Teenage Troubles (Prequel for Teenage Baby)

Chapter 2 | Leo

Please make sure you've finished reading Teenage Baby before reading the prequel. It will spoil lots of stuff you're not supposed to know before you finish it, thanks! :)

Chapter 2 | Leo

Elizabeth was a queen.

Jayden's queen.

She was established royalty for him even though she wore no crown and sat on no throne. She didn't need to, really. She didn't need validation of molten, chiseled gold laying atop her headful of luscious hair to be his queen, nor did she need to sit on a large fancily gilded chair to be undisputed highness. All she needed was to look at him with her glorious face and he'd bow to her majesty.

Jayden didn't exactly understand what about her face made her so holy, so royal; whether it was the graceful arch of her brows or the smooth bridge of her nose, the perfect outline of her rosy lips or the godly slope of her cheekbones.

But did the answer matter? He didn't think so. He was alright with pondering the source of her magic everyday and coming to no answer as long as she was with him.

She was his. His queen. His wife.

His, his, his. All his. Nobody else's.

After so much pain and distance, he was finally with her. He was finally married to her, and they'd been so for over a year. Still, it felt so surreal to him. Still, he'd wake up every morning to her warmth with the same passionate adoration burning in his chest like the first day of their honeymoon and he knew she reciprocated the feeling. Still, he'd shudder when he'd remember the cruelty of the departure their very own families had been inducing; they'd tried to keep them apart because a rich man like Jayden couldn't marry a typical girl like Elizabeth. The biggest stereotype of all. Because apparently she was a gold digger with her greedy eyes rooted upon the money he owned.

But they'd been wrong and both Elizabeth and Jayden had fought to prove it. They'd managed, though only after they'd tolerated the snarky remarks thrown at them anytime they persisted to hold hands in front of their families and the covert, displeased side looks every time they passed by. It had driven Jayden along the edge of insanity, that nobody had been able to see how Elizabeth was the very reason he woke up every morning, the reason he bothered to live. The very thread that kept his sanity stitched together.

Once, rumors started spreading about how he was obsessed with Elizabeth. He'd snorted then, as if denying. But innerly, he'd thought, how could I not be obsessed with this beautiful divinity?

All this tragedy didn't matter now, though. Jayden didn't want to remember. Or more specifically, he couldn't remember because right now his mind was far too occupied with worry.

Elizabeth was still sleeping soundly whilst Jayden had been long awake with his tired, sunken eyes carefully regarding the contours of her angelic face and his fingers softly twisting a strand of her hair around. He wanted to enjoy the feeling and bask in the privilege of the living art that lay beside him and glowed like diamonds underneath the early morning light, but he was far too tired, far too exhausted to even focus enough on her.

Jayden hadn't slept well—or more so at all—which was why he felt so drained. He hadn't had a good sleep for months. Ever since his beloved Eliza had walked up to him once after he'd come from work with a smile brighter than the light her eyes harbored and a gentle skip to her steps. She'd held his hand then and guided it forwards, until his palm was pressed flatly against his stomach, before dropping the news:

I'm pregnant, Jay!

As opposed to any normal man, Jayden had never been too excited for their child. Even when they'd first gotten married, he'd insisted to take contraceptives because he wanted to enjoy those few blissful months they'd spend completely alone before they'd become intruded by the baby. Jayden wouldn't admit but he'd always wanted all Elizabeth's attention on him, with zero distraction in the form of a whining newborn.