Blooming

Weeks passed, and got I bigger. By the time New Years had rolled around, I was at about two months and ten days, about eleven weeks, I guessed. The morning sickness was fading and I constantly felt the need to eat. My appetite was rattled once more as Riley and I sat down at his kitchen table after a meeting with the doctor. My parents came to the appointment, as always, but still kept their distance with me. I felt as if they looked at me differently than they had before and spent the majority of my time avoiding them.
“Hungry?” Riley asked, knowing quite well that I was.
I nodded and watched him open the fridge. When it was finally all the way open, an odd stench lifted over the room. I could practically feel my nose burning.
“Ugh,” I moaned. “What’s that smell?”
He sniffed around but, as usual, smelled nothing. Suddenly, he looked as if he was remembering something important.
“It’s the eleventh week,” he stated.
I nodded.
“I know,”
He quickly shut the refrigerator and sat down next to me.
“The doctor said that in the eleventh week certain smells may start to bother you.” He walked over to the fridge again and pulled some pickles. Again, my nose burned.
“Ugh,” I whined. “I get it. Put it away.”
He smiled and placed them back atop their shelf. Next, he went over to the cupboard and got down some crackers. Although the nausea was occurring less often, it did happen occasionally and saltine crackers seemed to be the only fix.
“You know,” I said when Riley had sat back down at the table across from me. “You’re a whole lot better at this whole pregnancy thing than I am. Maybe you should be the one carrying the baby.”
At my sly remark, he simply laughed.
“You know, the doctor said that by the end of the eleventh week the about grows to be about two inches long.”
I smiled. It was always comforting to know that Riley wanted to be in this just as much as I was. He would make a good dad.
“I know. And I’m only going to get bigger.” I joked.
“Good thing everybody at school already knows.” he said. The thought still was hard to think about even though I knew he didn’t mean it in a hurtful way.
“Will you still love me when I’m the size of a whale?” I made a pouting face.
He laughed.
“I don’t know,” he said jokingly. “You’ll be pretty moody by then.”
Now, it was my turn to giggle.
“You’ll miss these days.”
Riley laughed once more showing all of his brilliant teeth. I watched his eyes twinkle as he got up and reached out to me. He lifted me from my seat as I wrapped my arms around his neck. Then, he carried me to the couch and sat down beside me.
“I can walk a couple feet sometimes, you know.” Lately, Riley had been carrying me everywhere, convinced that I needed all the rest I could get while we were on Christmas break because when we went back to school it would be that much more hectic. The only time he let me use my own two feet was when went out.
He smiled, but said nothing. Instead, he leaned over and kissed the top my head.
“Still hungry?” he asked.
“I’m good for anther fifteen minutes, I think.” The truth was, that I was still starving but I couldn’t bring myself to ruin a moment like this.
“Good,” he said and kissed me with more force than usual. I kissed him back, brushing my hands through his hair and hoping that nothing would ruin this moment.
But as always, something did.
As soon as I felt my cell phone vibrating my back pocket, I pounced. Riley quickly sat up and waited patiently to see who it was. Lately, whenever the phone rang, we’d drop what we were doing immediately, hoping it would be Lucy. But when I looked at the caller ID, I didn’t know what to tell Riley.
“It’s, uh....” I decided on the truth. “It’s Darren.”
Instead of pulling away like I expected him to, he kissed me again.
“Answer it,” he said.
And so I did.