Somebody That I Used to Know

My phone was vibrating loudly and heavily in my hands, still being blown up with Twitter mentions as a few thousand people suggested different names. I walked down the stairs, Charlie rubbing against my leg happily when I reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Hi, my love.” I said sweetly, scratching him behind the ear and making his leg shake slightly which made me chuckle in return.

I went to the media app on my phone and played my favorite playlist that consisted mainly of Sleeping with Sirens, and One Direction, a band I had only started listening to because of Parker. I was slightly upset at Parker for making me fall in love with the band I had managed to stay away from for so long, but there wasn’t much I could do at this point.

I was sitting on the couch in the living room as I rubbed my swollen baby bump, feeling her kick against my hand. My thumb was sliding across the slick screen of my phone while the music played in the background and I searched through the Twitter mentions to see if any of the suggested names were to my liking.

“Ronnie,” I yelled happily as he walked into the living room with his pajama pants hanging low on his waist and a towel in his hands as he dried his hair, “I just thought of the perfect name!”

“If you really suggest Kellin one more time, I am taking away your rights as a mother to name your child.” he said, slightly jealous over my minor obsession for Sleeping with Siren’s Kellin Quinn.

“I wasn’t going to.” I grumbled.

“Don’t even mention any of the names from anybody in One Direction, or any other members of your creepy obsessions.”

“Fine,” I said with a slight whine, “What about Roxanne?”

Ronnie paused for a moment to think before placing his wet towel in the hamper that was off to the side.

“I like it, but I still like Veronica more.” he said as he walked over to the bed and sat down beside me before turning the TV on and scrolling through the channels.

“Ronnie,” I began again when I saw a suggested name from one of Ronnie’s fans, “What about Sydney?”

“Sydney?” he began, “Like the place in Australia? I kind of like it, and maybe her middle name could be Veronica.”

I chuckled a bit but nodded my head.

"Sure, Sydney Veronica Chek does have a bit of a ring to it, after all. I just hope Jacky won't freak out when he finds out we didn't name her after him."

"We can get another cat and name it after him; he won't be able to tell the difference."

"We have a cat, a huge Pit Bull and a giant Husky not to mention the baby that will be here in a few weeks. How are you thinking of getting another cat?"

Ronnie shrugged his shoulders and put the remote down when he found the movie Mean Girls. I looked over at him with an eyebrow raised and he simply shrugged his shoulders as if to shrug me off.

“Why are you putting this movie?” I asked him even though I was not one to complain since this was one of my favorite movies anyway.

“Why are you whining about it? You love this movie anyway.” Ronnie said, confused at me reaction.

I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to the TV where Gretchen was yelling at Regina for wearing sweatpants.

“What if I get fat?” I asked seriously even though my words made Ronnie start laughing once they came out of my mouth.

“You’re almost nine months pregnant, and now is when you’re worried about getting fat?” he said through fits of laughter, “Don’t girls usually freak out about that when they just start showing?”

I shrugged my shoulders and tried my best to focus on the TV in front of me.

“If I get fat and end up having to wear sweatpants everywhere like Regina George I’m divorcing you.” I mumbled.

“Okay, I am not even going to begin to get into why that sentence is so wrong,” he began, “but, I think we need to stop watching this movie.”

Ronnie reached for the remote and pressed the button that would show us the next channel, my eyes widening at the sight in front of me while Ronnie groaned and threw his head back against the back of the couch angrily.

“Fuck, bring Regina George back!” he whined, pressing the buttons on the remote furiously and almost crying when the remote chose not to work at that moment while I sang along loudly with the five British boys on the TV to annoy him.

“‘Cuz baby you’ve got that one thing, so get out, get out, get out of my head and fall into my arms instead! I don’t, I don’t, don’t know what it is but baby you’ve got that one thing!” I yelled.

“How can you like this?” Ronnie asked, not approving of my new music obsession, “You clearly have no taste in music.”

“Ronnie,” I began as I lowered the volume on the TV and turned to look at him with an incredulous expression on my face, “I’m the band manager of Falling in Reverse. Are you trying to say that Falling in Reverse is horrible?”

“Well, that band is obviously an exception for your horrible music choices.”

“Really, how is it an exception?” I asked.

“Well you’re kind of dating the lead singer. It makes you incredibly biased.”

I shrugged my shoulders, using the remote to go to the On Demand menu where I pressed the button to play all the One Direction songs on repeat, making Ronnie groan loudly.

“Maybe you’re not biased, actually. You just pretend to like me.” Ronnie said with a whine.

“Well, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you were jealous of a certain eighteen year old British boy.” I teased, knowing he was always the jealous type.

“I’m not jealous, I know you’re never going to meet them anytime soon, and if you did you wouldn’t leave me for him.”

“I already met them, I had to run an errand for Jason and Brett at a different company and I met them. We all went out to lunch for a meeting and when I got back to the office, Parker almost ripped my hair out.” I said.

“None of them hit on you or anything, right?” Ronnie asked, making me look at him in disbelief.

“Ronnie,” I began, “I was six months pregnant, I would be very worried for their mental health if one of them hit on me.”

Ronnie chuckled and nodded his head, moving to lean back into his seat and get more comfortable.

“I can’t believe you’re actually jealous.” I said with a laugh, watching his eyes narrow in anger, “I mean, come on, they’re cute but they’re like five and a half. I think one of them only turned nineteen like last week.” I managed through fits of laughter.

Before I knew what was happening, Ronnie had me pressed against the couch gently; somehow keeping all of his body weight off of my body that had grown in size quickly over the last few months. He leaned his lips close to my ear and I felt my body sent shivers through my spine from the close contact.

“They’re little boys,” he said in a voice that was deeper than normal, “Or do I need to show you what it means to be a man?”

I bit my lip when his mouth pressed against my skin, placing a few kisses along my collarbone.

“What’s wrong, love?” he began to ask, fully aware of the reactions his simple, yet powerful, actions had on my body beneath him, “Cat got your tongue?”

His lips pressed themselves against mine and I returned the kiss with just as much fierce passion as he was giving me. I felt the child that was growing inside me stir a little and I felt my eyebrows furrow in confusion, my hand moving down to my stomach and cradling my baby bump carefully. Ronnie pulled away from me, thoroughly confused as his eyes stared into mine.

“Are you okay?” he asked me, concerned as he placed a hand on the side of my face.

“Yeah, I just felt the baby move; it was just a little stronger than normal.” I said, moving to sit up a moment later.

“Do you need anything?” he asked me as I felt a hard kick at my ribs.

“Ow, fuck.” I said with a small groan.

“I’m calling the doctor.” Ronnie said as he rushed out of his seat to grab his phone that was most likely upstairs on the night table.

I stood up from my position, remembering that a friend of mine had said that when she was pregnant and the baby was being vicious and kicking her to no end that she would stand up and walk around for a bit to ease the pain.

“I can’t find my phone.” Ronnie yelled, running past me and grabbing my phone that was on the couch where I was sitting just a moment ago.

He pressed the number and I heard my phone speed dial the doctor, Ronnie nervously pacing back and forth.

“Ronnie,” I began “it’s just the baby kicking. I’m sure it’s nothing serious.” As soon as the worlds slipped out of my mouth and made their way to Ronnie’s eardrums, I felt water sliding out of my pants and dripping down my legs before making its way to my feet.

“Please tell me you just peed your pants.” Ronnie said, his words trailing off slightly at the end.

I shook my head slowly, my eyes tearing up a tad when the realization of the situation I was in finally sunk in after almost nine months.

“Ana, please stop crying. I’ll call the doctor right now and put a shirt on then we’ll rush you over to the hospital.”

Ronnie rushed upstairs with my phone still pressed against his ear. I pulled my TOMs on as Ronnie came down the stairs.

“The doctor said that you’re going into labor early, we need to get down there.” he said, grabbing ahold of my hand.

The pain was unbearable; I felt my insides being ripped open as my rather petite body was somehow managing to bring a new life into this world with Ronnie holding my hand the whole time. After twelve grueling hours, loud cries filled the room.

“It’s a girl!” one of the nurses said happily, wrapping the small baby up in a pink blanket once she was cleaned up and the doctor said she was somehow perfectly healthy despite being born a little earlier than she was supposed to be.

The nurse placed the child in my arms and I felt my heart grow when her big blue eyes that she had obviously inherited from my mother were staring up at me. She had a small puff of light blonde hair on the top of her head and a few specks of green were tossed carelessly around the blues of her eyes, giving them a slight teal color if you looked in them long enough.

“Do you know the name?” the nurse asked Ronnie, obviously trying not to disturb me as I cooed and made more baby talk with the beautiful girl in my arms.

“Sydney Veronica Radke.” Ronnie said, making my head shoot up to him when his last name was added at the end of the name I had picked for my daughter just a few hours ago.

“Radke?” I asked with an eyebrow raised.

Ronnie nodded his head.

“Of course, she’s my daughter after all.” Ronnie said, a smile on his face as he looked at me and Sydney.

“I need you to sign this, since you’re the father.” the nurse said, showing Ronnie a thick piece of paper that he promptly signed.

“What is it?” Ronnie asked even though he had already signed it.

“It’s the birth certificate; I’ll leave you for a few minutes.”

The nurse walked out of the room and Ronnie walked over to me, pushing me over a bit so he could git his muscular body on the bed next to mine. I shifted slightly as Ronnie held his arms open for Sydney and once she was in his arms, I saw his eyes light up.

“Hi, beautiful.” Ronnie cooed, deeply immersed in his conversation with the baby in his arms.

“Did you call the guys and tell them?” I asked him.

“I put on Twitter that we were at the hospital and for everyone to wish us luck. My best guess is that they’re probably outside in the waiting room or something trying to get in to see her.” Ronnie said with a chuckle.

I laughed slightly and reached into the pocket of Ronnie’s pajama pants to take out my phone, taking a picture of Ronnie as he smiled down at the little girl, promptly sending the picture to my mom, Ronnie’s dad, and Riley before putting it on Twitter. I placed the phone down on the plastic night table next to the comfortable hospital bed before waiting for the chaos to start.

“What did you do?” Ronnie asked upon hearing the angry shouting from outside.

I chuckled before taking Sydney from Ronnie’s arms and cradling her to my chest, her eyes staring up at me.

“Excuse me, Mr. Radke,” one of the nurses began as she stepped into the room, “I don’t want to interrupt the two of you when you’re enjoying the quiet time with your new baby, but there’s a group of people outside wanting to get in here to see the baby and some of them are getting pretty aggressive.”

“Let me see my fucking goddaughter!” we heard Max’s voice yell, making Ronnie and I chuckle slightly.

“You can let them in. just please ask them to keep quiet.” I said to her.

The nurse walked out and I could hear her talking to the group of grown men outside that were acting like spoiled little boys. The door opened slowly and Jacky, Ryan, Parker, Derek, Max, Ron and Alex ran into the room. They all stopped mid-step when they saw Ronnie and I cuddled on the bed with the pink bundle in between the two of us.

“Form a nice line and you can all hold her.” I said, sitting up.

Max pushed his way to the front and he sat eagerly on the small chair next to the bed, knowing I would ask him to sit anyway. I placed Sydney in his arms and his face lit up slightly.

“She’s so cute,” Max asked as the rest of the guys gathered around him, “I’m sort of mad that she’s a girl though. It would have been much easier if she was a boy.”

“What do you mean?” Parker asked, watching as Jacky and Max switched places.

“Are you joking, mate?” Jacky said, “The second she turns thirteen we need to put a few padlocks on her windows and doors.”

Everyone chuckled and I rolled my eyes, watching the boys talk about the defensive maneuvers they were planning to keep Sydney under their watch 24/7.

“She’s never going to Warped Tour, or any concerts.” Ronnie said.

“Why not, don’t you think she’s going to want to see you guys in concert every once in a while?” I said, confused at his actions.

“If she goes, she’s wearing sweatpants with a turtle neck and we’re investing in one of those leashes people put on their kids and when she goes too far I’m going to pull her back.” Ronnie said, making everyone chuckle.

“I could picture you, Jacky and Max now, ‘Sydney get your blonde ass back here she’s going to love you.” Ryan said, the end of his sentence coming out sarcastically.

I chuckled and so did everyone else minus Ronnie who was already being the overprotective father I had expected him to be.