommates." She comments back to us, with her eyebrow raised at us.
"It was kind of a force." JC comments, leaning back on the door frame to with a smug smile.
"By choice." I added in, "We have a baby together." I said breaking the news, "It's just in our son's best interest. We may get on each other nerves all the time but we've learned to live with it."
"Literally." JC mumbles under his breath, standing up straight with his arms crossed.
"Aw! A baby! Can I see?!" Another girl, a ginger girl, shows up from nowhere, leaning over the railing next to Rachael.
"Veronica!" Another guy from Blake's apartment shouts, popping his head out the room, "I haven't seen your fury red head in month's babe. Why didn't we hang out all summer?"
Great, it looks to be that I live next door to a household full of high testosterone dudes smooth talking every girl that walks and breaths.
"Mattie, get in line, you're not the only one that smooth talks me." Veronica says confidently. Not that neither of them were bad looking people, except from what I could sense Mattie, nor Blake seemed like stand up guys looking to take an relationship seriously. Girls don't like that.
"Honey I'm in front of that line." Mattie smirks, swinging himself from his fingers as he pulls himself up from the doorway moldings as the girls pass by.
"If a baby is what makes girls request to go into your apartment then sign me up." Blake scoffs, following right behind them. They walk into our apartment, following us as we lead them to Colton's playpen next to the couch.
Colton was the star of the show. He hadn't seen so many new faces in one day since the day he was born. Like the boys had pointed out, he's a girl magnet, because Rachael and Veronica were all over him.
"He has the prettiest eyes." Rachael squeals, smiling when Colton looks at her, then down to her dark nail polish. He always notices that.
"I've got to say he looks a lot like you..." Veronica trails off, looking over at JC.
"JC." He introduces, sticking his hand out formally to shake her.
"Oh cool, what does that stand for?" She asks, looking up at him.
"John Cameron." He says with a shrug.
"Ooo," She purrs, "You can call me Ronnie by the way." She lets the both of us know.
"Or Icky." Mattie teases and snickers.
"I will punch you in the balls so hard one of them will fall off." She threatens.
Mattie lets out an uncomfortable moan, running a hand through his hair and pulling on his pants as he steps away from her.
"Uh, Ronnie, baby in the room." Rachael reminds her.
"He doesn't know what balls are. He probably thinks we're talking about that." Veronica points out to one of Colton's toys on the ground behind him.
"Rachael, let's have one of these." Blake says, after a not so competitive stare down with Colton.
"Blake I will never mother your brainless children." She says with a smile on her face, "But you I will steal. Yes I will you adorable blue eyed baby boy." She coos at Colton, tapping his nose and earning a smile out of him again.
"I have blue eyes. You can have a blue eyed baby boy, and since you're so smart he can just have your intelligence genes." Blake negotiates.
"Isn't this just interesting to watch." I comment quietly to JC standing next to me.
"Disturbing actually." He mumbles back.
"I wouldn't take my chances, Blake." Rachael turns down, again.
"So how are you all friends?" I chuckle, shaking my head at the four of them. Two minutes ago they were looking at JC and I like we were crazy for living with each other. These four are friends, not living all together, but act just like us to one another.
"Mattie and Veronica went to the same high school together." Rachael starts off.
"Yeah, he was that annoying jackass jock from the football team." Veronica smirks.
"Ronnie was, and still is, that nerdy artsy girl. Never crossed paths." Mattie adds.
Yep, 'til the nerdy artsy girl bought a couple of pairs of short shorts, makeup, and headed off to college. Then he couldn't' stay off my path." She grimaces at him.
"Then I purposely start flunking math so she'd have to stay on paths with me." He smirks right back at her.
"I knew it was on purpose!" She shouts, pointing fingers at him.
"Ronnie, baby in the room. For the love of God." Rachael sighs, shaking her head. Mattie laughs his head off, walking out of the apartment without a reason. "And he's my cousin. Unfortunately." She said with a playful disappointed face.
"And I'm just the fortunate roommate." Blake says with the biggest smile on his face.
"How old is he?" Veronica asks, playing with Colton's stuffed bear in front of him.
"Eight months." JC says, taking Colton out of the playpen and sitting him on the carpet. Soon enough he was on his knees and elbows crawling all over me.
"What? What is it baby? You acting shy?" I ask Colton, sitting him on my lap and fixing his hair.
"Uh, uh." Was the only words coming out of Colton's mouth with his fist covering his mouth.
"He's so adorable." Rachael gasps, not able to keep her hands off of him.
"All this time and we don't even know his name." Veronica laughs, looking at the both of us.
"Colton." I tell her giggling.
"Pretty name for a pretty boy, yeah." Rachael says in a cooing voice.
"Alright, I got one for each of us. You owe me big." Mattie says, walking back in and closing the door behind him. When I look over to see what he means I notice the brown and clear bottles in his hands.
"Did Bass hook you up before you left?" Rachael asks Mattie with a raise of her eyebrow.
My eyes quickly dart to JC, but he seemed unfazed and calm as ever. "Yeah, he always does." Mattie says, passing his friends a bottle first. I didn't want to be the nag, or suck the fun out the first time I meet these people that will possible be our friends and are our neighbors. So I kept silent, thinking JC would say something. Maybe.
"Who wants the Smirnoff, and who wants the beer?" Mattie asks, holding the bottles out in front of the two of us.
"I'm good actually." I said with a nervous chuckle and shaking my head. I was figuring out my next response by either saying: I don't drink, or I'm not twenty-one, or I don't drink in front of the baby, or it's too early, or not now- but I was interrupted when Blake spoke up.
"Why did you get Bud Lite? This stuff taste like piss." He tells Mattie, turning his nose up after already opening the bottle and drinking from it.
"Rach's brother was trying to get rid of it. I figure someone would be too drunk to mind the taste." Mattie says, shrugging his shoulders and opening up a different kind of beer bottle.
"I won't ever nearly be drunk enough for this shit." Blake mumble under his breath, swapping with Mattie.
"So unfair that my brother will buy you booze and not me." Rachael says, shaking her head as she tips back the Smirnoff bottle to her mouth. And I thought I was a rebel drinking coffee that one time I was pregnant with Colton.
"So what are you majoring in... Um..." Veronica looks at me, trying to remember my name, but she didn't know since I had never told her.
"Paisley." I tell her, "Um, I've always wanted to be a therapist, so I'm a psychology major, but I might switch. I actually thought about pharmacy one time, but I don't know, a lot of people start off majoring in psych and changing. For now I'm sticking with it." I say to her with a minor shrug.
"Oh cool, I'm a psych major too. Analyst though." Rachael says excitedly.
"What about you JC?" Veronica asks, drinking from her clear bottle and looking to him for an answer.
I look over too, seeing if he was holding a bottle in his hands, but there was no surprise. "Undeclared." He told her shrugging.
"Well Penn has a lot of majors to choose from. I'm sure you'll find something." Veronica tells him. "I wasn't sure either, but I did some test a consular here gave me, and I was paired for nursing, so I tried out a course or two to see how I liked it, and now I'm accepted in full time this semester."
"Us two brainiacs here are business majors." Mattie says putting Blake in a head lock.
"Minoring in marketing. Dude, I was in mid swallow." He says to Mattie, rubbing his neck.
"Drink faster." He responds with his shoulder's shrugging.
"Um, your mom is calling me." JC mumbles, handing me his phone with a confused look on his face.
Taking Colton from me I exchange for the phone and answer the call in the other room, "Hello?"
"Hey, Paisley? Is that you? I was trying to call your phone earlier." She says, as I walk over to my phone on top of my bed as she tells me so. Of course there are three missed calls from her and a text.
"My phone was on vibrate in the other room. What's up?" I ask her, sitting on the edge of my bed.
"I wanted to see if you and the boys are coming over for dinner." She tells me. It hasn't even been two days since I last saw my mom. For three days straight we went home for dinner because we were still unpacking and hadn't found the time to grocery shop. When we did, we didn't go over the next day and she freaked out. I would see her tomorrow no doubt in church. It is Sunday after all. She could wait a few more hours.
"No, we didn't plan on it. Our neighbors were out in the halls, moving in and now they're just hanging out with us. Getting to know each other." I tell her, looking through my phone aimlessly.
"Oh. OK." Silence. She wants me to give in and just say I'll go over. She still can't let her baby girl go. "Well, then, I don't want to keep you from making new friends."
"I'll see you tomorrow." I promise her. "I'll still go over for lunch."
"Alright! I'll make sure I'll make one of your favorites." She tells me all excitedly.
"Surprise me then. Night mom." I say to her before hanging up.
"Night Paisley." She tells me. I hang up the phone. Tossing mine back on my bed and brining JC's phone out with me.
"What did your mom want?" JC asks when I hand him back his phone.
"She thought we'd be going over for dinner. I told her tomorrow for lunch." I inform him, sitting on the floor next to him, "What are you all talking about?" I ask, taking someone's phone out of Colton's mouth, "That does not go there monkey. No eating people's phone." I tell Colton, taking the phone away. God knows where that's been or where it's fallen.
"We were just telling JC that usually during move in day, at night, everyone meets out on the quad and we gather around for a bon fire. If you're interested you guys should totally come." Veronica restates to me, grabbing her phone back. The one Colton was chewing on.
"It's a blast. Great way to kick off the semester." Rachael says, laying her head down on Blake's lap. Those two give me mix signals.
It did sound like fun. College bon fires, sounds like something you'd see in the movies. "I should finish unpacking if I want to go to that." Veronica figures, getting up with a groan. "How did you two unpack to fast?" She asks us, looking around our apartment.
"We moved in a couple of weeks early." JC says, picking up Colton and putting him in his playpen.
"Took us almost a week to unpack everything." I input, glaring at JC from the corner of my eyes.
"Five days, I hardly count that as a week." He defends.
"I said almost a week. Key word, almost." I repeat. Not all the boxes were out of the place by Wednesday like he said there would be. I didn't care that much though, I just knew it wouldn't be that quick like he said it would be.
He rolls his eyes, following our new friends-I think- and neighbors out the door, "See you around guys." He says standing at the front door.
"Bye! I'll be around to hug the little one." Rachael giggles, waving to us. They all wave to us, disappearing into their places.
"Well, those are interesting people." JC mumbles quietly under his breath after he shuts the door.
I nod my head in agreement, grabbing Colton from the playpen to feed him, "You know, if you want, you should go to that bon fire. It sounds like fun." I tell him.
"And what are you planning on doing?" He asks, sitting on the couch.
"I'll be here. With Colton. Just relaxing. I've got my first class in the morning so I want to make sure I'm prepared." I tell him, grabbing the last of the sweet potato I made just the other day. That one is his favorite, for fruit it's bananas, and that's why he's my little monkey.
"I don't want to leave you two alone when I go off and have fun. That's not fair to you." He says to me.
"I really don't mind." I tell him with a shrug, "It's not really my thing. I know you like to go out and socialize- like that summer on the beach. I only really went because of Emma. She loves to go out and socialize like that and I went with her, and tried it out and I don't really care for it." I put the sweet potato in the microwave for twenty seconds, bouncing Colton on my hip to stop him from squirming and wanting to crawl on the floors.
He takes a deep breath, staring at the blank TV screen in front of him, "We'll see." He mumbles. I place Colton in his high chair, and wrap a bib around his neck, dumping some cereal puffs on his tray. "Are you nervous for tomorrow?" He asks all of a sudden.
I shrug my shoulders, pulling a chair up in front of Colton to feed him, "I'm excited actually. Just nervous how things are going to work out, you know? I'm just hoping the schedules work out and one of us can always be with Colton."
"Yeah, I get you." He agrees, deciding to turn on the TV.
"Are you nervous?" I ask him, making sure Colton's food wasn't too hot.
"I'm nervous that I'm not going to fit in." He tells me honestly, watching a cooking show I knew he'd pay no attention to.
"You'll figure it out." I tell him, putting the rubber spoon in Colton's mouth, "It just takes time. You've already made some friends. You never know what's going to happen. Everyone gets a little nervous on their first day onto something new, so you're not alone." That was my shot at giving the best advice I could.
"I guess you're right." He sighs, flipping through the channels now, "You want to watch the series finale of Breaking Bad tonight?" He asks me.
"I take it you're not going to the bon fire then." I figure, cleaning Colton's messy orange face.
"Maybe I'll scope it out later in the night, but I've been saving this episode for too long." He states. Even though I couldn't really watch every episode like JC, I kept up. Sitting down and binge watching episodes with him from time to time in the summer. It was easy to catch on what I missed.
"Maybe when I put Colton to sleep tonight. After that." I tell him, dumping the empty container of sweet potato in the sink and grabbing a ripe banana from the basket on top of the counter.
"Sounds like a plan." He agrees. After I cut the banana in small pieces for Colton I hear JC chuckling from the couch, muttering under his breath, "Man, what a life."
===
Two Weeks Pass
I had scheduled a late session with one of my professors to discuss something about a paper she had assigned. Being that girl still, I had started outlining the paper that night she had assigned it to us. So two days later I had asked if she could just check to see if this was the type of essay she was expecting. I wanted to make a good first impression on my first paper for her.
JC was home with Colton. Neither one of us had classes for the rest of the day. Tuesdays were a good day for us, since we both only had two classes each that day. I would be done by noon, take Colton from JC so he could head to class, and he would be done by four. Tuesdays are excellent. Too bad today isn't Tuesday. To follow up a great day, Wednesday, is our craziest day. Our classes are scattered, and in between hours we'd have to rush home so the other could go to class.
For example my expositions and arguments course would start at eight in the morning. Who wants to be up at eight in the morning, first of all, to argue about something pointless, like, why we should stop making the penny because it costs way too much money, and how no one cares about the penny. So after an hour and a half with that class, I would then have to rush home, so JC could go to his math refresher class at ten. Leaving us only a half hour in between. It would be like that all day for three classes each. Back and forth, back and forth.
Thankfully neither of us have been late to class. Wednesdays are our only hectic days. Agreeably, we like when we have classes back to back, and then are able to come home from the rest of the day, and switch. But anyways, after having that scheduled late night session with Professor Eyre, I had stopped at the ice cream shop across the main street next to campus, and ordered something for JC and I as a surprise for when I got home. I guess this ice cream place is the talk of the town, best there is, homemakers finest; and so far we've had no disappointments with every new flavor we try.
It's nice to walk around campus, sometimes exhausting, and a bit chilly in the mornings, but campus is beautiful. My favorite times are the weekends when I take the stroller out of the corner, and strap Colton in and enjoy cruising around campus. Especially sporting events. Colton is our baby wolverine mascot, all dressed up in Pennbrook attire.
Holding the box in one hand of our ice cream, and turning the key and knob with the other I walk in, struggling to rip the key from the hole. "Hey, I brought you something." I announce, growling at the key after I finally get it out. "I don't think it's melted yet." I chuckle, putting it down on the side table near the couch, hanging up my key and tossing my bag to the side.
I look to the kitchen, narrowing my eyes as to why JC had his back to me, sitting on the dining table without a word to mention. Grabbing our ice creams I walked over to him, slightly nervous. A scene from a crime show flashed through my memory of how the victim is set up to look like he's just sitting there, when in reality he's dead and that's why he isn't replying back. Is this what I'm stumbling upon now? Coming home to a dead JC and my baby stolen from me?!
I have to lay off the crime shows before bed.
JC, thankfully, is alive; but the world surrounding him was dead to him. It was just him, and the bottle in front of him, not even blinking. I don't know what I was feeling at the moment, maybe a little numb, a little worried, for all of us, but for JC especially. I wondered if maybe our new neighbors had peer pressured him into drinking. If ideas and bad encouragements were planted into his mind, taking him away from his original desires. I wanted to know what he was thinking, what he was feeling, because if I know anything about JC, it is that he never wanted to sip alcohol in his life. That's what I figured anyways.
"What are you doing?" I ask hesitantly, standing at the other end of the table, and staring at the brown bottle in front of him. I put the little carrying box of ice cream down on the table, not caring at the moment if our precious desserts were melting.
Dazed, he shook his head, and stared up at me, "Um." He clears his throat, pointing to the bottle with his hand, "The neighbors next door came by for a bit and they brought beer. They left this one behind and... I don't know. I just wanted to try it." He spoke softly and slowly, sounding guilty even as he laid slumped back in the chair. "Stupid." I heard him whisper, rubbing a hand over his mouth and across his jaw.
I pressed my lips together, and to be very honest I was a little shaky. A little nervous, but it was so faint that I could barely call it that. I reached over, grabbing the bottle and relaxing a bit when I felt the weight of the bottle. It was still mostly filled, like he only took one sip. I poured all of it down the drain and recycled the bottle. In an instant, I felt better.
I stood behind him, my hands on his broad shoulders, slipping down so that my arms crossed over his chest, and I rested my chin on his head, hugging him from behind. "I won't do it again." He told me much louder and firmer than his voice was earlier.
"I know." I whispered, kissing the top of his head.
"That was fucking gross." He added, a ghostly grin flickering on the corner of his lips, rubbing his hand on my arm.
"Good." I grinned, hugging him a little tighter. Just like that I wasn't worried about it anymore. I wasn't worried about it ever, but I guess seeing an open bottle of beer in front of JC struck a small nervousness within me.
"I'm sorry if I scared you." He apologized, squeezing one of my hands.
I shook my head, looking at him though he didn't turn his face, "So you wanted to test it out. Curious to know what the taste is. Whatever your thought was, I know you're strong enough to make the right decision for yourself. You have nothing to worry about either. I've got your back." I told him.
"I'm not going to be like him." He denied, shaking his head. His hair tickling my face as he did so. "I won't. I can't. I... I won't be like him, Pais."
"And that's all you've got to tell yourself. If you keep telling yourself that it'll come true. You'll prove to yourself that you can do it. That you can be the better man no matter your past, because it does not define the person you're going to be for the rest of your life. I see the change in you. I see the determination of who you want to be, and I solely believe in you. You can do whatever you set your heart and mind to." I agree in a soft voice. We stayed silent for a while longer, and I enjoyed the silence not because we never got to enjoy those rare moments, but because it was comfortable and understanding.
"How was your meeting?" He asks, kissing the top of my hand.
"It went well, she can't wait to read it." I tell him, my cheek still resting on the top of his head because I was too tired to move.
"That sounds like good news to me. What about your classes? I didn't ask you earlier if they went all right." He wonders as well, this thumb brushing softly on the back of my hand that even that simple stroke could put me to sleep, even standing up.
"I had a pop quiz. I don't think I did too well on it." I sighed, biting the inside of my lip as I thought about it. How nervous of a wreck I was taking that damn quiz.
"I'm sure you did excellent. You sell yourself short too often." He encourages, "Want to study together? You said you have a history discussion tomorrow or something."
"Not tonight. I'll wake up early tomorrow and look over my notes. Let's just watch a movie. We haven't watched a movie in a long time." I stated, unlocking myself from the hug.
"That's because we always fall asleep ten minutes in." He chuckles, turning in his seat as he watched me move to the bathroom so I could shower. "You brought ice cream?"
"Yeah I did. Just put mine in the freezer, and this time I'm not going to fall asleep." I say determined. I see a grin on his face before I close the door to the bathroom. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes, as I leaned my forehead on the door. I said a silent prayer. Turning the shower on, I stripped out of my clothes and washed myself. I was in there for a while, relaxing myself. I changed into my PJs and checked on Colton. He wasn't in his crib, so I walked out to the living room and found him quietly in his playpen, playing with almost all his toys that were just thrown in there.
"Time to give you a bath monkey." I coo at him, kissing his cheek as I pulled him out. "Oo, and change your diaper too. Good thing it's bath time." I say out loud, scrunching up my nose.
"He was fine when you left." JC comments, coming out of Colton's room with his towel and fresh cloths to shower as well.
"Maybe it's dinner. You did feed him peas." I chuckle, shaking my head and making faces to Colton. JC got in the shower while I scrubbed down the sink, making sure it was extra clean and started filling it up with warm water and soap. With that filling up slowly I go to Colton's room and get his towel, setting up his PJs and diaper on the changing table.
Yes, I'm giving my son a bath in the kitchen sink, it isn't a bad idea, and parents do it all the time. My mom did it to me, and I have the pictures to prove it. Colton likes it even more, it's a lot more spacious than the little plastic tub he's used to. After giving Colton a bath I change him into his footie pajamas, looking cute as a button and smelling oh-so-much lovelier than before.
"I already got his bottle warmed up." JC says, giving it a quick shake. Colton, being almost eight and a half months now is already intelligent when we ask him this question every night, "Sleep with daddy or sleep with mama?" JC asks him, holding out his hands and waving for him to come over.
He'd look over to both of us and either crawl back to me and pull at my shirt for me to stay, or jump over to JC with a big smile on his face. Tonight he chose me, keeping his head rested on my shoulder and grabbing onto my shirt. "Guess it's mama tonight." I smile proudly, grabbing the warm bottle from JC's hand.
"Then daddy can pick the movie." JC says with a laugh, kissing Colton on the head goodnight before plopping himself on the couch.
I sat in the rocking chair with Colton, feeding him his bottle until his eyes fluttered closed and I could put him in his crib to sleep. Twenty minutes later- which felt like an hour because just as I was resting him in his crib, he decided to wake up- I finally got my ice cream out of the freezer and sat down on the couch, not before glancing at the painting hanging above that sofa that always created knots in my stomach.
"What movie are we watching tonight?" I ask, sitting cross legged on the sofa.
"Nothing good really. Unless you want to rent Unfriended. You don't really like horror though." He mumbles, knowing to keep quiet after Colton is sleeping.
"What about Netflix? Any new releases?" I ask him, enjoying the new flavor I had took a chance on.
He switched over, scrolling through the 'recently added' list. "For a good time, call." He lists off first with a smirk.
"Not with you." I choke laughing, shaking my head.
"How's that flavor anyways?" He asks, scrolling through some boring titles.
"Like you don't know, I know you took a bite out of it." I scoffed, shaking my head when pauses on Blackfish.
"It was pretty good, which one is that?" He asks, "Oh, it's that Black or White film your mom was talking about the other day."
"Oh, put it on." I agreed, "And it's maple walnut. Yours was Swiss chocolate chip."
"Yeah, mine was ok, it just tasted like rich chocolate ice cream to me." He says with a shrug, shutting the lights off.
"Yeah, just ok that you didn't even save a bite for me." I claim, enjoying my creamy, nutty ice cream.
"I didn't finish mine yet." He says, walking over to the freezer to get his.
"Oh, I didn't even see it, let me try." I say, waiting for him to sit down to take a scoop myself. He was right, not too crazy of a flavor.
"My favorite is still the movie time flavor." He tells me as the movie starts. I moaned in agreement, nodding my head as I still had the spoon in my mouth with ice cream. That was a really good flavor. Pieces of popcorn may turn you away from a flavor but not this one, it was perfect.
"Hey, can I ask you a question. There will probably never be an appropriate time to ask, and it's awkward of me to even ask, but it's been bugging me for a while now because I keep looking at this painting to the wall your mom made, and I just keep thinking back to it."
"Alright." He allowed, laying back on the sofa, giving me only the corner to cozy up to.
"That night." I started off, playing with my hair as I always did when I was nervous. "Did, um, did you just assume I was on birth control or something?" I wondered softly. Knowing JC past, sleeping with other girls and all, every other time was successful in not getting a girl pregnant, to my knowledge at least- or the public's knowledge.
Stunned for a moment, he looked down at his hands and then shrugged, "Yeah, I guess I just assumed. I mean, usually in my experience, when a girl isn't on birth control they stop everything and wonder if I have a condom." He shrugged his shoulders again with a sigh, glancing back to the TV, looking uncomfortable as he runs his hands through his hair. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed. It was stupid and reckless."
I nodded, not saying much. Neither of us said much for a while, twiddling my fingers I spoke up, "It's not just your fault either. I shouldn't have been so clueless. I should have said something too. I'm sorry too." I mumbled, not looking at him. "But you know how people always say, oh if I could go back in time and change things I would. I wouldn't." I tell him, shaking my head.
"Really? Even with me? All the arguments, the fights, the tears, the screaming-"
"I mean I would have gladly skipped that." I chuckle, "But all those events led us to where we are today. Without all those fights we wouldn't have gotten so close. We wouldn't have moved here together and go to college. We wouldn't be acting so calm and civil like we are now. And if we went back and changed Easter night then Colton wouldn't be born, we probably would have stayed strangers, I would have gone to college and done my thing, you would have gone your way and done your thing; and we would still act like neither one of us existed."
"I guess you're right. I wouldn't change things either." He agrees, a grin sliding on his face. "Funny that now we can talk about this without getting emotional." He points out, looking at me more sternly. No water works about that anymore. "Why are you asking me that? After all this time." He wondered, just as I had wondered about us.
I shrugged my shoulders, faintly smiling, "That painting on the wall keeps me thinking back, wondering why I was so naïve and careless. I was probably a horrible first time compared to all the experience you have; no wonder why you didn't want to talk to me afterwards. Then to top it off my first time I got pregnant." I scoffed, shaking my head as I ran my hands through my hair nervously. I covered my hand over my eyes laughing for a moment, and then shook my head again. I just pulled a JC and allowed my thoughts to flood out of my head, and probably not one of the best times to let that flow happen.
Midnight thoughts are the scariest things.
"Actually that's not the reason why I didn't talk to you afterwards." He disagrees, "It's because I thought that you wouldn't want anything to do with me taken my history and all. Or maybe when you woke up the next morning you regretted it. I thought I was making it easier for you not talking to you back, but then I realized you weren't one of those girls who cared about social status or what you looked like with the people you were with. You looked beyond that. Then I realized you really did want to be my friend and when I understood that it was a little too late and I blew it. I was now that jerk that treated you like nothing but a one night stand."
"Gee and all this time I thought I was just bad in bed." I scoffed, feeling really red in the face, "Or on the couch." I chuckled, slapping a hand to my face. "Gosh, it's way too late. I'm just babbling."
"You weren't bad." He whispered, staring at the TV.
"Please, spare me the lie." I chuckled nervously, shaking my head.
"I mean you weren't the best I've ever had, but you weren't the worst either. For a virgin and pastor's daughter I was surprised myself." He continued, making me laugh and heat up. I'm horrible to talk to in awkward conversations with. Or course I'd laugh about sex and whatever else.
"You know, usually to get girls talking guys get them drunk. Lucky for you, you never need to do that. Just keep me up until two in the morning only running on twelve hours sleep for three days and you've found the equilibrium." I informed him, raising a finger in the air to prove a point.
"You're right. This is the first in a long time that I've heard your thoughts. You don't speak your mind much; you're a bottler." He agrees letting out a yawn that I follow.
"A bottler?" I repeated, letting my eyes shut for just a second.
"You keep it all in, until, one day, you explode." He explains simply.
I faintly snickered, "You don't have that problem." I whispered.
"Years of talking to a shrink. You can't keep things to yourself." He admits.
Even if it was almost midnight and my brain is only half functioning, I remember back on our first night together he said he never talked to a therapist, "I thought you said you never got help?"
"I lied." He confessed openly.
"I lied too." I said, coming clean moments later. "I told you from the start I could have done this alone. Truth is I made myself believe that. I was scared to do this all alone. Of course I knew I had my mother and friends, but I never really thought of it as the same. I said I could have done it on my own, but I didn't want to." It was quiet for a moment, the only noise were the voices coming from the TV, and I wondered if he paid attention and heard what I said, "I'm glad I had you."
"Have me. Present tense." He whispers after a long silent moment. I smiled, letting my eyes flutter close as I lean my head back on the couch cushion.
"I'm glad I have you." I corrected in a soft tone. I didn't have to look at JC to know he was smiling, I could sense it after all this time being with him. We both smiled to each other, turning our heads back to the movie, but from the corner of my eyes, I knew, and I could feel him still looking at me.
As I promised myself I wasn't going to fall sleep ten minutes into the movie. Instead, I held out for half way, about an hour into even JC struggled to keep his eyes open, not because the movie was terrible, but waking up before seven o'clock was taking a toll on us. Yep, us old folks, struggling to even stay up before midnight.
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HELLLLOOOOOO BABIES!
Sorry for the late update! Emergencies happened... and then we got distracted editing BFWTP and buying books xD
BUT HERE IS THE LONG CHAPTER! We hoped you like it, we spent a long time writing it! Don't know when we'll post the next one, due to being in college and separated, but we will keep you updated! (Especially on TWITTER, check out our home page for the link.
And for those of you asking YES you will find out if JC and Paisley cousin DID IT. That will probably be revealed in the next chapter.
Chapter picture: Thank you carpenterslovex again for the lovely banners you made for us! This one is just SUPER adorable and hot with baby and "JC" ;)
Chapter song: Wildest Dream by Taylor Swift, her new music video with Scott Eastwood *multiple heart eye emojis* <333333333
Thank you for reading! DM us if you have nay questions about the chapter, 4 MORE LEFT!!!!
Comment. Vote. Fan. Follow on Twitter. -Kylie & Kelsey