• Story Time

    #XD30-Chapter 17-Karma, is that you?

    For 13 nights in a row, I’ve had a dream that some mystical force enters our home and steals the spirit of our baby, forcing me to miscarry. As soon as I start to bleed, I wake up from the dream. My blood pressure has been elevated every night since that first dream.

    Usually, I just lie awake in the bed but tonight, I decided to get some work done.

    I slip out of the bed and walk into the living room. Stretching out on the sofa, I grab my laptop and start working.

    “I’m making a doctor’s appointment. You’ve been up for the past three days in a row,” she whispers in my ear.

    Scared, I start flailing my arms and legs. I knock over my glass of water and accidentally hit Ashley in the face.

    “Do you have to sneak up on me Silent Ninja? I’m already jumpy as it is.”

    Ashley giggles while rubbing her cheek.

    “I’m sorry love. I rolled over and realized that you weren’t in the bed…again. Is heartburn keeping you up at night?”

    I wish it was heartburn. Guess this would be the time to tell her.

    “I’m having this reoccurring dream that some mystical force steals the spirit of our baby and I miscarry.”

    Ashley just stands there, blinking her eyes in disbelief.

    “I don’t know how to respond. Have you spoken to your parents about it?”

    I sigh. Under no circumstances do I want to tell my Buddhism-practicing parents about this dream.

    “No I haven’t and I don’t intend on telling them,” I respond without looking up from the screen.

    “Fine, don’t tell them. I’m making a doctor’s appointment later,” she says walking back to bed.

    After working for two hours, I start to doze off. I wake up to what feels like the warmth of the sun on my face. I open my eyes and see Yelena, eyes red with rage. I wake up screaming.

    Heart is racing, body is drenched in sweat. I feel something warm trickling down my leg. Upset that I peed on myself, I look back at the sofa. The spot isn’t yellow. It’s red.

    “ASHLEEEYYYYYYY!!!!!”

  • Story Time

    #XD30-Chapter 14-Well Played

    The door slams. Yelena left. I walk out of the den and into the living room. Susan is in the middle of the room, stifling laughter.

    “End scene!” I yell while curtsying.

    Susan grabs my hand and spins me around.

    “I can’t believe we pulled that off,” she loudly whispers, face red from laughter.

    I start twirling my hair around my fingers a la Yelena.

    “I will have your preggo ass locked up!”

    Susan hollers, spinning onto the couch.

    It sucks having to terminate our friendship with Yelena this way. It took a while to realize that Yelena’s only loyal to herself. Friendships are a matter of convenience. She could give a rat’s ass less if she burns a bridge. It feels good to beat someone at their own game, especially when they don’t know that they’re playing.

    “When are you going to send this email to Nick?”

    Susan takes her phone out of her back pocket. No matter where she is, that electronic umbilical cord is never too far away.

    “Right now,” she declares, fingers steady typing. “We don’t need to wait any longer.”

    Hunger pangs kick in. I only ate a bagel today. Guess adrenaline was masking the pangs.

    “Aren’t you hungry love?” I ask, rubbing Susan’s belly.

    Looking up from her phone, Susan raises her eyebrow.

    “Nom, nom, nom!!” she yells, pretending to put food in her mouth.

    I order Thai and hop in the shower. As soon as I turn off the water, Susan knocks on the door.

    “Come read the email before I send it.”

    I pause. Feeling the beginnings of anxiety, I take a deep breath.

    “Sure love.”

    Susan passes the phone to me. Wiping water out of my eyes, I sit on the side of the tub to read.

    Nick,

    I’m 8 weeks pregnant and keeping the baby. Let me know whether or not
    you wish to have an active role in the child’s life and I’ll have my lawyer contact you.
    Susan.

    “Well played love,” I respond, handing the phone back to her.

    “E-mail sent. Now we can enjoy our night.”

    I put on PJs while Susan answers the delivery man’s knock on the door. The condo suddenly smells delicious.

    “Thai, silk pajamas, and snuggle time!!” I exclaim, dry humping Susan as she grabs plates from the cabinet.

    We hunker down on the sofa, browsing through Netflix for a movie to watch. Between eating and the movie, something catches my eye.

    The notification light on Susan’s phone is blinking.

  • Story Time

    #XD30-Chapter 13-Adiós

    “Yep,” I responded, twisting my curls around my finger.

    Susan stared my down. If she wasn’t nauseous every 5 seconds, she would probably choke me out. I wouldn’t put it past her. Ashley smiled and turned back around to face Susan.

    “You…knew?” Susan asks.

    Ashley stands up and walks over to the windows.

    “I knew the day you told Yelena in what you thought was confidence. Were you planning on aborting the baby?”

    Susan coughs, unable to catch her breathe. A few sips of water got her on track.

    “I was planning on aborting the baby, but I told you instead. I didn’t want to run the risk of Blabbering Becky telling the entire world my business,” Susan says, looking dead at me.
    If it wasn’t a crime, I’d beat the brakes off of Susan.

    “Since you want to point fingers, Susan, let me get you together real quick. You repeatedly chastise me for decisions that I’ve made that YOU feel are below your moral compass. Karma has finally showed up and kicked you in your wide ass. Now look at you…pregnant by your ex-boyfriend’s twin brother.”

    My face is hot. Fists are clenched. Ashley smirks before walking down the hall. Susan stands up, and walks over to where I’m standing. Her face is so close to me I can count the pores on her face.

    “I should have known better to trust a known traitor. Ashley may have faith in you, but she’ll soon realize that your spirit is as fake as all those body parts you paid for. I may be pregnant but I will still fuck you up in more ways than one,” she softly whispers in my ear.

    I laugh. Unlike Susan, I don’t whisper shit.

    “There’s a reason why I’m a busy actress. I play my part well. I befriended you, because my best friend loves you. The moment you told me about your escapade with Nick, my tolerance of you ended. Be mad all you want to, but I’m not the star in this clusterfuck production. And if you think of laying a hand on me, I would advise that you think again. I will have your preggo ass locked up.”

    Susan’s silent. She knows she doesn’t want it with me. I leave her in the living room, while I casually walk to my room to pack my shit. Ashley was in the den, working. I gave her a kiss on the cheek before walking out of the front door with my bag.

    This ain’t over.

  • Story Time

    #XD30- Chapter 12-Confessional

    That damn Yelena! Ugh! Now Ashley’s looking at me, ready to attack.

    “Feel free to answer her anytime today Susan. ”

    She is livid. I glance at Yelena. She’s twisting gum around her finger. I’m fighting the urge to connect my fist with her moon face.

    “He doesn’t know…Yelena,” I mutter through clenched teeth.

    The drive back to the condo was silently tense. I get Yelena settled in her room while Ashley proceeds to pace in the living room.

    “Susan, I’m sorry,” Yelena says, making her best attempt to be sorry.

    I say nothing and walk out of the room. Fighting an onset of nausea, I grab a ginger ale and prepare to walk into battle.

    “Two months ago, Derek and I threw that Halloween party that you couldn’t attend. As former costumes, Derek and Nick decided to go as each other.”

    Ashley taps her feet. Her lack of patience is showing.

    “Quite a few games of beer pong and shots of tequila later, I pass out in the bedroom. I don’t know what time Derek passed out next to me, but I do know at some point, we had sex.”

    Ashley sighs.

    “I rolled over the next morning to face Derek and saw an armful of tattoos that weren’t there the night before.”

    I dry heave. I hate being pregnant. Yelena runs out of her room and comes over with a paper grocery bag.

    “Thanks.”

    “Continue,” Ashley demands.

    “At that moment, I realized not only had I slept with Derek’s twin brother, but we didn’t use condoms. For the record, we’ve been tested and are fine.”

    Yelena coughs. Annoyed, Ashley turns in her direction.

    “Did she cover everything?”

  • Story Time

    #XD30-Chapter 11-Nick?

    “There’s definitely a baby in there,” the doctor announces, pointing to this bean-shaped dot on the screen.

    I don’t quite know what to say. Susan’s smiling, but I’m sure she’s stressing on the inside. I mean, she’s having a baby with her ex-boyfriend. The same one she left to be with her best friend. That’s kind of a lot going on.

    Susan wipes away a tear. “How far along am I?”

    The doctor pauses.

    “I would say you are around eight weeks.”

    I cough. Wow, eight weeks. I’m trying to contain my excitement, but I really just want to text Mom and Yelena with the news. I manage to send them a text message while Susan was getting dressed. Not 10 seconds after I send it, she turns around.

    “We have a little bit of time before we have to pick up Yelena,” Susan whispers, tracing the outline of my bottom lip with her finger.

    I smirk.

    “Watch it. That’s probably how you got knocked up.”

    “That and a lot of alcohol!” she yells.

    I laugh. I love Susan’s lack of filter. It’s definitely one of the things that attracted me to her. As we walked out of the office, I wrapped my arm around her waist. Susan lets out a deep sigh and let her shoulders fall.

    “I have to tell Derek. He’s not going to make this easy,” she mumbles as we approach the car.

    “Granted, I know he loathes us. But do you think he’s so upset that he’ll drag this out just because?”

    Susan puts on her sunglasses and turns to me.

    “Hell yes.”

    We grab some food en route to the airport, which makes us about 15 minutes late. Of course, Yelena’s flight would arrive on time. We park and head inside the airport. We approach the door to walk in when we hear a familiar voice.

    “Yo, Ashley!! Come here girl!!”

    Without hesitation, I turn around and start running. Yelena, multiple bags in tow, starts picking up the pace. We meet on the sidewalk and exchange hugs and kisses.

    “Yele, I miss you bunches!!!!”

    Brushing her curly hair out of her face, Yelena walks over to Susan and starts rubbing her belly.

    “Does Nick know yet?” she asks, looking directly at Susan.

    Susan’s face turns a shade of red that I thought wasn’t humanly possible. I’m totally lost. Why would Yelena ask Susan if Derek’s brother Nick knows?

  • Story Time

    #XD30-Chapter 9-Surprise!

    After what felt like forever, Susan and I made it to our condo. We get off the private elevator and walk right into the living room.

    “Baby, it’s absolutely gorgeous!!” Susan yells, touching the chocolate brown leather couch.

    “Isn’t it? I think Mom has a second career for sure.”

    I take my cell phone out of my purse to check my emails. Of course, there’s a lot from friends and family members who heard about the failed engagement/coming out and were “concerned”. I prefer to call it being nosey. After sending about a third of my inbox to trash, I see that there are about 14 emails from Tim’s cousin Yelena.

    Yelena was the first person Susan and I told about our relationship. She never questioned us, but did what she needed to do to keep our relationship a secret until we were ready. No questions asked. That level of loyalty is rare these days.

    I walk over to Susan and show her my phone.

    “Yelena sent me a book of emails.”

    Susan raised her eyebrows. “Have you read them?”

    “No. Not yet.”

    I walk over to the kitchen and open the fridge. It’s stocked. Ten more points for the parental units! I grab two beers.

    “Let’s see what Yelena is up to,” I said, handing Susan a beer.

    It takes about 20 minutes for me to go through the emails. Yelena sent a daily email letting me know what was going on back home for each day we’ve been away. That’s a lot of gossip to catch up on.

    Susan stands behind me, too impatient to wait.

    “Anything good? The suspense is killing me.”

    I let out a deep sigh before I take a long sip of my beer.

    “Let’s see. Derek and Tim beat each other unconscious. They aren’t speaking. Tim’s family, with the exception of Yelena, officially hates you. Derek is in the process of selling the apartment and here’s the clincher: Yelena wants to come for a visit.”

    Susan laughs.

    “On that note, I’m going to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

    “Don’t fall in.”

    Susan sticks her tongue out at me.

    “Smartass.”

    After about 15 minutes, I walk down the hallway to the bathroom. Susan isn’t in there. I continue to the end of the hallway, where the master bedroom is. Susan is standing in front of the window, wiping her mouth with a washcloth.

    “What’s wrong babe?”

    Susan has been tired and nauseous for a couple of weeks. I figured it was stress from everything that was going on. I figured it would go away after once we got settled. I wrap my arm around her waist and she rests her head on my shoulder.

    “I think I’m pregnant.”