Baby Love ── RICKY BOWEN¹

seventeen. the eighty

.·゜゜·　　·゜゜·．

"What is that?"

"A sweater!" I replied excitedly, holding up the knitted mass of blue. Ricky stares at it like I just kicked him in the stomach and was now offering him ice to make it better. He plucks the item from my hands, shaking his head. "What?"

He lifts it up, and I watch as a smile tugs at his lips. "This..." His small smile spreads into a full-blown grin. "Is adorable," he finishes. 

My cheeks flush as I watch Ricky pull the tiny sweater over Rico's body, his smile intact the entire time. Okay, maybe I got bored and knitted a sweater for my robot baby so he'd look dressed up on the day of our presentation. So what?

Today was the last day of the project. I've spent the entire week seeing my classmates present their babies alongside a boring PowerPoint with about five pictures of the baby that don't look at all thought out. Which is why I made it my duty to do better than that. I worked on our scrapbook for a good few days, adding pointless little stickers to decorate the sides and sometimes a caption. I almost filled up all forty-five pages of the scrapbook with all the pictures from the span of the project.

Ricky lifts up Rico, holding him out for me. "Look at our handsome son," he cooed, and a smile tugs at my lips as Rico lets out a noise of appreciation. Sometimes it does feel like he can hear us. 

"I'm gonna miss him," I admit bashfully, as Ricky brings Rico back to his side. 

"Me too, honestly," Ricky agrees. Then he nods to the classroom we stood outside of. "Ready to do this?"

I nod, and with that, we step into the room. The bell hasn't rung yet, so not everybody is in the room, but the people who are are watching with mild interest as we go up to the front to get everything set up. Mr.Mazzarra stands by the windows, regarding the two of us with a nod of his head as we set things up on the computer. Thank god he agreed to let Ricky present with me, it did take a little convincing to get him to request Ricky's presence from his history class. But he did it after a lot of insisting that it wouldn't be the right message to insinuate I was a single parent in this project.

Just as the bell rings, I take my scrapbook out of my bag and place it on the desk in front. Ricky sets Rico down beside the scrapbook, leaning over slightly to catch a glimpse of the cover, where a photo of the three of us is. 

"Look at us, such a happy family," he teases.

I hum in agreement, looking away from the photo before it could cause an ache in my chest. Once this presentation is over, I'll be forced to accept the reality that I am no longer parenting with Ricky and he has no obligation to spend time with me anymore. But you know, details, details.

"Alright." Mr.Mazzarra's voice settles the chatter in the room, and he extends a hand out to myself and Ricky. "Give Mister Bowen and Miss Larico your attention now."