You & I

“Five months! Can you believe it, Riley?” I asked excitedly as we sat in the waiting room of my doctor’s office.

He nodded absentmindedly as he flipped through a magazine, “only four months left.”

I sighed, good mood slightly dampened. It’s August and I would have been starting college. I decided it would be best to wait until next year before I started. This pregnancy felt like it was simply flying by and it scared me more than anything. In four months, I was going to be a mother and two tiny humans would completely depend on me.

“Eden Lawrence,” the nurse called and I stood with Riley.

I walked with the nurse and it felt like I was beginning to get the pregnancy waddle. My bump has grown tremendously and everything was becoming much more uncomfortable. Riley and Liam would often joke at how the rest of me was still thin, but my stomach was very large.

Twins took up a lot of room.

We entered the room and I sat on the chair. The doctor soon came in and did routine checks before setting up the ultrasound machine. She squirted the cold gel into my bare belly and placed the tool on me. Soon two little heartbeats filled the room and Riley grinned at me.

“Everything is looking good. Babies look very healthy and have strong heartbeats,” she said, “do you want to know the sexes?”

“Yes,” Riley and I answered in unison.

“Baby A is the one whose head is by your right hip, and baby B’s head is closer to your right rib cage,” She gave a kind smile and looked at the screen for a moment, “baby A is a boy and baby B is a girl.”

I beamed at Riley as tears pricked my eyes. A little boy and girl. We’re having a little boy and a little girl.

The doctor soon cleaned me up and left as I fixed my clothing. Riley was all smiles as we left the office hand in hand. We climbed into his car and began the drive to his house.

“A little boy and girl,” I said to him with a happy laugh, “we’re having one of each! I need to tell Micah she was half wrong!”

“What?”

I shrugged, “Micah was convinced that we were having two girls.”

Riley shook his head and laughed, “we’ll need to start thinking about names soon.”

∆∆∆∆

Three days after my appointment, I had exhausted myself by raiding baby naming websites, trying to see any possible names. Nothing seemed to pop out to me. We had the middle name set after my dead brother for Squirt- baby A- but first names and a middle name for Peanut kept evading us. I let out a quiet yawn as Riley ran his hand over my bare shin. Foot massages are gross, but rubbing my legs was fine.

“What do you think about Garrett?” I asked.

“No,” Riley responded immediately.

“Why not?” I whined.

A knock interrupted his response and he looked at me, pleadingly. With a groan and a pout, I pushed off the couch and opened the door. My eyes widened at who stood on the other side.

This isn’t really happening.

“Daddy?”

My dad gave me a small smile and his gaze flickered to my stomach, “how are you doing, Eden?”

I shifted slightly, “I’m good.”

“I’m so sorry about everything that happened. I was surprised and scared when you told us,” he explained.

“Well, I was surprised and scared when I found out. It didn’t stop you from kicking me out,” I snapped and felt Riley put his hand on my shoulder.

“Mr. Lawrence,” he greeted and my father let out a heavy sigh.

“I came to apologize to you two. With everything you had going on, I shouldn’t have added to it. Please, Eden,” my father begged, “I’m so sorry.”

I looked up at Riley before looking back to my father. I wanted to spit in his face and tell him to go to hell, but I couldn’t. All of the good memories came flooding back and the classic rock lullaby echoed through my head.

“I forgive you.”

He looked shocked and I wrapped my arms around his waist in a quick hug. “Are you living with Liam?” He asked once I pulled away.

“Yeah. Saving up for our own place,” Riley answered.

“I can get you a place,” my father offered, “I’ll pay rent, you just pick it out. I need to take care of my grandchild somehow.”

“Grandchildren,” I corrected, “we’re having twins. A boy and a girl.”

“Twins?” He asked, surprised, “Jesus Christ.”

Riley shifted uncomfortably and shook my father’s hand, “thank you, Mr. Lawrence.”

My father sighed and rocked on his heels, “anything else you two need, just let me know. Diapers or a babysitter, I’ll be there.”

He turned to leave, but I called out to him, “do you think we could get lunch sometime this week?”

He smiled lightly and nodded, “I’d like that.”

I grabbed Riley’s hand as my father got in his car and sped away. “One thing to check off our list. Looks like we’ll be moving soon.”

“You would take something from him?”

I shrugged and walked back into the living room, “even if he turns out to be a shitty parent again, at least we won’t have to pay rent.”

Riley nodded and took a seat next to me again, “what about Kieran?”

I raised an eyebrow, “Kieran?”

“Yeah. It’s Liam’s middle name. I’d like to honor him somehow,” Riley explained.

“Yeah. I like it,” I responded, “Kieran Spencer Henderson.”

“One down, one to go.”

I groaned and covered my face.

“Naming is hard!”