We're Getting There // A.I

Chapter 16 // Ethanette

June 20 : 144 days till due

~Charlie~

"I'M TOO YOUNG TO BE AN UNCLE!" Casper cries, pulling at his cheeks and making Lily laugh.

After dinner had I decided to tell the remainder of my siblings I was pregnant. Unsurprisingly, they all took it remarkably better than Michael and my mother did, but the bar was already low. I mentally tick them off my list of people to tell.

Ethan laughs quietly behind his hand, and I remember how much he hates to talk. Casper does enough talking for them both though, so it's alright.

"Does that mean I'm gonna be an aunt?" Lily asks as Michael pulls her up into his shoulders. She laughs as she rests her legs across his chest, and Michael grins.

"Yeah it does" I say, looking down at my hands.

"I can't believe you're pregnant" Casper says. "We don't even know the guy."

I frown and nod. They don't know Ashton. Maybe they never will.

"Twins, too!" Casper continues. "Like me and Ethe, that's fuckin cool. Me and him can like, look after your babies and shit."

"That's not gonna happen" I laugh, leaning back in my chair and then pointing a stern finger at him. "And don't swear like that in front of Lily."

"He swears all the time, I'm just about used to it" Lily says, nodding her head and causing her dark fringe to flop into her eyes.

My pocket vibrates and instinctively I go to check it, not even thinking about who it could be.

From:
Ashton

10:32
is it really weird that

10:32
i love you so much that even when im drunk i still feel it?

10:33
like does that mean i love you like real love

10:33
i don't know

10:33
i love you, anyway

10:33
tell the twins i said hi from Dad

I turn my phone off angrily. It would be so much easier to hate Ashton if he was a horrible person, which sometimes I wish he was, if only to justify the frustration I was feeling. Why can't he just leave me alone? I don't know.

"So do you have names picked out?" Lily asks. Everyone leans in curiously and I blanch.

I cough. "Um, no, not really."

"Okay, if it's two boys, call them Casper and Ethan. Two girls, Casperette and Ethanette. One boy, one girl, Casper and Eth-" Casper blabbers, until Ethan reaches across and cups his hand over his twin brother's mouth.

Suddenly Ethan smile-grimaces and retracts his hand, shaking it out and laughing at Casper who must have licked his palm.

"I think it's time for me to go to bed" I sigh, trying get up from the chair but finding it harder than I thought it was gonna be. Ethan helps me up and I laugh a self-depreciating laugh, saying goodnight and padding off to where my room used to be.

I turn on the light and lean against the doorway, surprised that I'm not surprised my Mom turned it into a yoga room. My bed is now a suncouch, shoved up against a window with tons of beady cushions and pillows on it. Posters that remind me of the Hippy 101 class me and Ashton went to hang up on the wall and I don't want to cry but I feel like I might. All my old things are probably in boxes now, and my eyes prick painfully.