From Here On Out

23

Waking up at 6am was the last thing Emmy had wanted to do on a Saturday morning, but this was the soonest appointment she could get that wouldn't interfere with school. She was meeting Daveed outside the school's library for the 8:00 appointment he was going with her too. It was a bit too far of a walk so they were taking an Uber, and Daveed refused to let ride alone. That and- when she told him about the appointment, the first thing he said was "I'm coming."

She could see him walking up from across the way. He waved her up and they quickly joined each other in front of the building.

"Good morning," Daveed smiled at her. He pressed a kiss on her forehead, one she immediately leaned into. His hand traveled down to the base of her belly and he connected his eyes with her, "You ready for this?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," she replied, putting her hand over his for just a moment. It felt nice, even if it was just a second. It was them and their baby, and for that quick second, everything else felt unimportant.

"I think this is us," Daveed said as he pointed to a grey Toyota Camry that had just pulled up at the end of the road. He could see the driver looking around through the windows. He took Emmy's hand that sat atop his and interlocked their fingers to walk towards the vehicle.

There was indeed a large UBER sticker on the car that became visible once they approached it. Using his free hand that was still brightly casted, Daveed attempted to open the door for Emmy. He tried to used the tips of his fingers to pry it open but kept dropping the grip on the handle. Emmy couldn't help but giggle at the multiple tries and she reached out to open it herself.

Daveed sucked his teeth and Emmy shook her head as she moved to get in the car. "It's ok," she assured him, "I can open doors."

"My mom told me when I was 10 that if I was ever with a girl, to never make her open her own door. She said 'A woman is strong enough to pull a whole door off it hinges, but it doesn't hurt to take the load off'." he directly quoted as he followed Emmy into the back row of seats.

"And I love your mom," Emmy said, placing her hand on his knee, "And I'm sure she'll be fine with me opening one door out of hundreds."

"I guess," Daveed playfully shrugged, knowing that she was right.

He leaned his head on her shoulder for the rest of the ride, spending it making dumb jokes to get her to laugh. It had never been hard to make Emmy laugh, and that joyous sound was making this trip lighter for both of them. This was huge, and they both knew that even if it hadn't been explicitly said.

About 20 minutes after they'd gotten in the car, give or take some time for traffic, they had made it to her doctors office. Just in time for her appointment, they thanked the driver and headed in to check in.

Emmy was given papers to fill out, multiple because it was her first time there. It asked standard questions, name, age, contact information, ones she'd probably have to give many more times as they went along. She continued filling out the questions until she got to the insurance section.

The bold letters stopped her in her tracks. She was 18, so she could be here totally on her own without her parents knowing, but insurance was kind of a different deal. Currently, she was still on her parents insurance, and she thought that if she put the information down, they'd find out. Not that she wasn't planning on telling them soon, but she hadn't yet, and putting them down before she told them felt icky.

This left her in quite a predicament because this appointment would be really expensive with no insurance. She thought for a moment, tapping the pen on the page as her mind reeled.

"Everything ok?" Daveed asked, noticing her jittering.

"They need insurance information," Emmy said, "...And I'm still on my parent's."