I just simply kissed him, this heat was driving us both wild, and I guess some part of me knew it, but not the sane part. We kissed with a deep intensity, we never had before this moment. When he started to take my shorts off, I didn’t say a word, I simply let him. And the rest happened pretty quickly.
The next morning, I didn’t feel as sore as I had the first time that had happened, and it’s not like I could get pregnant either, because hello, I already was. I sighed, and rolled over into him. He mumbled, “amazing…” under his breath, but was still asleep. This time, when the nausea came, I was better at ignoring it, mostly.
I stared at his face, the strong jaw, the sweet eyelids, with the even sweeter deep green eyes underneath. I stared at that dark brown hair of his, and was swept away with how absolutely lucky I was, even though with that luck came some… consequences.
When he started to really talk in his sleep, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying, I kissed him.
“Charity…” he murmured.
“WHAT!?” I yelled.
He jerked his eyes open, “what’s wrong?” he asked frantically.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT’S WRONG? YOU JUST CALLED ME SOME OTHER GIRL’S NAME! CHARITY?! IS IT SOMETHING WITH THE GIRLS’ NAME MEANING BASICALLY THAT THEY’RE SWEET? IS THAT WHY YOU PICKED ME, HUH?”
He reached over to me, “no, no that’s not it at all!”
“That’s sure what it seems like to me,” I said in a clipped tone.
“Babe, please calm down. It was an accident. I swear to you, I love you and only you, I’ve never loved anyone before you, especially not her!”
“Then why did you say her name, Bentley?” I asked, feeling utterly and completely broken.
He pulled me close to him, stroking my hair, soothing me, “because… my first time was with her. She did much what Joel did to you, she waited until I was too drunk to say no, took me upstairs, and when she was done, she left. I guess I just felt like it was happening all over again, because I had a dream about it.”
“So basically what we did together, brought back memories of when you did it with Charity?”
“Exac-- no. Not like that Serenity!”
“You almost said exactly,” I accused.
“Because I thought you would understand!”
“How can I understand? Did I ever call you Joel? No! Because I love you enough where I wouldn’t want to ever get you confused with a jerk like him!”
“Serenity! It’s just… I never got the chance to have closure with her! That’s why! I mean I’m so totally over her and in love with you, but I liked her a lot!”
“You mean you loved her, don’t you?’
“Yes, well, I thought I did, but I know now that you are my first true love, not her, that stupid girl had nothing on you.”
I got up and slid all of my clothes on, and then I walked out.
He followed after a few minutes, checking to make sure Mom wasn’t out before saying anything, “baby, what we had last night was amazing, more than amazing the perfect moment! Please, please forgive me?” he asked softly.
I turned around with tears in my eyes, “that broke my heart, Bentley,” I said quietly, my voice cracking.
He approached me slowly, and then threw his arms around my waist and held me close, “I’m sorry, baby, I truly am! I won’t ever do it again, I promise I’ll try. I love you and only you. No other girl could ever mean as much to me as you do.”
I sighed, and let him kiss me, “please?”
I took a deep breath, “fine.”
He smiled joyfully and kissed me again. I stepped back from him and grabbed a box of cereal while he stretched, “I really did mean it when I said last night was amazing, Serenity, much better than my first time. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think life gets much better than this,” he smiled at me.
I fought the urge to smile and lost, “yeah, I guess you’re right. Other than me being pregnant anyway.”
He laughed, “I don’t know, if you weren’t pregnant, I probably wouldn’t have ever met you… well, I guess maybe… hmm. That’s food for thought I suppose.”
I laughed, “yeah, I guess.”
He kissed me once on my neck, but stepped away quickly when Mom came in there yawning. “I heard a lot of banging around last night, did you guys?” she asked. I turned away from her so she couldn’t see me blush, “no, not at all,” Bentley and I said at the same time.
“Huh, musta been dreaming then,” she said. I couldn’t believe how… dumb she was! I mean, come on, like she never had in her parents’ house? Whatever, she’d told me as much.
“Maybe,” I said.
She smiled, “hey, can you pour me a bowl?” she asked, when she saw me pouring a bowl for myself.
“Sure, Mom.” I grabbed another bowl from the cabinet, and poured cereal and milk in, and handed it to her, “here you go.”
She smiled gratefully, “well, what are you two going to do today? Since you’re suspended,” she added the last part with a little angry emphasis.
“Think about what bad, shameful children we are, and how I don’t deserve such a wonderful mother, like you,” I told her.
She laughed, “good, we’re on the same page then, so I don’t have to punish you. Other than I do ask that you wash some clothes, please.”
I nodded, “I can do that.”
“And, Bentley, make yourself useful and clean up some, okay?”
I laughed, “Mom, I can do that, too. He’ll help of course.”
She smiled, “alright,” and padded off to the living room to eat her cereal. I sat at the table, “hey, don’t I get some?” Bentley asked.
“Shoulda asked me when I had it out, idiot,” I said playfully.
He grinned, and poured himself a bowl and sat down beside me. We ate in silence. When I was finished, I got up to wash my bowl, and he followed me. I turned around and faced him, his arms had me pinned against the countertop, “what are you doing?” I asked.
He shrugged and kissed me, “getting some sugar for my cereal,” he said, and waggled his eyebrows.
I laughed, “yeah, okay, well, save that for later. I’m busy.”
“With what exactly?”
“Well, I plan on saying goodbye to my mother, and then cleaning the house. What are you going to do today?”
“Watch you, of course,” he joked.
I put my hands on my hips, “I think you better find somewhere else to go if that’s what you really plan on doing,” I said.
He laughed, and put his arms around my waist, “I’ll help you clean, I’ll even help you shower,” he said, waggling his eyebrows again.
“I don’t want you to see my naked,” I said quietly joking.
He smiled, “but I already have.”
“Yeah, keep on talking and you won’t ever again.”
He mimicked a lock and key routine over his mouth, and I laughed a little too loudly, Mom came in, “what’s so funny?”
“Well, he’s a dork,” I said pointing to him, when he let go of me. I took his bowl, and hers, and washed them both.
“Well, I’m going to go get ready for work,” she said, and left for her bedroom.
When she was gone, and Bentley was turned around, I pounced on his back, kissing his neck. He laughed, pulling me around to where he was holding me like a baby, “you’re beautiful, do you know that?”
I blushed, “thank you, Bentley, you’re pretty beautiful, too,” I joked.
He smiled and kissed me sweetly, “I love you, my beautiful Serenity, you’ve brought me so much, I don‘t know if I‘ll ever be the same without you.”
I smiled, and turned serious, “you’d never regret being with me, Bentley? Even if things didn’t turn out the way you want them to?”
He stared at me for a moment, “of course not, but whatever do you mean?”
I shook my head, “nothing, just asking.”
He let me go then, putting the conversation on hold, thank goodness, because Mom walked into the room. “I’ll see you later, you two. Love you,” she said and kissed me on the cheek.
I smiled, “I love you, too, Mom.”
She grinned and left, “well, okay! To the living room!”
He laughed and followed me there. I started to pick up a bunch of wrappers that had been mysteriously left behind, “go get the duster thingy from the closet, Bentley, and the window cleaner too. Oh, and the vacuum.”
“You got it,” he said, saluting me before leaving.
I giggled, and waited until he came back. “Okay, I’m assigning you dusting duty, okay?”
He smiled, “alright, I can do that.”
He took the duster, and started to wipe down the entertainment center, I plugged in the vacuum and started to do that. It was going pretty smoothly, but suddenly, a pain ripped across my abdomen so intense I dropped the vacuum cleaner. Bentley had his arms around me before I could fall all the way to the ground, he turned off the vacuum and laid me down on the sofa, “you okay, baby?” he asked worriedly, staring at me.
I took a few deep breaths, waiting for the pain to subside, “I’m really fine. Nothing to worry about, babe.”
He stared at my face, pushing my hair back, “you really should go to the doctor…”
“No, no, I shouldn’t, okay? I’ll tell you if I need to, alright?”
He took a deep breath, “if you’re sure.”
I nodded, “I’m sure, okay?”
He sighed, “babe, I’m worried about you.”
“I’m fine,” I said, enforcing the fine part, “besides, what’s there to worry about, right?”
He shook his head, “everything.”
I shrugged, “let’s get back to work.” After that, he kept his eyes on me every time he thought I wasn’t looking at him, but I knew he was really worried. We finished cleaning the rest of the house, taking turns on windows. Once we got to my room, he made me take a break then, we didn’t do more than kissing, but that was quite alright with me.
After that, we washed clothes, and watched movies in the living room until lunchtime, when Melanie, Chelsea, and Ryan came over. They told us Joel was coming over later, he was working around the house because his parents were pissed.
We decided we were going to go out to the movies whenever Joel got there, it was weird to see how we were all sorta becoming close. Ryan and Bentley joked around and acted all manly, at one point, Ryan told Bentley to try out for football, “it’s not too late,” he told him.
Bentley glanced at me, “I--I don’t know,” he said.
I nodded, “it’s okay,” I mouthed.
He smiled, “you know… I’ll tell you when we go back to school.”
“Alright, dude, I hope it’s a yeah, we’ll have a beast time.”
He laughed, “yeah, I’ll seriously think about it, though.”
“Can I get y’all something to drink?” I asked them.
They grinned at my fake Southern accent, they all agreed on water. Bentley’s eyes followed me, recalling the incident from other day, “can I help?” he asked me.
I stared into his eyes, “if you want,” because I knew he did.
He nodded, and followed me, I set the glasses out, and he grabbed a few water bottles to pour in. I handled that part, and he helped me carry in two at a time. Melanie stared at me when I sat down, “hey, Serenity? Do you need to take a nap or something? You look tired. You know you have to sleep a lot when you’re pregnant.”
I smiled, “I’ll be fine.”
Bentley slid his arms under me and started carrying me out of the room, “what are you doing!” I exclaimed, hitting him on his shoulder.
He laughed, “that doesn’t affect me, and you need to sleep, babe.”
“You’re embarrassing me!” I wailed, near tears.
We were in my room then, and he laid me on the bed, “babe, are you about to cry?”
I averted my eyes from his searching gaze, he sighed, “look, I’m sorry, but you really do need to sleep. You have to take care of your baby,” he said quietly.
“You don’t think I am,” I accused.
He shook his head, “that’s not it at all! I’m just saying if you don’t get enough rest, you won’t be taking good care of it!”
I sighed and turned over, “fine, just please don’t leave without me, okay?”
He kissed my cheek, and left, shutting the door quietly behind him. This sucked, majorly. Yeah, I know that I should be taking care of my baby and everything, but I don’t want to lose time with friends. Ugh, why did I have to be so young? Why did Joel do this to me? That thought seemed to circle around my head while I drifted off.
I dreamt while I was sleeping. Everyone was there, Bentley, Mom, Melanie, Chelsea, Lillian, Ryan, even Dad. We were in a hospital, I was screaming and pushing, evidently in labor, Bentley was holding one hand, Joel had the other, and Mom was down towards my feet telling me just a few more pushes and we’d be okay. I looked from Bentley to Joel to Mom, to everyone standing at the window outside, I saw Bentley staring at me lovingly, though obviously scared. And I knew, that something was going to happen, it was closing in then.
I looked at Joel, who was staring from me to my mom, but when he saw me looking he gave me a reassuring smile and squeezed my hand, “you can do this, Serenity,” he said softly.
I closed my eyes, screamed, and gave on last push as the room was filled with a screaming bloody thing, had that come out of me? But, I’d never seen something more beautiful. Those eyes! Those deep blue eyes were mine! I noticed that all in a second, before my heart started pounding faster, and faster, I couldn’t breathe and then… I woke up.