Crossroads

I sat on the couch in frustration as I tried to situate my guitar into a comfortable position. I was beginning to truly understand why women say they at first enjoy being pregnant but right around now, couldn’t wait to just have the baby. Playing the guitar was becoming more and more of a difficult task and it was driving me insane. The ONE thing I am truly great at, yet I lacking the ability right now.

I sighed as I looked over at Craig as he was sitting on the opposite end of the couch with his iPod and Mac Book. He was listening to a track and trying to work on lyrics, his mouth moving and forming words as he typed them down on a blank document. He went along and wore the shirt I bought him that read “This Is What Perfection Looks Like”, a pair of shorts and a pair of gray Vans.

In the chair to my right was Jude curled up in a ball playing on the Leap Pad Craig and I had gotten him for Christmas. He loved it and apparently it has been helping him with his speech. Although some of his vocabulary has definitely rubbed off from his mother. I have never heard such a crisp and clear FUCK YOU! come out an infant before. It truly blew my mind. I leaned up a bit and rested the guitar against the couch with a sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Craig asked.

“I wanna play!” I replied with a sigh.

“Here.” He said pulling the other ear bud out of his ear and getting up. He took the two steps to reach me and pushed my shoulder so I would lean back on the couch.

“Now sit Indian style.” He instructed. I did as he said. He picked up my guitar and sat it on my lap. “Now you should be okay.” He said.

I sat up straighter and the guitar sat comfortably against my huge stomach. I smiled up at him as I adjusted the pick in between my index finger and thumb. “Thanks babe.”

“Mhm.” He smirked before giving me a quick kiss.

“Yucky.” We heard Jude comment.

“C’mere twerp.” I said with a laugh. He came over and sat in-between Craig and I. We began going over chords and such. Having a mother, father and godmother as famous guitarists, and even though he may not remember it now, he ought to learn a thing or two about them.
After declaring he was hungry ten minutes after, I stopped the lesson and got up to make some macaroni and cheese. Once I was finished straining the macaroni and adding the milk, butter and cheese, I sat Jude in his highchair and struggled with the tray as I always do. Finally getting it situated I placed the bowl on the tray and let him dig in.

As I sat at the table with him, I heard a loud bang that I presumed was Craig’s hand smacking the coffee table with a loud “SHIT!” following. I looked and saw him rip the headphones off and got up to come in the kitchen.

“SHIT!” Jude yelled with a grin. I only bowed my head and shook it.

“Watch what you say.” I scolded Craig. He only shrugged.

“I can’t get this verse right and its pissing me off.”

“So, why don’t you see if the boys can help you?” I replied wiping some of the cheese off of Jude’s face.

“I know, that’s why I came in here. To get my phone.” He said with an agitated tone.

All I could do at the moment was stare at him for a moment as he began to scroll through his contacts. “Did you really have to give ME an attitude? I did nothing to you.”

He quickly put the phone to his head before waving at me as if to dismiss my tiny outburst. I felt my cheeks get hot and got ready to let loose. With all my hormones out of whack on top of the attitude he just gave me, I was ready to snap. That is, until I heard a small giggle come from Jude who was now playing with a single piece of macaroni. I settled myself down and cleaned him up before setting him up on the couch with a sippy cup full of juice. I put on one of his favorite movies and sat down as I began to absent mindedly play with my phone.

A few moments later, I heard Craig walk through the living room and grab his keys off the table by the door before turning the knob.

“What you can’t say goodbye?” I asked in a mildly annoyed tone.

He sighed before turning back and walking towards me and giving me a quick kiss. Something felt off. “What was that?” I asked getting up.

“What was what?” he snapped.

“That! You just kissed me like I’m your mother and we were in front of your friends. The fuck man?!” I snapped back.

“I gotta go, we will discuss this later.”

He began to walk out the door and I didn’t want to leave him with a negative thought no matter how mad I was at the moment, “Good luck babe!” I called. He shut the door and I just stood there staring after him. I felt Harper kick and my hand immediately went to my stomach and soothingly began to rub where her feet were.

“Jay!” I heard Jude call. I turned to find that he figured out how to get the lid off of his sippy cup and was now wearing his juice. I sighed as I lead him to his room to change him and clean him up. As we came back downstairs, I heard the front door shut and saw Aden and Brian walk back in. I watched as Jude ran to them and wrapped an arm around each one of their legs. I smiled hoping that’s how it would be with Craig and Harper.

-Aden’s POV-

I picked up my son and hugged him tightly before planting 10+ kisses all over his face. It’s been months since Brian and I were able to just go out for a few hours and not worry about who was taking care of him. After I let Brian have at Jude, I took a good hard look at Joanna. She didn’t look like herself at all. She looked all depressed and as if something were troubling her.

“Jo, come into the kitchen with me, I wanna show you what I got.” I said to her. She looked up at me and put on that fake smile she always tries to fool people with when she gets like this. However she somehow made herself believe that it still worked on us. I sighed as I led her to the kitchen.

I placed the bags on the island and started to pull out a bunch of clothes for Jude on top of other cute outfits I found for the incoming spawn. I handed her the outfits I bought for Harper and she smiled at them as she laid them out across the counter top. She looked pleased with the outfits but still seemed off.

“What’s going on Jo?”

Her head shot up and looked at me. I put a hand up before she could speak, “I don’t want to hear that it’s ‘nothing’ either.” She dropped her head for a moment and sighed. She dipped into the story of what happened just before we walked in the door and I could honestly say that that isn’t Craig’s normal behavior.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just because Harper will be here soon. He might just be buggin out a little bit.”

I shrugged, “Maybe, I mean this shouldn’t be totally new to him, he already has Leila.”

She nodded and looked down. I looked over at the fridge and saw the calendar and found that Halloween was coming up soon. Jude needed a costume as well as I did, and from what I could recall, the others didn’t get any costumes yet either. I figured this would be a good time to get her out and clear her head.

“Wanna go meet up with the girls and see if we can find some Halloween costumes?” I asked. At first she seemed against the idea, but came around and got up to go get ready.

A half hour later we pulled up in front of the costume shop and headed inside. The girls were already there and were wandering around the store. Katie was inspecting an appliqué that would make it look like your skull was sticking out of your head while Lucy stood a few feet away inspecting bat printed curtains that I suspected would be hanging in her house soon knowing her odd taste in décor. Beside the door Lexi was crouched looking at a pair of heels that would anyone but her. When she saw us she stood up and walked over.

“It’s about time! C’mon the others are waiting.” she replied and pulled us to the back of the store where Lucy and Katie were waving.

“So how’s the kid?” Lucy asked as the bunch of us sorted through the maternity costumes.

“She’s fine.” Joanna replied in a distracted voice.

“What’s going on?” Lexi asked.

“It’s nothing.” Joanna replied pulling a Raggedy Ann costume from the rack, looked mildly horrified and put it back.

“Yeah right. Aiden what’s wrong with her?” Katie asked turning to me.

I sighed, “Craig’s being pissy.” I replied.

“And like I said it’s nothing. He’s probably just nervous about Harper. I know that he has Leila but I can see how he’d still be nervous. Lucy…how are Max and Matt handling it?” she asked looking to our overly pregnant friend.

“Well actually they’re pretty calm. I mean I can tell their freaking out a little but for the most part they’re handling it alright. Last night Max told me he can’t wait for Raven to get here.” Lucy replied looking a little guilty.

“I’m sure that things will turn out hon.” Lexi said and hugged Joanna.

Two hours later we finally had our costumes and we headed back to the house. Thanks to the fact she was pregnant as fuck I helped her carry her things inside. However the moment we did the smell of alcohol and weed hit my nose and I knew there was going to be trouble.

-Joanna POV-

The smell of weed and alcohol filled my nose. Were the guys partying? That would be so unlike them. I looked back to the driveway and saw that most of the guys still weren’t home. However there was one of their cars in the driveway. Craig’s challenger.

I walked through the main room and into the living room. I saw a bottle of Jack Daniels on the table that was ¾ empty. I walked further into the living room and saw Craig fast asleep on the couch. With a sigh I nudged him to help him get up to bed.

“Craig,” I called. He stirred for a moment but fell right back to sleep. I looked up and saw Aiden, Lexi and Lucy watching me with concerned expressions.

“Craig.” I called a little louder. He opened his eyes and let them adjust. I almost wished he hadn’t let them adjust when I saw the look that followed.

“What do you want?” he grumbled.

“Don’t you wanna go lay in our bed?” I asked.

“No, go away. Leave me the fuck alone.” He snapped.

I looked up at the girls and saw that their expression were replicas of my own. “What the FUCK is your problem?!” I yelled.

He sat up and glared at me, “Why can’t you just leave me alone, for five fuckin minutes? You’re always up my ass, crawl out woman.” He yelled giving my shoulder a slight shove before walking past me.

“Dude!” Aiden snapped at him.

“Aiden, let him go.” I said trying to be defensive.

“No, fuck that! How could you push a pregnant woman, especially your pregnant WIFE?!” she yelled.

“Get out of my face Aiden, and stay out of our business.” He snapped back.

“What’s going on here?”

I turned to see Max standing in the hallway.

“Max, its fine just take Lucy outside.” I pleaded.

“No, what the fuck is that I smell? Is that weed? Craig, are you fuckin high?” he asked.

“Max, man. Shit.” He said.

“Dude, how could you do this to Joanna? Man, how could you do this to Harper?” he said. “I went through hell, Lucy too, to get out of our addictions. Now we’re staying strong for the kids and now you’re crumbling? Dude, get a hold of yourself.”

Craig looked at the floor and then back to him. “Now, I really think you owe Joanna an apology.” Max said.

Craig looked at me, and with the most insincere look and tone said, “Sorry.” before heading up the stairs and to bed. My mouth dropped in disbelief. I looked over at the others in the room and their faces made tears well up in my eyes. To save myself from having to deal with it, I ran passed them all before getting into my car and driving off.

What was going on? What had happened to my husband? And what was going to happen with Harper? I felt the need to talk to someone, but I couldn’t bring myself to want to talk to any of the girls or anyone else in the house.

Scrounging up the courage, I pulled over into a dead end and grabbed my phone. I scrolled through my contacts until I found the one I was looking for and hit the call button.

It rang a few times before a groggy, very confused answer came through, “Joanna?”

“Hey, I’m sorry, but I really need someone to talk to. Please help me Gab.”