Prego and the Phoenix 🐇↩️✔

Arabella - Seventeen

I wish that everything would have a warning on it. I wish everything that could possibly hurt you had one and not just physical things. Things like love and heartache... I wish it came with a label... Then I'd be able to avoid it and not get burned by it.

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I stare at the receiver of the phone in total shock and confusion. I don't realize that tears are running down my cheeks until I sniffle and my nose is stuffy. I stare at my belly, wanting to blame everything on it but I know that is much, much more than that. If my baby had been the object of his anger then he would have done something months ago. No... this all has to do with when he burned up at my house. Whatever that was, it was tearing us apart. It was making him think that I thought certain things when he doesn't understand at all.
He is drawing conclusions...
But I can't make myself call him back like I so desperately want to. The words and the tone he had used were so mean and cruel. I kind of wish he will call back and apologize, saying it was a bad day or something but I know that that's not the case. He was really telling me to go away and it hurt. It hurt so bad...
I got to my room in a daze so it seems and then I lay on the bed, hugging my belly and crying silently. I just want everything to be normal, to be the way it was before. Not that what happened the other night was going to push me away but ever since that night Bourne has been nothing but standoffish and absent. Why couldn't I just find a man who would love me and this baby? Is that so hard to ask?
I sigh, hugging my pillow to me and sleep off the headache I have just developed from trying not to cry but doing so anyway.

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When I wake up the next morning, my head is stuffy and I can hardly breathe through my nose. I sit up and look down at myself. How stupid am I? I got so flustered and upset that I had forgotten to take off my bath robe from getting out of the shower and my hair was soaking wet, damping the pillow. I guarantee that I have a cold now, since the fan has been on all night because it was hot when I got out of the shower.
I shuffle myself into the bathroom to brush my teeth when I sneeze harshly, the kind that almost makes you feel like you've been hit in the chest at the same time. I lean against the sink and look in the mirror. I have dark circle under my eyes and my eyes are bloodshot from probably crying in my sleep. I sneeze again and feel that cotton feeling in my head. There is no way that I'm going to be able to go to school today.
I call up my doctor and tell him that I may have a cold and ask him what I can take. He tells me and I make do with what I have as I crawl back into bed and head back into sleepy dream land.

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A couple of days have gone by and my cold seems to be getting a little worse. I decided yesterday that I wanted to try and get some work in so that I would have a little more money on my paycheck. Wouldn't it be snowing when I went to wait for the bus? Wouldn't the bus be about fifteen minutes late? Wouldn't the store be crowded for some weird reason? Wouldn't you know that I was the only cashier? By the time I got home last night, I was feeling worse than before and beat tired. I didn't even take a bath, I just laid on the couch.
So when a knock at the door wakes me up, I am sore and dragging as I head to it. I open it up and rub my hand under my nose.
"Yes?" I say, my nose all stuffed.
"Are you sick?" the familiar face asks.
"No I'm talking like I put a cork in my nasal passage because I enjoy it." I say with a frown.
Lochner smiles sheepishly, knowing the question was pretty self-explanitory and holds up a bowl.
"I snagged some soup from Alexis this morning. I had a feeling you might not be feeling well."
"Oh... well, thanks. You wanna come in?"
He nods and steps in, tapping the snow off of his boots on the rug and heads over to kitchen. He takes out a bowl from the cabinet and dips some soup out for me and sticks it in the microwave. I don't fool with him as I sit back down on the couch and moan, trying to blow my nose for the umpteenth time and nothing comes out.
"How long have you been sick?"
"About three days."
"This soup will help you out. You don't have any orange juice or something?"
"No... I forgot to get some when I worked yesterday."
"You were working? Why?"
"I have to make money to pay for the apartment so that I have a place to live. Duh."
"I mean that since you don't have a car and you went to the bus stop while it was snowing so bad..."
"Well, I needed some more money for this week but my boss said that I can take the rest of the week off and he'll put me in at half pay."
"That's sweet of him." I hear him say as he rounds the couch with the bowl. "This is hot so be careful but it should help a little."
I look at the soup and see that it's not something I have ever seen.
"What is it?"
"Mostly beef broth. It was from a soup she made but you really need to broth than the other stuff, I think."
I nod and begin to sip the broth, which is excellent as always. Lochner smiles nervously and sits on the other side of the couch.
"Is Humphrey still made at me for punching him?"
"He's okay."
"And... um..." It was hard to bring his name up.
"As much as he tries to stay strong, he's pretty distraught. I still believe that you are the right one for him but he just doesn't see it."
"What is going on, Lochner? What the hell happened when he was over here and why is he being this way?"
"I should really let him tell you but since he is being pretty strict on not talking to you..."
I roll my eyes as I continue to sip the soup.
"He's a phoenix, plain and simple."
"Elaborate please, I don't have the mindset for riddles or imagination." I say with a frown.
He smiles. "I know. But if you know about phoenixi, then you know they are reborn from the flames, right?"
"Yeah I read something like that..."
"Well, the story is that way back when during the Ancient Grecian times, phoenixi were considered a myth and so many people didn't pay attention to things. Well, one night one of Red's ancestors who is like a peddler or something comes across this strange looking egg in some ashes. Since he had no money, he cracks open the egg and eats it. What he didn't know was that it was a phoenix egg.
"So, being a being, the phoenix melds itself into this ancestor's DNA. Phoenixi are known for rebirth, growing to their age, dying, and being reborn as a baby phoenix. Since the Phoenix melded itself into the DNA of a man, the process was a little different. Humans don't age like the phoenix does and in order to keep itself alive, the phoenix took control of certain aspects of the man.
"Since it is born of the flames, but a human cannot touch flames without getting burnt or die, the phoenix saw to it that if the human got too hot, it would just revert and start anew. A phoenix cannot get too cold or it will start to die and so the same thing applied. If the man got hurt to the brink of death, in order to preserve itself, the phoenix would make the human revert. Are you following me so far?"
"Yes."
"Alright... Here comes the confusing part... When a man who is inhabited by the phoenix marries, the phoenix passes off genes as well. The problem is that it can only flourish if in the body of a man since that's what it had melded with in the first place. Unlike someone who is half of something and marries a whole of something else, the phoenix line is not diluted when it is passed on. It produces new genes of itself every time it goes into flames to protect itself and those get passed on if there is a child. And so, all through the years it has been passed to all the sons until it has stopped at Red."
"Well that makes sense, I guess... So if he's on the verge of death, too hot, or too cold Bourne can... spontaneously combust?"
"Unlike those who really do spontaneously combust, he just gets reverted."
"So then what's that all about? The tattoo and all that stuff?"
"A phoenix is that of rebirth but it can't do that to the human body, so it just reverts the person to back when they were a baby. When a phoenix usually goes back to an egg, it usually takes it a while to get 'ripe' enough since they grow at a slower rate. Humans grow quickly and so the growth is faster. The tattoo on Bourne's back is just to cover over the real mark of the phoenix. A birthmark from the inside that burns bright in the dark. The only reason the ink of the tattoo might glow is because it's connected to the birthmark, I don't know."
"Alright then... what about this other girl that I've been so viciously compared to." I say, crossing my arms as I lay back on the couch.
Lochner sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"That's a whole different matter. I don't know mush details on that one other than it scarred him."
"Oh... well, thanks for explaining everything to me. It's really helpful in understanding."
"Anytime. I'm very sorry about what's going on and I wish he would just pick up the phone and call you. I really do..."
"Thanks..."
"Yeah. I'm going to go so if you need anything, you can always call us."
"Will you guys actually answer the phone?"
Lochner blushes subtly. "It has been Bourne's idea just in case..."
"Tell him to get over himself, from me."
"Okay."
"I'm serious. I'm tired of being played like some cheap banjo or something. I want to know his stand on me once and for all and I want him to tell me face to face. I can't have all this stress in my life with the baby and yet I can't get a decent boyfriend... Just tell him that I'm not through with him yet and if he wishes to end us, do it properly and like a gentleman."
Lochner salutes. "Yes, ma'am!"
He leaves and I sigh, sitting back down on the couch to sleep again. At least I learned something for today.