𝕥𝕠𝕠 𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕖 • 𝕞.𝕔

chapter 19

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    A few hours later, I was laying in Michael's bed, thankful that the whole anxiety of the night was slowly fading away. It hadn't exactly been like torture; but I had gotten way too anxious, and stressed, and now, as I was feeling the tension going down a notch, it all felt better. Finally, after a long week of absence, I had Michael all to myself, at least for one night. But that was enough; they said absence made the heart grow fonder, and I thought they were quite right.

   He came out of the bathroom and got into bed instantly, throwing himself on the mattress and pulling the duvet over him, as a child would. I smiled, feeling his hands pulling me towards him softly, but firmly. I laid there, next to him, my arm around his neck. I leaned in and kissed him slowly, and he kissed me back lazily, before nuzzling his head in my neck.

"Ashton talked to me, tonight, when we both were outside."

"Yeah?" he looked up at me, his hair moving with the motion of his head. "What'd he say?"

"That he was scared I would break your heart."

"You wouldn't," he shook his head, and hugged me tighter. "I know you."

"Well," I pulled back a little, and stroked the side of his face. "I could, if I wanted to."

"Do you want to?" he smirked.

"No."

"Just what I thought," he moved so he was laying on his side. He caught my hand. "You know, we always say how unlucky we are to be in this situation, but I think we should see the bright side of it. I'm going to sound really lame, but you know, I'm kind of happy we met. Even if it was through this... thing. Wait, no, that's not what I meant, babies are cool, but... You know what I mean."

"Yep," I whispered. "Crazy. You know, before we met, I honestly thought I would end up marrying a man with strong abs, and tanned skin, and bit like Taylor Lautner. Look what I ended up with. Somehow, it's better."

"And look what I did," he said. "I knocked you up so you'd end up marrying me, instead."

"Oh, please."

"Maybe not marrying me. That's taking it a bit too far."

   I nodded, smiling. We laid there in silence for a minute.

"I had Emma on the phone earlier," I finally spoke up. "She was not happy with me. She said we were losers."

"She's the loser," he furrowed his eyebrows. "Why did she even call?"

"I called her," I said. "I wanted to talk to her, because she's my friend. But obviously... the conversation really didn't go the way I had planned it to. It turned into a screaming mess. She took out her anger on me, and that wasn't cool."

He looked visibly annoyed. "That is really mean."

"I know the whole pregnancy thing rubbed her the wrong way, and maybe that I did something wrong by having sex with-"

"But that wasn't wrong!" he protested. "Stop thinking that! Having a one-night stand isn't wrong! This is the twenty-first century! And didn't she push you to come and talk to me? That's really hypocritical. Do you even regret it?"

"I really don't."

"See," he touched my hair softly, playing with it. "Please. It's not worth getting upset over. And if all else fails, you've got me."

"For how long, though?"

"As long as you'll be here for me," he finally whispered just for us to hear. He leaned in to kiss me, again.

"Thank you," I began kissing him back. "Thank you."

   We kept on kissing for a while, forgetting about it all -making out as if we were teenagers, the state of oblivion we were in was bliss. As if we had omitted that I was pregnant, that things would be hard, and that we had both grown up a little too fast because of it. I felt as if I was in high school, in a relationship with the hottest boy around. I wanted to kiss him until I was breathless, until I couldn't feel properly. My lips were flushed, and I was short on breath, but I kept going, the sensation feeling too intense to pull back already.

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  After this, we both laid there. I kept thinking that we were two people, in a sea of billions of others. What were the odds that we would have found each other? You could always say opposite attracts -but knowing how fortunate we had been made my heart ache a bit, reminding me how nowadays, it was difficult to find someone you could truly appreciate.

   After a while, Michael moved, without saying a word, and placed his hand on my stomach. He had never done that before, and I flinched at first. He smiled, and ran his fingers over it.

"I always thought it would be really soft, like a big cotton ball. But it's quite hard, it's like a little shell. You know, you're like a momma kangaroo," he said.

"Are you serious?" I replied. "Please. I don't even like touching it."

"Why not?"

"I don't know, it's weird."

"It's not weird, look," he took my right hand and placed it under his. It felt strange, and new. "Just keep it here, it's so weird. Just think that under, there's like -there's like a baby."

"Yeah," I nodded, feeling slightly shaken. "That's a baby."

He smiled enthusiastically, and closed his eyes. My heart started to race, and I wanted to tell him that I loved him, to thank him for making me realise so many things, but I thought it was too early and simply swallowed my feelings back, hoping that sometime, I'd be bold enough to let them out.

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