A Not So Sweet Fairytale

It was dark inside and since I didn’t know where the light switch was I just found my way to the stairs.

“Mike said the bedrooms are all on the second floor. He said we could chose whatever ones we want to sleep in as long as it’s not his. He said his is the one with the pictures and all the rest look the same so we can do whatever to spice them up a bit,” I told Jeffrey in the eerie silence interrupted by the creaking of the old house.

“Bed, Bath, and Beyond here I come,” Jeffrey muttered, following me up the stairs towards the promised resting places complete with beds.

I stepped into the last bedroom on the right since it was the farthest from the drafty stairs as well as Mike’s reserved bedroom. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to sleep near him, it was that I had been having a lot of nightmares that Jeffrey had managed to sleep through, but I didn’t know how heavy of a sleeper Mike was and I really didn’t want to have to convince they were nothing every single time I woke up screaming.

“Night,” I called to Jeffrey who had chosen the bedroom across the hall from me, then closed the door and got changed into the first comfy clothes I could spot near the top of my suitcase. I climbed into the bed and pulled the never used plain white satin sheets over my head gently. I’d never been so grateful for a place to sleep before.

The next morning I awoke with a start because Jeffrey had was in my room sitting next to me with a tray filled with lots and lots of noodles.

“It’s the only thing I could find that was still edible,” he explained when I gave him a questioning look. I was not a morning person.

“Yeah, well what are they doing next to me?” I asked, since for me not being a morning person meant my brain was not able to function in the morning.

“It’s lunch you dummy. And I’m more than ready to go to the grocery store. I’m starving,” he told me, his stomach grumbling and I glanced at the clock.

“Yeah well so am I. What are you on anyways? It’s not even noon yet,” I moaned.

“I just had a BIG cup of coffee. I figured you could use one too,” he said, handing me a steaming mug.

“Thanks. Now why don’t I just get up and we can get something besides noodles for lunch,” I reasoned, but continued when I saw him looking at me with a hurt look in his eyes. I know he was trying to do something nice for me so I sighed, “We can eat the noodles tonight for a midnight snack or something. We’ll get some M&Ms to add to them and then we’ll be complete. Deal?” He nodded.

“I’ll be watching television. Oh, and have you called Mike yet?” He asked.

“Uhhh… no. I’ll get right on that. See you in like fifteen minutes,” I told him, vaguely remembering promising Mike that I would call him.

“Alright,” With that he left me to my room and I reached for the phone on the table beside me and dialed Mike’s number which I had managed to retain from the night before.

“Hello?” Came a groggy voice.

“Sorry I didn’t call last night. I meant to but then I just plain fell asleep,” I told him honestly.

“Ah don’t worry about it. I’d figure you’d call sooner or later. And if you didn't, then the county jail would probably call. So what do you think of the truck?” He asked and I decided to let the jail reference slide just for now since he'd gotten me the truck.

“I love it! It’s awesome. Thank you so much!” I nearly screamed.

“Anytime. Just try not to total it, alright?” He asked in a very quiet voice.

“I’ll try I suppose,” I murmured, reminded of my mother suddenly.

“So what are you guys gonna do today?” He asked, registering the change in my voice.

“Go grocery shopping. Turns out Jeffrey really likes to cook,” I told him, not able to remember anything else about that morning.

“Well then, have fun. Call me whenever,” he told me, and I could hear Billie Joe telling him to go back to sleep in the background.

“Alright. Good luck at the concert tonight,” I told him.

“Night,” he murmured as he hung up and I decided to get up. After managing to get through a decent shower, pulling on mix matched clothes, and brushing my hair roughly, I headed downstairs to find the TV Jeffrey was watching since I hadn’t seen it yet. I navigated my way through a series of pointless rooms downstairs until I managed to find Jeffrey watching TV.

“You said fifteen minutes. It’s been half an hour,” he observed.

“Yeah well I got just a bit lost,” I shrugged, pulling my shirt down and my jeans up, getting self conscious about my stomach since Jeffrey kept glancing at it.

“Well then let’s go. I really want to go shopping now,” Jeffrey moaned.

“We’re just going for groceries remember?” I asked, wanting to confirm our destination now before it was too late.

“Yeah I know. But I love grocery shopping. You always find so much more than what you could possibly eat,” he told me reminiscently with a big smile sliding across his face.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that at this point. Between you being a teenage guy and me being pregnant we may be able to eat everything in the store in a week or so,” I reminded him.

“Oh. Speaking of which I’ve been meaning to talk to you about… you know,” he started awkwardly, his smile disappearing instantly.

“Well wait until we’re in the truck or something,” I told him, not wanting to discuss it just yet, or any other time for that matter.

“Fine,” he sighed, getting up from the comfy looking couch and leading me towards the door. I looked at my black beauty again before getting in and smelling the wonderful once in a lifetime smell of new car. I’d only ever smelled that smell once, the one time my mother had let me go home with my childhood friend Melissa. She was rich and her family had just bought a really nice new car that I can’t remember the name of. I slipped the key into the ignition and started on my way towards god knows where.

“Have you thought about what you’re gonna do as far as the thing growing in your stomach is concerned?” Jeffrey asked hesitantly.

“What?” I asked, engrossed in the stuff we were passing since I'd already counted five celebrities that I recognized.

“Are you gonna keep it or what?” He prompted.

“Oh, yeah. I think I’m gonna keep it. When it asks who it’s dad is I’ll just tell them he was a sperm donor,” I reasoned, knowing that would be the next question out of his mouth.

“That works I s’pose. Have you told Mike about it yet?” He asked carefully and I shook my head. “Are you going to?” He asked.

“I dunno. I hardly know the guy. I want to see if we even get along. It’d be a bit much if his new found daughter told him she just happened to be pregnant,” I reasoned.

“True. Just make sure you don’t wait too long. He’d probably get mad at you if you told a long time from now. And he doesn’t' know you well enough to really forgive you just yet. You'd probably end up on the streets if he kicked you out,” he rambled on and on.

“Hmmm…” I said thoughtfully. We arrived at what appeared to be a grocery store on the opposite side of town. It was a large Safeway as we discovered once we were inside. I bought the Starbucks while Jeffrey picked out his arsenal of food items.
After getting straws for both the cold icy morsels exploding with caffeine I found Jeffrey prowling through the produce.

“What do you think of this lettuce?” He asked me, holding up a head of lettuce that I could only describe as well, lettuce.

“It’s ummmm… very green,” I managed.

“You’re right. It’s too green. This one’s getting past its prime,” he said setting the head of lettuce back from where it’d come from. After selecting another lettuce head and it managing to pass his inspection he said he was ready to go.

“One more thing,” I said, and ran to grab the single item I had been craving for the past two weeks. I came back and put my box in the cart.

“Oh come on, cereal? I’m gonna make breakfast every morning and all you want is some Frosted Flakes?!?” He yelled.

“Hey relax. I’m hungry enough to eat a bowl of frosted flakes as well as anything you make that’s edible,” I reasoned, absent mindedly caressing my stomach.

“Whatever,” he hmfed and after paying the cashier we loaded up the groceries into the back of the truck. We arrived back to the house after getting lost for about two hours since we’d managed to leave the original directions to the inner streets at the house. I unlocked the door as Jeffrey lugged the groceries up the single step concrete entryway, careful not to knock into one of the prominent black roman columns on either side of the simple unpainted wood door. I stepped back and let him past me in silence. My stomach grumbled as he passed me because a waft of the hot food we'd bought hit me and I found I really wanted some of the ice cream I’d managed to sneak into the basket since now Jeffrey was all concerned about my health.

“In there I guess,” I muttered, indicating a room that seemed to have a microwave, three ovens, and a very large industrial refrigerator, which was placed next to an even larger industrial size container that was colder than Alaska during a blizzard inside. After we’d stuffed the contents of the bags in the most random places within the empty cabinets save for the beer and the mountain of tofu in the freezer, we found our way to the television and relaxed in silence with the mind numbing pointless dialogue on the quiz show we were watching for some reason.

“So what do you want for dinner?” Jeffrey asked suddenly when the show had finished.

“Hmmm… How about some of that chocolate ice cream?” I asked, suddenly craving the dessert.

“Alright, but tomorrow I’m making us a REAL dinner,” Jeffrey commended, starting on his way to the kitchen slowly.

“Whatever,” I sighed, getting up and following him to the kitchen.

Jeffrey skillfully dished out the ice cream with the only clean spoon we could find.

“Here you go,” Jeffery said, handing me a bowl with a couple small scoops of ice cream. I sighed and walked to the counter he’d just come from and grabbed the ice cream scoop and container and dished out two immense scoops of my cookies and cream ice cream.

“Oh c’mon. You aren’t seriously going to eat ALL THAT?” He meant to state, but instead it came out as a question, one that didn’t need a verbal reply, just a warning glare. I searched the near empty fridge for anything we could put on the ice cream. In the end I’d found a bag of just edible gummy worms, a container of whipped cream that was actually a couple months past date but still smelled good enough, a thing of chocolate syrup, and a REALLY old bag of chocolate chips that we used despite the questionable state of the chocolate. After piling the ingredients onto my mound, I handed the bags to Jeffrey who just looked at me.

“What?” I asked him.

“You put cheese on that,” he murmured pointing to a piece of cheddar cheese we’d gotten at the grocery store. I nodded, not seeing what the problem was.

“Have you ever eaten your ice cream with cheese on it before?” He asked and I shook my head and he stopped asking questions, just stole a quick look at my stomach before returning to the chocolate syrup that was oozing out of the bowl and cascading down the contours of the bowl before forming a puddle on the once originally spotless counter.