CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Claire’s POV
After Mark and I had gone to the doctor and talked, the atmosphere was a lot happier in our apartment. I was in a really good mood, actually, until I had an epiphany. Mark was struggling with a few worries, but was fine overall. I was a little scared, but still excited. I had talked to Stephanie again, who was completely supportive and glad to hear that I was no longer upset. But what about my parents? Mark’s family? His friends? Nobody really knew about our situation yet, and I was terrified to tell them. I was sure that Mark’s mom and friends would be happy for us, but I couldn’t say the same about my mom and dad. I knew they expected me to get married before having any kids, and I honestly had expected that of myself too. They never found out the truth about Mark, so they didn’t really have anything against him. They had grown to like him, actually, and I didn’t want something like this to change that.
“You have to tell them, Claire. You can’t wait until you’re sixth months pregnant and show up at their doorstep with a huge belly to surprise them,” Mark told me. I knew he was right, but I was afraid.
“Can we please just tell your mom and brother and Bob and Wade first? They’ll take the news a whole lot better,” I answered.
“If you really want to, then yes. But first you have to promise me that you’ll call your parents and schedule a trip to see them afterwards,” Mark negotiated. I thought for a second, then sighed.
“Alright, fine. I promise.”
Mark logged onto Skype and called his mom, who answered quickly since she had gotten his text saying she needed to log on.
“Hey you two! How have you been?” she asked, a smile on her face.
“We’ve been great, Mom. What about you?”
“I’ve been just fine.”
“Well, we have some news to tell you, so you better brace yourself,” Mark warned her.
“It’s good news, I hope?” I looked over at Mark and smiled.
“We’d consider it good news,” I assured her.
“Well, what is it? Tell me already!” Mark’s mom demanded when we were silent for a moment.
“You’re going to have another grandchild,” Mark announced, grinning.
“You mean…Claire’s pregnant?” I nodded.
“Oh my goodness! Congratulations! Wow, I can’t even tell you how excited I am for you two! Are you excited?” His mother’s response was overwhelmingly positive, and I was so glad that she was happy for us.
“Yes, and nervous. Very, very nervous,” I laughed.
“Oh, don’t be nervous yet! This might sound crazy, but you have to enjoy every minute of your pregnancy. You’ll appreciate it so much once your little angel is born, I promise!”
Mark and I talked to his mom for a few more minutes. She was full of questions, even though we didn’t have a whole lot of answers. All we could say was that I was about four weeks along, we had been to the doctor, and we were doing a lot of research. She had a lot of good things to say, which left me feeling happy when we ended the Skype call. But, of course, we weren’t done yet. We preceded to Skype with Mark’s older brother, Tom, as well as Bob and Wade. All three of them congratulated us, and they were just as positive. Even so, I still was reluctant to call my mom. I knew I had to do it. I had to make sure Mark and I could go there for a visit, because I had to tell my parents in person. They would want that, and it was the right thing to do.
So, I did it. I called, and I kept things pretty simple. I asked my mom if she and Dad would be busy that weekend, and she said no. I told her that Mark and I would love to come for a visit, and she sounded very delighted to hear that we wanted to come. She confirmed that the upcoming weekend would work great and offered to buy our plane tickets, but I declined. We made smalltalk about how things were in LA compared to Indiana and then we said our goodbyes and hung up. It was painless, when I made it sound like it was just going to be a normal visit.
“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Mark wondered when I got off the phone.
“Don’t speak so soon, she doesn’t know yet,” I reminded him.
“It’ll be fine, I’m sure.”
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The morning of our flight was a rough one. I woke up in the morning not feeling so great. I had read that morning sickness wasn’t really a thing during pregnancy. It was just plain sickness that could happen at any time and could often be triggered by smells. However, I truly did have morning sickness after I got up.
I hadn’t thrown up in years, so it seemed extra disgusting to me. I felt bad because Mark had made us a nice breakfast and I got sick before I could even eat any of it. I think it was the sausage he made. It was that smell that bothered me when I entered the kitchen. That being said, I didn’t eat any before we left for the airport.
“Are you feeling better now?” Mark wondered once we boarded the plane.
“Yeah, but I might throw up again when we get to my parents’ house,” I cautioned him. He laughed, but I wasn’t really joking. I wouldn’t be surprised if I emptied my stomach again, this time from stress more than anything.
The plane ride was long, but it was okay. Mark distracted me from worrying by bringing up other subjects and making me laugh, like he always did. By the time our plane touched down in Chicago, I was actually in a good mood. We grabbed our bags and got off the plane, and Mark took my hand. That was the easiest way for him to calm me down without having to say a word, and it worked well, even as we headed out and I spotted my mom’s car. Her and my dad both got out of the car to hug Mark and I, and they opened up the trunk so we could get rid of our bags.
“Are you ready for a bit of a drive? It’ll take about an hour and a half to get home from here,” my dad explained to Mark once we were all in the car and he was pulling out of the airport.
“I’m ready,” Mark answered. We had a whole hour and a half to stall before we would actually tell my parents our big news.
We passed our time in the car by answering my parents’ questions and asking them things. We actually talked about a lot, and I began to run out of things to bring up to stall more. By the time we got to the house in Indiana that I grew up in, I just wanted to relax a little. Luckily, that was exactly what my mom suggested.
“It’s pretty nice out today, do you guys want to go sit out on the deck?” she wondered.
“That sounds great,” Mark decided. My dad offered him a beer which he said yes to, and my mom offered me a strawberry margarita, which she knew I loved. It sounded so good, but I unfortunately couldn’t have one, so I declined it.
“You don’t want one? I don’t think you’ve ever turned down one of my margaritas before,” my mom laughed, surprised at my answer.
“I’d just rather have a pop right now,” I told her.
“We have vanilla vodka, if you want to make yourself something,” she said, referring to the drink I liked to make for myself that tasted like vanilla Coke, except that it was alcoholic.
“Yeah, I just want a Coke, Mom,” I assured her, grabbing a cold can out of the fridge. I knew she was suspicious, but I didn’t know how I could change that. I just kept quiet until we all had made our way outside and sat down on the patio furniture with our drinks.
“So, what’s new with you guys?” my dad wondered. Mark looked at me and gave my hand a squeeze, which was a signal that told me we needed to just tell them already.
“There’s a lot, actually,” Mark answered for me.
“Like what?”
“We have some big news to tell you guys,” I said.
“Oh?” my mom inquired. She waited for Mark and I to explain ourselves. I took a deep breath before saying my next sentence.
“Mark and I are going to be parents, and you’re going to be grandparents,” I announced.
“You mean…”
“We’re having a baby,” Mark grinned. My parents both wore shocked looks on their faces, the kind where it’s too hard to tell what they’re thinking. Were they amazed in a good way or a bad way? I had no idea, and I just wanted someone to say something. It took a second, but my dad finally stopped the torture.
“That’s amazing news!” he exclaimed.
“That’s the best news we’ve heard in a long time,” my mom promised, and she quickly got up to hug me. She had always wanted to be a grandmother, I knew that much. I was just so afraid that she would be upset that it was happening this early, before any wedding or announcement that we were planning on trying to have kids. But as she hugged me and congratulated me, I realized I had worried about nothing. I was her daughter, and even when I broke it to her that it wasn’t planned, she still loved me and she was still extremely happy for me.
Our weekend in my old home turned out to be a lot better than I had expected. After Mark and I broke the news, there was a lot of talk about the baby, including nursery ideas, possible names, and guesses on the gender. I didn’t care which gender the baby was, honestly. I knew I would be happy no matter what, but deep down, I had a feeling it was going to be a boy. Mark was the opposite - he thought it was going to be a girl. My mom was on Mark’s side and my dad was on my side. As for names and nursery ideas, Mark and I hadn’t even begun to think about either subject. I felt like we still had so much time to figure all that out. I didn’t want to plan a nursery until I knew the gender, and we could easily get away with not considering names until we knew the gender as well. But, that didn’t stop me from beginning to look up ideas and try to come up with some in my head. I just couldn’t help myself! I didn’t tell Mark, though. I wanted us to figure out name possibilities together, and it seemed a little early. It felt like we had only known for a day, actually, even though it had been much longer. I was both happy with and afraid of the fact that this pregnancy could pass by very quickly.
Hey guys! I know it's pretty early, but what do you guys think - will it be a boy or a girl? Or better yet, what do you want the sex of the baby to be? I already know what it's going to be, but I'd stil like to know what you guys think, so let me know in the comments! As always, if you enjoyed the chapter, please vote for it and feel free to message me if you ever want to talk! Also, if you have Twitter and you'd like to follow me, my handle is MrsKaner, and my Tumblr name is the same as it is on here (MyLifeAsRyana). Just throwing that out there :) Thanks for reading!