Teaching Noah | √

045

[Read the Author's Note!]

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I WOULD USUALLY wake up excited on Christmas day. Nothing beat waking up on the morning of Christmas, but today felt a bit different. After the last time with Noah, I hadn't heard from him, and needless to say, I missed him. I'd left a couple text messages for him, and he hadn't opened any of them, including my last text to him asking whether I was going to see him today.

The house was quite chilly. It was snowing lightly outside, and the pavement appeared like it was almost fully covered with specks of snow. I was currently dressed in sweat shorts, one of River's sweatshirts, and then, I topped it all with a blanket wrapped around my body.

"You look like an actual burrito," River threw his head back, laughing deeply as though me being covered in a blanket was the most amusing thing ever. "Oh, come on, that was funny."

I shook my head, a small smile on my face as I looked at my brother who was on the other side of the video call. "Merry Christmas, River."

"Merry Christmas, my love!" He shouted cheerfully back to me.

"Merry Christmas to you too, baby!" I heard Renée shout as well in the background, and I laughed quietly to myself.

"Oh... no, I wasn't talking to you. Th- That was Riley," River snickered.

"Oh." I heard Renée mutter while River chuckled, but in no time, she appeared beside him, a wide smile on her face as River handed her the phone, "Hi, Riley! Merry Christmas!"

"Renée, I can't even stress how good you're looking," I said sincerely and I couldn't stop smiling. The little weight she had put on suited her perfectly, and her face had a certain glow to it.

"Yes!" River shouted in the background. "We might be announcing baby number two soon."

I laughed at River's comment and Renée did as well, "Your brother needs to slow down."

"I can't help but think about how beautiful this baby is going to be," I told her. "How's it going?"

"My mom told me that sometimes pregnancy does have nice surprises, and she was right. My hair seems to be healthier and thicker, plus, my skin looks more beautiful. I have back and thigh aches from time to time, but I couldn't have asked for a better support system than River."

"I'm so happy for you. I know you'll be the best mother ever. And River, he'll be such a great dad," we shared a smile as River walked behind her, "Babe, I think you need to check the cake in the oven. I can't tell if it's done baking or not."

"You should have used a skewer," she chuckled as she handed the phone to him and hurried to the kitchen, leaving only River appearing on the screen.

"What cake is it?" I asked curiously.

"A chocolate cake. It would have been a red velvet cake, but she can't stand those anymore," River answered, running his fingers through his hair.

"Why? That's her favorite!"

"Pregnancy," he said in amusement. "Now she craves yogurt parfaits and nuggets specifically from Chick-fil-A. I swear, her taste buds knew the day I was trying to be sneaky and got nuggets from Wendy's."

I laughed, absolutely fascinated, "It's fun, isn't it? Seeing all these happen."

"I'm having the time of my life waking up at 1am to rub her back till she can fall back asleep," he had a sarcastic smile on his face before his tone dropped to a hushed one. "This whole experience has given me like my hundredth reason why I'm going to ask her to marry me. It's the icing on the cake."