Skinny Love (Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 33

Luke's P.O.V

Reina sat on my bedroom floor; unmoving, blinking slowly, just staring at the wall as tears rolled down from her blue eyes. She pressed her lips together to keep from crying anymore, but failed. I sat down behind her and pulled her into my lap, rocking her as if she was a child. "Shh.. it's ok. We're ok." I said, though I didn't know myself exactly how things would be. 

"Our baby will never get to see the sky. It will never know what a sunset looks like." she turned around to face me, looking between both my eyes. "Our baby will never get to see it's mother or father's face." my eyes began to water, but I blinked them away. I had to stay strong for Reina.

 "They won't have to. They can still hear music and laughter and all the sweet sounds. They can still feel their heart beating, and smell things like fresh baked bread. We can still be happy...just as if our baby can see." I wasn't the type of guy for mushy sappy words, but I know that Reina needed to hear them. She needed to know that we were okay. 

I laid on the floor, her head buried in my chest; hiding her tear stained cheeks. There she fell asleep after a few heavy shaking breaths. I picked her up and put her in our bed, careful not to wake her. 

I went down the stairs and opened the basement door. I never went down here, but there was something I wanted. Searching for the brown cardboard box, I found it amungst the other unpacked boxed. The box was marked 'pictures', a collection of pictures and things from when I was a child. I picked it up and headed back upstairs to the family room.

I pulled away the tape and opened the flaps, a musty smell coming up from the box as I did so. 'Lucas 1998' read one of the stacks of photos. I was two years old then. I felt a feeling of joy fill me as I analyzed each picture in my hands. To be young and carefree was something I had forgotten. Back when my parents were pleasant to each other, or at least I thought so. 

An hour passed as I went through photo after photo, seeing grandparents and cousins that I hardly remember. The pictures went all the way up to my freshman year in highschool. Photo's of Emma stung worse than I thought they would. Seeing her smiling face hurt, but seeing my smiling face hurt even worse. We were both so happy. I destroyed that. I took her happy smile away from her. Visions of finding her on the floor bathroom kept coming back. 

It was like an addiction, I wanted to stop hurting myself by looking at her face, but I couldn't. The pain felt good. I couldn't look away. "I'm so sorry." I whispered. Flashes of her funeral. "I didn't mean to." Flashes of us kissing in her tree house. "Why did you have to die?" Flashes of her yelling at me. 

I tore the picture to shreds. I felt free from something. A burden lifted off my shoulders as I threw the shreds of paper in the trash. I felt a bit guilty for ripping it apart, but it was my way of letting go. I had to let go. I couldn't be sitting around crying when my pregnant girlfriend slept upstairs, carrying our blind baby. 

The front door unlocked and I turned around to see my mum arriving home from running errands. "Oh. Luke, I didn't expect to see you down here. Where's Reina?" she asked, hugging me. 

"She's napping upstairs." I said. She looked past me and noticed the scattered pictures on the coffee table. "What are you doing?" she questioned. 

"Oh, I was just looking at the old pictures. I wanted to get an idea of what the baby is going to look like." I laughed. "And how are you so sure it's going to favor you?" she teased. "Oh, it will. I know." then I remembered. "Mum, I have something to tell you. About the doctors appointment this afternoon." 

"Oh, Luke. I hope everything is ok. Is it?" she sat down on the couch. I shook my head. "The baby is going to be blind. The eyes haven't fully developed and the doctor doesn't think they ever will." 

She gasped. "I don't know what to say. How is...she taking all of this?" 

"She was pretty torn up about it. I don't know how she feels now. She's disappointed...we both are." I responded, sitting next to her. She smiled at me and touched my face. "I'm proud of you, Lucas." she said. I don't see how. I just said I was disappointed. 

"For being strong. For staying with her. Reina is lost and confused and feels as if she has to grow up all at once. She's a deer trying to be a lion and she can't do that herself. She needs you. More than you need her." she said, looking into my eyes. "I know." I say. 

"I never thought that the girl that came over the day we moved in would be here with me now in the situation we're in. I never knew it'd turn out to be this. I've learned so much since then." I say smiling and shaking my head. She laughs. "You're sure not my baby anymore." my eyes darted up.

My mother smiled, tears filling her eyes. "Oh mum, please don't cry. I'm still your baby boy." I held her close to me. "No, you're a man now. A father. I didn't know this day would come so soon." she said with her weapy voice. She wiped her eyes and stood up. "Reina will probably be hungry when she wakes up." she said before going into the kitchen, leaving me alone. 

As if on que, Reina came down the stairs. Her hair a mess and her eyes were red and puffy, but she still smiled when she saw me. She didn't say anything, she just sat next to me on the couch. She didn't like to be affectionate when my mum was around, it embarrassed her. "Aw, Lucas. You were adorable." she said, tucking her hair behind her ears and picking up the photos from the coffee table. "I was, wasn't I?" I said. She gave me a look before picking up another. 

"I hope he looks just like you." she said. "You think it's a boy?" I questioned. "Yes, I don't know why, but I get a feeling that it's a boy. I could be wrong, but I think it is." she replied. 

"I think it's a girl." I said. She shook her head. 

"A boy."

A/N

I know it's short but I am terribly sick and feel like crap. I seriously had no motivation to update and had no idea what I was going to write. But it was you guys that made me update ;) I love you guys and how passionate you are. 

So what do you think the baby is going to be? I can't wait for this baby's gender to be determined so I can stop calling it 'the baby' or 'it'. It's quite annoying actually. 

Anways, thanks again for 20k reads and WE ARE NUMBER 514 IN FANFICTION AND 715 IN TEEN FICTION! AHHHHHH! 

LOVE LOVE LOVE MY CRUMPETS