Boy Next Door

Happy Halloween

"You're so fucking adorable," Shawn mused as Camila came out of their room in black sweatpants and a black crop top that exposed her belly. "Come here, sit down." Shawn already had dollops of the orange and black acrylic paint poured onto a paper plate. Picking up the soft paintbrush, he dipped it into the orange paint and began to paint a large circle on her stomach.

"It's really cold," Camila giggled.

"Sorry," he shyly chuckled. "I'll try to be quick." When he finished painting the large orange circle on her stomach, he briefly waited for it to dry before picking up a smaller brush and painting on the black lines—careful to not get any paint on his Toronto Raptors jersey that he had gotten his senior year of high school. "There!" he said proudly as he set the brush down. "It's perfect. Now stay here until it's dry; I'm not going to allow my masterpiece to be tampered with." Shawn furrowed his brows when he saw Camila's face contort in pain. "Braxton Hicks again?" Camila nodded.

"It's like they're teasing me at this point. My uterus knows how badly I want to give birth so it keeps putting me through false labor."

"I'm sorry babe. Anything I can do to help?"

"No, I'm okay. Hopefully the trick-or-treaters will be enough of a distraction for me to keep my mind off of the pain." Just as she finished her sentence there was a knock on the door. "Speaking of..."

Shawn walked over and opened the door to a little girl who couldn't have been more than three years old and her parents.

"Twick-o-tweat!" she said excitedly. Shawn chuckled and grabbed some candy to give her.

"Well aren't you just the cutest little fairy I've ever seen! Happy halloween, honey." He put a few pieces of candy in her basket and shut the door.

"Next Halloween we're gonna have a little one to dress up..." Camila sighed happily.

"Woah, that's crazy to think about." He walked over and sat next to her on the couch as she waited for her painted bump to finish drying. "I know that a one year old isn't going to be eating a bunch of Halloween candy, but I say we take them trick-or-treating anyways and then cash in on their bounty."

"Are you suggesting we literally steal candy from a baby?" Camila laughed. "Because honestly, I'm down."

"We wouldn't be stealing it. I'm pretty sure that until they turn 18, their Halloween candy is legally ours." Camila just shook her head and laughed.

"Whatever you say, baby."

They spent the next few hours answering the door to adorable kids in even cuter costumes and passing out candy. Shawn's personal favorite was two twin boys who seemed to be about eight years old dressed as a toilet and toilet paper, whereas Camila's favorite was a five year old girl who had dressed up as Selena Quintanilla.

Camila's Braxton Hicks contractions hadn't let up at all, but at this point she could handle them pretty well. Towards the end of the night, though, they started getting more painful. Camila checked the time. It was 10:00. The amount of trick-or-treaters showing up to their door had slowed down quite a bit, so she decided to bail early and take a shower while Shawn waited to pass out candy to any last kids who might've shown up.

Camila stood in the shower, carefully cleaning off the paint residue from her stomach. She lathered up her loofah with body wash and began to wash off her body when she felt another painful contraction course through her uterus. Before she could even fully process the idea that maybe this wasn't just false labor, a gush of liquid fell from between her legs and onto the shower floor. Immediately, the pain went from bad to excruciating. She tried to call out for Shawn, but the pain ripping through her body was instantly so intense that she couldn't bring herself to get anything out. The pain finally subsided for a few brief seconds, which she quickly took advantage of and called out for her boyfriend. Within seconds, Shawn was bursting into the bathroom.