SEVEN MONTHS LATER

-

So much had happened in the past seven months. Dani gave birth to her and Kevin's daughter, who they ended up naming Winter, a name they both fell in love with. Winter was born a month and a hallf premature and, tragically, died three days into her life. I don't think this was a waste of life. She lived for three days, but the twins had a little sister that they fell in love with. Dani and Kevin experienced the first death they had ever had to witness. Dani told me that those three days were the best and worst days of her life. Everything ends up fitting into place in the long run.

Joe and Taylor weded, February 21st, planned by my mother. It was a beautiful wedding, a real winter wonderland. It snowed in Avon on that day, a rare occurance. The wedding took place in our church in Buxton and the whole town attended. The church looked like we were actually outside, in a snow-covered land, only warm. Little Jack was the ring bearer and the twins were the flower girls. Everything was perfect.

Denise and Paul divorced in May after eighteen years together. We all cried that night, the whole family. But the two have never been happier. Paul moved into his own home, minutes away from the old that he left to Denise. Although Denise took it hard at first, feeling rejected and hurt, she grew as a person and stayed true to her children. Thankfully, Paul and Denise remain close friends, but not lovers.

I guess that leaves Nick and I. After the night I told him that I was pregnant, we hadn't been on good terms. We didn't exactly break up, I'm assuming that we are in Nick's mind, however. Nick changed into a non-caring, ignorant boy with little interest in the world. Not once has he told me that he loved me, he rarely gave me so much as a kiss on the cheek, and conversations were awkward and short. I didn't like it, but there was nothing I could do about it. I remained secluded in my mom's home most of the time, emerging only when asked. I didn't even know who Nick was anymore.

Today was different. I was due to give birth in two months, meaning we had to establish a stable living for the baby. Denise, not knowing of Nick's hatred for me, decided we should move into a home for a family. So today, I dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and waited for Denise and Nick to come by. Denise had a list of homes for sale all over the island, and she decided that we would spend the entire day looking at each and decided which would be the best fit.

"What time are they coming, Mi?" Mom asked, sitting on the couch in her silk pyjamas.

"Denise said seven thirty." I was all dressed and ready to go. I looked at the clock on the stove and as soon as it turned seven thirty, I heard the honk of Denise's car. "Bye, mom. I'll see you tonight some time," I hugged her.

"Okay, call me if you're going to be late or something, sweety."

"Right." I turned to the door and headed for the car, dreading what I would have to do today. For the past seven months, I have worked my hardest to keep it all together. To try and act civilized while Nick acted like an insecure little boy. But I hadn't yet had to spend an entire day with him.

I opened the back door and climbed in next to Nick, who looked outside the window in the other direction, not bothering to even say hello to me. Denise greeted me immediately, "hello, sweetheart! How are you today?"

"I'm fine. How are you?" I asked, tying my hair in a bun.

"I'm great! It's June 1st and the doctors think the baby will be born August 29th. It's coming up so soon, Miles!"

"Hm," was all I responded with. Labor was not something I was looking forward to. Being a mom was not something I was looking forward to. I already had the press calling me a slut for the pregnancy, saying I was so embarassed to show my face that I was hiding away. When I had the baby, they would surely notice all my mistakes and knock me down even harder. And I was only eighteen.

"Have you thought of a name?" She asked.

"No," I said. I was telling the truth. I had put little to no thought into life-after-birth, other than how things would go with the paparazzi, my work and my fans.

"Well, that's fine. I have several that I would like to suggest to you now. For girls: Jessica, Farah, Josephine, or Hailey," I nearly vomited. Those names were from the eighteen hundreds. "For boys: Justin, Mark, Mat or Noah." The only one that stuck out to me was Noah. It was cute, not too out there but not too common. It could suit a young boy and a man and Noah Jones-Stewart had a nice ring to it.

"I like Noah," I told her. I could tell she was mentally jotting that down as she silently repeated 'Miley likes the name Noah' several times to herself.

"And for girls?"

I thought about it. "I'm going to have to think about it," I told her. I looked over at Nick, who was staring blankly out the window, his hands buried in his pockets. His curly hair was definitely over grown and needed a trim. I noticed that he had grown just a little bit taller. My nose used to reach just above his chin, now I predicted it was just beneath it. He didn't look over at me once. He just stared out the window at the sunny sky.

"Nick, what about you?" Denise asked, causing Nick to turn his head just slightly.

He ran a hand through his curls and pressed his lips together. "Sure. I'm great with Noah," he said sarcastically, then turned his head to look back out the window. I was hurt by the thought that he thought the name I liked was stupid and that the kid in my stomach, the one who is half of him, was of little interest to Nick. I hated that I had been with this child Nick gave to me for seven months with absolutely no support and that even now he didn't give a damn. I felt the tears fill my eyes again and tried not to blink, knowing they would fall.

"Alright, well. This is the first house, here," Denise parked the car in front of a big blue house on the ocean side of the island. It was a huge house with a white picket fence going all around it. There was a stone pathway that led to the front steps to the home, either side with grass fields. I actually started to cry at the sight of it. I quickly wiped away the tears, embarassed. "Oh, darling," Denise said and embraced me in a hug, "why are you crying, silly girl?"

I wiped my eyes and replied, "it's just overwhelming," and hid my face in my hands.

"Nick," Denise said, "why don't you come here and comfort your girlfriend?" Nick mumbled something and stayed a distance away from me.

"Excuse me?" Denise asked.

"She's not my girlfriend," Nick said, clearing it up for me.

"What do you mean Miley's not your girlfriend? You're going to have a child in two months," Denise said, shocked.

"Oh, really? Thanks for clearing that up. See, I wasn't really sure because it's not like everybody is talking about it every second or anything.," he said sarcastically.

"Stop being so rude," Denise exclaimed as we walked up the steps to the house and as soon as the real estate agent opened the door and I caught a glimpse of the enterior, I was sold. I knew that this was the house. The walls were a very pale blue and the foyer was very large. It had two French doors right across from the entrance and around the pentagon shaped foyer were four other doors. If you looked up, you could see that the ceiling was high and had a gorgeous chandelier right at the top. The real estate agent spoke with Denise for a few moments as I looked around, marveling at the beauty of the foyer alone.

"Okay, so as you can see here, there are five doors. The first, these large French doors, they lead to the center of the house, i.e the kitchen, dining and living room. The last on the left opens right into one of two staircases, as you can see," the man with a heavy southern accent opened the door and sure enough, there was one would staircase. "The door next to that opens onto a hallway that leads right to the kitchen. The last door on the right opens right onto another staircase to the basement," he opened it up, revealing another wood staircase. "This one here," he opened the last door, "it leads to the family room. Of course, there are other doors that open from room to room. These entrance doors are just a way to make life easier," he chuckled.

"Let's see those rooms," he opened the French doors and we entered a large living room, filled with leather couches, a big screen tv situated over a fire place and matching book cases on either side of it. The walls were painted a creamy white and paintings were hung all over them. "As you can see, this state of the art living room is filled with a very modern yet family-like atmosphere." He allowed us to observe before leading us to the kitchen and dining room, which was basically one large room. The kitchen had granite blue counters and brown cupboards and the dining room was filled by a wood table with ten chairs around it. There were other French doors leading to outside, which was just the sand dunes.

The real estate agent proceeded to give us a tour of the second floor, which ad four bedrooms and one library. It was all very elegent and nicely set up, with matching colors and expensive furniture. Every part of the house, I loved with passion. I so badly wanted to move in then and there, walk the halls of the beautiful household and call it my own.

As we approached the highway after our visit to the first house, I said to Denise, "I don't want to see another house. I am in love with this one."

Denise thought about it for a while. "Nick, what did you think?"

"I don't care, honestly," Nick replied. I folded my arms across my chest and held back the tears that I so badly wanted to cry.

"You know what, Nicholas?" Denise asked, "this is not my problem. This is your problems. You should be greatful that I'm even trying to help the two of you. You made an adult decision to make this baby, so now you have to act like adults and deal with it. Nick, put some interest into this experience because you aren't going to just get away from it."

"I'll take you home, Miley. Would you like me to phone the man and tell him you want to buy the house?"

I nodded and turned to look out the window. I wished that my old best friend Nick was right next to me, and I was leaning against his chest, his hand was on my back and he whispered in my ear how much he loved me the whole way home. Yeah, I thought, those days are long gone.

Hi, this is the author. I know that this chapter was awfully boring. I apologize, but I did have fun writing it! Birth of the baby will be soon and that's when the real story actually starts. Thanks for reading!