Fireworks 1 and 2

Chapter Ninety-Three

    Saturday morning, Bri woke up, and Shawn wasn't in bed beside her. She frowned, sitting in bed with the sheets bunched at her waist, tank top askew, hair guaranteed to be a mess. She scratched her head and turned her head, listening for sounds in the adjoining bathroom. Nothing. Silence. He'd been acting pretty strange the past few days. Well, scratch that - if she was being honest with herself, he was strange all of the time. That was a major reason why she loved him in the first place. He was weird and quirky, just like she was. Acted crazy and didn't really care what anyone thought.

    He's toned it down, because he's in Drake's house, she thought, but usually, he's a riot. Just like I am.

    But over the past few days he would disappear, out of the blue and return with some lame excuse as to where he'd gone or why. He was jumpy for no reason. She went to go put a pair of his jeans in their suitcase and he'd nearly flipped his shit. He had snatched them from her and told her that he could do it himself.

    "Calm the fuck down, geez," she told him, stepping back and watching him fold his jeans.

    She didn't know what was happening to them. She forgave him for freaking out about the pregnancy. She hadn't forgotten, but she'd forgiven him. If I were the dude, and not the pregnant girlfriend, I might have done the exact same thing he did, she'd realized. While she'd forgiven him, though, their relationship these days felt...different. They were here together, in this beautiful place, but she'd never felt so distant from him. She wanted to get back to what they had before the pregnancy, but she didn't know how. She didn't know what to do.

    Logic would say to have a conversation. And the previous night, she'd tried to. But he had kept looking at his watch and then made up some lame excuse that he was supposed to help Drake in the studio. "Help Drake in the studio with what?" she'd demanded. "You don't make music!"

    "I promised him I would help," Shawn had told her. He'd leaned over and kissed her. "It won't take long, I promise."

    But it had taken a long time. He'd been gone for two hours. And by the time he got back, he had forgotten that she'd wanted to have a serious conversation with him. He had kissed her again and passed the fuck out. Just like that.

    Is this what life is going to be like with you? she wondered, sitting in bed and staring at the bedroom door, her eyes shining with tears.

    The bedroom door opened and Shawn stood in the doorway. His eyes widened when he saw her. "You're awake."

    "Yeah," she muttered, lowering her eyes.

    He frowned and approached the bed. "What's wrong?"

    She was quiet for a long time. Then she lifted her teary eyes and said, "I feel like we're drifting apart. And I don't know how to fix it."

    He kneeled down to the floor and stared up at her. "Drifting apart?"

    "You keep disappearing," she said, waving her hand in the air. "It's like you want to be as far away from me as possible. Is it because I'm pregnant?"

    "God, no," he told her. He turned his head to the side, seemingly thinking about what he wanted to say.

    She stared down at him, waiting for him to go on.

    He sighed and raised up so he could sit beside her on the bed. "Drake has...a surprise in store for Mia," he told her. "A surprise that I have been helping him out with."

    She looked surprise. "Oh."

    "I'm sorry, I should have told you," he said.

    "That's...that's great, though," she told him. "But why would he ask you and not me?"