Kylie & Jack 1: Humble Beginnings

67. Jack of All Confusion

Friday 30th Aug, 6:28 AM

When Jack woke up, he was alone in the bed. Kylie was in the bathroom, blindly reaching for the toothpaste while rubbing the sleep from her eyes with her other hand. She grabbed Jack's extra minty toothpaste by mistake and while she blearily began to brush her bottom row of teeth, retched loudly when the zing of mint made her open her eyes wide. Her face was twitching with disgust because Kylie hated the taste of mint, especially strong mint, so here she was heaving over the sink, trying to spit it all out.

Jack walked into the bathroom to see Kylie gasping and bent over the vanity, breathing heavily. Standing in the doorway, Jack couldn't help but gape in silence as he watched Kylie straighten up, cupping her hands under the tap to gargle her throat.

"You ok?" Jack asked cautiously, stepping further into the bathroom and heading for the shower. There was something that made Jack keep nervous eyes on Kylie.

"Urgh – hey? Oh yeah, all good. Just upchucking –" Kylie joked, absolutely missing the look of shock and surprise on Jack's face.

8:12 AM

Kylie was in the front office with Kate, catching her up on everything she missed while home sick the day before. Sufficiently updated, Kylie turned her attention at last to the photocopier, where she had a textbook jammed under the heavy plastic lid.

"So, what's new your way?" Kylie asked Kate, who spun around in her ergonomic chair to face Kylie, a broad grin spreading over her face.

"Well ... you know my sister Jo and her girlfriend have been trying for a baby for like, four years now?"

"Yeah? Oh my god! Are they pregnant?" Kylie asked, happily, her mouth hanging open in excitement. She lifted the lid of the copier, flicking to another page in the book.

Kate grinned and nodded enthusiastically, adding "but that's not all! They had a check–up at the doctor's the other day and – right, so obviously they used a sperm donor, right? Anyways, you know in Friends how the dopey one – shit, what's her name? Phoebe! Right, where she gets implanted with all these embryos?"

Kylie was still gaping excitedly, listening to Kate. She hadn't seen Jo in years, but Kate always kept her updated. Jo went through a hell of a hard time, not from her family, but from others in the area, for being gay. Kylie, like Kate and small group of others, didn't give a rat's arse that she was gay or not. They were just happy to see a friend of theirs was happy too.

"Yeah? Oh my god, is Jo gonna have twins?"

Kate shook her head, the smirk on her face as cryptic as a Sphinx. "Nope, she's having triplets!"

Kylie let out a loud, excited squeal, pulled Kate to her feet and hugged her with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. The textbook's rigid spine rebelled from the weight of the copier lid and promptly closed itself, while the machine continued to spit out copies.

"Oh my god! That's amazing! Oh mate! Like, wow, having one baby is, like, holy cow but three! Oh I'm so happy!"

Jack walked in looking for something in the stationary cupboard and hearing only the last of Kylie's cheers, stopped dead in his tracks.

Kylie and Kate parted eventually to see Jack standing there like a stunned mullet with his jaw hanging open.

"You ok over there?" Kylie asked him and still grinning.

"Uh ... I – um – yeah! Yeah! ... course!"

Kylie and Kate shared an inside giggle at Jack's expense. Kylie gathered up her photocopies (not realising that she would be back to fix up her last lot), walked past Jack, still giggling and patted his chest sympathetically.