My Life Would Suck Without You

The Wedding

Frankie moaned and rolled over in his sleep... only to find himself dumped onto the hard floor.

"Oof", he grunted.

Jai's eyes shot open and he looked around the room while at the same time trying not to move excessively. Ariana had one leg slung over his midsection using him as a human full-body pillow. Her burgeoning belly was propped awkwardly against his lower stomach, supporting the weight of the baby. He was once again struck by how amazing she was. The baby had been kicking off and on all night and he'd felt most of it due to their sleeping positions. Jai didn't understand how Ariana got any rest at all. He felt horrible. He looked down to study her. The early morning light from the window gave just enough light to see her through her thick curtain of hair as she snuggled more closely into his side. She'd never looked more beautiful to him than she did right now.

"Shit!", Frankie whispered as Jai heard him trying to stand and disentangle himself from the blanket. There was a banging noise right before Frankie's expletive and Jai speculated that he probably hit the heavy wooden end table next to the loveseat.

Crap, Frankie! You're going to wake her up.

"Five more minutes, Frankie", Ariana mumbled and flopped over onto her other side while she pulled her pillow over her head. "Tell Mom I need five more minutes."

Oh, thank goodness. She must be having some sort of flashback to when she lived at home.

"I had the most fantastic dream", she continued, coming more awake with each word. "You won't believe who it was about ... Jai Brooks. And he was..." She suddenly jerked off the pillow and propped herself up on her elbows. "What tha?"

By this time, Frankie had managed to stand up and was gingerly rubbing his knee where he had, indeed, banged it into the end table.

"Oh, mornin', Ari", he said casually. Then he rolled his head and started rubbing the right side of his neck. "Hey, you got any Tylenol? My neck is killing me; plus, I've got a killer hangover."

"I thought you left", Ariana growled.

"What made you think that?"

Ariana looked over accusingly at Jai who was currently pretending, very unconvincingly, to be asleep. However, before she could affect a decent glare, Frankie sprang towards the bathroom announcing as he went, "Dibs on the bathroom!"

"No!", Ariana screamed as she raced to the bathroom door, only to have it slammed shut in her face. "Frankie!", she pounded angrily on the door. "This isn't funny, Frankie. Open the door." The only sound she heard was the sound of the shower turning on.

By the time Jai peeked open his eyes, Ariana was dressed in his sweats, pulling on her Uggs.

"What are you doing?" He sat in the bed watching her carefully for signs of fury.

"So...", she placed her hands on, what was once, her hips and looked at him disdainfully. "Tired of pretending to be asleep?"

"I thought it was the safest course of action. Where are you going?" He repeated his earlier question.

"To Donny's room to pee." She turned back to him before leaving the room. "And listen closely..." Her voice held a menacing edge to it. "I don't care where Frankie goes, but he needs to be out of here before I get back ... got it?"

Jai nodded vigorously. "Got it." And she was gone.

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

"But I thought this was supposed to be my day", Frankie whined to Jai.

Jai had finally managed to get him to open the door and he didn't look happy.

"Are you delusional, Frankie? Ariana is almost eight months pregnant. Every day is her day."