Once Upon a Time

I looked around at my room, all of my belongings in boxes. My eyes start stinging and tears fall down my cheeks.

Kim laughs at me and wipes at my cheeks.

“I hate this,” I say, my voice cracking. “I hate getting overly emotional about everything. I feel so stupid.”

“Oh, baby, don’t. It just happens. Sometimes you just have to cry.”

I nod. “It sucks.”

“You’re not being overly emotional,” my mother tells me, coming into the room. “You’re moving out. It’s a sad thing. You’d be wrong not to cry, so being pregnant has nothing to do with it.”

Noah was right. My mom has gotten used to the idea of having another grandchild and she’s not mad at Noah anymore, but my dad is still spitting nails. He’s disappointed in me. He’s so quiet and laid back about everything, so I never expected him to be the one to hold this against me. I expected my mother to be pissed, sure, because she’s always pissed about something.

I hug her. “Maybe I should stay. Maybe this is a bad idea.” I say, starting to feel panicked.

My mom just rubs my back. “Shh…” she whispers in my ear. “I think this is right for you, sweetie. As much as I hate the thought of both of my girls leaving me, this is what’s best for you. It is Noah’s baby, so it only makes sense that you move in with him. Just know that if you ever need us, you’ll come to us okay? For anything.”

I nod. “Alright, mom. I promise. I’ll miss you.”

Kim scoffs. “You live twenty minutes away from her. Ten minutes away from me. We’ll still see each other all the time. It’s not like you’re moving across the country.”

I frown at her. “So, I’ll miss her. Sorry I’m not like you, wanting to get away so bad that I got married at seventeen and moved to Georgia,” I snapped, not sure where the sudden anger came from.

“Well, I came back, didn’t I?” she shot right back. “I just needed space. And me and Brian are still together, so it’s not like nothin’ bad came out of it.”

I just roll my eyes. “I’ve lived here for eighteen years is all I’m saying. It feels weird leaving now.”

“I know,” she sighs. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” I say, my eyes tearing up again. “I hate crying,” I sniff.

“Get used to it, baby,” my mother tells me. “There’s being overly emotional among other things. I used to cry because of the cereal commercial with the bunny. I just thought that those little kids were bullying him. Why can’t cereal be for bunnies and kids?”

I smile. “But that’s so dumb.”

“I know that now,” she tells me, defensive. “But I was hormonal and I just found it upsetting.”

“Alright, I guess it is kind of sad.”

She starts playing with a blanket I had stacked on top of a box. Her eyes start watering and I grab her hand.

“Oh, mom, don’t cry.”

“I can’t help it. You’re my little girl and you’re leaving me.”

“I’m not, though. I’ll call you, and I’ll come see you all the time. Besides, my baby is going to need you.”

She smiles but the tears spill down her cheeks. “Your baby,” she cries.

Kim laughs and rubs my stomach. “Yeah, you’re grandbaby.”

“You’re too young,” my mom tells me. “You’re so small and tiny and you’re my baby. You can’t have a baby of your own.”

“Tell that to her uterus,” Kim jokes.

I grimace. I try and play it cool but talking about my body that way is just awkward. It’s awkward sitting here with my mother, all the while she knows that I’ve had sex with Noah, and she probably knows it’s happened way more than once and as far as she was concerned before I told her I was pregnant she thought I was a virgin.

My mom looks at me, her eyes twinkling and she hugs me. She just throws herself, wrapping her arms around my neck and squeezing.

“I love you, sweetheart,” she whispers.

There’s a knock on my bedroom door and Noah steps in cautiously, glancing at my mother.

“Hey, Noah,” my mom and Kim say in unison.

“Mrs. Foster,” he nods at her. “Kim,” he smiles. She grins wickedly.

“I think he’s more scared of me than he is you,” she teases.

“Well, I’m not surprised. I don’t know how many times you’ve threatened to kill him, Kim,” my mother laughs.

Kim laughs with her, and Noah smiles sheepishly and glances at me. “So, what first?” he asks me.

I point out the boxes in the furthest corner. He nods and picks two up. In the hall I can hear him talking to someone and a second later Mark pops his head in and gets two others. All of my furniture has already been taken to the house. We’re using my bedroom set in the new house because it’s newest… and prettiest. He said that didn’t matter but I told him to think again.

Kim and my mother both grab boxes then, too, all the while vehemently telling me to leave the boxes alone. No one lets me do anything anymore.

I sit down cross-legged on the floor and rest my chin in my hands. The door opens and when I look up my dad is standing there.

“Hey,” I say softly.

“Hey, baby,” he says, sitting down in front of me. I look at him questioningly. “I couldn’t let my baby girl leave without telling her how much she means to me.”

“Aw dad,” I mumble, embarrassed.

“I’ve been acting like a juvenile. I’m not disappointed in you, honey. I guess I’m just upset that you’re growing up on me. It seems like yesterday you were still my little five year old baby girl and today you’re all grown up and having babies of your own.”

“I’ll always be your little girl,” I tell him.

“I know,” he smiles cheesily. “I just couldn’t let you go thinking that I was mad at you. I was at first, don’t get me wrong, but you’re an adult and I can’t tell you what to do anymore.”

“Because you ever even had to in the first place,” I say.

He grins. “Yeah, you were pretty good, kid,” he tells me. “Ten times less rebellious than Kim.”

“I guess I’m giving her a run for your money, huh?”

“I guess,” he agrees, chuckling. “You and your sister mean more to me than anything in the world. Even if I was mad, I could never hold it against you for too long.”

“I love you, dad,” I say, my eyes watering once again, only this time I think it has to do more with his words than my hormones.

He sighs and pulls me into a big bear hug. “I love you, too, kid,” he says, kissing the top of my head.

“Aw,” I hear Kim coo, and when I look up I find her, my mother, Noah, and Erin watching us.

I blush and stand up.

Erin gets to me first, pulling me into a ridiculously big hug. “I’m gonna miss you so much!” she cries.

I push her away and look at her like she’s stupid. “You’re staying the night, ya dumby.” I scold.

She laughs and pulls her fingers through my hair. “I know, but I just felt all left out, ya know? Everyone is all upset because you’re moving and they’re all saying their gonna miss you so why can’t I?”

I roll my eyes. “I’m gonna miss you, too, sweetie,” I say sarcastically.

She just grins at me. “Only cause you love me, Teag.”

I shake my head at her. She pushes past me then and grabs another box, as does everyone else except for Noah, who lingers after everyone else is gone.

He wraps me up in his arms and looks me dead in the eye. “Are you sure about this, honey? I’m sure everyone would be pissed about having to move everything back up here, but it’s not too late to change your mind. Your parents aren’t ready to let you go anyway, so if you don’t want to you really don’t have to.”

“Do you not want me to move in with you?” I ask him, a stab of irrational fear piercing straight through me.

‘No, I do, sweetie. That’s not it at all. I just want to make sure you’re doing this because you want to and not because you feel pressured, or that you have to.”

I shake my head at him and lean up on the tips of my toes, pressing a light kiss to his lips. “I want to move in with you, Noah. I really do. I love you like crazy.”

He laughs and kisses my cheek. “I love you like crazy, too, Teagan. I love you so much.”

He picks me up and twirls me, suddenly excited. “So this is really it, then?” he grins at me exuberantly. “You’re moving in with me? I get you forever?”

I nod and he pulls my mouth back to his. Our lips move in perfect synchronization as my fingers wind themselves in his hair and his hands firmly grip my waist. “You’re the most important thing in the world to me, baby,” he whispers in my ear, out of breath.

I laugh and kiss him one more time. “You are important to me, too.”

I glance around my room again and notice it’s completely empty. “Wow,” I breathe.

“You should’ve seen the apartment,” he comments, still holding me tightly against him. “It was so empty. The only proof we ever even lived there was where Grace colored on the wall. She didn’t understand what was happening. She cried the whole time and clung to my neck. I think she thought I was leaving her.”

“Aw,” I say, smiling. “Poor, Grace.”

He nods. “It broke my heart, but it gave me an excuse not to help my cousins move furniture and boxes,” he jokes, grinning.

“Lazy,” I tease.

“Hey, I didn’t see you moving any boxes,” he teases right back.

“No one would let me!” I complain. He just laughs at me. “It’s not funny. I felt completely useless. I don’t see why I couldn’t have helped move a few boxes.”

“No added stress to the baby,” he tells me. “You can put things up if you want to, but you aren’t moving anything into the house either, young lady.”

I purse my lips and stare coldly at him. He kisses my pursed lips and releases me.

“You ready?” he asks me and my heart leaps into my throat. I’m so scared all of a sudden that the only thing I can do is nod.

He takes my hand and leads me down the stairs to his truck.

“You’re going to be driving my grandchildren around in this?” my father asks him, eyeing the truck.

“Nah,” Noah answers him easily, even though my father is staring him down. “My mom is getting a new car, so she’s giving us the old one.”

“That big SUV?” my dad asks him, shocked. “Don’t those flip more easily?”

Noah looks him straight in the eyes. “Yes sir, they do, but the way I see it, if they’re buckled in properly, they get a little spin. In a car, the whole side smashes in. I’d rather my children get a little dizzy than… well, you know what would happen.”

My father’s jaw locks but I smile. I think its good Noah knows how to stand up for himself to my father, and in an appropriate way.

“Well, we gotta go,” I announce before my dad can say anything else.

Everyone hugs me and then me and Noah climb in his truck and head for the house, Erin and Mark following in his truck. As I sit there, holding Noah’s hand, on our way to start our life together, I can’t help but feel that this is the most right I have ever felt before. Everything is perfect.