by Beth Maria
Now, there aren’t many people who can scare me with a threat, but Jesse is one of them. I’ve seen what that guy can do, and to be quite honest, I really don’t fancy being on the receiving end, ever. “Very clear.”
“I’m planning on asking Maisie to marry me on our anniversary. I’ve already bought the ring and hidden it in a safe place where I know that she won’t find it. It’s just that when she keeps going on like she has for the past two months, I feel like forgetting my plans and just popping the question so that she will stop nagging me. I’m so close, Jake, and I don’t know what to do.”
He runs his hands down his face, his stress definitely evident.
I move to sit on the edge of the sofa, putting my hands together in my lap. “Look, Jesse, you know how hot headed my sister can be. If she has something on her mind, she will go on and on about it until she knows what’s happening or gets her own way. It’s the way she’s always been, and you know that. That being said, you CANNOT give into her this time. She deserves the best and not a quickly planned wedding, like you said. I’ll get Chloe to have a word with her to make her leave the topic alone until your anniversary. It will be all the more special for both of you when the time comes if it’s a surprise. If she doesn’t like it, well then, she’ll just have to get over that. She can’t be angry with you forever. Eventually she will have to give it a rest and forgive you.”
“I hope you’re right, man, because this is stressing me out. I’ve been trying to dodge her questions, but that just makes her even angrier. Then she questions me more and thinks that I don’t want to be with her. I don’t know what to say to her to make her understand without giving anything away…” he trails off, looking back out the window. Poor guy. It’s all my fault really. If I hadn’t have proposed to Chloe, Maisie would be none the wiser and wouldn’t be pestering Jesse. With that being said though, not for one second do I regret my decision. Maisie is just going to have to be patient.
“Leave that to me. I’ll think of an answer to keep her satisfied.” I wink at Jesse. “All you have to worry about is planning for the day when you actually do propose, and it best be the best damn proposal in the world. Only the best for my little sister,” I tell him seriously, my protective big brother side showing through.
“Please do, and do it fast. I’m pulling my hair out here.”
I stand up, clapping my hands once. “Right, that’s enough of a heart to heart for one day. Go clean yourself up and get dressed. We, my friend, are going to pick up Brandon and Evan, and then we are going to go down to Freddie’s for a drink or two.” Or even more than two- I’ve not had a good drink in weeks, and with the baby due in less than a month, I best have a drink before I’m no longer allowed!
While Jesse goes upstairs to clean himself up, I call Brandon and Evan, telling them to meet us at Freddie’s in an hour. They don’t question why. Brandon probably knows that Jesse’s been stressed, and Evan knows that he will find out later on. Now I just need to figure out what to tell Chloe and Maisie to stop them asking questions, all without giving anything away. This could prove to be tougher than I thought…
****
“We’ll have another four beers please,” I shout to the bartender.
He sets the beers down in front of us, and we all take a swig in unison. The bottles hitting the bar can be heard over the music playing in the background. I stare at the bottle, my vision a little unfocused from the numerous bottles of beer that I’ve already consumed.
“This was a fucking brilliant idea, Jake. I’ve not felt this relaxed in two months!” Jesse slurs, patting my back a little harder than necessary and causing me to lose my balance on the stool that I’m sitting on.
“Jesus, Jesse, how much have you drunk?” Brandon laughs.
“Not e-fucking-nough, my friend. I’m going to get completely obliterated tonight and forget all about my worries. I think I’m going to go dance.” I watch in shock as Jesse stumbles off of his stool and heads in the direction of the makeshift dance floor, and I say makeshift because tables are usually there earlier in the evening.
“He isn’t…” Brandon says to nobody in particular, but voicing all of our thoughts.
The thing is, Jesse NEVER dances. Well, I’ve never seen him dance, except once with Maisie, though it’s a bit different when you’re dancing with a girl than when you’re dancing by yourself. We all know this isn’t going to be pretty.
“Oh yes he is…” Evan says, already laughing at what we’re going to witness.
We all sit in silence, waiting and watching as Jesse stumbles into the middle of the bar. As soon as he comes to a stop, the music changes, and Katy Perry – Dark Horse starts playing. Jesse puts his arms in the air and sways for a bit until the music drops, and then he lifts his shoulders up and down repeatedly while moving side to side.
We all look at each other and burst out laughing, full on belly laughs. Brandon even spits out his beer from laughing so hard!
His arms go back in the air, swaying, and he’s totally lost in the music. I’m sure if he turned around, his eyes would be closed. Then he does the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen him do-he starts doing the sprinkler. THE GODDAMN SPRINKLER! I have seen some hilarious videos of it online, but Jesse doing it right now, pissed out of his face, has to be the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life!
“Someone should video this shit, just so we can torment him for the rest of his life,” Brandon says, pulling out his cell and pointing it in Jesse’s direction.
Brandon’s laughing so hard that his cell is shaking in his hands, but Jesse seems oblivious, carrying on with his dreadful dancing. People who were dancing are now standing to the side, watching with their mouths hanging open. It’s a good thing he isn’t single because I’m sure that if he were, he would have definitely ruined his chances of hooking up for the rest of his life with moves like that!
Thankfully, he stops as soon as the song finishes. He turns around and faces us with the biggest, goofiest smile on his stupid face. I just shake my head and laugh. In the morning, I know he’s going to be pissed at us for not stopping him from making a fool of himself. My reply will be that it was just too damn entertaining to stop!
“I need another drink. That dancing shit is tiring!” Jesse orders another beer, gulping it down in seconds.
“When you do moves like that, you’re bound to be thirsty,” Evan pipes up, raising his eyebrow and trying to keep his game face on. We all stopped laughing as Jesse was making his way toward us. We don’t want him to know that it was funny as shit. When he’s drunk, he thinks he has awesome moves. Who are we to tell him that, in actual fact, it’s just plain embarrassing? We’ll save that for the morning, or maybe accidentally put it online. I need to tell the guys that idea; it’s genius!
“My moves were smoking. Did you see the ladies checking me out? They loved it.” He winks at us.
Brandon and Evan laugh, and I would have too had he not have said that ladies were checking him out.
“Don’t forget that you’re taken by my sister, dipshit,” I tell him seriously.
His head snaps in my direction, but before he can reply my cell rings. I look down at the caller ID and see that it’s Chloe calling.
“Hey, what’s up, baby?” I answer, a smile gracing my face at knowing that I’m going to hear my woman’s sexy voice. Except that’s not what I’m greeted with. I’m greeted with a scream, making me pull the cell away from my ear. What the fuck was that? I think I’ve gone deaf!
“Chloe, what the hell was that for?” I ask, my ear still ringing.
“Jake?” Maisie asks.
“Maisie, what’s all the screaming about?” Why is Maisie calling me from Chloe’s phone, and why is there screaming?
“Jake, you need to get here NOW!” Maisie shouts frantically at me.
“Why, what’s…” Another scream cuts me off. That’s when it hits me. That’s Chloe screaming… I drop my cell and just stare at nothing in particular. This can’t be happening now. We
still have a month left to go. We’re not ready. I need another month, and fuck, I’ve been drinking tonight! This couldn’t happen at a worse time. And those screams… Oh God, they were horrible.
“Hello? Yes, he’s here. He dropped the phone, and now he’s staring into space. Oh my God, what is that…” I roughly hear Evan say.
Silence. Dead silence.
“Yes, I’ll get him there. You call an ambulance, and we’ll meet you there. I think it’s safer as we’ve been drinking and Jake’s in shock right now. I’ll call when we’re outside.”
I hear Evan explaining to everybody what’s happening. I was correct; Chloe’s in labor…
“Buddy, I know that you’re in shock right now, but we need to get you to the hospital fast. You need to snap out of it and be there for your woman. She’s going to need you more than ever tonight, so pull your big girls panties up and get in that car. I’m going to drive you to the hospital,” Evan tells me, his hands on my shoulder, shaking me. I can feel the mental strength that he’s transferring to me.
I snap out of my haze and jump up. That’s when the panic hits me. My fiancé is in labor, and I’m at a bar, semi drunk. I’m not even there to help get her to the hospital. Oh shit, I’m going to be in so much trouble!
“Oh God, this is really it, isn’t it?” I ask nobody in particular, pacing the floor in front of the bar. At this rate, I’m going to have holes in my shoes within a few minutes.
“YES!” They all shout at once, exasperated. That does it. I run out of the doors and straight to Evan’s car. I jump in the passenger seat and wait what feels like forever for the guys to get into the car.
“What took you so long?” I ask impatiently, my whole body jittery with nervous energy.
They just all laugh in reply. Fuckers.
The whole ride to the hospital is silent, for which I’m grateful. My nerves are so shot to pieces right now that I don’t think I could even form a coherent sentence even if I tried. The only good thing is that I’m sobering up pretty fast, so Chloe might not figure out that I’m tipsy, unlike Jesse. Poor guy is sure to get a bollocking from Maisie. She hates it when Jesse drinks too much because he turns into the most annoying drunk after Brandon. Brandon mostly gets aggressive, where Jesse is all embarrassing and affectionate- too affectionate.
“We’re here,” Evan says, snapping me out of my thoughts of Jesse getting his ass kicked.
I turn my focus toward the hospital entrance, the bright lights blinding my eyes. This is it. As soon as I walk in that door, I won’t be coming back out without a baby. A responsibility. Am I scared? Fuck yes! Nobody prepares you for parenthood, but I’m in this for the long haul. I’m just not looking forward to the next few hours and seeing the love of my life in pain.
“Maisie just texted me, letting me know that they’re already on the labor ward. You ready to go and become a father?” Evan smiles at me.
I smile back, genuinely excited to meet my unborn child for the first time. “I’m more than ready.”
Brandon claps me on the shoulder from the backseat before I get out of the car and make my way inside the hospital. I hate the smell, all antiseptic and disgusting microwave hospital food.
I find the reception desk straight away. Rushing up to it, I tell the nurse in a rushed voice, “My fiancé Chloe Reed is in labor.”
“One minute. Let me check what room she’s in… Oh yes, she’s in room 105B, down that corridor and turn left. It’s the second door.” The nurse gives me a welcoming smile before I rush off in the direction that she just sent me.
I nearly fall flat on my ass a few times in the twenty seconds that it takes me to make it to her room. Stopping outside of the door, I square my shoulders and mentally prepare myself for the next few hours. When I feel that I’m ready, I open the door and walk through with the biggest smile on my face, which disappears as soon as I see the image in front of me…
Chapter 18
Chloe
Where is that good for nothing piece of shit that put me in this position? I’m going to kill him when I see him! He should be here with me, holding my hand, so that I can squeeze his and hopefully break his bones, letting him know just a tiny bit of the pain that I’m going through right now, all because of the few minutes of pleasure he gave me. Was it worth it for this excruciating pain? Nope, I don’t think so, though, I’m sure I will change my mind as soon as I see my baby’s face. Until then, I’m going to blame everything on Jake!
Just as the door to the hospital room opens, a contraction tears through my body, feeling as though I’m going to rip in half. I get cramps in both of my legs, making the pain ten times more painful!
My eyes land on the person who walked through the door, and the smile that was on their face drops, their face turning white. Jake just stands there, not making a move to come to my side to help me through this.
“Get. Over. Here. Now.” I growl through gritted teeth, trying to ride my contraction out.
That snaps him out of his shock. He runs over to me and grabs onto my hand, finally allowing me the chance to squeeze his hand to try to alleviate some of the pain.
“Ow, fuck, Chloe. Ease up a little, will you?” My head snaps in his direction, and if death glares could kill, he would be dead right now.
“Are you kidding me?” I near enough scream when the contraction subsides. I know I have a few minutes until the next one, and I welcome the relief, but now I have this moron asking stupid questions. I don’t know if I would rather the contractions than deal with this.
“Baby, you nearly broke my hand.”
“Yes, and because of you, I’m more than likely going to have my vagina ripped open. Do you think that’s going to be pleasant for me?” I ask, my eyebrow raised.
He swallows before replying, “You do what you have to do.”
Good answer.
“Where’s Jesse?”
Crap, I’d forgotten that Maisie was here. When Jake walked into the room looking like a deer caught in the headlights, all my attention turned to him.
“He’s probably at the nurse’s station with Evan and Brandon,” Jake replies vaguely, looking anywhere but at Maisie.
“Why are you not looking at me, Jake? What’s happened?” she asks, noticing his edgy behavior too.
“Oh, erm… Nothing. Everything is fine.” Jake tries to smile, but we both know it’s forced. He’s hiding something.
“If you’re lying to me, Jake, I’m going to cut off your balls as well as Jesse’s.” With that, she storms out of the door, leaving me laughing. I love it when she’s feisty.
“Spill it,” I say, looking at Jake when my laughter has died down.
He sighs. “Jesse is soooo drunk.”
I burst out laughing, however, it soon dies on my lips and turns into a scream when another contraction tears through my body. Shit, I need to push. I NEED TO PUSH!
“WHERE IS THE EPIDURAL THAT I ASKED FOR?” I scream into the room. “Jake, go find out when I’m getting the epidural.” He lets go of my hand, but I grab it again, needing to feel him close to me in my time of pain. “No, please don’t leave me,” I beg.
“Baby, do you want me to stay or go and find a nurse about the epidural?” he asks confused.
Instead of answering, I just start crying. I can’t deal with this pain anymore. I just want it to be over and done with or have a cesarean. Yes, I want that. Now please.
“I want a cesarean, Jake. Go and tell the nurse. I can’t deal with this pain anymore.”
The door opens, and a midwife walks in all smiles. Her smiling is annoying me. Does she not know that I’m not in the mood for being happy? I’m in the worst pain right now, and she wants to smile? Gah!
“How are you feeling, Miss Reed?” the midwife asks, who I found out is named Tina.
“Like I’m giving birth to an elephant. Seriously, this baby is ripping me apart, and I haven’t even given birth yet. I’ve decided I want a cesarean. Let’s get this over and done with,” I tell her, co
mpletely serious.
“Honey, we can’t just give you a cesarean. Your baby is healthy, so you’re just going to have to be strong. It won’t be long now,” she tells me sympathetically.
“Well, can I have an epidural then? I asked another midwife about fifteen minutes ago, but I haven’t gotten it yet.”
“Let’s check how dilated you are first.” She puts gloves on her hands before shoving two fingers up my vagina to test. I hiss through my teeth at how uncomfortable it feels. That’s when another contraction tears through me, faster than the one before. I can’t help it. I automatically push.
“I can feel the baby’s head. You’re ready to give birth.”
“Can I still have the epidural?” I ask.
“No, honey, you’re baby is on its way. I need to get the other midwives.”
She presses a button, and a few seconds later, another four midwives rush through the door.
“She’s ten centimeters dilated, and the baby is crowning. We need to get her prepared,” Tina tells the other midwives.
“This is your fault,” I scream at Jake as another contraction hits me.
“Okay, honey, when you have your next contraction, I need you to push for ten seconds for me, okay?” Tina asks, crouching down in front of me. If I wasn’t in excruciating pain, I might have been a bit embarrassed, but my mom was right- your modesty goes right out the window when giving birth.
“Yes,” I get out through the pain wracking through my body.
“I’m sorry, Princess,” Jake tells me, leaning down and planting a kiss on my forehead. If I wasn’t in so much pain, I would think that it was a sweet gesture. However, he’s the reason that I’m in this pain. I’m never letting his penis anywhere near me after today. Nope, not a chance in hell is he ever getting anywhere near me again!
Before I know it, I’m having another contraction, and I’m pushing. When the contraction subsides, I lean back, completely out of breath and tired, and I’ve only pushed once! Please let this be a quick birth. I can’t do this for hours. I just can’t!