Bonds Built (Completed)

13. Gender time already?

Mateo read the message from Jessica before he quickly looked up as the front door knob turned indicating it was opening. Automatically knowing it was Sofia since they were the only two with a key to the place.

He locked his phone as he sat it down, watching her as she walked in. She looked over at him not saying anything as she made her way up the stairs. He quickly followed after her, "Sofia."

It had been over a week and he hadn't heard anything from her and that wasn't normal for them. The longest they went without talking was a couple of days, it never lasted a week.

"Mateo, leave me alone." She let out. "I'm getting some clothes and I'm leaving. I'll eventually be over to clear all my stuff out."

That was the last thing he wanted to hear. "Sofia, no. Can we at least talk?"

She stopped pulling some of her clothes out as she looked at him. "Talk about what Mateo? You got a girl pregnant. And that girl isn't me and you just want me to stick around? That shit hurts," her voice cracked. You could hear the pain.

"I thought about it, I really did. Because I love you and you're literally like the best thing that has ever happened to me. But I can't Mateo. I can't look at another woman having the baby I'm supposed to be having. I can't look at her knowing she has half of me, that she has a part of you that I don't. I can't look at a child that is half you and half another woman." Tears were falling at this point.

Mateo got it. He understood where she was coming from but that didn't make it hurt less for him. She wiped at the tears. "I can't face the humiliation. Granted you say it happened during our break who would believe that when people don't even know we've ever broken up?"

"Fuck what people think!" He let out. "We know what's real."

She turned back to pulling out clothes as she shook her head. "Please Sofia," he neared her. "Please, give it a shot. Don't walk away without trying."

She stood still for a second as she continued to face the closet, closing her eyes as tears fell and her thoughts rumbled around in her head. "I'll think about it," she let out.

But he knew her, her "I'll think about its" typically meant no. Anytime her friends asked her to do something and she said that she more than likely wasn't going to do it.

But he didn't push it today, it was better than no.

—

Mateo and his mother were on the way to Jessica's they landed about 45 minutes prior and had rented a car.

His mother looked over at him, the whole way to San Francisco she could tell something was wrong with her son. "Hijo, que pasa?" She questioned in Spanish.

He looked over at her taking his eyes off the road for a second. One hand on the steering wheel the other arm resting on the console as his fingers rubbed his chin. He was deep in thought before she pulled him out. He shook his head before focusing back on the road.

"Mateo, somethings wrong. Talk to me."

He shook his head again. "Just Sofia."

"Ah," his mother let out understanding.

He nodded as he neared Jessica's place. He was picking her up and then they were heading straight to her appointment that was in less than thirty minutes.

"Well I know you're hurting. But we're about to walk into a joyous moment of finding out the gender of your baby. So try to push it out of your mind or at least to the back of your mind." She rubbed his arm as he pulled up in front of Jessica's apartment complex. He sent her a quick text telling her to come down as he laid his head back on the headrest.