Not up to Me, Not up to You

“Babe, Lacey and Johnny are here.” Brian called up the stairs to Kelly where she was finishing getting ready.

“Ok, I’ll be down in a second.” She called back as she checked herself in the mirror.

“I’ve got us a 40 each.” She heard Johnny say as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Cool.” Brian replied.

“No, not cool.” Kelly replied causing them to turn around to face her.

“You guys are not getting hammered when you’re decorating the nursery. My son will not be sleeping in a crib that you put together after you’ve been drinking.” She said putting her hands on her hips. Johnny moaned and pouted as she stepped closer to Brian.

“Promise me you’ll keep the 40s for when you’ve finished.” She said as Brian pulled her closer to him.

“Promise.” He said quietly before pressing his lips against hers.

“Good, now remember to read the instructions when building the furniture and behave yourself with Matt.” She warned Brian.

“As long as he doesn’t make any snide comments I’ll be fine. Remember he started all this shit.” Brian replied just as the doorbell rang.

Kelly quickly kissed Brian on the lips before going to answer the door. She smiled broadly as she opened it to find Jimmy and Zack smiling broadly at her.

“Hey Mama!” Jimmy exclaimed as he took a step into the house and kissed her cheek.

“We have 40s!” Zack cheered following Jimmy further into the house. Kelly glared down at the bags that both Zack and Jimmy were carrying.

“No Beer!” she growled, still stood with the front door open.

“Not until that nursery is done.” She added sternly.

“Baby, I promise, no beer until the room is done.” Brian said walking over to her. He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her as close to him as her bump would allow and placed a kiss on her lips.

“Now go, enjoy the baby shower.” He added with a smile before kissing her forehead.

“I love you.” she whispered before he kissed her lips again.

“I love you too.” she smiled up at him as Lacey joined them in the doorway.

“Come on then Big Mama, let’s go have ourselves a baby shower.” She said linking arms with Kelly and leading her out to the car.

Kelly followed Lacey into Leana’s house and through to the living room where the other girls were sat all surrounded by baby shower gifts.

“Hey Mama” Leana called from the sofa. Kelly laughed and rolled her eyes.

“I’m glad that little nickname has started to catch on.” She said in a sarcastic tone.

“Come on guest of honour. Put your fat ass in this chair so we can start opening gifts.” Gena said pointing at a vacant chair.

“Is there any baby stuff left in the store. This stuff’s taking over your living room.” Kelly said as she glanced around at all the wrapped gifts.

“We may have forgotten one or two things but I think we got all the essentials.” Lacey said.

“But you must have spent a fortune.” Kelly said picking up one of the frosted cupcakes that were on a plate on the coffee table, surrounded by other snack foods.

“Not really, well we all pooled our money, the girls in work put some money in and some of our clients gave us money to get you something because they didn’t know what to get you.” Gena began to explain as tears began to form in Kelly’s eyes.

“Oh my god. Really?” she asked looking around the room at everyone nodding.

“Oh and that big gift over there.” Gena said pointing over to the corner by the kitchen door.

“That one’s from your mom, we can’t open it until she gets here after she’s finished work.” She added as Kelly’s eyes widened.

“Mom’s coming?” Kelly asked, the tears threatening to spill.

“Yeah, of course she is. She said she finishes work at half four so she’ll be here at about five.” Lacey said.

“You guys are the best.” Kelly said with a smile as a tear escaped and rolled down her cheek.

“Hey, don’t be stupid. How long have us four been friends?” Leana said placing a supportive arm around her shoulder.

“And Jimmy is like a brother to you. You should have seen him running around the baby sections of the stores we went shopping in.” Leana added and Kelly smiled back at her.

“I know, now, which gift shall I open first?” Kelly said cheerfully.

“Well, I have no idea which one’s which so….this one” Gena said getting up and grabbing the first present she came across and passed it to Kelly.

Kelly smiled broadly as she began to open a small boxed gift. Inside she found a pack of two pacifiers. She began to giggle at the writing on the both of them. One said “MY Mom Rocks” and the other said “Mute button.”

“Thanks guys, they’re cute.” She said.

“Open this big one next.” Lacey cried grabbing a large box and placing it in front of Kelly.

“Oh guys it’s gorgeous.” Kelly cried as she opened the box to reveal a Moses basket.

“Is it? It is. It’s the one I said I liked.” Kelly said taking a better look at it.

“I know, I ordered it in the store that day.” Leana said smiling broadly.

“Lea, I fucking love you. You’re the best.” Kelly yelled throwing her arms around Leana and hugging her as well as she could with her large stomach in the way.

“Hey, you’re one of my best friends. I’m probably closer to you than my own sister. That little dude is going to be like a nephew to me. I’m going to spoil him rotten.” Leana said rubbing her hand over Kelly’s bump.

“This little dude will be your God Child if you want.” Kelly said watching Leana’s face light up.

“Really?” she whispered.

“Yeah, we wanted to ask you and Jimmy.” Kelly replied.

“Oh My God, I’d love to. I’m honoured.” Leana said hugging Kelly.

“Like you said, you’re like a sister to me and Jimmy is like my brother. There’s no one else I’d rather ask.”

After both Leana and Kelly spilt some tears and managed to wipe them away Kelly returned to opening present after present. They also made their way through a plate full of sandwiches a few jugs of lemonade and a variety of other nibbles.

There was soon a pile of baby stuff scattered around the room. Gena had organised everything into two piles. To the left was a pile of baby essentials, including the stroller her mom had bought her. On Kelly’s right was a pile of toys.

****

Not long after Kelly and Lacey left Matt arrived at Brian’s, also carrying 40s.

“Shall we crack one of these open before we start?” Matt asked as he placed them on the kitchen counter.

Brian shook his head. “Uh-huh, I’ve promised Kelly that we won’t touch a drop until the room is finished.” He said taking the bottles off the counter and into the already full refrigerator.

“Why?” Matt retorted about to open the bottle in his hand.

“Because she doesn’t want us putting up the crib and shit drunk.” Brian replied.

“One won’t hurt.” Matt said.

“That’s not the point. I promised Kelly that we wouldn’t drink until the room is finished.” Brian replied.

“Ahh, so maybe that’s why she picked you over me?” Matt said thoughtfully with a smirk. Brian looked confused.

“What?”

“She’s got you where she could never get me.” Matt said smugly.

“And that would be where?” Brian asked.

“Under the thumb.” Matt stated with a smirk. A low growl emitted from deep in Brian’s throat as he squared up to Matt, glaring into his eyes.

“The other thing I promised Kelly was that I wouldn’t start anything with you.” Brian growled, using all his will power to stop himself hitting Matt’s smug face. They glared at each other for a moment longer before Brian took the bottle Matt was holding off him and placed it in the fridge with the others. He then grabbed the pack of Marlboros off the counter and walked out of the back door to smoke.

“Dude, you’ve got to stop this.” Zack said as he walked further into the kitchen. He, Johnny and Jimmy had been stood in the doorway watching the confrontation.

Matt turned and glared at him. “Stop what?”

“This crap with Brian. I know you’ll probably never totally forgive him for taking Kelly away from you, but you’ve got to move on. Aly’s a great girl, you should really give it a proper go with her.” Zack began. Matt opened his mouth to say something but stopped.

“Dude she loves Brian and there’s nothing you can do to about that.” Jimmy said stepping forward.

“Dude, I know, it’s just hard. I still have feeling s for her. I still care about her.” He said dragging his hands slowly over his face.

“I know, but Brian’s a good guy, they’re good together, they love each other.” Jimmy said quietly.

“And if you want to be a part of your son’s life you’ve gotta stop this crap with Brian. You know how stubborn Kelly can be. She would never want to keep you away from your son but she’s not going to stand for you having a problem with Brian neither. She could make things difficult for you.” Jimmy said and Matt nodded in agreement. The back door opened and Brian walked back into the kitchen.

“Let’s get this room started.” Brian said sombrely walking past the guys as they watched Matt eagerly willing him to say something.

“Dude I’m sorry for what I said. I was out of order.” Matt said suddenly, rubbing the back of his neck, making Brian stop abruptly in the doorway. Slowly he turned around to face Matt.

“I mean it. I shouldn’t have said what I did.” Matt said taking a step forward as the other three glanced in anticipation between the two of them.

“Don’t worry; I can understand why you’re pissed at me. But I was hoping that we could put everything behind us and at least try and get on for Kelly’s and the baby’s sake. We have to deal with the fact that we are going to be in each other’s lives.” Brian replied. Matt nodded silently.

“Right, let’s get this room sorted!” Johnny announced loudly to break the awkward silence that had fallen over the five men.