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I was comfortable when I woke up the next morning. Too comfortable. So much so that I opened one eye, thinking that something was wrong.

The bed beside me was bare though the sheet was ruffled where Alex had been sleeping the night before. I sat up and looked at the clock beside the bed. It was almost seven-thirty, meaning I had school and Alex was getting ready before he woke me up to get me changed.

I groaned and fell back against the pillows. I didn't want to go to school. Not that I hated it but I liked the idea of staying in bed.

Alex walked out of the bathroom, fixing the collar of his dress shirt. He gave me a smile when he saw me watching him. "Why do you look mad?"

"Do I have to go to school today?"

He raised his eyebrows and stopped at the foot end of the bed. "Well, it's Thursday so, yes."

I groaned.

"Why don't you want to go? Usually, you're grouchy but not this bad."

"I had a horrible night last night and I just want to stay home."

"You had a horrible night last night? Is that why you were so upset when I got home?"

I sat up and crossed my legs under me. "Last night wasn't any fun at all."

"Tell me what happened. My mom said things went well and she liked spending time with you."

Yeah, right. That wasn't what I remembered. "That's not how I feel. She wouldn't let me have any fun and she made me go to bed early."

"She just wants what's best for you. She probably thinks I'm not doing a good enough job raising you."

"Yeah, well, I think it's going fine. She's just... insane. She wouldn't let me play in my room and then she couldn't find my bunny. Then she fed me herself as if I'm not capable of doing it myself. I don't think I've had a worse night in my life."

"It couldn't have been that bad."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I'm not kidding."

"Try to give my mom a chance. She really wants to be more involved now that..." He cleared his throat and walked to the dresser.

I sighed. I knew how it felt to be all alone and not have anyone. Her life couldn't have been easy, especially dealing with the aftermath of everything her husband had done in Alpine. He wasn't a good guy and I assumed Alex's mom was trying to right his wrongs

"Anyway, Naomi wants to have dinner with us tonight."

"Didn't you just have dinner with her last night? Isn't that why you ditched me with your mom?"

"I didn't ditch you, Lyla. And yes, I was with her last night but she wants to make it up to you. She wants to spend some time with you since she felt bad leaving you out last night."

I pursed my lips. Okay, it didn't sound so bad after all. "Fine."

"Now come here. We're going to be late." He reached out and grabbed my ankles, yanking me down to his end of the bed.

---

Naomi's car was already at the house when we pulled up. Except she wasn't inside it.

My eyebrows furrowed and I narrowed my eyes at Alex as he came to my side of the car to unbuckle me. "Did you give her a key to get in?"

He didn't meet my gaze as he focused on getting me out of my car seat. "Yeah. Last night, I did."

"And when were you going to tell me?"

He shrugged. "I hadn't thought about that."

I crossed my arms over my chest as he tossed the strap of my diaper bag over his shoulder. "It's my house, too, you know."

"I thought you liked Naomi. I didn't think this would bother you."

"You didn't even ask me." I mumbled.

"I'll make it up to you."

I was going to have to hold him to that. I wasn't going to let his words fall flat.

He pushed the door open and I could smell the food from the kitchen. It smelled like chicken.

Naomi was busy stirring a pot on the stove when we entered. Alex set me in my high chair before he walked over to her. He slid his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek.

She laughed before pushing him away and turning to look at me. "Hey, Lyla. How was school?"

"It was okay. I'm glad it's almost the weekend though."

"So you can go from playing to playing?" Alex asked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Shut up."

"It's this what my life's going to be like? You constantly fighting with our kids?" Naomi asked, hitting Alex in the chest with the kitchen towel she was holding.

Her words wouldn't have registered with me had she not glanced at Alex with concern on her face. She looked nervous about what she had said and that didn't sit right with me.

"Kids?" I asked tentatively.

Naomi's lips parted as she looked between me and Alex, waiting for him to say something.

"Y-you're pregnant?" I needed answers and if they weren't going to speak, I was going to let their expressions tell me what I wanted to know.

While one of Naomi's hands lifted to cover her mouth, the other slowly made its way to her stomach. She didn't look pregnant but that didn't mean anything. It would've just meant she wasn't very far along.

"When were you going to tell me? Were you ever going to tell me?"

Alex finally decided to speak. He walked over to me and sat in the chair closest to me. "We were going to tell you tonight. We weren't going to keep it from you. I swear."

"How long have you known?"

"Just a few weeks. We didn't want to tell you right away in case something were to happen to the baby."

"Oh." I didn't know if I was angry or sad. Maybe I was both. At first, I wanted to get angry and tell them both how I felt. But I realized that it wouldn't have done any good. The baby wouldn't disappear just because I was upset.

"We really don't want you to be mad at us, Lyla."

I didn't want to be mad. I didn't want to throw a temper tantrum and act like the baby I was. But it was hard for me to not be upset at the sudden and abrupt changes happening in my life.

"I-I'm not mad. I'm glad you told me."

"I know it's going to be an adjustment but I'm hoping you can give this a chance." Naomi walked over and sat down on my right. It felt like I was being lectured or interrogated by my parents and I didn't like it.

"Are you... are you moving in here? With us?"

She looked over at Alex before she looked back at me with a smile. "Baby steps."

I knew that was a yes. It made me nervous to think about her moving in when we had just gotten comfortable. I was still getting used to being with Alex all the while knowing I wouldn't be with my parents again. I felt overwhelmed by the sudden changes but I wasn't sure how to tell them without losing it.

I forced a smile in hopes that things would go back to normal for the rest of the evening.

Shit, things were never going to be normal again.

---

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