Just Steve

T W E N T Y - O N E

You never really realize how dependent you are on something until it's taken away from you. This can apply to any number of things, like losing a friend, or a car breaking down. In your case, it was caffeine.

Over the course of your four years at college you had become unknowingly reliant on the substance and it was turning out to be a habit that was hard to shake. Not wanting to risk your baby in any way, you had cut yourself off from caffeine completely. It was a process that had resulted in not only crazy migraines, but also the unfortunate habit of falling asleep at the wrong times.

"(Y/n)? Honey, are you alright?"

You jolted upwards feeling someone grabbing your arm. It took a few seconds for you to remember where you were, and then you squinted up at the person who had spoken.

"Oh hey Mom, yea I'm fine, I must have just dozed off there for a second," I said, getting up to give her a hug.

"Are you sure? You know you really shouldn't be falling asleep in public spaces, " your Mom chided, looking at you appraisingly, straightening the post hug wrinkles out of her jacket.

You were sitting on a bench outside a restaurant in Brooklyn, near your mom's apartment. Finally deciding to face the music, you had agreed to meet her for lunch, prepared to come clean about everything. You realized you must have fallen asleep waiting for your mom to arrive, in part due to the fact that you had stayed up late looking at baby cribs online with Steve and made worse by the lack of caffeine.

"Yes I'm sure, I was just up late working on an assignment," you lied, hoping to avoid another one of her lectures.

"Well that's not good sweetie, you should really have a better sleep schedule. Maybe if you started your assignments earlier, you could be more on top of things."

Well maybe if YOU were more on top of things you wouldn't be 20 minutes late to our lunch reservations, mother dearest. You bit your tongue, and just nodded back at her, not wanting to pick a fight.

Earlier this morning, Steve, Peter and a few of the others had left for some sort of mission or something, you weren't really sure what the correct term was for their line of work. All you knew was that they were gone somewhere and weren't coming back until late tomorrow night leaving you in the apartment by yourself. You had thought meeting up with your mom would be a good way to kill some of the time, but you were already beginning to regret that decision.

After you walked in the restaurant and the waiter showed you to your table, your nerves started to kick in a little bit. You weren't really sure how she was going to take the news of your pregnancy, but you had pushed it off as long as you could now. Your elbows rested on the table, hands fiddling with each other anxiously.

"Don't do that honey," your Mom said, motioning towards your hands, "it's unbecoming."

Laying your hand in your lap, you reached for the glass of water on your right, taking a long sip.

"So, how's everything with you?" you asked, sitting up straighter and placing your glass back on the table.

"Oh, you know how it is. Just living the luxury life of divorcee. Oh that reminds me, I was at the club with Marcee Donovan the other day, and she told me your father is seeing some twenty-eight year old bimbo out in L.A.. And then I was at pilates with Nancy Oberman and she said that Rachel Weinstein gained fifteen pounds since we last saw her. Can you believe it?"

When she finished, she grabbed the cloth napkin from the table, laying it on her lap, then started to look over the menu. If your mother truly loved anything, it was gossip. You hated it but there was not much you could do. You already knew about the girl your dad was seeing, he had posted pictures with her on Facebook and everything. And unsurprisingly, you didn't know or care about one of your mom's random friends gaining weight.