Another Life

13

"Come on, Mace, you've got school tomorrow, let's get you to bed." Jay says from the doorway into the living room and it makes me look up from my phone.

Macie gets up from the floor and before she even says a word Jay is already sighing, knowing she was going to protest. "I'm no done yet. Five more minute?" She asks.

Jay groans under his breath, looking around the room and at me before back on Macie. "Fine, five more minutes, but then it's bed time."

I look over my shoulder to see Jay walking around the side of the couch before he joins me on the furniture. "You know you're not supposed to give in." I tell him and it makes him nod.

"I know, but I really don't feel like arguing with a two-year-old at eight o'clock." He sighs.

Before anything else could be said I catch Macie starting to climb up the bookcase in the corner of the room and it makes me pounce up off the couch and grab her before she fell off.

"You know you don't climb up there." I tell her as I get her situated in my arms.

Macie let's out an annoyed grumble once I put her on the floor, reaching her arm up to try and grab one of her toys from the bookshelf. I sigh and grab it for her before everything goes fuzzy and I have to bring my hand up against my eyes and look down to the floor as things started spinning as a result of standing up way too fast.

Less than a second later Jay was beside me, his hand rested on my shoulder. "Hailey?"

After a beat things slowly began stopping in their rapid movement and I was able to take my hand away from my eyes so I could look up to meet Jay's worried gaze. I nod slowly on the trek back to the couch. "I just got lightheaded, I'm fine." I respond, sitting down in an effort to get everything back to their still selves.

Jay followed close behind me, clearly not taking my word for it just yet. "Are you sure?"

I nod again but I don't pick my head up, keeping it down and basically rested on the top of my knees. "Yes, I'm sure."

And then the room goes silent again, other than the sound of Macie playing in the corner of the room. I keep my eyes shut and pointed at the floor as the sensation slowly starts to fade but despite nothing being said and my eyes tightly closed, I know Jay is still watching me intently.

As slowly as I can but not too slow as to catch him in the act, I look back up and open my eyes, and the first thing they see is the same worried stare. A smile appears on my lips and he doesn't say anything, he just continues to watch everything I do intently, so I reach my arm out, wrapping my hand around his wrist. "Jay, I just stood up too fast, I promise I'm fine."

His face tells me that he believed me, that he took my word for it, but his voice told me he was still unsure. "Okay. Okay."

I eyed him carefully for a beat before I edged my head forward to further emphasize the point. "I'm fine."

************

"What are you doing?" Jay's voice makes me jump because in my current position I couldn't see him. After a moment his hands rest beside my feet and he peers over the back of the couch and looks down to me.

I look up from my phone again, returning his smile. "I didn't hear you come down the stairs."

"We're just gonna skip over why you're sat like that?" He asks and I take a double take to how I was sat - it wasn't the most commonly used position to sit on a couch with, but it was doing what the website said it would.

I was lying on my back, my legs swung up and perched on the backboard of the couch. I wave the phone in my hand and watch as Jay's eyes dart to that quickly before going back on mine, the amused twinkle in his eyes not faltering. "What? The website said to do this to help reduce lightheadedness, which as it turns out is a completely common symptom at thirteen weeks so I told you I was fine, and it's working so chuckle all you want, I've found a remedy here."