Somebody That I Used to Know

I felt like the days were passing by quickly the same way that water, oil, dirt, and grime easily slide down the shower drain after a long day of tedious work. I was home alone for the first time in a long time with my arms gingerly wrapped around the large baby bump that held my unborn daughter that would be carefully held in my arms in less than a month. Ronnie was at the studio with the guys, recording some of the songs that would go on their first album The Drug in Me Is You, and filming an interview with Bryan Stars. I was in our new home, sitting in the pink colored baby room that Ronnie, Max, Jacky, Ryan, Derek, and Ron spent four days decorating and painting.

“Honey, I’m home!” I heard Ronnie call happily from downstairs, shutting the door behind him.

I smiled at his voice and carefully stood up, slowly making my way down the stairs and to Ronnie. By the time I reached the top of the staircase and was about to go downstairs, Ronnie was already standing in front of me and was leaning down to place a kiss on my lips that I eagerly returned.

“Hi love,” I began as we walked to our bedroom, “How did it go at the studio?”

Ronnie shrugged off his jacket and put it where it was supposed to go before he sat on the bed next to me.

“We finally finished recording the last song on the album and I feel like a weight is lifted off my shoulders. How did you do with Ana Jr?” he asked, joking a tad towards the end.

I felt a small movement in my lower stomach from the baby, obviously excited at the sound of her father’s voice. I placed my hand on my stomach where I felt the kick and Ronnie placed his hand on top of mine with a smile, reminding me of when we told everyone that I was pregnant.

“I don’t think this was the smartest way to go about this anymore.” I whined as we stepped into my mother’s diner where Jacky, Ryan, Derek, and Ron were meeting us in a few minutes.

“We need to tell them eventually, somehow you’re still not showing much and we can’t wait until your nine months to drop this on them.” Ronnie reasoned.

I nodded my head, knowing he was right and that there was no arguing with him. We got out of the car and Ronnie held my hand as we walked through the door. My mother sat by the counter and smiled widely when she saw us, making Ronnie and I almost run towards her.

“Momma!” we shouted at the same time as she hugged both of us.

“Momma, we invited some of our friends to come here later. They’re the members of Ronnie’s new band.” I said.

My mother looked at Ronnie and when he nodded his head she untied her apron and hung it on the small hook.

“What time are they going to be here?” she began to ask us, “Should I go get Russel, he’s cleaning out the fridge in the back with Hector, it wouldn’t be a problem?”

“I’ll go get him,” Ronnie offered, “it might be a good surprise for him.”

Ronnie walked to the back in search of his dad and my mother and I walked over to the booth that my mother refused to let any customers sit in. It was under the wall of pictures, the seats and tabled stained with paint and markers from Ronnie, Riley, Max and I when we were young.

“Momma,” I began, making her look at me, “I need to tell you something.”

My mother smiled at me and took her hair out of the ponytail she had it in, letting her light blonde locks flow down her back.

“Annie,” she began, “I know.”

“You know? What do you mean you know?”

She reached forward, holding my hands in her own. Her pale skin contrasted greatly against my olive skin and the small gesture made me feel right at home again.

“Ana, from the moment that you walked through that door I knew what you had to tell me. I was just hoping you would tell me yourself.” she said.

I smiled and felt the weight of the world leave my chest.

“You’re not disappointed in me?” I asked her.

“Ana, this is your life, it’s my job to support you in whatever you choose and help you along the way. Being disappointed in you is not going to be helping anybody. I’m not even going to ask who’s the father because I know Ronnie is going to step in more than the other person is anyway.” she said with a contagious laugh.

Ronnie and his dad walked out of the kitchen just then and my mother followed my gaze before smiling at me.

“Now comes the hard part of telling Russel.” she said, making me groan.

“Ana!” Russel said happily when he saw me, pulling me in for a tight hug.

He pulled away from me suspiciously and looked me up and down.

“Annie, I don’t remember attending a wedding, so please tell me you’re gaining weight or there’s an alien being growing inside of you.” he said.

I bit my lip and looked up at him.

“There’s something growing…” I trailed off.

Russel looked at my mom, silently asking her a question that she nodded her head to. Russel looked back at me.

“Well, if this is your choice then I’m happy for you,” he began, making all of us wait for his overprotective instincts to kick in, “but if some asshole got you pregnant and left the next morning, I’m reserve my right as the man that helped raise you to kick his ass.”

We all laughed and looked to the door as the guys walked in.

“Have you decided what to name her?” Ronnie asked me, successfully breaking me out of my thoughts.

“I’m still stuck between Jaxon and Sierra.” I said.

“And Veronica, right?” he said, making me look at him.

“You really want Veronica? Wouldn’t that be confusing to have two Ronnie’s?”

“No,” he whined, “if we ever have another kid that’s a boy we can name him Anastasio.”

“You’re insane.”

“Maybe we need to ask someone else for their input.” he suggested, taking out his phone.

I watched him curiously as he typed something into his phone and placed it down a second later.

“What did you do?” I asked him as I picked up my now vibrating phone.

Ronnie shrugged his shoulders, walking into the bathroom to take a shower. I unlocked my phone and checked my notification on Twitter to see that someone had mentioned me. I gasped when I saw the Tweet, placing my hand over my mouth and sitting up straighter in the bed.

“Oh my fucking god.” I said, looking at the picture he posted.

@RonnieRadke: Everyone reply and vote now, my gorgeous fiancée and I are still stuck between three names for our little girl. We can’t decide between Jaxon, Veronica, or Sierra.

“Motherfucker.” I mumbled, scoffing and listening to Ronnie’s chuckles over the sound of shower.

“We haven’t had sex yet, I’m not a motherfucker yet!” he yelled, making me shake my head and run a hand through my hair as my inbox and mentions were flooded with Ronnie’s fans suggesting thousands of names, such suggesting five or six at a time.

I stood up, walking into the bathroom and sitting on the black couch across from the bathtub.

“Ana,” he began with a whine from where he stood behind the clear shower curtain that was giving me a clear view of everything he had to offer, “You’re being inappropriate.”

“Calm down Radke, it’s not like I haven’t seen it before.” I said.

“Yeah, but was when we were in like high school and you walked in the bathroom while I was getting out of the shower. I’m a big boy now, I’m all grown up.”

“Oh yes you are.” I mumbled, knowing he couldn’t hear me over the running water.

“Is there a reason you’re violating me with your eyeballs?” he asked.

“Yes, can you please explain to me why you posted that picture on Twitter? I thought we weren’t letting the fans know until after she was born.”

“We can’t decide what to name her; I figured we could use some unique names.”

“And what are you going to do when someone does the math and puts together that I got pregnant before you were out of jail?”

Ronnie stuck his head out the shower curtain and looked at me sheepishly.

“I guess I hadn’t thought about that yet. We’re going to have to tell people she’s premature.”

I nodded my head and watched as he slipped back into the shower.

My swollen baby bump was on full display as Ronnie and I walked by the salty water of the beach with our fingers intertwined, walking back to where our friends sat on the white sand. I placed a hand on my stomach that was exposed by the lack of clothing on my body, my blue shorts and bathing suit top not leaving much to the imagination. I felt a strong kick in my stomach and I disentangled my fingers from Ronnie’s, placing both hands on the spot the baby kicked.

“What’s wrong?” Ryan asked, running up to us.

“Is the baby kicking?” Derek asked.

“Can I feel?” Ron asked.

“Are you naming her Jackie?” Jacky asked, making everyone look at him with confusion in their eyes, “What, it’s a reasonable question?”

Everyone crowded around me, something I was used to by now whenever the baby moved inside of me. Ronnie moved to be in front of me when we stood by the towels and he kneeled in front of me, his face in front of my enlarged stomach.

“Why are you kicking your mommy?” Ronnie asked in a baby voice that made me smile, “do you wanna be a soccer player when you grow up?”

“She’d be pretty fucking good at it.” I grumbled below my breath.

Ronnie leaned forward and placed a kiss to my stomach where he saw a small movement a second earlier, Jacky capturing the moment with Ronnie’s phone and blinding me with the flash.