The Baby Pact

Chapter Four

After about half an hour, my things are put away and organized, Rose making sections for me in her closet and bathroom.

With some small talk, I've gotten to know her better while we put my things away. Her dads away in the military, writing to them everyday. She still goes to school with her siblings, and toughs it out everyday. She gained a better relationship with her mom since she's been pregnant. Wish I could say the same.

Her favorite color is white, she loves musicals, and she used to be a part of the drama program at her school.

In exchange I told her about my family, how they're heavily involved in the church. I tell her about my little sister, how she's fifteen and so sweet yet has a whole different side to her.

I tell her my favorite color is green, how I used to go to parties often, that the babies father and I were friends that would always flirt. I told her I was on the Varsity Dance team at my school and I was heavily involved in outside of school dance.

By now we've made our way downstairs, the dinner's ingredients along the counter, Lauri chopping away at something.

I give her a light smile, as I get ready to start some pasta shell noodles.

"Where is the pots Ms. Lauri?" I ask, and she points down to a cabinet beside the stove.

The kitchen is very beautiful, with hanging lights above an island, stools against the bar edge. The white and black granite counters almost sparkle, the normal utensils and appliances on the countertops.

Everything is steel and silver, neat and tidy. It's almost calming with how clean this house is.

I begin the noodles, seeing a pesto sauce I had requested on the countertop.

"Can you be a dear and chop the cilantro?" Lauri asks me while Rose sits on the countertop and watches us get started. Another thing about Rose, apparently she can't cook, or has no idea how.

"So are you girls excited to have a week off from school?" Lauri asks and Rose nods.

"Very, the people can be so...picky at my school. No one really likes a pregnant girl going there. And I sure am going to enjoy stuffing myself full on thanksgiving," Rose says in which I nod in agreement.

"I'm sure between you two and the little peanuts inside you, you'll be very hungry," Lauri says with a joking tone.

It makes me think, of how I wish my mother was like Lauri. How my family could be like theirs. Accepting and loving and supportive.

"Christine?" Rose asks, waving a hand towards me from across the island.

"Huh?" I ask, glancing up.

"Don't chop off your fingers," Rose says with a chuckle and I glance down, moving my fingers further away from the knife.

"So how'd you get knocked up?" A voice comes from the doorway, and I look up to see all three of Rose's siblings standing there.

It seems the twin boy, Liam, was the one who spoke up.

"Liam, rude," Rose mutters while shaking her head.

"Did your manners fly out the damn door? I didn't raise you to be an asshole," Lauri says, shooting me a look of an apology.

"It's okay, I don't mind. I slept with a guy at a party when I got black out drunk," I sat with a shrug. The three of them filter into the kitchen, the twins sitting at the island along with Rose, Landon coming to sit on the edge of the counter in between us.

"I was a typical teenager. Go to parties, flirt and drink, stay out all Saturday. But I did always go to church the next day. No matter all that I've done, I'm actually quite religious," I say, continuing to cook and move around the kitchen.