The Player's Twins (Book Two of The Great Age Plague series)

Chapter Fifteen

"I think I'm dropping out of school," I said finally. Keon's eyes widened in shock. 

"What? Are you serious?" he said, slowly setting down his copy of The Catcher in the Rye. I nodded slowly. 

"Yeah I... life has been a bit crazy lately and I just don't think I can do it. I mean, Josh isn't even fully recovered from rehab, Cally and I are going through some... personal things... and you're so busy with work, I should be here. I should take care of the house and do our finances and maybe make a job of my own online or something. I could sell my paintings on Etsy or--"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down angel," said Keon. He reached out, taking my hands in his. For a moment he sat there, running a soothing thumb over the top of my hand, and I closed my eyes in exhaustion. 

The past week had been crazy. No, the past few months had been crazy. It was almost March now, I was 5 months pregnant, Josh was still lying around in bed after rehab, and Cally and I had gone to only two Lamaze classes, yet still hadn't talked about her reveal. Keon was the only one I felt comfortable with, and he'd been off working crazy hours at the auto clinic. At school, I'd been isolated. I went from class to class like a zombie, worried about the millions of things waiting for me at home, from taking care of Fitzy and Lilac to cooking dinner to prepping for the twins. 

"Adira, I thought you loved school," murmured Keon. I opened my eyes to see his gaze trained on me. He looked away when our eyes met. 

"I do but... Maybe after I've had the twins..." I mumbled. Keon nodded. Suddenly, a voice from the doorway spoke up. 

"The twins want you to graduate high school, Adira," said Josh. With a gasp, I turned around. There stood Josh, his eyes much more alive than I'd seen him in days. For the past two weeks, all I'd seen of Josh was his form as he flitted from bed, to the shower, to the pantry. I'd tried coming into his room to talk to him a few times, but found he was always sleeping. The truth was, I was as scared of him as I was of Cally. After all the drama with rehab, I had no idea how to move foreword. Still, his voice sounded strong, like the old Josh, and despite my surprise I found my voice to speak. 

"Josh, you're awake," I said softly. Josh gave a small, sad grin. 

"Yeah. Sorry to interrupt," he said. I shook my head, letting go of Keon's hands. Standing up from the table, I walked over to Josh and wrapped my arms around him best I could with my protruding stomach. To my relief, I felt him return the hug gently. 

"It's fine," I said into his shoulder. Trying hard not to cry (dang pregnancy hormones!), I pulled back and smiled. "Why don't you have a bite to eat before we talk about this?" 

Josh nodded, striding into the kitchen. I began prepping him a chicken salad sandwhich, taking extra care to add some dried onions just how he liked. Stupidly enough, I felt half-tempted to eat a handful of onions myself, another one of my weird cravings. As I prepped the food, Josh began talking to me about the new shows he had watched while I was at school. Old reruns of shows that were aired pre-plague. 

Without me noticing, though, Keon slipped out the door silently, not even muttering a goodbye. 

A/N-- Short update before I hit the road tomorrow for a road trip! Please leave a comment, I really hope that my old readers return to finish this story, so make sure to tell your friends I updated after all this time <3