Fatherhood, Chapter 1
The urgent beep of her alarm woke Blue
up at exactly 6:30 AM. She forced herself awake with reluctance and
climbed out of bed, patting Alaster's arm as she moved from his side.
As usual, Alaster had stolen the blankets in the night and had them
tangled around his body. He didn't stir, snoring softly against his
pillow. Blue spared him a fond smile as she headed to the bathroom to
shower.
She put on a playlist on her phone, the
volume low, and perched it on the sink, on top of Alaster's giant jar
of hair gel. The sink was mostly overpopulated by Alaster's things,
the hair gel and his facial moisturizer taking up the most space.
Blue's toothbrush and deodorant stick managed to squeeze in behind
the faucet.
Lately, she'd noticed that Alaster
wasn't keeping up with his appearance as diligently as he used to. He
always shaved, of course, something about an aversion to facial hair.
Blue didn't pretend to understand Alaster's habits but up until
recently, he'd always taken meticulous care with his appearance.
Lately, he hardly ever left the apartment, so Blue wondered if that
was why he'd slacked off a bit.
Alaster, of course, went through
spells. Sometimes he functioned fairly well, took relatively good
care of himself and spent time with their circle of friends, as long
as he could get at least a couple of beers out of it. Other times, he
dug himself a hole with his depression and general lack of
confidence, and when that happened, Blue worried about him.
They'd been together for a few years
now, and how they'd gotten together was epic tale in and of itself,
but they'd known each other since high school. Well, in high school
they hadn't exactly known each other. They knew each other's names
but they'd seldom had any reason to interact. He'd been insufferable
in high school and Blue had privately hated him. He was a spoiled
rich kid, pampered in every way, and he'd looked down his nose at
poor kids, kids like Blue.
It wasn't until they'd met each other
as adults that Blue came to understand that Alaster wasn't the
spoiled prince he'd portrayed in school. Well, that wasn't to say he
wasn't spoiled, because he certainly was in many ways. He'd had
anything he could have wanted if it could be bought with money.
Otherwise, suffice it to say that Aster Gwilimen wasn't winning any
Father of the Year awards.
More so than any other person Blue had
ever met, she found Alaster to be a paradox. He was filled up with
such conflicting emotions that at times, Blue wondered how her
boyfriend functioned at all. Sometimes he didn't function. That was
where Blue came in. And she didn't mind. In fact, she liked Alaster
the way he was, surly and moody and sometimes unbearably sad or
brimming over with anger. Yeah, he needed someone to look out for
him. That was fine. She could bring home the bacon, and they were
happy. Their relationship wasn't perfect but they were both
comfortable with it.
After she'd showered and dried her
hair, plating it in its usual braid, she got dressed for work. There
wasn't really a dress code at the coffee shop where she worked, so
her attire was casual. A nice pair of blue jeans paired with her her
black combat boots and a red T-shirt with a Shakespeare quote on the
front. “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” Shadow had
given the shirt to her as a joke for her birthday.
Dressed, she turned her attention to
her slumbering boyfriend. She didn't waste time trying to shake him
awake, just grabbed the blankets and yanked them off of him, dumping
them on the floor. Alaster groaned and cursed, curling in on himself
for warmth.
“Up and at 'em,” Blue told him
firmly. “It's time to eat breakfast.”
She was trying to make sure he ate
better. During the day, she was at work and couldn't make sure he had
lunch, so instead she woke him up to eat breakfast before she left.
He hated this – he wasn't a morning person by any stretch of the
imagination – but he'd been slowly getting used to the routine.
Routine was good, he responded well to routine, and Blue liked having
a routine herself.
It's just like having a kid, she
thought to herself as she headed to the kitchen to start the meal.
She frowned and immediately pushed that thought to the back of her
mind.
Her roommate Roger was already in the
kitchen, sipping at a cup of tea and scanning the morning news on his
tablet. He greeted Blue with a nod when she walked in, which she
returned before starting a pot of coffee for herself and Alaster.
Coffee had to be administered to Alaster first thing in the morning
or he'd be useless for the rest of the day.
“Has Sleeping Beauty awoken?” Roger
asked. His relationship to Alaster was a bit strained but Roger and
Blue had roomed together since college.
“Oh, he'll get his ass up, he knows
what'll happen to him if he doesn't,” Blue replied. She took out
the ingredients for pancakes and started to mix up the batter.
“Besides, it's pancakes this morning.”
“Again?” Roger heaved a sigh.
“Didn't we have pancakes for dinner?”
“He'll eat pancakes,” said Blue,
and that was the end of it. If it meant Alaster would eat without
complaint, Blue would make pancakes for every meal. The man was too
skinny, and when left to his own devices, he often just forgot to
feed himself. “You got a hot date tonight, Rog?”
Roger hummed a confirmation. “Well,
he's a solid seven, anyway. And he's taking me to that fancy place
that just opened, over in the downtown. We'll see. The last guy that
took me someplace expensive expected me to pay the bill.”
Tutting in dismay, Blue set about
frying pancakes and bacon. The scent of the food wafted through the
room, and Blue wasn't surprised when Alaster shuffled in, still
looking half-asleep but at least dressed in pants and a shirt. He
slumped down in a chair at the kitchen table.
“Morning, Glory,” remarked Roger
with a smirk.
Alaster flipped him the bird but didn't
otherwise respond.
Blue took out a large pottery mug from
the cabinet and filled it with black coffee. This, she sat in front
of Alaster, and she prodded his shoulder with one finger until he
straightened up and took a sip.
“I need you to clean the apartment
while I'm gone,” Blue said, fixing her boyfriend with a look that
brooked no argument. “It won't take you long if you just do it. Oh,
and reorganize all your crap on the bathroom sink. Okay?”
“Whatever, whatever,” Alaster
muttered. He perked up a bit more when she sat a plate of pancakes
and bacon in front of him. “I'm sure I'll get to it.”
While Blue was less confident than
Alaster about whether or not he would get around to it, she knew she
wasn't going to get more confirmation than that. He would probably do
it, but it wasn't in his nature to be helpful or cooperative,
especially when it came to household chores. Growing up, his family
had a maid to do the cleaning and cooking. Alaster had never really
learned how to take care of himself.
“I'll be back by six,” she said,
even though she was always back by six. “Don't just vegetate in
front of the TV all day. Promise?”
“Yep,” he replied between mouthfuls
of pancake.
“And drink some orange juice.” She
poured him a glass of said orange juice and sat it next to his plate.
“Take a shower too. Your hair is getting greasy.”
She hurried to eat her own breakfast
and leave the apartment by 7:30. Her commute to the coffee shop was
short in her car, but she liked to be punctual. After she'd gathered
up the breakfast dishes and deposited them in the sink, she leaned
down to kiss him goodbye. When she pulled back, she wrinkled her
nose. “Brush your teeth.”
This morning, he looked okay. Once he
cleaned himself up a bit, he'd be fine. Nonetheless, as she headed
out the door, she turned back and reminded him, “Call me if you
need to.”
–
“You're spoiled,” Roger remarked
when Blue had left.
“I noticed that you also ate
pancakes, Roger,” Alaster muttered in response, shooting the man a
glare. “Fuck off, it's too early for your shit.”
“I've been meaning to ask if I can
borrow some eyeliner,” said Roger.
Alaster groaned and pinched the bridge
of his nose. “I don't have any eyeliner.”
“Oh? Did you run out?”
“I don't wear eyeliner, please shut
up.” Alaster didn't like to think about the brief period in time
when he actually had worn eyeliner. He pretended it never happened,
for the most part, but Roger teased him about whenever the
opportunity arose. Because Roger was a giant dick. “When are you
moving out, Roger?”
“When are you moving out, Alaster?”
Roger retorted. “I actually pay rent to live here, you know.”
Great, another lecture about what a
deadbeat he was. Alaster took his coffee and made his way to the
living room, where he made himself comfortable on the couch and
ignored Roger's presence. He was slowly waking up, with the aid of
the strong black coffee Blue had perked for him. Although he didn't
see the point in being awake at this hour.
“You could help out with the rent
instead of letting your girlfriend pay for everything,” Roger
called from the kitchen persistently. “You know, maybe get a job?
Novel concept for you, I know.”
“Don't you have work to fuck off to?”
Alaster questioned. “Goodbye, Roger.”
He hated it when Roger got up on his
high horse about how little Alaster contributed to things. Alaster
was well aware that he was basically a drain on Blue's resources, but
their relationship was in a good place, regardless. The last thing
Alaster needed was to spend the rest of the day feeling sorry for
himself about his inability to hold down a steady job.
Today he had an AA meeting. The venue
was within walking distance so Alaster didn't need a car to get
there, but he hadn't convinced himself to go yet. It wasn't until
later in the afternoon, at any rate. He'd have to have a beer before
he went, else he'd never be able to sit through the whole meeting.
But if he went, he could tell Blue that he'd left the house today,
and that would probably make her happy.
“Try not to set anything on fire,”
Roger said as he grabbed his car keys and headed out the door.
The dude was still pissed that Alaster
had accidentally burned a hole in the couch upholstery a while back.
It hadn't really caught on fire, just kind of melted because Alaster
had dropped a cigarette on it. He wasn't supposed to smoke those
inside anyway, so Roger had been livid. Alaster did not give a fuck
about Roger's feelings. Eventually, he was confident Roger would come
to understand this and finally move out.
Then again, if Roger moved out, he'd
probably take the couch with him, which would be a shame. Alaster
liked the couch.
A couple of hours later, he was two
episodes into some show on Netflix called Orange is the New Black. It
was oddly addicting. He was starting to get into it when his
cellphone rang. His sister's name appeared on the screen and Alaster
rolled his eyes before answering it with a grumpy, “What do you
want?”
“Alaster,” Fae's voice filtered
through the speaker. “I'm just checking in. How are you?”
“I'm fine. You interrupted my show.”
Alaster hated when she did this, monitoring him like a child left
home alone.
“Sorry about that,” said his
sister. “I wanted to remind you that I'm going to be out of town
for a couple of days. Blue said you'd be alright, but I'm about to
leave now and I wanted to make sure you didn't need anything before I
go.”
“Go, have fun, I'm fine,” Alaster
said, as he'd told her when she first told him about her trip. “I'm
fine.”
“Have you eaten today?” Fae asked.
Honestly, she treated him like an invalid.
“Pancakes,” he said, resorting to
one word answers now.
“Wonderful,” she said, sounding
pleased. “Take care of yourself and give my regards to Blue. Love
you.”
Alaster hung up the phone and tossed it
down on the couch. He looked down at himself and considered that if
he was going out to an AA meeting today, he did need to clean up.
Blue had asked him to take a shower anyway, and even though he'd
gotten lax about it with how much time he spent at the apartment
these days, he did like to be clean. He touched his face, noting that
his skin was a bit dry. A shower and a shave was something to do, at
any rate, to fill up the too long day until Blue came home from work.
The woman had seemed a bit stressed
lately, and Alaster figured it was probably his fault somehow. While
he largely assumed that Blue got what she expected out of their
relationship and didn't worry about it, he did prefer it if she was
happy with him. If he took a shower and went to AA, she'd probably be
very happy.
Once he'd showered and redressed, and
of course shaved and carefully gelled his hair, he headed out,
cramming his phone, cigarettes and keys to the apartment in his
pocket. It was still several hours until time for the meeting, but
now that he had it in his head that he wanted to go out, he was too
antsy to wait around. Besides, he needed a smoke and didn't want to
hear Blue and Roger bitching if they came home and the apartment
smelled like cigarettes.
It was not that Alaster had never
gotten a job, despite what Roger had implied. In fact, he'd been
through dozens of them. His most recent job, which he'd been fired
from about four months ago, had been as a bartender. He'd done well
at that one, to his own surprise as well as his family's, but being
around that much alcohol all of the time had eventually become a
temptation he couldn't resist. Skimming liquor had not been what got
him fired. Making a habit of getting trashed halfway through his
shift hadn't pleased his employers very much.
That job had paid pretty good, while he
had it, but Blue had been relieved when Alaster mustered up the
courage to tell her that he'd been fired. After that, she'd told him
to just stay home. She had been promoted to manager of the coffee
shop, which was doing quite well, and while a second income could
have made things a little more comfortable, they weren't in dire need
of it.
Still, it meant he didn't have much
money to spend on his vices. He hadn't gone out to a bar by himself
since getting fired. Blue included a fair amount of alcohol in the
grocery budget, which meant there was usually something to drink in
the house. Otherwise, Alaster had what could only be described as an
“allowance” that Blue gave him for cigarettes. She didn't like
him smoking them, and was vocal about this, but she didn't try to
stop him.
Outside the apartment, he lit up a
cigarette and considered this. It would be nice to have his own money
again. Working sucked ass, but he didn't like letting Blue take care
of everything. His father would probably have mocked him for letting
a woman take care of him. Alaster wasn't even sorry the old bastard
was dead. Well, he was a little sorry for getting smashed before the
funeral and embarrassing the fuck out of Fae and Blue, but neither of
them had liked Aster any more than he did.
He took a long drag on the cigarette
and stared down at his shoes. The black and white Chuck Taylor's were
starting to wear out. He'd need a new pair soon. If he had a job,
even one that only paid minimum wage, he could afford to buy them
himself. But there were only so many jobs that Alaster, as a high
school dropout, stood a chance of actually getting.
Well, there was plenty of time before
the meeting. He could walk around town and maybe apply at a few
places, or at least pick up the applications. He smirked at the
thought of Blue coming home to find him filling out job applications.
She'd probably think something was seriously wrong with him. It would
be worth it just to see the look on her face. It wasn't like he had
anything better to do, unless he stopped by a bar, which probably
wasn't a good idea before an AA meeting.
He wasn't sure why he still went to AA
meetings. He always sat in the back and refused to talk, but for some
reason, he didn't hate it. Maybe it reminded him that if he really
did hit rock bottom, he had somewhere to go.
All in all, Alaster wasn't unhappy with
things as they were, even if he did feel a bit guilty for not being
the most helpful partner to Blue. He'd been a lot lower than this
plenty of times. Besides, he and Blue were good, even if some of
Blue's friends (Roger) thought things could be better. Blue didn't
let Roger's opinions sway her decision to be with Alaster, and Blue
knew what she was doing, mostly.
Maybe he'd buy her some flowers while
he was out. Women loved flowers, even Blue, though she pretended to
be indifferent to such displays of affection. Flowers and job
applications, he decided, would be a rare treat for her. He wasn't
the most attentive boyfriend most of the time, and that wasn't going
to change, probably, but a gesture like this was within his
capabilities.
It was mild and sunny outside today,
the perfect day for a walk. He could even walk all the way to the
local Walmart and buy his preferred brand of cigarettes, which were
not available at the nearest gas station. His current pack was his
fallback brand, which he still liked, so it wasn't a necessity but he
could reward himself for being productive.
If nothing in his life changed, if he
just lazed around Blue's apartment waiting for her to come home every
day, that was fine. It sort of surprised him to realize that he was
comfortable. Occasionally, depression made things a bit more
difficult, and Blue wanted him to see a therapist and talk about shit
with a professional, but he was fine. As long as Blue was around, he
was fine.
–
Two hours before her shift ended,
Blue's cellphone rang. She was in the middle of filling an order but
when she saw it was Alaster calling, she handed the order off to Zi
and let her handle it. Being a manager was stressful at times, but at
least it afforded her the freedom to drop things and deal with Al if
he needed something. She tried not to think about how much harder
things could potentially get in the near future.
Barricading herself in the back, she
answered the phone and raised it to her ear. “What's up, babe?”
“Can you come pick me up?”
Alaster's words were just a little slurred and Blue immediately
surmised that he'd been drinking. Also, if he was asking her to pick
him up, it meant that he'd gone out. As much as she wanted to be
happy that the man had gone out on his own for a change, it mostly
just made her worry.
Blue sighed and considered reminding
him that she was still at work and this was an inconvenience. But she
wanted him to feel safe about calling her when he needed help. It had
been a while since he'd gone out and gotten too drunk to go home on
his own. She preferred leaving work early to go get him over letting
him try and figure it out on his own. He wouldn't call Fae, and
wasn't close enough with any of their other friends to feel
comfortable making such a request.
“Where are you?” she asked instead,
reminding herself that Zi and Artemis were both in right now and
could handle things without her.
“That bar down the road from
Walmart,” he replied.
“Wow, that's... How did you get
there?” Blue was nonplussed. Alaster didn't have a car at present
and was not known for exerting much physical effort. She envied his
metabolism that kept him skinny as a rail, whereas she had a moderate
exercise routine to help her keep her figure, such as it was. “Did
you walk?”
“Got bored,” he replied. “Had an
AA meeting.”
Aside from the fact that Blue knew
where his AA meetings were held, and he was quite a way off route,
Blue was prepared to congratulate him for making the effort. “Oh,
you went to your AA meeting. That's good.”
She heard him sigh on the other line.
“Yeah, didn't actually make it that far.”
So, he hadn't gone to his AA meeting.
Blue frowned but fussing at him over the phone wasn't going to help.
She grabbed her bag from her locker and slung it over her shoulder
before grabbing her time card to clock out. “Right. Just stay where
you are, I'll come and get you.”
It wasn't that she was unhappy with
Alaster at present. If she didn't like how he was, she wouldn't have
stayed with him for so long. It was just that, even after all these
years, he was still a kid. He was two years older than her and about
as capable of taking care of himself as the average teenager. She
wasn't sure he'd ever be ready to be a parent.
“I have to go get Alaster,” she
told her coworkers when she came back to the front. “You two can
take care of things, right?”
“Sure,” chirped Zi with a bright
smile. Artemis rolled her eyes but otherwise didn't comment. They
were reliable employees and Blue didn't often push too much
responsibility on them, so she didn't feel bad about it. She just
wondered how everything was going to work when Alaster was no longer
the only responsibility that called her away from work.
When she pulled up at the bar about ten
minutes later – it was a relatively short drive from the coffee
shop – she was prepared to withhold judgment. She reminded herself
that it was good that Alaster had left the apartment without her
having to force him to do it.
He was sitting on a bench just outside
the establishment, wearing dark sunglasses and smoking a cigarette.
Pulling the car up next to the sidewalk, she rolled her window down
and peered out at him.
“If you're hiding from the paparazzi,
I think you're doing it wrong,” she called out to him.
Instead of answering, he heaved himself
up from the bench and carefully made his way over to the car. His
cigarette was still burning between his fingers as he plopped down in
the passenger's seat.
“Can you put that out?” Blue
gestured to the cigarette.
Alaster looked surprised by the request
and flicked the cigarette out the window without arguing.
“Where'd you get the sunglasses?”
Blue asked. He didn't make a habit of wearing sunglasses, though
she'd seen him do it on occasion when they were younger. As far as
she knew, he didn't currently own a pair.
“Walmart,” he replied.
“Walmart?” she echoed, surprised
he'd gone all the way to Walmart. It was a long walk. “You bought
yourself sunglasses?”
“No,” he said, scowling.
She sighed. “You shoplifted
sunglasses from Walmart?”
“It's fucking Walmart,” he said
testily. “I paid for the cigarettes.”
At least that explained where the
sunglasses had come from. She didn't approve, of course, but it
wasn't the worst thing he'd ever done.
“And then you went to the bar and got
drunk?” she asked for clarification.
“Yes. Don't... Don't lecture me.
Walmart sucked, I needed a drink to recover.”
“And why did you go to Walmart?”
“To pick up a job application. Is
there a fucking problem with that?”
She blinked at him in surprise. “You
went to Walmart for a job application? Why the fuck would you do
that?”
Her companion fell silent, sullenly
crossing his arms to indicate that he didn't want to talk about it.
“Did you get one? A job application?”
she asked.
“No. Fuck Walmart, I'm not working
there.”
“You don't have to work anywhere.”
She'd told him this before. She felt guilty, because she'd been
thinking about suggesting that he get a job. He couldn't have known
that, so it wasn't her fault that he'd gone on this insane mission to
Walmart, but still. “I'd rather you got drunk at home if you're
going to get drunk, you know.”
Which he was. Going to get drunk, that
was. Which was fine, provided he wasn't wandering around town while
he was drunk, potentially getting in a fight that he was definitely
going to lose or getting robbed or what have you. She was a little
ashamed to admit that she liked him when he was drunk, usually. He
was less uptight when he had something in his system, under normal
circumstances.
“Can you take those sunglasses off?”
She reached over with one hand and pulled them off his face. His face
was rosy from alcohol and his eyes were bloodshot. He glared at her
and snatched the sunglasses back but hooked them on the collar of his
shirt instead of putting them back on. “How drunk are you?”
He waved a hand dismissively. “Not
that drunk. Dizzy. I took too many shots.”
“How many?”
“Is this an interrogation?” He was
clearly in a bad mood. “I went out to get job applications. Walmart
was awful, so on the way back, I stopped at the bar. And I lost track
of time and missed my meeting.”
On the one hand, she wanted to just
tell him it was fine and not to worry about it. But eventually he was
going to have to learn not to do this stuff to himself. What was
going to happen when Alaster had someone else relying on him to stay
sober? She bit her bottom lip. He was a good man, even though he
still did stupid stuff like this on occasion. She loved him
unconditionally, and was confident that he loved her too. If things
could just stay the way they were at present, it would be fine.
Alaster seemed unhappy for reasons
other than taking too many shots and getting dizzy. She'd have to get
to the bottom of it, but that would need to wait until he sobered up.
They drove the rest of the way back to
the apartment in silence. Alaster slammed the door a little harder
than necessary when he got out of the car, and he walked several
steps ahead of Blue to the elevator, sticking his sunglasses back on
when they passed one of their neighbors, an elderly woman who looked
at Alaster with thinly veiled disapproval.
“Hello, Mrs. Sink,” Blue greeted as
she and Alaster stepped into the elevator to go up to their floor.
The elevator doors closed and Alaster
muttered, “I hate that nosy old bat.”
“Those sunglasses make you look like
you're hiding a shiner or something,” Blue said. “People are
going to think I beat you.”
Alaster's scowl become more pronounced.
He looked down at his feet and muttered something that Blue couldn't
make out. The elevator reached their floor and Alaster was out of it
as soon as the doors opened.
“What did you say?” Blue asked as
she followed him. “I couldn't hear you.”
He huffed in irritation. “I said I'm
sorry.”
“Oh. Well. Don't be, it's no big
deal.” Blue fished out her keys and unlocked the door. She
considered that she could leave Alaster here and go back to work, but
it didn't seem worth the gas money. Besides, she felt like Alaster
probably needed some company.
“It fucking is a big deal, you
shouldn't have to put up with my shit.” He finally took the
sunglasses off when they stepped into the apartment, and he kicked
the door shut behind them. “I'm a fucking mess and I don't know why
you stick around.”
Blue couldn't help rolling her eyes.
“It's my apartment, so I'm not going anywhere. And if I kicked you
out, you'd have to go crash on Fae's couch, or, I don't know, be
homeless. Besides, we've talked about this. I want you around, Al.”
“Why? Why do you want me around? What
goes on in that head of yours that makes you think staying with me is
a good idea?” Alaster threw his hands up in the air. “I try and
try to understand it but it just doesn't make any sense to me. I'm an
asshole to you, your friends don't like me, you have to take care of
me and pay all the bills, I drink too much and I ruined Roger's couch
because I was too lazy to go outside to smoke a cigarette. And you're
telling me that I'm the person you want to spend the rest of your
life with?”
He was out of breath by the time he
finished and Blue was torn between amusement and concern.
“Still a little drunk, aren't you?”
She put a hand on his arm and directed him towards the couch. “Just
relax and I'll bring you some water. You're getting yourself all
worked up over this and it's hardly worth worrying about.”
“Just tell me why,” he insisted,
grabbing her hand in a desperate grip.
“Well hell, I don't know,” she
replied, shaking her head. “You're right, you are a pain in the
ass. But it's fine, you know? I don't mind. We fit well together,
don't we? Plus, I think you're hot.”
The fight seemed to go out of him, but
he pouted a bit as he let go of her hand. “So you're just using me
for my body?”
“What else am I going to use you
for?” Blue headed into the kitchen and set about preparing them an
early dinner.
“Fair.” Alaster shuffled over to
the couch and sat down on it heavily. “I had a plan, you know. I
was going to get job applications and flowers and go to my AA
meeting.”
“Why were you getting flowers to take
to your AA meeting?” Blue arched an eyebrow at him, perplexed.
He scowled back at her. “For you,
woman.”
An incredulous laugh escaped her.
Alaster had been planning to buy her flowers? It wasn't the sort of
thing that he usually did. Maybe he was growing up a bit after all.
Aside from getting drunk in the middle of the day.
“Don't laugh!” Alaster's whole face
turned red, to the very tips of his ears. “I swear, I'm never
buying you flowers again.”
“You didn't buy any this time,”
Blue pointed out. “Sweetie, that was really thoughtful of you. But
you know I hate flowers, so I have to admit I'm glad you didn't
manage it.”
Alaster huffed in annoyance and flopped
backwards on the couch so that he was staring up at the ceiling. He
was cute when he was in a bad mood. Blue admired him quietly from the
kitchen. Sure, he was immature and, in general, a mess. She couldn't
help loving him anyway. It wasn't that she loved him in spite of his
faults, either. In fact, his faults were as endearing as everything
else about him.
It wasn't until that night, when she
was getting ready for bed, that she let herself think about more
serious matters. In the bathroom, she opened up the sink cabinet
drawer and took out the plastic stick she'd tucked there the day
before, staring down at it with a sigh of exhaustion. It still read
positive. And she still didn't know how to tell Alaster about it.
She dropped it back in and pushed the
drawer shut. No, she decided, now was not the time to tell him.
TBC
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