My Family, My Mate, The Age Gap and Me.

Girl, when did you last have a shower?

The next day I got up and forced myself to eat. I couldn’t eat much, but I ate and that’s the important part. Like Drew said, I’ve got to keep living. I say nothing to either parent or step-parent, but I give Kenneth another big hug. He is blaming himself for what happened. I notice that Kenneth has nothing to say to the parents either. Maybe he is just as mad at them over this as I am, but why would he be? I shake my head and decide to worry about it later. When we have finished eating Darren makes an unsurprising announcement. “From now on you are on house arrest Sofia.” I raise an eyebrow at him. “I mean it, you won’t be going anywhere without a chaperone; particularly after last night’s stunt, we can’t trust you.”

My first thought after his big announcement was: I wonder if Ava and Lupe can still visit me? “I’ve called someone to come and fit a deadbolt lock on your window, they will be here this afternoon.” “Is Sof still allowed visitors?” Kenneth asks, surprising me. Darren nods, “Ava and anyone else from school is welcome; but I don’t want to see any of those men in my house.” I curl my lip and have to suppress a vicious snarl, in my head I snarl and shout; ‘No-one speaks that way about my mate! NO-ONE!’ I am shocked to get a response in my head. ‘Sof, baby; what’s going on? You just projected that to the whole family.’ I take a deep breath, and note that Darren has wondered off now that he has proclaimed martial law. ‘I’m fine, I’m under house arrest; Ava and Lupe are welcome to visit me, along with anyone from school. But you and Holden are banned. I’m sorry if I worried you, Darren just got under my skin with the way he referred to you and Holden.’ ‘I take it this is in response to last night?’ ‘Yeah, I got busted while I was out, Mum and Darren were in my room grilling Kenneth when I climbed back in.’ ‘I’m sorry love.’ ‘It’s not your fault, but to improve your mood: I had breakfast.’ ‘You can’t see me, but I’m grinning. I’m proud of you Sof, I know that this is hard, but we just have to keep going. It will all be worth it in the end.’

Ava and Lupe arrived a couple of hours later. “Ah my little niece, how are you today?” I cooed as I cuddled Lupe. Ava chuckled, “You do realise that you and Drew aren’t married yet and he hasn’t proposed yet either; right?” “Yes Ava, I know. But the fact is we all know that it’s going to happen eventually, just as soon as Mum and Darren back off; or I leave home for good, which may yet happen, if I can actually get out of the house with my stuff.” “They’ll get there, it might take a while, but they will get there.”

We gossiped and snacked for a couple of hours, until Ava decided that it was time to go home. When she was gone, I felt bereft, as if I was alone all over again. It didn’t even seem to matter that Ava promised to come back tomorrow. I kept going along though, only eating half sized meals. Kenneth kept watching me, waiting for me to freak out again. I only spoke to Kenneth, Ava and Lupe. I spoke with Drew everyday in the family mind link. We helped each other to be strong, to stay strong, but by God did it hurt to be away from him all the time, talking to him didn’t even help with the pain for me anymore; but Drew said that it was still helping him. I would never stop talking to him, even if it stopped helping him manage the pain. Drew was worried about me because, if talking was still helping to reduce his pain level, then it should still be helping me.

About two weeks after Darren proclaimed me to be under house arrest, I was sitting in my room with Ava and Lupe. “Are you eating full meals again?” Ava asked suddenly. I shook my head weakly, I was exhausted all the time; but we put that down to me still not really eating enough. “You haven’t lost any weight, all of your clothes fit just like they did before.” I cocked my head, was Ava right? Is it possible that I haven’t lost any weight? I shrugged, I didn’t really have the energy to answer such strange questions. I figured that not losing weight was a good thing. In the end without any answers, we just put the mystery of my non-shrinking figure to the back of our minds. The next day however, Ava screwed up her nose at me when she walked in. “Sof, you need to shower. Just because you are holed up in your room most of the time doesn’t mean that you don’t have to wash.” I raised a confused eyebrow at her. “Ava, I’ve been out of the shower for about half an hour. What the hell are you talking about?” Ava’s brow wrinkled in confusion, she handed me Lupe and tried to open the window. “When did you change you sheets?” She asked, her tone was curious now rather than admonishing. I shrugged, “Yesterday.” Ava went all quiet on me and I knew that she was speaking to Holden or one of the others, I shrugged and let her. Lupe was having fun pulling my hair, so I concentrated on her while Ava was occupied. “Ok, I need to go out for five minutes; can you please watch Lupe for me? She won’t need fed, and I’ll be back really soon.” Without waiting for a response from me, she left me with Lupe sitting on my bed.

Lupe and I made burbling noises at each other until Ava came back. She whipped Lupe out of my arms and handed me something in a pharmacy paper bag. “Bathroom, go.” She ordered. I rolled my eyes at her bossiness and went to the bathroom. Once inside, and with the door shut, I opened the paper bag and pulled out the item. A pregnancy test. “Ava, what the hell?” I shouted through the door. She shocked me by replying in the mind link. “Look don’t be mad at me. Do the test though. You haven’t been eating enough, I know that you have been doing your best, and you haven’t lost any weight. The separation pain is getting worse and no-one has any idea why, and you smell different. Humour me.” She made some valid points and Drew and I hadn’t used a condom when we had sex. With a sigh I peed on the absorbent end of the stick. I put the cap over the absorbent end, got up and flushed. “Five minutes on the timer Ava.” I said as I came back into my bed room with washed hands and the test in a wad of toilet paper.

“Ava I can’t look, I don’t know if I want it to be positive or not. Can you imagine how much worse Mum and Darren would be if they found out that Drew got me pregnant? But at the same time, I want to have Drew’s baby.” I was starting to freak out. “Sof, that’s normal, I totally understand what you mean about your parents. And wanting to have his baby is because you have fully mated with him. Drew will be excited and frighteningly overprotective; I am more worried for your parents; because Drew won’t be able to let them keep up this bullshit any longer.” I took a deep breath; Ava was right, one way or another the torment was almost over. “Sof, you might want to take a look at it.” “Can’t you just tell me what it says?” “You’ll feel better about it if you see if for yourself, I know that you are scared; I can’t really say that I felt the same. I didn’t need to use a test; but then again I was free to see my in-laws.” I reached out for Ava’s hand which she gripped comfortingly, and I looked.

‘Drew, I need to tell you something.’ ‘What is it Sof? Are you alright? Your parents aren’t getting worse are they?’ ‘I’m fine, I think. My parents are no better and no worse, but um... Drew I’m pregnant.’ Silence through the mind link, a tear ran down my face. Ava didn’t say anything, she just plonked Lupe in my lap and hugged us both. ‘Are you serious?’ Drew was speaking to me, he sounded cautious though. ‘Yes, Ava thought I smelt funny and she bought me a test; it was positive.’ The next thing I heard was his joyous laughter. ‘I’m gonna be a Dad!’ He shouted, but I heard the echoing sound that told me he had projected to the whole family, suddenly my head was filled with congratulations. ‘Sof, I’m going to come and talk to your parents tonight. We need to sort this out, they can’t keep us apart anymore. And I’m working now so I can support you properly, I haven’t bought the house because I want to buy a house that you are actually going to feel at home in. I’ll see you tonight. I love you!’ And then he was gone.

“Ava, Drew’s coming here; he thinks that me being pregnant is going to change the way that Mum and Darren treat us. It’s just going to get worse!” Ava started rubbing my back comfortingly, “Sofia, honey; he’s not going to be able to let them. He’s going to be insanely protective, being here in this situation is making you miserable; you’re not eating enough for you let alone a baby, one way or another Drew will put a stop to this. I hate to say it, but it will probably be messy. Overprotective men tend to get a bit messy when the one they love needs them. I’ll stay, and try to be the voice of reason that will hopefully stop Drew from wolfing out at them. I hope.”