My Little Bump

Chapter 15

Ken's week at school is terrible. He told us that the arcade was a nice distraction, but he still thought of Shelby at the end of the day. Shelby is the same way. I met with her at school on Monday and she was a mess. Her hair was all cluttered with bags under her eyes. I had to rush her into the restroom and we got a few comments about me being in labor on the way. I fixed her hair and put makeup on to fix the eyes.

I had to do this every day and she never talked about it. I would ask her the same thing and she would answer the same way:

"Have you been thinking?" I would always ask hoping she wouldn't burst into tears every day.

"Yeah, don't have an answer yet." She always says. We talked about other things then, none concerning Ken.

I'm now thirteen weeks pregnant which means the baby sadly isn't kicking yet. I'm really looking forward to that as many people get really excited about a baby's kicking for the first time. I just wanna see what the big deal is. It's just a living thing that kicks you from the inside. Sounds a little hurtful and creepy if you ask me.

On Saturday, Shelby texts me that she made up her mind. I look at it anxiously waiting for her answer. I really hope she says yes, those two are absolutely perfect for each other. She says she wants to tell Ken first so he can tell me the answer.

I run downstairs the best I can to try and find Ken. I check the entire house and can't find him. I finally decide to text him and he doesn't respond, so I call Shelby.

"Hello?" She answers normally.

"Hey, did Ken answer your text?" I ask her.

"Yeah, isn't he home?"

"No, that's why I asked. What's your answer?"

"I said yes. I was so sad this last week and I wanted to be with him again. We still need to talk, but as of right now, we're together again." She answers. I squeal in the spot. I know I shouldn't be this involved in their relationship, but I just get depressed when I think of my stupid mistake and the baby.

"Are you okay?" She asks me normally.

"Yeah, I just think you two are so cute together." I respond.

We hang up soon after so I'm just left in the living room with the baby waiting for Ken. Suddenly, I'm wanting food. I go into the kitchen and search through the fridge and grab some pickles. I then grab some eggs and crack them to make me some scrambled eggs. I cut up the pickles and sprinkle them on top of my eggs and look at it.

I usually hate pickles, but right now, the baby really wants them. I devour the meal in front of me and Ken walks in as soon as I finish.

His hair is disheveled with his shirt wrinkled in all places. I ignore his appearance at the moment and run up to him hugging tightly.

"Congrats!" I mumble into his shirt. He loosely hugs me back. "Man, it sounds like I'm congratulating you on being a father or something." I laugh at my stupid little joke. I pull away and finally take in how he looks.

"What's wrong?" I ask him. He looks down to me with empty red eyes. He doesn't answer me at first, he just walks to the couch and slumps into it. I walk to him and stand in front of him.

"Ken, what is wrong?" I demand an answer now. He looks up to me as if realizing I'm actually there.

"Mom and dad are getting divorced." He says. My eyes become wide and my mouth drops open. "Your dad found out that my mom was cheating on him in Paris. That's why you've never met her." He answers my unasked question quietly.

"But that means,-" he interrupts me.

"We're not going to be siblings anymore." He says sadly. I also plop on the couch across from him looking dejected.

The two of us sit on the couches for a millennium not wanting to do anything. Not having the urge to move at all. The boys run into the living room playing cars. They see us and I break the news to them.

Tommy falls in the spot in a sitting position. He cries into his hands before I pick him up into my lap. He sobs into my shirt. Caden does the opposite. He gets angry and storms off into his room. Ken stands to get him but I stop him.

A while later, Tommy's sobs have reduced to sniffles. I hold him still in my arms. Kate walks in, but we ignore her.

"Did you guys hear about-" she starts to ask. She sees us all and figures that we have. "Hey! It's okay, this doesn't mean we have to stop hanging out. We can make every Sunday sibling day. We'll all hang out every weekend like we're still siblings." This cheers me up a bit. I look over to Ken and see that he's smiling. Looking down at Tommy, he muffles something into my soaked shirt.

"What Tommy?" I ask him. His head lifts to look up at me.

"Can we go bowling next time?" He asks hopefully. We all laugh with him and Kate jumps in to answer the question.

"How about now? Is anyone busy?" We all look to each other and shake our heads no.

"I'll go get Caden." Ken tells me. We all jump in the car leaving Kate in the back this time. Caden comes out still tense but he's smiling.

We get to the place soon all laughing at Ken's joke. We walk inside and get to the front desk.

The guy helping us is hot. He has curly short brown hair which matches his eyes. He smiles at all of us kindly. I give a flirty smile in return which backfires because he turns away right when I give it. Stupid hormones.

We bowl for a couple hours laughing the entire time. Surprisingly, Caden wins.

We go home to dad sitting on the couch. He tells us the story of finding out how and Ken nods in understanding. Apparently his mom's done this before. Kate, Ken, and I end up going to bed late because we wanted to comfort dad. He's really depressed.