It Had To Be You

Jesus mother effer was all I could think, if I was even thinking when I woke up. My head was pounding and my stomach bile was swimming up my throat. This was the worst hangover I’d had in a while. I rubbed my head and attempted to reopen my eyes. Groaning it felt like a string was being yanked from behind my eyeballs. I jolted to the bathroom and threw up making my morning breath worse than what it already was. I leaned back against the wall and could hear the TV, it was on the Disney channel because Phineas and Ferb was playing.

All I could do was sit there and convince myself that I wasn’t dying. I didn’t remember much past dinner. Oh God. That last time I was that schnockered....Oh God. Groaning again I buried my head into the bend of my arm.

“I’ll come back another time.” Justin whispered through the crack of the door.

“Justin,” I whined. What was I going to tell him? Did I even? If I didn’t why would I bring it up? He has to have wondered about Ian though...

“What Laney?” He said softly and entered the bathroom with a cup of water, aspirin, and an ice pack. He must have known what I was going through.

“About la-last night...” I didn’t turn my head to look at him, instead I kept it hidden in my arm.

“It,” Justin sighed and his voice shook a little, “it’s fine. I’m a sop when I’m drunk, so don’t worry.”

“Yeah, but...” I lifted my ten pound head and looked at him for the first time all meeting. He was one of the sweetest guys I’d ever been with and whenever I was feeling insecure I knew he’d feel the same in the same situation. I knew that he’s the only person I’d trust to get everything off my chest, I just didn’t know why it was so nerve racking to tell him.

“But trust me, it is not actually attractive. Me blubbering and all.” He grinned and rubbed my shoulder.

“No,” I chuckled and leaned my head on him, “I’ve never told you about Ian.”

“Oh? Can he drink a grown man under the table?” His voice was apprehensive as he told the joke and I wanted to laugh, but a half moan and sob came out.

“No...I was at this New Year’s Eve party one year for work...and there were a few attractive X Y chromosomes.”

“A few?”

“I had just broken up with my stuck-up doctor-wanna-be boyfriend from college, so every guy seemed attractive.”

“Where was I when this was happening?”

I sob laughed this time and felt my temples pound as I did so. My brows scrunched together and then I felt Justin’s arms wrap around my upper arms. I nuzzled in and was dozing off. There’s something about sleeping in bathrooms when you’re not feeling well that makes sleeping easier. That only lasted a few seconds though. There was some sort of commotion and Justin slowly let go of me and went to go check what it was.

I felt bad because I hadn’t even gone to see the kids yet, and I had no clue how Kenzie was putting up with Joe. Not to mention I was leaving Justin with Joe and I could already tell Justin was getting a little fed up with him. Justin must not have closed the door since everything was louder. I heard Kenzie yelling at Joe to help clean up, but he was whining that it wasn’t his kid. The bickering was crescendoing.

Sliding down so I was almost wrapped around the base of the toilet I covered my ears. I silently rooted for Kenzie. Joe was good at distance, but handling more than a day of him was intense. Through the bathroom doorway I saw Justin carrying Ian. Ian was down to his underwear was was green. Great, he was sick too. He must have gotten sick all over himself. Maddie was in step behind Justin.

“Looks like we’re going to have to be the best nurses around today.” Justin muttered to Maddie.

“We’ll be the best!” She said quietly mimicking her father’s volume.

“Most definitely,” Justin’s knees popped as he bent down to tuck Ian into our bed, “Here you go little man.”

“Where’s Mommy?” He rubbed his eyes and howled. Justin pushed back Ian’s bangs sympathetically.

“She’s sick too.”

“But, but...” Ian was about to go into hysterics and probably make himself more sick.

Justin untucked him and cradled Ian back into his arms and rocked him back and fourth. “I understand, I gottcha shhh,” He cooed and walked towards me, “See? She’s right here. She’s sick like you.”

“You’ll have to stay in bad all day,” Maddie shook her head and managed a pretty realistic fret. Maddie rocked back and fourth on her heels until she decided to straighten out the covers on the bed.

He seemed very serious as he carried Ian, who was about ten pounds too heavy to be doing this to. Justin’s free hand never stopped rubbing circles in Ian’s back and there was never a moment where Justin stood still. Ian clung to him, his little fists were clenched around the back of Justin’s neck. Finally Ian calmed down and his crying wasn’t ear shattering to me. I somehow managed to heave myself off of the floor and go over to kiss Ian’s head.

“Thank you.” I mouthed to Justin and then turned to Maddie, “And thank you Madeline.” She smiled brightly and danced around for a second with pride.

I fell into bed and held out my hands for Ian to be handed to me. He made a smooth transition from Justin to my arms. We snuggled in and in no time Ian was out. Maddie wanted to get us some water, but Justin and I suggested that she waited until Joe and Kenzie were done fighting. So, we turned on the TV and finished up the episode of Phineas and Ferb. Eventually the fighting stopped and Maddie decided to play Barbies in her room and Ian was passed out. Despite the pounding in my head I couldn’t fall asleep. Call it the motherly instinct to stay up while your kid is sick.

Just stretched and adjusted his glasses. He was thinking about something intently because the whole floor was shaking with his foot tapping.

“Do you ever wonder who’s Ian’s father?”

“At first I did,” I shrugged and looked down at him, “I don’t know. He’s asked before, but I don’t know. I just couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“I thought your circumstance was like mine.”

“What’s that?” I smirked only knowing what his circumstance might be.

“I married a devil woman.”

“It couldn’t have been all bad.”

“But it really wasn’t all right.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah. Can--can you promise it won’t be like that, with us?”

“I hope not.” It was a heavy feeling that thought, “I’m just letting you know I really don’t have any good relationship to base ours off of.”

“We’ll make it up as we go. It’s what I usually do, although it hasn’t exactly worked thus far, but--”

“No,” I stopped him, “You dated your ex-wife for a few years, got engaged, got married, bought a house, had a kid, got a dog, and then divorced. It seems pretty logical.”

“Fig came after the divorce.”

“Oh?” I took a sip of water.

“So what your saying is we’re actually following a some-what normal schedule?”

“I guess. With a few bonuses.”