Psalms 42 || Tori Kelly

Uncle NoNo

continued

André and Noah stood on the porch of the Kelly family home looking at the blue pink sky. "Wow. Tori and Bean are pregnant. How are you holding up, man?" Noah asked, pressing his bottle to his lips. André shrugged, glancing to the ground for a second.

"How you think? Your fourteen-year-old daughter comes to you and says "Daddy I'm pregnant," at any time you're not prepared. Especially, when the only times she's had sex was by force with her teacher," André mumbled. Noah took a sip of his beer, knowing he wouldn't be able to handle that. "I just...man...I'm stressed. It was bad enough with Tori being pregnant out of no where. Like dude, she literally had an implant and it was useless. So I was stressed about having another kid to feed. And now, Abiah is bringing another mouth in the house. And I know that's my grandchild, but money," André confessed. Noah scrunched his eyebrows.

"What about money? Y'all aren't good?" Noah asked. André looked back to the shut door and turned away fully.

"Not for our lifestyle. I'm doing as much work at church as I can, but with Tori on bedrest, she had to cancel her interviews and appearances, forcing us to live off just my income and her passive income. And I only make maybe 100,000 a year. And her passive income is like 300,000 a year. So, for the next 6 or 7 months, we are going to have to live off our emergency budget, until Tori is back in the studio," André nervously answered. Noah practically choked on his drink, hearing that.

"Dude, 33k a month? For a family of 6? I think you'll be okay," Noah chuckled. André had been used to a such a certain life style that he couldn't see, that making less than a million dollars a year was normal. "Julie and I are a family of four together only making 130,000 a year. You guys should be good for those 6-7 months," he smirked. "Anyways, the gender. You hung up before we found out? Am I getting a niece or a nephew?" The excited uncle asked. André wasn't sure if Tori wanted him to announce yet and decided to just nod.

"Yes,"

—

In the backyard, Tori and Abiah leaned against the short fence that looked into the valley. "Bean, I'm sorry, about before," Tori apologized. "I shouldn't have been so tough on you," she said. Abiah rolled her eyes.

"You weren't tough on me. Tough, I can handle. You've been tough my entire life. You were mean to me. You made me feel stupid," Abiah corrected. Tori's heart twinged a bit.

"That was never my intent. I hope you can forgive me. I was trying to get you to see that this baby is no joke. Once she or he is here, they are here to stay," Tori replied, pushing a piece of Abiah's hair behind her ear.

"Mommy! I—" she fumes before calming down. "I know that. I don't want my child anywhere else. I love my baby. And I'm ready for whatever the world has to say, but with my family, I wasn't ready. You guys were sickeningly supportive when he attacked me," Abiah grimaced, "but as soon as the stick turned everyone wanted to forget that this baby is victim too. You know that today, Iriella, was the first person to ask me a normal baby question. And I couldn't even give her a straight answer because I'm paranoid," Abiah said, wrapping her arms around herself from the chill. "You guys ask where the baby will sleep, and I want to say with me. Not because of money or cribs or whatever, but because I know my separation anxiety is going to kick into high gear when they come. You guys ask how I'm going to have a boyfriend and work and school and be a mom. And the truth is Malik is the only part of my life that feels normal, so he may be around a while or with my new normal he may not be. But, I'm prepared to let my relationship fall on the back burner if it means my baby has a good future. And I know, my room is a mess, but I don't have the energy or time to clean it. It's too much and at this point, I'm overwhelmed. I don't know whether or not I'm going to get an epidural, because I don't know how much pain I'll be in or if I will have time. All of these things will factor into my decision, if I don't get scheduled for a c-section, because I'm too small and it's too big. Basically, all I'm trying to say is, that the questions you ask are fine, but the tone is what kills me. I'm trying. I've only been doing this for a month. Give me some time to adjust," Abiah begged. Tori could see that her daughter had done some research, but she needed her maternal instincts to kick in. And she knew it wasn't an over night process, she just wished someone had been that tough on her with Abiah to realize all her needs come second to baby. With her first two pregnancy she spent too much time focused on herself, that one child died and the other one came way too early.