Two years later…
Amanda's POVSo it has been two years since I had found this family. My family. I had a husband, a sister, a half brother, a brother in law, two other 'sisters' and one 'brother'. That's what I was dealing with. The occasional fight over the shower. The entire supermarket left empty after we bought what we need for one dinner. The driving lessons. School and homework. My job.
And love. Lots and lots of love.
Iggy and I have been very close. Our flock is still really close, but we each have separate lives. My fortune was used to put all of the younger children in school. We eat fairly well, and our home resembles my cabin. It is a wooden structure, with Victorian windows. It's like England meets wilderness. It has 5 bedrooms, and there is a big kitchen, a piano room, and a living room. We don't have very much money left right now, just a couple hundred thousand, but we made it work. The house was paid off, and the college funds were fulfilled. We just needed money for gas and food and school. As long as we had each other, though, we were fine. We are currently in France.
Iggy and I work at the hospital filing papers, and Max and Fang work assisting the nurses. When the time is right, we might be able to get into high school and college, but I highly doubt it. We had a difficulty training the younger kids to put them with other kids their age. I don't think we have time to train each other.
It's Saturday, so we have work shifts. I don't have to go to work until later. It's the day after Iggy's birthday. Yeah, he doesn't have an exact day, so we made it up in his favorite month, February. He was 15 when I met him, so we made it February 15. He turned 17 yesterday. I gave him a CD of his favorites songs dubbed by yours truly. He loved it, if I do say so myself.
I was finishing up lunch, fruit salad and subs when I heard keys in the front door. I heard the lock click, and Iggy walked in from work. He had volunteered for the morning shift, because Gazzy wasn't doing well in History, and I helped him study for his test on Monday so we could spend time with each other. Fifth grade history wasn't fun. I was exhausted, but I didn't feel right letting somebody else take my shift. Iggy was very persistent, however, and no matter how hard I tried, he said he would go. I smiled at him in the end, grateful that he was my husband.
"Mandi?" he called, hanging up his jacket and scarf. I heard his backpack fall to the floor, and his boots clanging on the wooden floor. He noticed he had them on, and took them off before proceeding into the kitchen. He knew how I was with cleanliness.
"In here!' I called.
My husband walked into the kitchen, and found his way to me. I was washing up the knives I had used to cut the watermelons, and he grabbed my waist. I jumped in surprise, but rinsed the knife off and started washing the next one.
"Hello there," he said, kissing my neck.
"Hi." I put the knife down and wiped my hands. I turned around to kiss him back.
"How was work? Where are the guys?"
"Great. I just love filing papers," he smiled at his own sarcasm, and continued, "They are playing out front." I gave him an annoyed look. If you didn't get the kids in, they would never come in, and they had homework for the weekend. "I told them 10 more minutes." Iggy finished, saving his guts.
I smiled, and he gave me a quick peck on the cheek before heading to the stairs. I picked up the knife I had been washing and scrubbed it.
Before he went up the first step he said, "Well, we do have 10 minutes…"
I almost dropped the knife in surprise, and carefully put it down in the drying rack. I turned around, and I chased after him up the stairs. Did he just say that? We had a mind reading third grader, and we all had slightly acute hearing.
"Iggy Ride, get back here this moment!" I shouted. He laughed as he wrenched open the bedroom door. I beat him inside. I got him from the shoulder and the second he turned around, his lips were on mine. He pressed surprisingly hard. I almost fell back from the sheer force.
"It's just that we haven't in a while…" Iggy said sadly, getting the apron off my waist.
I knew where he was coming from. Work and homework and housecleaning. That was our life. We didn't have time anymore. I decided that we would take advantage of the time we had.
I reached up to get his shirt off. He smiled against my mouth, knowing he had won me over. As if that was much of a surprise. I loved the feeling his velvety skin had on mine, and he used it to his advantage. After the shirt was off, I was carried bridal style to the bed. His pants and my skirt landed right next to the shirts. Our kiss never broke unless my shirt was going over my head. We were both on the bed in about 2 minutes.
My mind drifted to many places. His hands carressed my back, and I could feel it, but I was thinking too much. I thought through almost all of it. I was there, but not there. I felt him and yet I felt so far away. I thought about my empty life before, and how now I was so close to somebody. And what happened two years ago, with my head. How he had stayed with me. How he had said he would always be there for me.
Then I came back to the present, and I kissed him with so much passion, I had to wonder why I had kept it inside this whole time. His eyes widened in surprise, but he kissed me back. This only lasted a few seconds.
"What happened?" he said, pulling back. He was panting heavily.
I had realized what I had just done, and I got up and dressed up quickly. What was wrong with me?
"Amanda…" Iggy was off the bed, getting dressed in lightning speed, but I was out the door before he finished.
I ran into the kitchen hallway. I would have to face him sooner or later. I put one hand against the wall to steady myself, tracing the panelling with my fingers.
Iggy ran into the kitchen, letting the door slam. I flinched as I heard the clang. He turned me around to face him, and it tortured me to see him so lost. I spoke in a soft voice, the lump in my throat preventing me from speaking correctly, "I just… I was thinking about my life before…and I remembered how much I loved you. It just came out, all of it, in that one kiss," I looked into his eyes, trying to see what he was feeling.
"You love me?" he said this as if it was the first time I had told him. It frightened me slightly.
"More than you know."
"And I love you too."
"I thought so."
He then grabbed me by the arms, and kissed me with the same force as I had, and we pulled apart, breathing heavily.
I don't think that we just loved each other. I think that we had seriously become one.
We stayed in the hall, staring into his eyes, when we heard the door open.
"We're back. We'll shower and get started on our homework."Nudge was taking her boots off, and I heard Angel and Gazzy clamor in. They followed suit, and they all headed upstairs to shower up and start homework.
"Got it." Iggy responded, not taking his eyes off of me.
The whole of that week was spent staring at each other. I couldn't go two hours without having to call him. And if I didn't, he would. The sound of his voice was my oxygen, his kisses were my blood. Without them, I would die. That is if we couldn't possibly see each other during work. We were so close. Closer than before. It was scary as hell and wonderful as heaven at the same time. We depended on each other.
The next week I was expecting my "time of the month" so to speak. I was prepared, and I hated it. I dreaded its arrival. I hated having to change all the time, then the cramping, then the hunger. And everyday for that week, I was happy it didn't come, but the next week came, and I began to want it to come. So weird. I'm never late. Not normally. Not this late, at least.
I began to count the days. How interesting it is, how something can be dreaded and then desired in just a couple of days. But I didn't not want it to come, no matter how much I did't like it, because if it didn't come, that meant I was...
Day after day, I would check every hour to see if something would come. Anything. Something. Please?
After February ended, I was really panicking. I couldn't seem to process the fact that it hadn't come yet. I said I would wait for another two weeks before checking if I was… god, just say it!
March came, and March was half way done, and March ENDED! The whole month I was preoccupied. Iggy would look at me weird. I would answer him in quick yes and no formats. He didn't seem to buy it. It hurt me to see him so lost, but I had to wait. I would tell him only if I knew for sure. We had small arguments about my "moodiness" and I would just say that I was tired, and then he would worry about my head, and then I would tell him I knew it wasn't that. Then we would leave, cool off, and the next day it would be fine until he came home. It was the most painful month in my life. And I knew that I wasn't the only one suffering.
I couldn't think of anything else. I cooked, helped with homework, and then slept. I worked in between, and attempted to remember to breathe. Why hadn't it come yet?
When I couldn't wait anymore, I went to the supermarket with Max. The two men went to the park with the younger guys to play some ball at the park I had recommended to them two years ago. It was now a get away to have fun. Plus, to have them all there for me to buy a pregnancy test, yes it would explain everything, but I don't think they were expecting it.
"So, what do we need?" Max said, getting a cart.
"We won't need the cart. We don't need anything for the guys," I said, wondering if she would guess before I told her.
Max looked at me inquisitively, and put the cart back. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine… I just think I'm…." I couldn't bring myself to say it. "The day after Iggy's birthday. We hadn't had any fun in a while, what with the guys and school and work, so we decided to have some. We thought that we deserved it. And Iggy… you know how tempting he can be. At least compare him to Fang."
Max laughed, "Yeah, Fang can be pretty tempting too…" then her voice was serious, "Don't ever think that you don't deserve it. You've done more than enough for us. But that was TWO months ago."
"I know, and thank you by the way." Max smiled, and I continued. "Anyways, I was supposed to get my period the week after… it didn't come."
Max's reaction was an interesting one. First, she had to process the information, then when it registered, her face was in shock. Then it went to excitement, the bad kind, to excitement the good kind.
"And you think you're… pregnant?" Max's voice was in a whisper for fear that she would scream.
The tears were flowing steadily down my face, "Yeah."
I was then pulled into a firm hug, catching me by surprise because Max was usually sort of reserved and kept to herself. I didn't say I didn't want it, and I hugged her back. It felt so good to have this weight off of my shoulders. I sobbed once, and then pulled myself together.
"And we're here for the test, in case you were still wondering," I said, laughing, wiping the tears away.
"I'm not that clueless," Max said, chuckling too.
We made our way to the aisle with the tests and such, and picked two, one the least expensive, and another one that looked really advanced. We paid using the self check out, because we were only 16, and to see us buying pregnancy tests wouldn't be normal.
We got an extra bag so that it wouldn't show through the plastic, and flew home.
The flock was already eating the leftovers of the fruit salad and some burgers they bought on the way home. Normally I would scold them for buying unhealthy food when I could prepare a vitamin-packed dinner in half an hour. Today, I just nodded at them, and ran upstairs. I avoided Iggy's gaze. I don't know if he was looking at me or not, but I saw sadness as he threw his wrapper away.
"Hey, Amanda, I'm gonna eat now, if that's okay?" Max called, getting her burger out of the brown bag.
"Yeah, no problem," I honestly wanted her to go up with me, but I respected her decision. I gave her a look that should have said 'don't say anything' but I'm not sure if she got the message. I just hoped that she did. I went to our room, Iggy's and mine, locking the door. I watched the tears stain the box as I opened it and began to read the instructions...
I think you all know what the test is going to be, and I am thinking about how Iggy is going to react. I swear, if you guys don't review... AAAAH! PLEASE! for me? puppy dog eyes . Just tell me whatcha think!
