Problem Kid

Chapter 105

10 weeks later

"Ev... Ev! Wake up, we need to get ready!" Jimmy whispers into my ear, gently nudging me. I groan.

"Come on, up!" Jimmy says slightly louder, poking my shoulder. I sigh loudly before slowly rolling myself over onto the other side so that I'm facing him. I feel like a beached whale every time I move nowadays. I'm a few days over 32 weeks pregnant and I am absolutely huge. I'm only 8 weeks away from my due date now though I honestly feel ready to pop. I used to say that every week but I really mean it now. My stomach is like a beach ball and my app on my phone tells me that the baby is the size of a napa cabbage though Jesus Christ does she weigh more... I feel like I'm walking around with a bowling ball strapped to me and it's awful. My ankles are swollen constantly and my body is sore. I practically waddle when I walk and I have to move slower than usual. Plus, the baby is always on my bladder so I constantly feel like I'm about to pee myself. Like I feel right now...

"I need a wee so bad," I groan, careful sitting up. Jimmy comes over to my side of the bed and holds his hands out for me. I take them and he helps me to stand up carefully, making sure I'm steady before letting go. I quickly grab my already folded pile of clothes for today off of my bedside table along with my make-up bag and toiletries bag before heading into the bathroom. I organised everything last night so that I could just grab it and get ready this morning since it's a busy day today. Today is my baby shower and Jimmy wants to drop me off at Sam and Jack's this morning so he can begin setting everything up with the help of Tix from my work, James from his work and Maya so I need to get ready and dressed in preparation for that so that once everything is ready and everyone is here, Sam and Jack can drive me back here for when it starts. I'm kind of dreading being the centre of attention today but luckily it's not going to be too many people. Just Jimmy and some of his work mates along with Jack, Sam, Sam's mum and stepdad, Maya and my work mates too. I guess we don't really have anyone other than those people we know well enough to come anyway.

Over the last ten weeks, I've gotten even closer with everyone at work. Tix and me are the closest though Maxwell is sort of the second closest despite the fact he's more like the Dad of the shop to all of us. Lola is both mine and Tix's close friend too and usually the three of us form our own little group with Poppy joining us often too though I'm not personally as close with her. She's still a good friend to me though and we all get along well. I'm at the point in my apprenticeship now where I will shadow anyone in the shop now and I've spent a lot more time shadowing Lola since Maxwell has been more focussed on manager and admin work instead of piercing recently. I've gotten good at lobe, nose, some different types of ear and navel piercings now so I'm now learning how to do septum piercings which have been slightly more difficult due to the placement being pretty difficult to get and vastly unique on different people because of how much everyone's anatomy differs. I'm getting there but it's taking some time to learn.

Maya is doing really well now though which is good. She's out of her arm and leg casts and is now managing to bear some weight on her leg which is in a boot though she still uses a crutch to help out a bit. She's made a full physical recovery aside from still needing physical therapy for her leg and having some issues with shooting pains in her surgery scar. She's almost back to her normal self too aside from having issues with anxiety when crossing roads. I think she's got some trauma from the accident and fears getting hit again which is understandable. I know the first few weeks of recovery were awful for her and as much as she tried to act happy and okay, her smiles never reached her eyes and she was so much quieter than usual. Luckily, she agreed to go to therapy to work through the post accident depression and anxiety which seemed to have helped a lot. She's not always doing so well but she's much better than she was early on in her recovery. The court case with the suspect was pretty straight forward thankfully and he's been given a ten year driving ban and a year in prison with two years on parole. It doesn't seem like enough for what he did but Sam and Jack wanted everything to just be sorted as fast as possible so that Maya could work on moving on with her life so they didn't appeal the sentence or demand trial, they instead agreed with a plea deal and a personal apology from the driver. The most important thing is that Maya is doing better now. We just want her to be okay.