Never Leave My Side (A Teen Pregnancy story)

Cold Feet

*Insert excuses here about how school and Taekwondo have been taking up my life and giving me no time to write* I try my best to update whenever I can. I promise.
Shout out to sarnedhiel and ZamyRawr for being so awesome about pestering me with updating this chapter. (And you all should totally check out their stories while you're waiting for the next update because they're both fabulous at writing.) I know this update was long overdue; I had to have the right conditions to write it.

Jason and I were in my house alone again. My parents wouldn't be back until the beginning of the next week; Darry could be transferred over to a hospital in California, then. There was talk of a broken pelvis, fractured vertebrae, and third degree burns along with a mangled leg from it being caught in the vehicle. The whole time my parents were with him, they said that he kept asking for his battle buddy, Browning. They didn't have the heart to tell him that he hadn't survived it.

It had been a few days since my parents had left to go see Darry in the VA hospital. Dallas had called that evening, asking to talk to my parents, where I'd directed him to call our parents for a family emergency. He'd refused to do so until I told him what exactly had happened. I tried to hold out against his stubbornness as much as I could, but in the end I broke down and told him. That had been pretty hard for both of us. Darry was more of a parent to us than our real parents were a lot of the time, until recently of course. He'd called our parents as soon as we got off the phone together.

I was sitting at the counter in the kitchen, spinning my coffee mug around in circles when I heard Jason groan from in the living room. He'd fallen asleep there last night, keeping me company. I was thinking about the names that Jason had come up with and the one that bothered me the most was Anikan. Yes, I had agreed to it, but I was emotionally shut down that day. The reality of the name hadn't actually begun to sink in until now, and I could feel myself getting more worked about it than I should have.

Jason trudged into the kitchen, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "Good morning." He said, kissing the top of my head as he sat down next to me, I tensed at the gesture, suddenly angry with him over the silly name. "Remind me not to fall asleep with my brace on, next time, will you?" He asked while yawning.

I locked my jaw. "Oh yeah. Sure." I replied, shortly. "And I'll also remind myself not to let you pick out the names next time."

Jason's eyes snapped wide open. "What's with the passive aggressive-ness so suddenly, Gabe? You were fine with the names earlier... Those pregnancy hormones really mess with you in the morning, don't they?" I knew that he was joking - and probably right for that matter - , but it set me off.

I shoved the stool out from behind me with my legs as I stood up. "Nothing is wrong with me, Storm. I'm just saying that I don't think you should have changed the name to Anikan. I was perfectly alright with Anikoni." I stomped my foot, just to prove my point. "It freaking goes with Roran."

"Oh come on, Gabe. You could have just told me that you wanted it to be Anikoni." He said, giving me an incredulous look.

I couldn't stop myself from giving a hurt look back at him. I had decided, with my raging pregnancy hormones, that I had been a victim over a pointless matter, and pursued the concept viciously.

"How would I have been able to tell you I didn't like it, if I wasn't thinking straight?" I jabbed him in the chest, just to prove my point.

My boyfriend frowned at me. "You could have just said, 'I don't like that name, change it.'" He suggested in a slightly sarcastic tone; which irritated me. "And besides, we don't even know if you are having boys or not!"

I knew that he was right, but for whatever reason, my mind did not want to let go of the fact that I didn't really like the name. I should have waited until my pregnancy anger calmed down and I was in a better mood, but I didn't... and I pursued the matter even further.

"That's not the point, Storm. It could equally be either one, so we have to have names ready to prevent us from doing this once they're born!" I huffed in frustration. "And I would have said something, except for the fact that my mind was in other places and you," I pointed my finger sharply at him again, "started heavily advocating and influencing my vulnerable state in the favor of that fucking name!"

Jason shoved my hand away and stood up himself. "You think that I took advantage on you?" The anger and hurt in his voice was already evident.

I had no mercy for the moment. "Yeah, I do." I snapped back, voice involuntarily raising. "I was emotionally drained and you took that as your chance to impose ridiculous names on me!"

He locked his jaw as he stared at me. "Oh, really? So that wasn't just an attempt to get your mind off of your brother and every other damned problem weighing on us?" His voice raised as well, a rarity in itself.

"Maybe, but how the hell am I supposed to know that?" I yelled, back at him. "You could have maybe asked me at a different time than just assuming I was okay with you planting ideas in my brain!" He was right. These hormones really did screw with my emotions.

Jason looked at me like he was still trying to process what I had said. His jaw was still locked in momentary icy silence. "I was never putting those ideas in your head! It was just a fucking suggestion, Gabry."

"You always do this!" I yelled with an angry sigh beforehand.

He turned his head slightly towards the side, like he was checking to make sure that he heard what I said correctly. "I what? Defend myself when I'm getting accused of taking advantage of my girlfriend? "

"No!" I sighed, wanting to rip my hair out. Why couldn't he just understand? "You always get defensive about everything!"

"Oh is that so?" He wasn't even trying to hide the hurt and anger in his voice. "It's not like you don't do the same thing!"

"I don't!" I yelled right back at him, wanting to stop arguing, but knowing that it was too late to go back.

"Oh, right. I forgot. Self-righteous Gabriel fucking Evermore can't do a damn thing wrong." His voice was full of sarcasm and it stung.

I scowled at him, unable to say anything else, because I was so frustrated.

He started to walk towards the door. His voice was full of hurt and anger as he pushed past me. "Name the twins whatever the hell you want, Evermore."

Ouch. He was going to play the last name game, too.

I chased after him and tried to stop him before he reached the side door. I reached out a hand again, this time, for apologetic and comforting reasons. "Jason... I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that!" I tried to apologize for my raging pregnancy hormones, but he would have none of it.

He jerked his hand away from me as he opened the door. "I need some air." Was his only response, the intonation in his voice giving away how upset he was with me. I just had to open my mouth, didn't I?

"Jason - " I attempted to follow him, only to have the door slammed in my face as he stormed away from me.

My anger immediately melted away as I realized the depth of my accusations towards him. Yes, the name had been bothering me for a few days now, but I could have approached the topic in a less confronting and accusing way. There really was no reason for sudden melodramatic behavior; how could I be the one hurt over this if I agreed to name one of our children after a popular fictional character?

All of this only came to mind once a very frustrated and upset Jason had left my house. It was too late to go back. There was nothing that could help fix the situation at the moment. I would have to let him be and allow time for the both of us to calm ourselves down. Hot tears stung their way down my face, expressing my anger with myself.

I could say that I was sorry and blame it on my current state, but that wouldn't change the fact that I had actually spoken those words. All I could do was let myself collapse in a heap of sobs and wonder how I was possibly going to fix the mess I had just thrown myself into in a matter of minutes.

Until next time, thespians,

Sairahiniel