Infinity and Beyond

41 - Squeezing a Baby Out

Emily

Confusion set in the moment I opened my eyes to find myself lying on a sofa in somebody else's house. Fortunately it didn't take long for me to remember that we were round the band house for a film night, and that I'd fallen asleep in the second film. Plus, I had other more important things on my mind to spend too long wondering about it.

"Morning...?" Calum said in a questioning tone when I passed him in the kitchen.

"Gotta pee gotta pee gotta pee gotta pee," I chanted as I ran past. He looked after me in confusion, which I ignored and just headed straight into the toilet. Once I'd relieved myself I went back into the kitchen and that was when the hunger hit.

"What are you doing?" Calum asked me.

"Looking for food," I answered, hunting through all their cupboards. "Do you have any food?"

"Um, no, that was kind of the whole point of Michael going to yours earlier," he replied and I groaned. There really was nothing to eat, and after making the disappointing decision that I couldn't really have garlic bread or a whole bar of chocolate for breakfast, I leaned back against the counter with a sigh. "Relax, Luke and Michael went shopping, they'll be back with some food soon."

"How soon is soon?"

"I don't know! Man, you're worse than all three of us combined," he commented and I gave him a look. "Yeah, yeah, I know, you're growing a person, we get it. Speaking of, can you wake up said person's dad? I've been waiting to watch TV all morning."

I blinked in confusion and then saw the wall clock reading 11:40.

"It's almost midday! Why didn't you wake us up sooner?"

"What, wake you up and risk getting my head bitten off? No thank you."

"Why does everyone act like I'm the devil or something?"

"Because you are," he laughed, though quickly stopped when I glared at him. I walked back into the living room and knelt down in front of Ashton, gently shaking him.

"Ash? Ashton, sweetie, wake up," I whispered and he eventually started to come to.

"What's up?" he mumbled, sitting up and wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

"We should go back home soon," I told him. He yawned and I laughed at how much he looked like a little puppy.

"Why aren't we home already?"

"We stayed here for a movie night, remember?" I chuckled. He paused and looked around, eyes landing on Calum who had walked in.

"Oh. Right, yeah..." he nodded but still looked a little on the confused side. I pushed myself up and held my hand out to pull him off the sofa, then turned to Calum.

"Could you give us a lift home, please?"

"I guess," he agreed with a shrug, and we followed him out into the hall. He grabbed his car keys and waited for us to slip our shoes on, then trailed out to the car and drove us home.

Our bed was still unmade as I remembered that we'd left on impulse last night, or rather, earlier than morning. It made me just want to crawl straight back into it and sleep for a few more hours, but given the time it was already that probably wasn't the best idea. That being said, though, there was always the excuse that I ought to get as much sleep as I could now before the baby arrived.

When I though about this, it dawned on me that I was over halfway through the pregnancy and we had nothing for the baby. Not one thing. There were the clothes Mum had given us, plus a few other bits we'd picked up, but some cute outfits and blankets weren't much use if it was all we had. We didn't have a pushchair, or a car seat, or a cot - we didn't even have nappies. Sure, there was still another eighteen, maybe nineteen weeks, but given that none of it had even crossed my mind until now, it frightened me how little time that really seemed.