The Hierarchy

Chapter 17: Oh, baby, baby

"Aw, come on Mom!" I plead.

"Yeah, Mrs. Hunters come on! It'll be amazing." Valerie says also trying to guilt trip, my mother.

"Girls I'm due in about two weeks, it is a little late for a baby shower." my mom says sitting down on the couch and lets out a breath.

"It'll be on Saturday. We can get it together i. two days. We can have it here because obviously our house is a luxury and we'll invite Aspen and Vanessa and all your friends from college and grandma and Camila and Gina. They'll all be here. We can play those stupid games and be all cutesy." I try and persist my mom.

She looks between Valerie and me who are eager for my mother to tell us we can throw her a baby shower. She won't let us because she's "too far along" and "doesn't want the gifts since were a wealthy family". big whoop. So my dad and mom have a little money...that has no reason to not take free gifts.

"Fine, you can both throw the party. But school comes first and then you may do whatever it is you intend on doing." my mom says waving us away and leaning her head back while rubbing her pregnant stomach.

I squeal with Valerie and we rush into the kitchen. 

"I never thought she'd agree to it. She's so anti-charity it's insane. She just sees baby showers as a charity case. Which she highly does not like considering she's living in the lap of luxury." I explain to Val as I take a seat at the counter and pull out a notebook.

Val sighs and rests her face against her hand looking down at the counter and tracing designs with her finger on the counter. "I want a baby."

I start choking on the drink of water I just took and drop my pen. "Excuse me, what?"

She sits up straighter. "A baby. I want one. Not like, later. I mean now. IN the next few months. We'll be off to college soon, but I don't know if that's what I want, you know? College. I don't know if I want to be anything more than a mom and a wife." 

"Valerie you could either be making or breaking your future right now. Are you and Ricky going a step further than you should be?" I asked a bit concerned for her.

"I mean...I took myself off of the pill." She admits.

"So you guys never use a-"

"Nope, because I'm on the pill. I can make him believe it's an accidental pregnancy because there's always a fifty-fifty chance with the Pill. It could have just failed or I forgot to take it." She says with a shrug. " I love him and he loves me. I want to be a young parent and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I just really want a baby. Your mom seems so happy in all of those pictures with you and I want that happiness too."

"There's another way to have happiness, V."

"I know. I mean look at it this way though: Four years from now, when you are twenty-two years old, still in college becoming God knows what with your creative mind, still dating your gorgeous boyfriend, where do you see yourself?" She asks me. "Are you still dating him? Are you still in college? Are you planning your future? traveling the world? Pregnant? Getting married? Getting engaged? Because know I do not want to have to wait through college. I don't even want to go. I want to live in the moment and not plan it out. This is what I want." 

"Valerie, you're crazy," I tell her and her face drops a little. "But, if that's what you want, I fully support."

Her bright pink lips crack into a grin and she jolts up and hugs me."I love you, Caprice."

"Yeah, yeah, we have a baby shower to plan!" I tell her and shove her body off of mine, and she giggles.

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