Psalms 42 || Tori Kelly

Like Right Now?

continued

Tori did her best not to change her facial expression, but by the way Abiah closed the door, she knew she hadn't quiet mastered that one yet. "What?" The teen asked. Tori took a deep breath and dropped her hands to her bump.

"Are you sure this is a good time to be trying to get a boyfriend?" Tori kindly asked. Abiah took a seat in front of her mom and placed her phone in her lap.

"Why not? The baby isn't here, yet. And who knows? He could be a great father," Abiah replied. Tori held in her scoff and sat back.

"Father? You can't seriously be thinking this kid will be a father figure to your child, a child he had no claim to, at 15," Tori said.

"Well, why not? He knows I'm pregnant and he doesn't care!" Abiah yelled.

"Because, Abiah, the responsibility of a child is heightened after the child is actually born. So it may not be that hard right now, but between school, motherhood, work, and church when will you have time for a boyfriend?" Tori said.

"You do it!"

"You're father isn't my boyfriend, first of all. And secondly, I don't have the responsibility of school, which is very time consuming. I can go to bed at three in the morning and wake up six and then at eleven and be fine. You can't. If you go to bed at three, you'll still have to be up six with your baby and then eight for school. No one cares if you're tired. Your baby isn't going to decided to let you sleep in on a weekend. He or she will be up at midnight, three, five, eight and so on. And as a father, your dad will shared the responsibility of getting up with our baby. You don't have that luxury," Tori reminded. Abiah rolled her eyes and sat back.

"If he stayed here sometimes—"

"Woah! Stayed here? In my house? Negative! If you aren't married, you aren't living together. Irie is 20 and can't have her boyfriend staying over. What makes you think you're different? This baby isn't his and even if it was he could come during the day and go home afterwards. Those are the rules. If you don't like it, move," Tori said, turning around and grabbing her headphones to go back to work.

"Mommy!" Abiah whined. "That's not fair!" She said, getting up and leaving the studio. Tori placed her headphones back on and rolled her eyes.

"There's a lot of people in this house living rent free with a lot of opinions," she mumbled, hitting the playback button on her last track.

—

In the next room over, Abiah laid on her couch and looked around her room. The mess was harsh and getting to be too much. The teen in her wanted to lay there and "get it later", but the mother in her was getting nauseous just looking at the dirty dishes. "Fine you win," Abiah whispered, turning on some music and getting to work.

4:17 PM

Irie slowly walked down the hall outside of her room and opened the door of her brothers nursery. She instantly made eye contact with her baby brother, who was standing in his crib pointing to something. Upon further, opening the door, Irie saw his favorite kangaroo lying in the middle of the floor. "Sammy, did you throw this?" Irie asked, carefully picking up his elephant and handing it back to him.

"Mama!" Sampson called. Irie tried to shush him, knowing her mom was working next door.

"She's working buddy. Can you say I?" She tried. Sampson stare at her for a minute before smirking, then the smell hit her. "Sammy!" Irie grimaced making the baby laugh. Knowing she wasn't supposed to pick him up for another two weeks, but not want to disturb anyone, Irie decided to.

4:20 PM

Tori took off her headphones, saved and closed out her program, before heading to her youngest room. "Sammy— Irie, why are you out of bed?" Tori concernedly asked, seeing her eldest changing a diaper. Instinctively, Tori rushed to Iries side, let her finish strapping on Sampson's new diaper and sat her on the day bed. "You're doctor said you can't pick up anything heavier than five pounds! Are you in pain? Did you feel anything rip? Do you need your meds?" Tori asked, searching Irie's wounds for blood or tearing.