STARDUST

My Boy • XIV

"Oh my God, Raya! Look at how cute this is!" Mel exclaimed. I looked over to where she was and laughed, shaking my head.

"Girl will you get over here!? I'm not even five months along and you're looking at," I glanced at the object in her hands, "A baby bouncer, really?"

She hugged the boxed object that was half her size closely to her chest, "It's a giraffe baby bouncer! It's really cute, Raya! And look, it says it sings."

I threw my head back and grinned, "Melina Jones. I swear you're more excited about this baby than I am."

Over the past five months, the pregnancy had been hard. Especially the whole vomiting part, I hate throwing up. But luckily, I was in my second trimester. Yeah, I still had some symptoms including new ones, but they aren't as bad as they were those first twelve weeks. But the best part was that I was starting to feel a little movement from the baby, which we just found out, was a girl. Looks like I'll be naming her Lianna after all.

I had decided to hold off from college until I had the baby, and I was going to start at Berkeley in another year. I just didn't think I would be able to concentrate as much as I needed too, so right now I was just working a full time job at a bookshop but I had insisted to move into my own apartment. My mom wanted to pay at least half of the rent so I would still have money left over for the baby and myself. She was now the 'Explainer' of everything that was happening to me, because she was the one who had been pregnant before.

And yes, Kento still called to check up on me at least twice a week, which was hard. I hated lying to him, but I knew that if he knew I was pregnant, he would come running back home and I didn't want that to happen. He had said that he was actually almost finished with a book that he started to write at the end of senior year and his classes were going well.

But, not wanting to lie to him anymore, I told Kento that I was wasn't going to attend college this year. He was confused at first, but to keep him from getting suspicious, I had to make up something, which happened to be that my mom told me to stay behind for a little bit.

"Oh, come on Raya ! We have to start shopping for the baby. I mean you only have like four more months before she's gonna pop out."

I looked at her, hardly containing my laugh, "Pop out? girl please never say that again."

My best friend pouted a bit, "Fine. But I'm buying this for you." She shifted the baby bouncer in her arms and I looked at her.

"No, you're not. It's sixty dollars!"

She held up a finger, "Correction. It's $59.99."

"Plus tax," I shot back at her.

"Raya I'm buying this for you and the baby. No buts. Besides, you can think of it as an early baby shower gift...which I have to start planning by the way."

I chuckled and my cell phone started ringing. I fished it out, pressing talk, "Hello?"

"Hey," a voice said on the other side. "It's me." My heart skipped a couple beats.

I felt myself smile widely unconsciously. Mel took notice and a knowing smirk came over her features. "And who might 'me' be?" I teased, maybe even somewhat flirtatiously, all while shooting her a look.

"You know who this is," Kento chuckled, "How've you been?"

I smiled and walked over to some one-month baby clothes, touching them softly, "The same as when you called three days ago. Great."

I could hear the smile in his voice, "Well, what're you up too?"

I lost my smile briefly and took a glance at the clothes again. How ironic would it be if he knew I was shopping for his daughter that he didn't even know about? "Umm, shopping. With Mel," I replied softly. I decided to change the subject, "How's college?"