CHAPTER FOURTEEN
About one month after Mark and I had delivered our news to our friends and family, I was surprised at how things were going. Well, some things. It seemed like I had become a lot more sensitive to smells, and my nausea had only gotten worse. That I could have gone without. However, my stomach still didn’t look much bigger. I had noticed a small difference, but nothing drastic that screamed “I’m pregnant”. That technically wasn’t supposed to happen until another month had passed, so it didn’t really worry me. I had been taking vitamins and eating carefully, and I definitely hadn’t been drinking at all, so I didn’t suspect any problems. Things were going very well, except that I had one thing on my mind.
“When are you going to tell your fans?” I asked as I watched Mark put the finishing touches on editing for a video.
“When am I going to tell them what?” he wondered, only half listening. I rolled my eyes, but he didn’t see.
“You know what,” I mumbled. He finished what he was doing and turned to face me.
“I don’t know. When should I tell them?”
“Before I start showing too much. Otherwise they’ll see the two of us out somewhere and spread the word for you,” I told him.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true. Maybe I’ll just tell them tomorrow,” he decided. He had a worried expression on his face, and I knew what he was thinking.
“They’ll accept it, Mark. It’ll be fine,” I assured him. The ones that didn’t weren’t true fans, and he didn’t need them anyways.
“I hope so.”
***************************************************
Mark’s POV
It was time. My fans knew a lot of personal things about me. They knew it when I went through tough times and when great opportunities were granted to me. They knew when I entered a new relationship, and now they would know that I was going to become a father. After all of the things we had been through together, even if it was only indirectly, they deserved this. Now, not months later when the baby was about to be born. When MY baby was about to be born.
Usually, I didn’t get nervous about telling my fans things like this. It actually excited me. I remember being happy to announce to them that Claire and I were together. But now, I was afraid to give them such big news. I think it was because of my insecurity about the whole thing. I still found myself creating scenarios in my head about what might happen with me as a father, and it still freaked me out. If I didn’t feel fit to be a dad, how would my fans feel? Of course, some of them would be pleased to hear the news, but what if others saw what I saw? I didn’t want them to rub it in my face while I was already trying to believe that everything would go well for the baby, Claire, and I. But, I had to do this.
It was time for a Vlog, so I made one. I started out with normal news about the channel, some silly things, and then I got serious again to announce that Claire and I were going to have a baby. I edited it quickly and posted it without thinking about it. I just wanted to get it over with. I waited a few hours before I went online again to look at comments and messages. When I did, I was surprised.
Everyone was so positive. There were tons of congratulations and happy comments, and I really didn’t see anything bad. I guess my only real enemy at this point was myself, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“I told you your fans would accept it,” Claire reminded me as I read through some messages from fans.
“Yeah, I know,” I replied, annoyed that she was right.
“Have you thought of any names?”
“For the baby?” She nodded. Of course I had thought of names. I was already eager to find out if we were having a boy or a girl, and that had inspired some thoughts.
“Well, considering the fact that I think it’s going to be a girl, I’ve thought of some possible girl names,” I revealed.
“Oh yeah? Like what?” Claire wondered, sitting down next to me on our bed.
“Isabella, Aria, Macy…I don’t know. I’ve just heard and seen a few lately that I’ve liked.”
“Those are pretty names. But we’re having a boy, remember?” she laughed.
“So you probably thought of some boy names, right?” I asked.
“Yeah. I like Cameron, Jacob, Zane, and Trace the best.”
“Those are pretty good, but you shouldn’t be so sure that we’re having a boy. There’s a fifty-fifty chance of either gender, you know,” I warned her.
“I know. I’m going to be happy no matter what we have.”
“So am I,” I decided. I put my arm around her and she leaned on my shoulder. We sat there like that for a while, just talking about the future. How our son or daughter would play video games with me, how we’d have to figure out what age we’d let him or her get tattoos like us, where we would ideally want to raise him or her…every little thing seemed to come up, and I didn’t mind that at all. When I talked to Claire about all of it, she was so optimistic. She had a sparkle in her eyes and a glow about her when she spoke about our child, and even when she talked about me being a dad. She always told me how happy she was that I of all people was going to help her raise her first child. She put me at ease when I was just starting to feel bad about the situation, and she helped me realize that my worries shouldn’t even be worries yet.
**********************************************************
It wasn’t until about month later when everything got real. At that point, Claire was showing enough for it to be obvious that she was pregnant. She wasn’t huge or anything, but she no longer had a flat stomach. It had been replaced with a cute little baby bump. She actually wasn’t as self conscious about it as I thought she would be. That might be a different story when she got bigger, but I was glad she was confident now.
“Hey beautiful,” I said when I walked into the living room and saw her sitting on the couch with her hands on her stomach.
“Hi handsome,” she answered back with a smile.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better, now that I don’t have a ton of nausea,” she confessed. She had gone without getting or feeling sick for about a week, thankfully. I could tell that had annoyed her. She felt like she couldn’t go anywhere in case she smelled something that made her throw up. We still went out, of course, she just tried to be careful. It didn’t seem like that was going to be a problem anymore, though.
“That’s good. Have you felt anything lately?” I wondered.
“No,” she said, frowning a little. She had been looking too much into things and she was upset that she hadn’t felt anything yet. It wasn’t like she was behind or anything - she just had heard too many stories about other women feeling kicks and movement early, and she wanted to be like them.
“Don’t worry about it, Claire. You’ll feel something soon enough,” I assured her.
“Maybe.”
“Oh, come on. Cheer up!” I pulled her into my lap and kissed her on the cheek. “What’s it going to take for me to make you happy?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, looking into my eyes. I kissed her on the mouth this time, parting her lips with my tongue. We hadn’t been intimate lately. We mostly just pecked each other on the lips. Usually anything else led to other things, and I wasn’t sure if she wanted anything like that.
“What about that? Did that help?” I asked, breaking away from her.
“Maybe a little,” she grimaced, her voice shy and quiet.
“Well, a little isn’t enough. How about…” I thought for a moment. “How about this?” I pushed her hair to one side and kissed her neck, then sucked on it a little. She seemed to enjoy it, so I placed my hands on her stomach to have an excuse to move them to other places.
“What was I upset about again?” she asked, and we both laughed softly.
“Do you want me to keep going?”
“Well, it sure seems like you want to keep going,” she noticed, glancing down at my jeans.
“That shouldn’t be surprising,” I chuckled. “But do you want to?”
“Yeah,” she finally answered after biting her bottom lip. Our lips connected again and we continued until my phone started to ring. It startled both of us. I glanced at the screen and saw that it was Wade. I picked it up and answered it.
“You’re cockblocking me. Is it important or can I call you later?”
“Of course it’s important!” Wade told me.
“Okay, well what is it?”
“When are we recording Drunk Minecraft?” I rolled my eyes, almost wishing he could actually see me.
“That isn’t all that important!” I scolded him.
“Whatever. It’s fun to piss you off,” he laughed.
“I don’t even know when we’re going to record it, it depends on Bob’s schedule. I’ll text you when I find out.”
“Alright. So, how’s it going?”
“WADE!”
“Okay, fine. I’ll shut up now. Don’t forget to text me.”
“I won’t. Bye.” I hung up the phone and turned back towards Claire. “Sorry about that,” I apologized.
“It’s okay. I actually think I just want to go to bed,” Claire responded. What? A minute earlier everything had been fine! I know the moment was kind of ruined, but still.
“Are you sure?” I questioned her, confused.
“Yes, Mark, I wouldn’t say it if I wasn’t,” she promised, a bit of anger laced in her voice. I didn’t know what I had done wrong, but something had definitely changed. I didn’t want to push her past her limit, so I just let it go. She went to the bedroom but I didn’t follow her. I waited until I knew she had fallen asleep before I slipped into bed next to her. Her breathing was steady, so I knew she was out. I wrapped my arms around her and fell asleep a few minutes later with the hope that she’d be happier in the morning.
Hey guys, I'm really sorry it took so long to update. I've had a lot going on lately, and I've had a bit of writer's block. I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyways, though. Please vote if you did and tell me your opinions in the comments section.