A Different Reality (Lasting Love)

Day With The Family

"Why was your dress laying on the floor?" Justin walks into my closet holding the now too small dress "I thought you said you were wearing it today."

"I thought I was, but it's too tight.  I didn't wanna be uncomfortable."  I find a bigger dress that I like "I guess I've gained more weight than I thought."

"You've gained like 2 pounds.  That's impossible." He stares at me and then back at the dress for a while "Are you sure it just didn't shrink or something?"

"You don't have to lie to me, Justin."  I take the dress and throw it into a pile of clothes to donate "I know I'm changing and gaining weight.  I'm not thrilled, but I just gotta deal with it.  You lying about it, even if it's to make me feel better, doesn't help."

"Okay," he walks away, not knowing what else to do about this "People will be here soon, so I'm gonna go start making the burgers."

I take a moment after he leaves to look at my rapidly changing body in the mirror.  Everything seems bigger.  Maybe not by much, but enough to make a once semi flowy dress fit like you would expect a dress to fit someone who's 4 months pregnant; tight.  Luckily, not uncomfortably tight.  I run my hands over the dress, stopping at the small bump that was formally my tight stomach and stare at if for a little.  It might not be noticeable to most, but to me it already feels big.  I remind myself that its growth is symbolizing the growth of our baby.  That, and my new found love of pretzels dipped in peanut butter.

"Hey, you okay?!"  Sherry, my stepmother walks into our room looking for me "Justin said you'd be up here."

"Yeah, I'm fine." I start to walk out "Just making sure I looked okay."

"You look great," she walks over for a hug "I love the dress!"

We walk downstairs to see that most of the family is already here.  Justin is outside cooking, our dads are sitting on the chairs with beers, my mom has taken over the kitchen to cook God knows what and his mom is setting up the table.  Kids are running through the yard while our siblings sit around watching them and talking.

"Can we swim?" They run up to me asking. 

"Yeah, of course!"  I walk over to the shed with them "Let's get the pool toys out."

"You gonna swim?" Justin's mom, Phyllis, walks over to where I'm watching everyone "It looks like fun."

"I might later."  I watch as the kids start throwing a beach ball around for a game of catch "I think they're having more fun playing with each other right now."

"Food's done!" Justin yells getting all the kids out of the pool.  They run over to grab plates and we all help them get the food that they want.  We have them all sit at the picnic table next to us, while the adults sit at the other table.

"They're throwing food," Justin leans over to whisper to me "Look behind me."

I glance back to see the kids literally pick up pieces of food and fling it at each other.  They stop as soon as they notice that I'm looking, but I start laughing at them and they start back up right away.  I try not to laugh when I turn back around to all the adults, and none of them seem to notice.

"What the hell?!" Justin turns around towards the kids "Who threw that at me?" He tries not to laugh.

"Was that you?" My brother asks my niece, "We told you not to throw food anymore."

"Nope." She replies acting as innocent as she can "I would never do that."

I try my hardest not to laugh at everything, but as soon as John turns away he gets hit in the head with a French fry and I burst out laughing. 

"This is gonna be you and your kid in 2 years," he tells me as he gets up to throw some of his food at El "Just wait."

"It's true." My dad adds "You used to throw things at us all the time.  If you didn't like your food you either threw it at us or gave it to the dog."

"Yeah, Justin did too." Phyllis joins in "He was picky about all this food.  You're going to have lots of fun if the baby is anything like he was."

"Well now you're just scaring us." Justin laughs trying to hide his fear "That's just mean."

"We know that." His dad looks over at us, laughing at our expressions "We're just trying to warn you."

"Oh, well, thanks." I reply sarcastically.

"I'm sure the baby will be fine." My mom tries to reassure us "It's when it's starts walking that you need to be worried about."

One of the kids calls my name before I get a chance to say anything else, so I turn to ask if he needs anything.  Just as I turn around I end up getting hit in the back of the head with a fry from Justin.

I turn around quickly glaring at him, to which he responds,

"What?  I thought it would be funny."

Everyone but me laughs at him, and we spend the rest of the picnic talking and playing with everyone.  The kids all get back in the pool, and Justin and I join them eventually to play games.  Everyone else sits around talking until it's time to leave.

"Hey, babe?  Do you think we're really ready for this?"  I climb into bed next to Justin "For everything that they were warning us about?  It's not like we've grown up around babies that we're used to."

"I think we'll be fine," he lays his head on my chest with his hand resting on my belly "We won't be perfect, and we'll have the poor kid messed up in many ways, but we're going to love him or her more than they'll ever imagine.  They're the luckiest baby ever to have you as their mother.  I have no doubt that you're going to be amazing."

"You're going to be amazing, too." I smile as I move my hand down next to his.