When Forever Ends

Love. How can someone consider themselves to be in love after knowing someone for barely two weeks. I’ll never know. I find it foolish, you can’t love someone you know almost nothing about. I try to tell this to Jenna and she gets all mad. I’m just trying to look out for her. I know Jake has hopelessly fallen for her good looks, I have no idea if that’s all he’s fallen for. Jenna and Jake are irritating anyway, they’re always on the phone. Whenever Jake has free time and Jenna isn’t in class there is a phone stuck to her face.

“Who are you talking to?” I mumble into my pillow when Jenna walks into my room and sets a glass of water down on my night stand. Dumb questions, I know the answer.

“Jake.” Jenna says so happily that I feel like I’m going to throw up. It could just be the morning sickness. For the most part, my morning sickness has passed. There are some mornings when I get so nauseous that I pray to just throw up to get rid of the feeling.

“Bleh.” I say grumpily and sit myself up in bed and watch Jenna bounce out of the room. I feel bad for being bitchy. Honestly, I do. I would probably never go to school or work if Jenna wasn’t here to help me out when I’m feeling sick or sore or anything else this kid does to me.

I drink some water and stare at my unfinished painting sitting in the corner. I should probably work on that today. I did try to get it finished last night. My whole body felt sore though. I am hoping that’ll be gone today. I really don’t need every move I make to be painful. I pick myself up off the bed and shuffle my feet against the cold titles until I reach the bathroom. I yawn while I stretch my arms above my head, keeping my eyes closed the entire time.

A shriek of shock emits from me. My reflection in the mirror shows my stomach with a noticeable curve outwards. I was not expecting to wake up with this! It looks like something kicked my stomach out from the inside. Though technically, that something is my kid.

“What? What’s wrong?” Jenna shouts in a panic while throwing the bathroom door open, her phone still stuck to her ear.

“Look at this!” I point to my belly. “What am I going to do about this? I have a date tonight!” I stomp my foot like a two year old.

“Umm, I’ll call you back.” Jenna says into the phone. Neither Jake or Ace know about my ‘condition’. Though they’re bound to find out sooner or later. They’re coming home in a month and I will be much rounder then than I am now. “Okay, I love you too.” Jenna says with a laugh. I keep myself from rolling my eyes.

“You look so cute, Marley!” Jenna coos. Cute? How can I be cute? I look like a mutant is trying to punch it’s way out of my stomach! That’s not cute.

“I look gross!” I shout. I’m not ready to say goodbye to Vince forever. I know, I’m being over dramatic but what are the chances he won’t notice my stomach getting rounder and rounder? He’ll figure it out and when he does...he’ll be gone. Why would a guy like Vince...all perfect and everything want to stick around with someone who’s pregnant? Sure, he’s not shallow like most guys but it’s still gotta be weird.

“Quit complaining! Just throw on a baby doll top and continue on until those mo longer hide your bump. Oh and don’t let him touch your stomach!” Jenna says and marches right out while calling Jake back.

All through the day, I keep putting my hands on my belly. I feel lame saying this but it’s like an instinct to just rest my hands on the small bump in my stomach. It’s like a bad habit. Yes, bad. If I keep up with it, Vince will surely notice.

My phone rings a few seconds after I slip a black flowy top over my upper half. “Ace?” I ask myself when I see the caller ID. Why was Ace calling? We never really call each other to talk so there must be something behind his calling.

“Hello,”

“Why did you tell me you were pregnant?” Jake yells into the phone.

“Yeah, or me!” Ace voices. “We feel...hurt.” I can’t tell if he’s serious or not. Sometimes it’s hard to tell with Ace...much like Shayne. Jake is pretty clear...he usually laughs at his own jokes.

“Who told you?” I ask calmly while internally flipping out. Who else knows?

“IT SLIPPED!” Jenna yells. Curse the day I taught Jake how to use three-way calling!

“Eh, well they were gonna find out anyway. And I wanted to tell you guys in person! It would be so weird to call you up and be like ‘Hey, just wanted to tell you I’m pregnant with some mystery kid that’d be so awkward!”

“We have to go, but this conversation is not over Missy!” Jake says in a warning tone and the line goes dead. Jake could be intimidating who would have guessed it?

“When I was little my dad told me there was a man on the moon.” Vince says sitting next to me in the sand. The waves are hitting our bare feet lightly as we stare up at the dark sky illuminated by a crescent moon.

“Did you believe him?” I ask drawing pictures of butterflies in the sand with my finger.

“Of course I did, I believed everything my dad told me. When I got to fourth grade and we learned about the planets, my teacher said that there was no actual man on the moon.” Vince is silent while look up at the moon still. “I’m pretty sure I cried.” he says with a laugh.

“Good story!” I laugh and push his shoulder lightly.

“I know.” Vince says grinning at me. “Your turn.”

“Umm.” I say trying to think of a good story. “When I saw six, I thought I was a dragon. I used to hiss at people and stuff. It was weird.” I say thinking back to one of my phases. Vince barks with laughter.

“That has got to be one of the most random things I’ve ever heard a little kid pretending to be! Most kids pretended to be cats or dogs...you were dragon.” he says smiling. Oh man, that smile. I’m going to miss it.

“Well you know me.” I laugh. There is a comfortable silence between the two of us. The sound of waves crashing fills the air around us and slaty sea air fills our lungs.

“Will you be my girlfriend?” Vince asks taking me by surprise. I never thought he’d ask me. We’d been spend tons and tons of time together for a few months and he hasn’t even hinted at it before. I would to say yes, really I would. Think about my current condition. Well, I guess now is the time to tell him. I’ll tell him that I’m with child, and if he still wants me...which I doubt he will...then perfect, I’m his.

“Wait. Pretend you didn’t ask me that, because you’ll probably thank me. I need to tell you something and it’s okay if you’re mad at me because I didn’t tell you earlier. Because if I were you I would probably be mad and never want to talk to me again. You should have know what I’m about to tell you before you asked me that because you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”

“You’re not going to tell me you used to have a penis, are you?” Vince asks with a smirk.

“I’m trying to be serious!” I scold him but fail when I can’t conceal my laughs.

“Sorry, proceed.” he says smiling. This could be the last time I see this smile. Cherish it. Commit to memory.

I hesitate before saying it. I take a few deep breaths and close my eyes. “I’m pregnant.” I slowly open my eyes to see his reaction. None. His facial expression doesn’t change at all.

“So about what I asked you?” Vince as indifferently.

“Did you hear me correctly?” I ask disbelievingly?

“Can you repeat what you said?”

“I’m pregnant.”

“Then yes, I did. So your answer is...”

“Don’t you find it weird for me to date with my condition.”

“It’s not a condition, it’s the life cycle...and I honestly don’t care if it’s weird because I like you a lot.”

My eyes overflow with tears. Dammit! Dumb hormones! “I like you a lot too.” I say crying happy tears. I cannot wait for these emotional fits to be over with.

I feel like life is perfect when Vince leans down and kisses me sweetly and slowly. Here I am, kissing the perfect man, on an empty beach, in the moonlight, after finding out that he’s not going to take off because I’m pregnant. Perfect...well almost. I still don’t know who’s kid this is.

Eh, screw that for right now. This is perfect.