The Haunting of Forest Lane

Chapter Thirty Nine

Everyone got home from the hospital around 10pm. All the girls went to bed except Amani, Ally and Nick. Nick had carried Lauren up the stairs so she could sleep in Ally's bed so they could decorate the downstairs for Christmas. They didn't tell her why they wanted to surprise her in the morning. They didn't decorate anything yet, they weren't feeling "Christmasey" with Camden in the hospital and Lauren not getting out of bed some days, they didn't want to decorate, and not to mention they lived in a house they were terrified of. Camden had made it a priority of hers to buy discounted decorations whenever she could. Her and Lauren had been collecting Christmas ornaments over the past few years since they started dating. Nick and Ally went to the attic to grab the tree and lights. 

"You and Amani work on getting the tree set up inside and I'll work on decorating the outside."

As Ally and Amani were setting up the tree, Ally glanced at her and noticed she was rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Mani, you can go to sleep, you don't have to help me."

She shook her head, "no this baby thinks it's a great idea to kick me in the middle of the night, sit on my ribcage and causes me to throw up and have heartburn, tonight we're setting up a tree, I don't sleep anyway."

She sat down on the couch and leaned back into the cushions, Ally joined her, "you're scared aren't you?"

"Shitless."

"Amani, it's okay to be scared. I mean I know the pain right now sucks and so will childbirth, but just think, before you know it you and Danielle will have a little baby in your arms to love and care for and to raise."

Amani smiled, "you're right. Danielle and I finalized names today. If I have a boy he will be named Samuel Miles, and a girl will be named Amaya Jane, the boy name we just came up with recently. We finalized the girl name a while ago but we kept on going back and forth with the boy name."

Ally hugged Amani with excitement, "I love those so much! What do you think you're going to have?"

They didn't realize Nick was listening,  "I think she's having a boy."

Amani agreed, "me too, I have no idea how to raise a boy, and I also live with a house full of females, so I'm sure it'll be a little boy, but I find out on January 10th."

Ally stood up and got excited, "I am so freaking happy for you! Maybe we can have a gender reveal party for you. Lauren loved planning things, and you know, you have Nick here, he's going to be performing an exorcism on Camden eventually and he's going to be staying here until then and then afterwards if he feels comfortable, he will be moving in."

"Damn Allyson, look at you go!"

Before the girls conversation progressed anymore, Nick grabbed Ally's hand, "come on you two have to see the Christmas lights, they're beautiful!"

When they got outside nick plugged in the lights, he was only outside for a few hours, the pillars on the front porch were laced in Green and Red lights, they had a huge inflatable snowman and Santa encasing the yard. Nick put up light up Candy Canes down the driveway, it wasn't much but it made them feel like it was actually Christmas.

Amani looked at her phone, 12:01AM she put her arms around both of her friends, "Merry Christmas you two."

Nick followed the girls back inside to help them finish decorating the house, they put green and red lights up the railing on the staircase, they grabbed all the presents that were sitting on the kitchen table and put them underneath the tree, and they made sure everything was perfect for tomorrow, and they finally sat on the couch, Ally began laughing to herself.