𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐇 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 [slow updates]

𝟏𝟑

CINDY

"It's a boy." I whisper to my mom as she rocks in the rocking chair, Eryn in her arms.

Mom and Dad decided on a name just a week ago. They said that they liked the name Eryn because it sounded free. Mom specifically said that she wanted something gender neutral. She didn't know why, but if you ask me, my mom has some weird Italian intuition.

Mom gasps softly, looking up at me, her eyes beams of happiness.

"A little boy?"

I nod, pursing my lips. "Yeah."

"Have you guys thought of names?"

I take a seat on the floor just in front of her, playing with Eryn's little fingers.

"I've had my name list since middle school. It's more of a matter of deciding and agreeing."

Tommy's always been picky with names. I've heard the horror stories of when he tried coming up with names for his family dogs. Not great for anyone.

"Uh... I really like Kieran. But it's too long. I want a short name. Like..."

"Levin is cute. Short."

Oh, God. It's reached her too.

I peek up at her, my lips in my mouth. The subject never came up because it was the last thing I wanted to put on a pregnant woman dealing with a man like my father and a boy like Cole.

"Sorry." I mumble. "I was going to tell you about it, I just... So much has been happening."

"I wasn't going to say anything, but after I saw the new ones, I couldn't ignore it."

I frown. "New ones?"

"Have you not seen them?" Mom frowns right back.

My heart is literally doing that thing where it's going so fast that it almost hurts.

Why? Why are people like this? Stick your nose in someone else's ass, please.

I pull my phone out of my purse and Google Levin. The first thing I see is: "Mystery Girl" blah, blah, blah. There's something about his game and then another article.

It's pictures of us at the hospital, pictures of us at the gym.

There's this one picture from the hospital, when we were kind of leaning toward each other... And we look like we're about to kiss.

Like, that isn't what happened at all, though. We couldn't have been farther from kissing than we were right in that moment. We were being very friendly, not THAT.

"Wow, way to ruin this meant-to-be happy moment." I groan.

"Sorry, love."

I shake my head, coming to a stand. "It isn't your fault, Mom. There are just some really nosey ass people who make a living off of being fucking pricks."

"You're lucky Eryn's ears are covered."

I grimace. "Sorry."

❄︎❄︎❄︎

In the picture taken at the hospital, you can very clearly see I'm with child. Not a single article so far has said anything about it, though. I guess it's just more important that Levin Wright "has a girlfriend", and not so much that he "has a pregnant girlfriend".

People who don't know how to mind their own business outside of family and friends have a special place in hell waiting for them.

I'm having friggin' trauma back flashes of when it came out that Tommy and I were dating.

Tommy isn't a small streamer, he's everywhere. He's collaborated with... I don't know, expensive people. And I'm like so not expensive.

I grew up in the midst of my parents trying to dig themselves out of the lower middle class. They've aren't rich.

The reason I started off my adulthood with as much money as I did was because I was making and selling perfume and candles by the time I got my first period, up until I got my first teaching job.

I'm nowhere close to rich, but considering the fact that I'm a teacher? I do so good for myself.

And I feel like if people just dug a little more, they'd find that I'm not expensive and start trashing me. That's what happened when me and Tommy first started dating.

It doesn't matter that this alleged relationship between me and Levin doesn't exist. If they have the mouths and the capabilities, they'll talk. They'll say the nastiest of things, and I think I'm in a point in my life where I have more than enough hate pages made by middle schoolers.

Is it totally selfish of me to be worried about whether people on the internet are bullying me or not? It must be. There are bigger things to worry about because of us being seen together.

God. I don't remember how to handle things like this. Especially when this revolves around something that doesn't exist.

Not like I could go on my story and say we're not dating. Why? Because that would mean... I don't know what that would mean. Doing that wouldn't sound like a bad idea.

So, at some point I end up recording something and posting it to my Instagram story. It's a short, twenty second video. Nothing huge or too in depth—just a little something.

It's not even two minutes later when my phone buzzes. I expect to see Hope or Ben's name flash on my screen, or even my siblings'. Instead, Levin's name is the one I see.

My heart drops to my stomach, doing flips and stunts I didn't know it could.

We haven't even texted "hi" to each other yet. It's our first text to each other. And that isn't special or anything, but this feels like it's supposed to be an important moment for some reason.

LEVIN:
Hi. Mind if we meet up?
It's important.