Hidden in the Shadows

February 28th, 2011
Monday
Milan Lucic’s Penthouse, Boston, MA
1:00 P.M.

“I want to go to Mardi Gras!!”

“You’re not going to Mardi Gras five months pregnant with my babies.”

“Pleeeeaase I’ll be good, I won’t drink, I just want to go have fun, and Jasmiina will be with me.”

“No, you’re staying here and off your feet. The only place you go is to your classes and back.” Raina Julien, soon to be Raina Lucic stood in front of her fiancé Milan Lucic in their kitchen. Her face was pouted and her arms were crossed in determination.

“I just need a plane ticket to Louisiana and we’ll come right back the day it’s over.”

“I’m not letting you go; you’re heavily pregnant with my twins. I’m not taking that risk.” Raina’s hormones had been all over the place and Milan knew he was instigating a fight. She was unpredictable these days; she’d go from angry, to depressed, to starving for his attention.

“But it looks so fuuuunnnn,” she whined at him.

“It’s not happening,” he said. She stomped her foot at him as he walked away into the living room,

“Well I’m going in the hot tub then,”

“No you’re not,”

“Yes I am,” Milan walked back out and said

“I’m not letting you,”

“Why,”

“It’s bad for the babies,”

“I take hot bathes all the time,”

“But the water isn’t over 100 degrees and there are no chemicals involved.” Suddenly she burst into tears. She had had many of these and Milan had learned how to handle it. He went over and wrapped his arms around her rubbing her tight enlarged stomach gently.

“I just don’t want you to get hurt; I want everything to go perfectly. I want our babies to be healthy and strong.”

“Ok,” she said sniffling a little. There was a knock at the door and Milan knew it as Jasmiina. When he opened it she stood there holding a large basket of hat looked like baby bottles, baby clothing, and toys.

“Hi Looch,” she said as she walked in and set the large basket onto the table.

“What’s all this?” said Raina walking over to see as if she’d been completely fine the moment before.

“Baby stuff,” said Jasmiina opening up the plastic wrap around the basket. “I got all different color clothes since you two refuse to find out if they’re boys or girls.” Raina dug through the basket and said

“Thanks for the bottles but I don’t think I’ll need them much, I’m gonna try breastfeeding.” Milan watched the two girls pull out the clothing Jasmiina had bought and squeal over how cute they were. What Milan hated about having Jasmiina over so frequently was that whenever Raina had a mood swing she’d instantly take her side and then he had the two of them ganging up on him. But she had been obsessed with helping Raina from the day she had found out she had been pregnant. Jasmiina had been the one who had convinced Raina to take a test after she missed her period and starting throwing up every morning. When Raina had told him he’d been shocked but happy.

“Milan I have to tell you something,” Milan had just come home from a day out with his old roommate Mark Stuart. Raina stood in front of him with a miserable look on her face.

“What happened?” he said dropping all of his things and walking over to hug her.

“Come sit with me,” the two went into the living room and sat on the couch. She took his hands and faced him.

“Milan, I’m pregnant,” he felt like a wave of cold water had washed over him as he realized what she had said

“W-what?” he knew what she had said.

“I’m pregnant, Jasmiina and I found out today, I took some tests and they all came out positive.” It took Milan a minute to process what she had said again.

“That means you’re having a baby?”

“Yes,” she said trying not to laugh at his question.

“By who?” she let herself laugh and said

“By you, who the hell else,”

“When have I not used a condom?”

“The first time I slept with you,” Milan thought back to that night in Raina’s room.

“Oh my god you’re right,” he said thinking hard about what had gone on. “I feel like an idiot,”

“Don’t I think we should look at this positively,” she said “I’ve been thinking about it and there’s not much that it would corrupt. I’m not in high school, I can go to all my college classes, it doesn’t get in the way of much.”

“You’re right,” he said holding her hands tighter. They planned to get married and live the rest of their life together what did it matter if they had kids now or later. It didn’t get in the way of anything, he’d go on playing hockey, Raina would go on with college, and then eventually she’d get her own job. He had a stable income, they lived together, and things would go very smoothly for them. “I’m happy,” he said looking up at her with a smile. “I can’t wait,” she smiled back at him and jumped forward onto him in a hug and said

“I’m so happy you’re fine with it,”

“So are we going to Mardi Gras?” Milan came back from his memory and wanted to tell Jasmiina not to bring it up again.

“No,” said Raina suddenly sounding angry again.

“Why not?” said Jasmiina.

“He won’t let me,” The two girls turned to him, both looking upset. Milan wanted to turn and run.

“Why can’t she go,” said Jasmiina.

“Girls listen-” he said with his hands defensively out in front of him.

“No you listen Milan Lucic; you let her do what she wants to do, stop holding her back. You act like she’s fragile. She’s tough!!”

“She is fragile,” he said gesturing towards her stomach. “She’s pregnant Jasmiina!” Jasmiina said

“You don’t know what it’s like to be pregnant, she’s not fragile!” Raina stood behind Jasmiina, enjoying the fact she had someone on her side. Jasmiina went on and on about how Raina would be fine as Milan stood there watching her yell at him. Raina still stood behind Jasmiina, she suddenly seemed uninterested as she rubbed her stomach and blurted out

“Milan will you get me some pizza, nice pizza from Polcarri’s or Regina’s.” Milan ignored her still arguing with Jasmiina. Angry no one was listening to her she said louder

“I want pizza, I’m hungry!!” No one listened and Raina decided to take matters into her own hands. “I’ll just make my own damn pizza,” she said to herself and waddled over to the cabinet where all the pots and pans were kept. It was a top cabinet and she had to strain herself to reach it. She just managed to hook her pinky around the handle and pull. All the pots came spilling out onto the floor making a loud noise. Milan and Jasmiina stopped arguing and looked over at her. This is how a typical day went for him now. The early stages of pregnancy hadn’t been so bad. But now Raina would wake him up at 2:00 A.M. if she was having a craving for something and make him go get it. It was usually pizza but she’d once sent him to McDonalds to get three large fries.

Raina stood in the middle of the mess and innocently said

“I wanted some pizza,” Jasmiina turned to Milan again still pissed off and said

“See you won’t even get her pizza, I should be living here with you so I can make sure she gets whatever she wants!!” Milan started arguing back again and Raina yelled

“SHUT UPPP!!!” both of them went silent again and looked up at her. “Let’s go out to eat, we should invite Tuukka along too. We’ll go to Polcarri’s.” Leaving all the pots on the floor the three left to pick up Tuukka.

An hour later they sat in a booth at the restaurant. Raina had ordered a small pizza for herself and seemed satisfied as she sat next to Milan eating it quietly. Tuukka sat across from them next to Jasmiina.

“So how’s pregnancy,” said Tuukka watching Raina.

“It’s ok,” she said pulling out another piece to eat.

“When are you due?”

“July 2nd,” she said.

“And you two aren’t finding out the genders?”

“I wanted to,” said Raina “But he wanted it to be a surprise for the both of us so he’s refusing to let me.” Tuukka said

“How’s Claude with all of this?”

“He’s fine with it; it’s my mother who hates it. We barely even talk these days. My dad comes twice a week to see how I’m doing; my mom has only come along three times since the time I found out I was pregnant. Milan’s parents have been the most supportive though. His mother wants to move in four weeks before the due date,” they ate and talked more about the pregnancy and then hockey.

“Tomorrow we face the Senators,” said Tuukka, “They are such an easy team to beat; we’ll have no problem, a good practice for the playoffs.”

“What time are we leaving tonight?”

“8:00,” Long before she had even met Milan Raina had known the stress of traveling that came with hockey. With whatever team he coached, her father had been gone a lot when he had to fly out with his team for an away game. She was pretty used to it but lately it had been really annoying her. He was gone a lot of nights, leaving her alone in their bed, unable to sleep. Their apartment penthouse had seemed creepy at night to her all of the sudden. Ever since she reached four months she started having trouble falling asleep at night, especially without him there. She frequently had episodes of sleep paralysis where she would wake up unable to move and hallucinate someone horrible was in the room with her. It scared her to fall asleep at night. She had confessed her feelings about it to Milan before but she knew there was nothing he could do about it. Jasmiina sometimes slept over but it didn’t do much help.

“What time are we getting back tomorrow?”

“Late, 11:00 at night,” Milan turned to her knowing how she felt.

“I’ll be fine,” said Raina “It’s only one night,” he smiled at her and said

“Alright,” the four finished and left the restaurant. When they got back to their apartment Jasmiina and Tuukka drove home leaving Milan and Raina alone again. Milan picked up all the fallen pots while Raina sat at the kitchen table watching him. She had tried to help him but he wouldn’t let her.

“Are you going to let me do anything for myself?”

“Nope,” he said. She let out a sigh and said

“Milan I don’t want you to go,” He stood up and said

“I don’t want to leave you here alone, I feel horrible doing it.”

“It’s ok, I know you have to go, I just hate it here by myself,”

“How about you start focusing on the wedding more, I know we’ve already sent out the invitations and gotten everything major set up but you should do think like picking out a dress for you and the bridesmaids, I’ve already chosen my suit and the groomsmen suits,” Milan and Raina had decided the date of their wedding was to be April 5th. The wedding was going to be on a beautiful Cape Code beach. Milan was Christian Orthodox, and Raina was a Roman Catholic, not wanting for religion to become to big of a problem with choosing a church they decided on the beach. Most of the catering services and booking of the ball room the wedding after party would be in. But Raina had not chosen a dress, or who her bridesmaids would be. Milan had chosen his oldest brother Jovan as his best man; he had chosen five groomsmen, his youngest brother Nikola, Tuukka, Mark Stuart, and two of his old good friends from when he played on the Vancouver Giants. Raina had been torn between asking Jasmiina or Katryna, her older sister, as her maid of honor. Katryna had been a bitch to her all of her life and she had no true desire to make her the maid of honor but she was her sister. In the end she had chosen Jasmiina as Katryna had expressed no interest in being the maid of honor. Instead Raina had made her a bridesmaid. Raina wasn’t very good friends with many girls besides Jasmiina. She had chosen the next four girls she knew best, Tatiana Chara, Rebecca Seidenberg, Shelley Houda, and Sheena Burletoff. Their flower girl was to be Story Seidenberg, and the ring bearer was to be Keegan Thomas. It was going to be a huge wedding. Milan’s entire family from Canada, and Serbia were coming, all of the old friends Milan had on the Vancouver Giants, the entire Bruins team, some other players from different teams that Milan knew well, and Raina’s whole family from Canada and the U.S. Raina had been avoiding choosing a dress because of her pregnancy. She had no problem with getting married pregnant, but she didn’t like the idea of going down to the bridal shop for hours and keeping pulling dresses on and off.

She had already somewhat designed what she wanted for a dress in her head. Something flowly that complimented her belly, nothing to glitzy, something simple, and obviously white.

“I guess I’ll go down to the bridal shop tomorrow, I’ll bring all the bridesmaids with me, my mom probably won’t want to come, I’m surprised she said she’d be attending the wedding.”

“Good I’ll call you tonight when I get to the hotel and to say goodnight too,”

“Alright,” she said only feeling slightly better with the thought of their upcoming wedding.
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