There's a Playground

My phone buzzed beside me as I looked over my art history book once more to try and get the notes taken that I was unable to last night thanks to Max and I’s…situation. The screen was flashing Craig’s name and I wondered what it was that he wanted. I reached out to grab it, closing my Art History book before I flipped that phone of mine open and held it to my ear. “Hey, Craig. What’s up?”

“Holy shit Wendy! Guess what!?” It was clear that he was extremely excited about whatever it was that he was about to tell me. I could only guess that it had to do with Gab being pregnant.

“What Craig?” I asked, grinning to myself. His enthusiasm was contagious to highest degrees.

“I’m gonna be a dad! Like…a legit baby daddy!” he exclaimed. I laughed at that, nodding to myself as he spoke.

“Congrats, man. You’ll be a great baby daddy, I can already tell.”

“Wait…did you already know?”

“Yeah, Gab told me when I found her in the bathroom. But still, congrats. Like I said, I bet you’ll be the best dad in the world.”

“Damn straight I am! Dude, I’m so excited! Like…holy shit, Wendifer!” I laughed at that, nodding again and running a hand through my hair to get it away from my eyes. “So we’re gonna go to the doctor together next weekend to get her first scan and whatever, I guess. You should come!”

I blinked at that suggestion, raising a brow to myself as I thought about going with Gab and Craig to have an ultrasound and whatever else needed to be done. “I think I’ll pass, Craig, sorry. Not that I’m totally excited for you two and what not, but I don’t think that I really need to be there. A little awkward, don’t you think? You can tell me all about it, though,” I conceded, grinning as I spoke to my enthused friend.

Again, it was really hard not to be excited with him.

We talked for another half hour as Craig rambled on and on about how positively excited he was about being a father. It was cute, his excitement. It just showed me even more that he was going to be an amazing father to the child that was produced between Gab and him. That child was either going to be the most loved child on the face of the planet or the most spoiled.

Actually, it was probably going to be both of those put together.

I smiled as I hung up the phone and turned my attentions, finally, onto my homework.

----

I sighed as I held back Gab’s hair from her face. I was holding my breath and trying my hardest not to look at the poor girl kneeling over the porcelain god of shit at my feet. Her hair was short, yeah, but the fact that it was in an a-line cut didn’t help with keeping it out of her face herself. I’d been standing here for the last few minutes while my friend succumbed to the uncomfortable designs of morning sickness. Despite the fact that it was now April and she was now into her second trimester of her pregnancy, she still had morning sickness.

I was really glad that Max and I were being extremely safe. Being on the pill hardcore helped with the fact of not getting pregnant. I didn’t know what I would do if I ended up pregnant. I sighed at the thought of being pregnant… it’s not like I didn’t want kids. But right now when I hadn’t even finished high school? Not really something that I was looking forward to anytime soon. Honestly, I was way too young to be raising a child.

But as for my sixteen year old friends Gab and Craig, yeah, they were way young to be having a child as well. But I was certain that they would be able to handle it perfectly well… I had faith in them more so than I did in myself. I was hard on myself like that, though. I guess it just worked out like that…

Gab finally pulled back from the toilet, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand and grimacing. “I hate this so much…” she complained and I nodded, dropping her hair and turning to look at her fully.

“I’m sorry, hon. Hopefully it won’t last much longer, yeah?” She shrugged at me and ran her clean hand through her hair roughly.

“I don’t really know, honestly. Mom said that it could last anywhere between a few weeks to the entire fuckin’ thing. I’m sick of being sick, though…” she said. I nodded in response and then smiled at her in a reassuring manner. She smiled back at me and then stood to her full height of five-two. She grabbed her purse off of the hanger on the door and then opened it up, poking her head out into the empty bathroom before stepping out.

We’d been going through this in the mornings since February when her morning sickness had really started kicking in at school. Apparently, she’d been throwing up for the last month before that. How she managed to not notice that she was, in fact, pregnant, I had no idea. But she managed it. And, as the time progressed, it got worse and worse. We’d gotten in the habit of using the most deserted bathroom in the entire school. Which was, consequently, the most disgusting bathroom in the entire school. I hated that I had to be the one to accompany Gab in there. But Skye was hardly ever at school anymore since Ronnie had dropped out.

Oh yeah, by the way, Ronnie dropped out last month. Thought you should probably know that. Why he didn’t wait to finish his senior year, I’ll never know. But whatever, it was his decision…

But yeah, since Skye wasn’t really around anymore, I had to play the gal-pal to Gabby. Not like I wasn’t already doing that or anything. And it wasn’t like I minded being there for her. It wasn’t like Craig was able to or anything…

I washed my hands in the sink next to her, scrubbing to my heart’s content before I turned off the sink and moved to the paper towel dispenser. I dried my hands before following Gab out of the bathroom. She walked straight into Craig’s arms and I made my way into Max’s. I rested my head on his shoulder as we walked to our first class together.

“I can’t wait to get the fuck out of this place…” I told him after a group of particularly slutty blondes glared after us. I noticed Madison, Max’s ex girlfriend in that group of girls. I was incredibly glad that the relationship that Max and I had was absolutely nothing compared to what his relationship was like with Madison. It made me feel especially loved.

“Ha ha, you aren’t going to be leaving me anytime soon, are you?”

“I haven’t even thought about college, Max. I’m not planning on leaving again, trust me…” He stopped me in the hall after that, holding onto my waist as I looked up at him. His blue-green gaze held all the seriousness in the world.

“Promise?”

I nodded quietly at him, serious myself. “Max, I swear. I won’t leave you again. I love you too much to be able to do that…”

He smiled at me and bent down to kiss my lips softly.

“You should come over tonight, Baby. Please?” he asked me. I nodded in response before getting swept up in another kiss.