End of the Line
Page 23
Never in my entire life did I want to watch a woman go through birth! God! Where did women get that strength to almost break a male's hand out of no where? I couldn’t believe Lauren dragged me into helping her. I mean, come on, child birth was a girl thing unless it’s your own child! Not only did she drag me into this chaos, she left me out here with this mess! There was no way I was cleaning that.
“You never told me your name.”
I turned around to look at the woman just to spin back around. I so didn’t want to watch a woman breast feed! The act of breast feeding a baby just made me uncomfortable and grossed me out. I walked in on my aunt breast feeding my cousin when I was eight; that image never left me as much as I wanted it to.
“The name’s Aaron.”
“My name’s Jackie. How about you knock on the door for Lauren to speed it up?”
I just nodded my head, unable to say another word. I could hear the shower water turn off. Two minutes later, Lauren came out with a fluffy bathrobe tied tightly around her. I knew she had lost a lot of weight over the last few months. Being sick at the beginning of our journey and not having real time to recover left her small and fragile that I had noticed the second I came back. Each of the three times she was thinner than the time before.
“I hope you don’t mind me borrowing—”
“Not at all. You washed your clothes, didn’t you?” Jackie cut off Lauren.
“Yes—”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Lauren was just wearing a bathrobe then. Don’t think that way, Aaron. You’ll scare Lauren! Don’t think that way right after what you just watched! Watching a live birth can act as the best form of birth control on a seventeen-year-old guy.
“Jackie, not to be rude, but I think we’ll sleep in the other room to give you some space,” Lauren said, her arms crossed firmly over the seam of the sides of the robe as her eyes were where the others were.
“Okay, whatever suits you.” Jackie shrugged still watching the child in her arms.
Lauren walked into the room where the others were sat quietly. I wondered why she seemed like she wasn’t really there. She was distant. Even when she seemed out of it, she was still driving my body crazy.
“Hey, Sean, guys, let’s get some sleep.”
She knelt down and helped the others get tucked in under a blanket on the floor. I watched as she fiddled with robe to keep it closed and I wanted to laugh at her. Quickly, everyone got close in order to fall asleep while Cole kept quiet moving closer to where Lauren sat. He was nearer than he normally would be. Cole was silent as he smirked at me as if he won something. I glared at Cole as I kept an eye on him most of the night. There was something unsettling about him and I truly did not want him near Lauren especially in her current wardrobe.