Why Not Live?

Chapter Eight - Pumpkin Guts

Chapter Eight

Nathan's POV

Nathan smiled when he felt the small hand that slipped into his, delicate fingers intertwining with his. He looked down at the pretty girl walking beside him as they made their way down the side walk. Charly's curly blond hair was loosely braided to the side, resting lightly on her chest. Today she was wearing her thick black trench coat, the same one she had worn when they first met.

She caught him watching her and winked, squeezing his hand in hers before pulling him a little faster. It had been a week since they officially became a couple, and Nathan couldn't be happier.

Charly was so full of life and happiness that he couldn't help being happy around her. She seemed to have that affect on everyone, everywhere they went.

Today, they were going over to Clara's. It had been awhile since Nathan or Charly had seen Clara and Ethan. Clara had been ecstatic when Nathan called her the day before and told her about him and Charly. She really had been hoping they would end up together, apparently. She thought Charly would be good for him. Before they hung up, she had asked them both to come over today, and so they were.

It was getting even cooler out, as the end of October approached.

It wasn't long before they made it to Clara's house, it wasn't a very long walk from their apartments. Nathan grinned as they approached the familiar white picket fence and cozy looking white house.

The lawn had turned brown and there were white sheet ghosts hanging from the large oak tree in the front yard.

Nathan and Charly walked onto the porch and Nathan had barely knocked when, like almost every time he came over to his sister's house, the door flew open and Ethan pounced into Nathan's arms. Nathan released Charly's hand to wrap his arms around the boy that was hugging him tightly.

"Hey, buddy! What's up?" He said, laughing.

"We're making pumpkins!" Ethan squealed happily, pushing himself free from Nathan's arms and bouncing back into the house. "Come see, come see!"

Nathan chuckled and heard Charly giggle beside him as they followed Ethan into the kitchen.

When they walked in they were met by a very messy looking Clara. Her brown hair was pulled back in a messy bun, a few strands hanging loosely in her face. She wore black sweat pants and a large grey sweat shirt with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows. The sweatshirt somehow managed to be big on her even with her swollen belly. But the amusing part was that she was covered in pumpkin guts.

The orange goop covered from her finger tips to her elbows, and she held a hand full of it in each of her hands. It was smeared all over her chest and there was a small pile on her round belly, which seemed to have caught the goop that would otherwise have ended up on the floor. It was even on her face and in her hair.

"Love the new look, sis." He said, chuckling as he approached her. He pushed the strands of hair out of her face, lightly tucking them behind her ears and kissed her on the forehead.

She let out a breathy laugh as he pulled a string of the orange stuff out of her hair. "I'm not really even sure how that got there. Usually John is here to do pumpkins and I do the baking. This year he's deployed and Ethan really wanted to do them and I thought..." She sighed. "I don't remember it ever being this messy when John did it."

Nathan patted her head as she dropped her handfuls of pumpkin guts into a bowl on the table. "It looks like you got puked on by pumpkins. How about you go and clean up. Take a hot shower, change into some clean clothes and just relax for a bit. Charly and I will help Ethan with the pumpkins, okay?"