*Chapter 17*
{Month 9}
"If two or more ideas are parallel, they are easier to grasp when expressed in parallel form. SIngle words should be balanced with single words, phrases with phrases, clauses with clauses."
Professor Adams was explaining a powerpoint about parallel structured sentences as I sat in the auditorium that Wednesday. I was being a good litle student and copying the simple powerpoint slides, adding my own notes when he said something that I figured I should remember. Finals were coming up in a few weeks and I was cramming a lot of studying into my schedule, not that it was really busy anymore.
"Readers expect items in a series to appear in parallel grammatical form. When one or more of the items violate readers' expectations, a sentence will be needlessly awkward," he continued and I scribbled notes down in the margin of my paper and copied the slide into my laptop. "For example, in the sentence, 'After assuring us that he was sober, Sam drove down the middle of the road, ran one red light, and two stops signs,' is gramatically incorrect. The third example presented should read, '...and went through two stops signs.' This revision adds a verb to make the three items parallel."
I sighed as he went on explaining gramatical errors in two more sentences. I copied them down easily, but didn't pay much attention to his corrections. I had learned about parallel structure thoroughly in my freshamn year Intro to Literature class.
I winced slightly as a slight pain shot through my lower abdomen. It felt likes cramps, but that was impossible since I was pregnant and had been for nearly nine months now. I had been feeling this pain for a couple days now, on and off every few hours. Along with them was the pain in my lower back that was making it uncomfortable to do anything but lay down.
My eyes widened slightly as I realized I was nine months pregnant. I was able to go into labor at any time now and the babies would be perfectly healthy. My due date wasn't until early next month, but the doctor had said I was at a higher chance of delivering early since I was carrying twins.
Even as I thought this, I passed it off, knowing if I was having contractions, they were short lived and only happened every three or four hours so far. Though, as I thought about it, the last time I had felt the constricting pain was at the beginning of the class. My English course had started barely twenty minutes ago. I shook my head slightly and hoped that the contractions wouldn't speed up. I still had another class after this, and I really wanted to get through the day.
Fifteen minutes later, only two-thirds of the way through class, another contraction ripped through my abdomen, and I squeezed my eyes shut. This one was longer than the previous ones I had been experiencing the past couple of days. I kept my eyes closed for almost two minutes and had to breath for another few seconds after it passed to recooperate myself. I let out a breath of air and tried to concentrate back on the lecture.
Apparently, the babies were set on having my complete and undivided attention because when it wasn't contractions, it was my back. I squirmed in my chair to try to find a comfortable position to sit in. People around me eyed me curiously as I rearranged my body a few times. After a few mintues of failing at trying to get comfortable, I let out a huff and just sat there, gritting my teeth.
Ten mintues after my failed mission, another contraction decided to show up and I groaned a bit, trying to squelch the sound with my hand. Apparently it worked, since only the people closest to me looked over. Some were staring at me like I had grown a second head and others were looking at me with concern.
Kelsie, the girl sitting to my immediate left leaned over toward me and whispered, "Are you okay, O'Reilly?"
I held my breath as the final remnants of the contraction passed before I nodded and glanced at her. "Yeah, I'm fine."
She looked straight at me when she said, "You don't look fine. You're face is pale and you're sweating a little bit."
"I'm fine, really," I tried brushing off.
"O'Reilly," she said sternly, giving me a knowing look. "Are you going into labor? Are you having contractions?"
I squrimed in my seat before answering her. "Yeah, I'm having contractions, but I'm fine. They're not that bad."
"Not that bad?" she questioned skeptically. "I've noticed, Riles, and you've been having them about every fifteen minutes and they're lasting for a while. You need to get to a hospital."
I shook my head. "I'm fine, seriously." There was only thirty minutes left of class, I could do it.
"O'Reilly, just get up and go--"
"Ms. Holmes, Ms. Owens," Professor Adams called up to us. When I turned to look at him, his eyebrows were raised. "What is so important that you had to interrupt my lecture?"
"O'Reilly's in labor, but she's too stubborn to get up and go to the hospital," Kelsie blurted before I could shut her up. I sent her a glare before looking down at the professor again.
"Really, I'm fine," I tried to say. Just as I was sure I could make a convincing argument, I felt warmth trickle over the thighs of my jeans. I looked down and saw a huge wet spot, making it looked like I peed. My water had broken.
"Well, shit," I said, loud and clear, not really caring that I was in the middle of the lecture hall and my English professor and fifty other people were present.
"Ms. Holmes," Adams warned before he realized why I had cursed. "Oh!" he said in surprise, his eyes widening. "Do you need me to call the hospital?"
I shook my head, an ambulance being the last thing I needed. What I needed was a comfortable bed to curl up in and some drugs in me to dull the pain. That sounded perfect right now.
"No, I'll just go outside and call a friend," I said, knowing Mason wouldn't have left for work yet. It was only nine-thirty and his shift didn't start until eleven. "Help me walk out?" I asked Kelsie. She nodded and I grabbed up my laptop and notebook and stuffed them in my bag before she helped me out of my seat.
Once I was out of the auditorium, I whipped out my phone and dialed Mason's number, not having the patience to look through my contacts. Luckily, he must have been near his phone and picked up on the second ring.
"Hello?" he asked and I realized I had dialed his house phone.
"Hey, Mason, it's O'Reilly," I greeted, realizing he probably didn't recognize the number.
"Oh, hey babe, what's up? How are you?" he asked, genuinely seeking the answer. I smiled at his caring tone before I remembered what I had called for.
"I'm good, but I just went into labor and I'm at the college," I said. "Can you come pick me up and take me to the hospital?"
"You're in labor?" he asked, but he didn't wait for the answer. "Okay, I'll be there in a couple minutes."
"Okay, I'll be waiting in the parking lot. Thanks, Mason." I hung up before he could say goodbye since my body decided right then was a great time to tear itself in two.
I gripped on to Kelsie's fingers tightly, not in the right state of mind to consider the fact that I was probably breaking her hand. She didn't seem to mind though, as she just let me wait it out. When I was able to actually function again, she led to to the entrance of the school and sat with me on a bench near the parking lot.
"Thank you, Kelsie. Sorry, you have to see this even though we don't really know each other," I apologized, offering her a weak smile. Going into labor really took a lot out of you.
"It's fine, I had to deal with the same thing when my sister had my nephew," she shrugged, laughing lightly. "Except, she was a raging mad woman and swore the whole way to the hospital. Compared to her, you're like an angel," she joked.
I laughed genuinely, liking the way it took my mind off the fact that I was in a lot of pain. Maybe laughter was the natural remedy to pain.
Just as Mason pulled up alongside the curb, I had another contraction and he rushed out of his car to get me. He scooped me up into his arms and thanked Kelsie for staying with me since I was incapable of speech at that moment.
Mason loaded me into his car and held my hand while the car sat idle until the pain passed. As soon as it did, he smiled at me sadly and put the car into drive, maneuvering out of the parking lot.
I slipped my phone out of my bag and went through my contacts list, selecting all the important people. I went into my messages and sent them all:
'The babies are coming!'
Unforutnately, the most important person was left off that list. I sighed and slid my phone closed, leaning my head on the window.
~EINH~
{Preston's POV} (DUN DUN DUH! ;)
"Mom, Dad?" I called out into the large entryway. My voice echoed of the flat walls, and I was answered with silence. "Andrea?" I tried again, hoping Mom and Dad were just at work.
When I was once again answered with silence, I shrugged off my bags and left them in the entrance. My boots tapped noisily on the hardwood floors as I made my way into the kitchen, hoping maybe it would shed light onto where my parents were. I could see why my dad and sister were out, but Mom stayed home most of the time.
After being gone for nearly a year, I was hoping that when I came home my mom would be here at the very least. I had sent Riles that letter saying that I was staying longer than I first planned, but I was hoping she figured my parents already knew and just kept it to herself. I had only said that because I wanted to surprise her when I came home on time.
When I entered the kitchen, I went straight to the fridge in the search of food. I was starving from the three hour flight here from Texas. I hadn't eaten anything since five o' clock this morning before the bus left from base to take us to the airport.
Luckily, I found left overs from lasagna dinner they had probably had the night before. I cut myself a big piece and threw it in the oven for a few minutes. While I was waiting on that, I went up stairs to my room to change out of my uniform and into regular clothes.
I opened the door to find the room exaclty as I left it, except my bed was made and the clothes were pushed into a pile in the corner instead of spread over the floor. I smiled, knowing my mom wanted to keep my room as it was but couldn't stand that it was left so dirty. Other than the two things, I found that everything else was in its rightful place, including the picture of O'Reilly and I during graduation.
We were in our caps and gowns, hers purple and mine silver. Her long brown hair was curled and hanging loosely down her shoudlers, accentuating her beautiful face. Her bright eyes were trained on the camera, her smile making me smile unconsciously. Her arm was around my back, the other gripping her diploma proudly, even though it was only a piece of paper wrapped in black ribbon.
I shook my head and focused on getting changed, knowing I'd see her soon. I pulled on a pair of slim jeans, a red and black plaid button up and a pair of black shoes. It felt nice to be back into comfortable civilian clothes as opposed to the starched uniforms we were required to wear everyday.
By the time I made it back downstairs, my lasagna was done and extremely hot. I grabbed a fork and set my plate down on the bar part of the counter. As I was shoveling the first few bites of food into my mouth, I spotted a piece of paper on the far end of the counter. I reached over and grabbed it, figuring it was a note. I glanced at it real quick and realized it was my dad's handwriting, scribbly and messy from years of writing reports and signing things at the hospital.
'Andie, I know your phone's broken so you wouldn't have gotten the message. O'Reilly is in the hospital. It's most likely going to be a while, so come down whenever. Your mom and I will be there already, though.
Love, Dad'
My fork dropped to the counter, splattering pasta sauce all over the place. I scooted out my chair and nearly ran to the front door, grabbing my leather jacket that was still hanging on the coat rack. I didn't even bother to lock the door as I grabbed my mom's car keys and made my way down the driveway to get to the hospital.
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...Okay, so here's chapter 17. Hope you guys like it. Tell me your thoughts. I totally whipped this out in like an hour since I was so excited to write it, so, sorry if there's any mistakes. I promise the next chapter will be up ASAP, so no long waiting/cliff hanger anxiety for you all. I promise, the next chapter will be whipped out probably as quick as this one. We're coming to the climax of the story, so I get excited and write a lot ^_^
Remember to comment, vote, fan, like, whatever it is ya'll do nowadays. Love you guys! MUAH!
--Nikki