It was close to impossible to get my father to leave that morning. I know he’s just looking out for me and wants to be here for me but seriously, I need some alone time. Sure, my alone time is more like Justin time, since he should be here any minute.
I’m so excited!
When I heard him pull in the driveway I had to stop myself from running to the door because I didn’t want to look too pathetic. So I let him knock before opening it, “Hi!” I shouted, way too excitedly and jumped in his arms.
“Hey,” he laughed, “Let me put the stuff down so I can give you a real hug.”
“Oh, yeah. Ok, come on in the kitchen. You brought a lot of stuff.”
“Yeah you eat a lot and I want to eat too,” he chuckled before placing the box of food on the table, “How are you doing, D?”
“Good,” I smiled and hugged him for real this time, “Did you have fun fishing?”
“Sure did. I missed ya, kid.”
“I missed you too,” I said as he hugged me again, “It’s been a whole day.”
“Yeah,” he laughed and pulled away, “Nice house.”
“Thanks, it is nice. Air conditioning and everything, you don’t have to bring your own.” I said as I looked through the food, “I’ll give you a tour but I think we should eat first.”
“Oh, of course.”
It’s really good to see Delia again. I know we just left the center yesterday morning, but it really feels likes it’s been a lot longer. We just have this weird connection that I can’t even begin to explain. After we ate lunch, which was a lot faster than it would be in normal situations since she pretty much inhales any food in sight, she showed me around the house.
“And in here is going to be the baby’s room.” She said before opening the door to the room across the hall from the master bedroom. “I know there’s not much now but…”
“Are you serious?” I broke in, walking around the room that was completely empty; besides the boxes of clothes and things she must have got at the baby shower yesterday.
“Yeah?” she looked at me as if I were crazy.
“D, you’re six months pregnant.”
“Six and a half,” she answered under her breath.
“Six and a half!” I shouted, “You have two months, you need to get going.”
“Now you sound like my mother.”
I laughed as I walked around the room, “Seriously you need to…” I paused as I gathered my thoughts, “Will you let me help you do it? It’ll be your baby shower gift? I’ll get you the furniture and paint it and everything. You know, I have a friend that’s a crazy artist. She does murals and stuff. I’m sure she’d paint whatever you want on the walls. You could have a whole scene going on. A jungle or Cinderella or whatever you want really.”
“That’s nice but I can’t let you…”
“No, I want to. I’m going to,” I broke in, “It’ll be fun, like a project. It’ll be something to keep us busy. Do you have a computer?”
“Yeah, of course I have a computer but I don’t think you should do a whole room Justin. Maybe you can like… paint it or something.”
I looked at her as if she’s crazy, “I don’t do any of that half a project shit. It’s all or nothing D and it’s going to be all. You don’t have much time, you’re not going to want to worry about getting a room set up, it’s a lot of work. Trust me. You can pick everything out, it’s not like I’m going to decorate it all myself. Just let me do it. It’ll give me an excuse to be here all the time, if nothing else.”
“OK,” she answered after listening carefully, “But only if you promise that you won’t spend like thousands of dollars on it and you’ll let me pay for it if it gets really high.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” there no way in hell but I’ll let her think that. The truth is I could definitely use something to keep me busy and this would be perfect. “Where’s your computer?”
Delia laughed as she walked out of the room and I followed closely behind, “I can do like… anything on the wall?”
“Yup, anything you want. Lemmie had the Disney princesses.”
“No, I want The Jungle Book.”
I laughed as we made it into the living room and she handed me her laptop, “Sounds like you’ve had that one planned.”
“Yeah, that’s my favorite movie,” she giggled. It’s good that she’s getting excited about it, I’m glad she’s finally getting excited about the fact that she’s going to have a baby in a couple months. “Want to watch it?” she asked before getting up and grabbing the DVD before I could answer.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. We can watch it while we’re picking out stuff… and we can sing along with the songs too.”
“You’re crazy,” I laughed. It’s weird to see her light up so much with the mention of The Jungle Book.
“I am not. You have to sing along, I’m pregnant and that means I get what I want.”
“Oh is that what it means?”
“Uh huh,” she smiled and sat back on the couch
~*~*~*~*~*~
A week passed and the baby’s room was really coming together. It’s getting real now; I’m excited but also scared to death. How am I going to raise a child on my own? More importantly, how am I supposed to squeeze a baby out of that little hole between my legs?
Justin has been over almost every day. At first I felt bad for having him here all the time but he’s assured me that he wants to be. I believe him too, it’s good for us to keep busy.
It’s good having him around.
I made milkshakes for Justin and his friend that’s painting the room. He won’t let me in the room because of the paint fumes so I’m forced to keep myself busy making them food. I’m hungry pretty much all the time so I guess it works out. But I’m bored too and could use some damn conversation.
I knocked on the door, “Don’t come in!” Justin shouted, just like he shouts every time I knock on the door. If I was going to just come in I wouldn’t have knocked, it is my house for gods sake.
“I’m not! Open the door!”
Justin quickly opened the door and squeezed out so fast if I had blinked I would have believed in teleportation. “You need to stop trying to get in the room.”
“I’m not trying to get in the room. I’m bringing you guys milkshakes.”
He laughed, “Thanks, you’re going to get us fat.”
“I’m so bored,” I whined, “it’s not fair, why can’t I come in?”
“The fumes D, we’ve been through this.”
“What if I wear one of those masks?”
“She’s almost done. Be patient.”
I took a deep breath, this isn’t fair. I’m bored out of my mind and it’s my damn house. I should be able to go in the room that my baby is going to live in. “Does it look nice?”
Justin chuckled and grabbed the milkshakes of the tray, “It looks great, you can see in a couple days when it’s all aired out. Go watch a movie or something, you’ve gotta have stuff to do.”
“I guess I could put some of the clothes away… oh but I can’t cause I’m not allowed in the room!”
“You are absolutely ridiculous. The baby is making you crazy. Why don’t you put the clothes on hangers and I’ll put them in the room later on?”
I guess that could work. I nodded my head as he went into the room quickly and came back a few seconds later with a box of clothes.
“In your room or downstairs?”
“Right here, I’m going to sit right here.”
“In the hallway?”
“Yeah, then we can still talk.”
“Are you sure? That’s not going to be comfortable, I mean why not go down on the couch?” I ignored him and managed to very awkwardly sit on the ground. He chuckled and placed the box next to me, “Alright, or you can sit on the floor. You’ve become very needy in your pregnant state. Needy and stubborn.”
I gave him a dirty look before grabbing a onesie to put on a hanger, “You’ve only known me while I was pregnant.” I reminded him.
“Alright, true. But it’s just started recently.”
“You can leave if you want, no one’s making you stay.”
He chuckled again as I took a sip from my milkshake, “You’re cute when you get pissed about the stupidest thing. I’ll talk to you through the wall.”
I took a deep breath as he walked quickly back into the room. I tried to look inside but he’s way too fast. It’s annoying. He’s annoying. This little shit kicking me like she’s a soccer player is annoying. I’m not a big fan of being pregnant. Sure, it’ll be cool when it pops out but this whole growing inside of me thing is not so cool.
Justin gave me some books and magazines about being pregnant since he seems to be into this more than I am. I guess it’s because he’s had a kid and he went through the whole pregnancy thing before. In the books all it talks about is how being pregnant is so wonderful and such a great experience, well that’s all bullshit. I’m done after this kid, that’s for sure. I’m not having another one until there’s a microwave type thing that’ll cool the egg and sperm until they turn into a baby and I can just open a door and have a baby.
“I thought you wanted to talk,” Justin spoke through the door. I could feel him sitting down behind me on the other side of the door.
“I don’t anymore, you’re being a jerk.”
“How am I being a jerk?”
“You just are. Stop laughing at everything, it’s not funny.”
“You’ve become a crazy, hormonal bitch. It’s just the hormones so I’m not going to hold it against you but shit D, try and relax.”
“How am I supposed to relax when I can’t even see my feet when I’m standing up? And he’s kicking me all the time, on purpose, like he’s doing it to piss me off.”
“He?”
“Or she. Why do you always feel the need to correct that?”
“I’m sorry,” he answered with a quick chuckle.
I swear she was not this crazy a few weeks ago.
I can’t help but laugh at her but I need to try and stop since it seems to be pissing her off even more. It’s just that she reminds me so much of Kelly when she’s like that. When Kelly was pregnant with Lemmie I would have sworn she was bipolar. The random bitchy spurts were followed by major needy and cuddling fits. Not that it really gets to that point with Delia but shit, she’s got the bitchy spurts down pat.
I don’t know if that’s the reason why I find myself spending so much time here, because she reminds me so much of Kelly. That’s part of it, I suppose, but I also know how hard it is for Delia to be going through this all on her own. And then there is the fact that I’m not sure how the hell I’d make it if she had never come into my life.
The doorbell rang and I could hear her trying to get up from the other side of the room. I tried to hold in the laughter but that just wasn’t going to happen. “You alright?”
“I can’t get up,” she whined.
I stood up and straightened myself out so I didn’t get bitched at when she saw me laughing at her. “Come on,” I said as I grabbed onto her hand and helped her up. “Are you expecting somebody?”
“No. Maybe it’s the crib.”
“Oh yeah, probably,” I said as I followed her downstairs. She made a turn into the kitchen and grabbed a cupcake from the counter, completely forgetting the ringing of the doorbell that brought us down here in the first place. I laughed as she inhaled the cupcake, “The door?”
“OH,” she answered with a mouth full of cupcake and grabbed another one before walking to the front door. “Hi.”
“Hi,” the man at the door chuckled. Delia is, at this moment, just about the most stereotypical pregnant lady every to walk the planet. She’d also make a good sitcom.
“Do you want a cupcake?” she asked, still with her mouth full.
“Sure,” the man laughed again, “Where do you want the crib?”
Delia just ignored him completely and went into the kitchen to grab the plate of cupcakes.
“Uh, just over here man, thanks.” I answered for her.
Delia followed closely behind the two men who placed the box with the crib in it in the living room. She hardly gave them enough room to breathe, “The ones with the chocolate frosting are vanilla and the ones with the pink frosting are strawberry.”
“Thank you,” they answered as they each grabbed one.
“Do you want a milkshake? I can make you a milkshake.”
I laughed as I opened the box, “I think they’re good D.”
