Cause and Affect

||Ten

After about an hour of just talking with Hunter, he had to leave. He brought me inside and set me on the couch.

"I'll see you later." He kissed my head.

"Bye." I whispered as he walked to the front door.

"Goodbye Hunter." Mom said giving him a hug.

"Goodbye Ms. Jorden. Have a lovely evening." I heard the door open and close.

"You chose such a lovely boy, Kaila."

"More like we chose each other." I contradicted. Then I had a thought. "Mom, where's Kallen?"

"I'm here!" He called from the kitchen. I heard him swiftly move from the kitchen to the living room. "Whatcha need?"

"Do I need something to spend time with my brother?"

"Hm, I guess not."

"Good. You can move my legs so you can sit."

"Okay." He agreed. He went to my feet, lifted them up, sat down, and placed my legs on his. He looked at me and smiled.

"So, Kal. I, um talked to Kambel at the hospital."

"Really? Well, what did she say?" A hint of concern toned his voice.

"She said that she was sorry and she regretted what she did," I explained. He nodded, and looked down at the carpet. "Oh and we have a niece."

He looked up at me. "Really?" A hint of excitement in his voice. "What's her name?"

"Kamden."

"Ahh. That's cute."

"Yeah. She's adorable." I said. We kinda stood there in silence until I heard the phone ring. Mom picked up.

"Hello?. . .this is she. . . I'm doing well. . . okay. . . of course!. . . tonight at seven. . . sounds perfect. Okay goodbye." She hung up.

"Kids? We're having company tonight." Mom called to us.

"Who is it?" Kallen called.

"Kaleb's wife."

— — —

Seven o'clock rolled around faster then expected. Mom had prepared lasagna and a salad.

There was ring of the doorbell. "Mom!" I yelled from my spot at the couch. "Door!"

I heard footsteps. I was on my phone, scrolling through Hunter's Instagram pictures. No, I didn't stalk him all that much, but his posts with me in them always made me smile.

His current profile picture was of us at the beach on the Fourth of July. I loved that picture of us. I smiled upon seeing he just tagged me in a photo. I clicked on it, it read: #tbt to camp with @kailajorden, my love😊❤️

I smiled widely as the door opened. I readjusted my beanie on my head, as I reached for my wheelchair. Unfortunately I couldn't reach.

"Uh, Kallen? Can you come help me?" I called for him.

"Yep. Coming!" He replied. Footsteps came running towards me. "Alright here we go."

With a simple lift he placed me into the wheelchair and pushed me down into the kitchen to meet Kaleb's wife.

"Kaila! This is Margret. Margret, this is Kaila, my youngest daughter."

I could feel her eyes staring at me. Helpless, bald. . . I really didn't want her to feel bad for me. I couldn't take it anymore.

"Hello Kaila!" She grinned. I looked at her baby bump. She didn't look too far along, but defiantly getting there.

"Hi." I replied simply.

There was an awkward pause before Mom piped up saying we should eat dinner. We agreed and took our places.

I sat next to Kallen, which was right across from mom and Margret.

"Let's pray." She grabbed my hand and offered her other one to Margret, she gratefully took it. I took Kallen's and he took Margret's.  We bowed our heads and mom prayed.

Once she finished we all dug in, except me of course. I couldn't eat all that much anymore. I just drank a strawberry smoothie mom made me.

"So Margret, how long were you and Kaleb married?"

I'm guessing this was a touchy subject considering it was his mom she was talking to. "Um, not long. Only about two months."

Mom nodded. "So how far along are you?"

"Um," she hesitated, "five months."

Mom nodded again. I slurped my smoothie. Then I had a question. "How did you meet Kaleb?"

Margret sighed dreamily reflecting on it. "We were both a senior in high school. As you know he was a jock and I, was in fact, a popular. His friends and my friend thought we'd be a cute couple so, we kinda were pushed to date each other. Then when I found out he was such a sweet guy, unlike all the other jocks I met, we dated."

"That's adorable."

She nodded. "How old are you, Kaila?"

"Sixteen."

"Do you have a boyfriend yet?" She smiled

"Yes, in fact I do."

"Awesome. What's his name?"

"Hunter." I didn't want to give too much away. That was until she asked it.

"How did you meet?"

"Uh, we met at camp actually, in June. Instant connection I guess." I shrugged. I slurped more of my smoothie. "Kallen has a girlfriend too!" I blurted. "They're getting married too!"

He slapped my arm, not hard of course. "Yeah. Her name is Ellen."

"Oh really? She must be pretty lucky to have a guy like you." Margret smirked.

"Uh, yeah. I guess. I mean she's never complained or anything."

Kallen babbled on and on about Ellen and stuff. My question was, why was Margret so interested in if we had a relationship?

Sure she dated Kaleb, they got married, and did things before marriage. Maybe she was trying to keep the subjects on us instead? Maybe she knew too much about us already.

I didn't want to deal with anymore questions. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and saw a text from Hunter.

It read: Kaila, I need your help. It's urgent.

— — —

muahaha! cliff hanger!

sorry I had to leave you like this, but I love it so much (:

so what do you think of Margret? A little more insight on Kaleb's relationship and whatever.

I hope you enjoyed (:

love y'all!

xx Ari