Misprinted Lies (Alice in Chains/Bruno Mars)

Just Like You

It was one of the last doctor's appointments. Our little girl was almost here and I couldn't wait. The doctor left and Bruno kept his arm around me. I started twiddling my fingers, without even noticing.

"You're nervous, aren't you?"

"No," I said, in complete denial. "Of course not."

"Yeah you are. You always play with your fingers when you're nervous. You don't fool me."

"Okay maybe a little," I said quietly, looking at the floor.

"You shouldn't be," he said, kissing me on my forehead. "Know why?"

He barely gave me any time to answer. His face had never stopped beaming from the time he found out he was going to be a dad.

"Because I have enough dorky dad jokes to last 100 years to embarrass her in front of all her friends."

I laughed. He always knew how to make me laugh. His dorky jokes meant the world to me.

"But mostly because this little girl," he said, rubbing my belly, "is going to grow up to be just like her mother. She's going to have obstacles. She's going to struggle, but she's going to be okay...she's going to be amazing. Even when we can't protect her, she's going to conquer the world. When people tell her she won't, she'll prove 'em wrong...just like you do. I can't wait to meet her."

I smiled back. "Me either."

Bruno and I spent a lot of time figuring out a name for her. He actually had some good ideas. I thought he was going to try me with some names he knew I hated or names from Game of Thrones. Then he went in for the kill, really surprised me.

He handed me a piece of paper one morning as I tried to wake up at the Malibu house. We were flipping a lot between my house and Bruno's. I had to end my excessive coffee drinking for a while.

On the piece of paper was one word, one name. "Layna."

I felt tears coming on. Even figuring out what to eat made me emotional so my reaction was no shock to either of us. I couldn't hold myself together.

I slowly lifted my head. He was grinning. "What do you think? You like it?"

"Bruno," I said, beginning to stutter. "I-I-I..."

The name, the thought of just saying the name, the thought of what it represented to me, made me cry. It made streams of tears fall from my face. It wasn't too often that I was left speechless.

"Aw jeez," he said. "I just...I don't know...I wanted to kind of give his name some more life...if that makes sense...because he's here, ya know? I guess I wanted you to remember that his...his spirit is here...even in our baby. Is it too much? I'm sorry."

Taking the pen and paper, I finished the rest of the name and showed it to him.

"It's perfect," I smiled. "How about this?"

Layna Bernadette Hernandez.

He smiled brightly at the paper and kissed me. "I love it. It's perfect."

I couldn't stop staring at her name. I couldn't wait to say it every day to her.

"Lily, I want to sell my house," Bruno said.

"What?"

"There's no reason for us to bounce around from house to house...to house. We need to be in one place. Layna needs to grow up in one house."

I just kept staring thinking about my own childhood and having little stability. I'd remembered packing suitcases with my dad all the time. The worst of those times was when Dad and Jerry fought all the time. They didn't only fight about the situation, but they literally fought over me. There were times when Jerry would come over, only to be disappointed in the ways Dad was slowly becoming irresponsible. 

One night, when I was seven, I cooked dinner for the two of us because Dad passed out. I often stood on the counter to reach the higher counters. This night, I fell off, and stopped cooking dinner. At the end of that night, Jerry and I were in my room, packing a suitcase. Dad woke up and was so angry. They pulled me back and forth, until Jerry won and took me to his house. Don't even get me started with how it was when I had to go to Courtney's. Layna wouldn't experience anything like I did, but giving her stability was definitely important to me.

"Growing up with all my siblings and other family in the same house was so important to me." he smiled. "I want the same thing for Layna...and for our new family."

I smiled back and hugged him so hard. "This house means so much to me."

"I know it does, Lil. It means a lot to me too. I wouldn't want to take it away from you," he said right into my ear.

I started crying out of happiness.

"Aww, don't cry," he said softly.

"I'm pregnant. I can't stop crying," I smiled a bit, before he kissed me on the lips. "I can't control myself anymore."

"Hold on...I'm gonna cheer ya up," he winked. "Watch this."

He started dancing around the room really badly, on purpose of course. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen in my whole life. He started laughing, cracking up like a mad man. I wiped off my happy tears and couldn't stop laughing.

"Aww," he said. "There's that smile that I love so much."

Sooner than I was able to comprehend it, the big day came. Bruno was sitting at the kitchen counter. I took a deep breath, waddling into the kitchen.

"Bruno..."

"What?" he said, taking a bite out of a sandwich and turning to face me.

"My water broke...it's time," I smiled, panting a little, absolutely exhausted suddenly.

"Alright..." Bruno said, smiling as he looked down at my stomach. "Let's meet our beautiful Layna."

He was excited and partially panicked. He hopped up, grabbed our bag for the hospital, and put his arm around my waist.