Another doctor's visit for April. Zimmerman is still the doctor. Ya know, Olive curses a bit in this story if you read whatslifereally Pushing Olive and stuff. Weird. Well, Mark's mother will soon make an appearance in the story as a warning.
MWAHAHAHAHA!!! I own Zimmerman and Carly (you'll get it when you read this)!!!
I'm at the doctors again. Need another checkup. Last Name walks in.
"No, no…" I whine, "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BECOME A DOCTOR???"
"Umm… April, I think it is because he wanted too…" Olive says, "But I could be wrong."
Well I know THAT!
"No, mean… never mind. Snook luck stinks," I announce.
A lot.
"Sorry, April," Olive apologizes, "My head's been killing me all day."
"Oh, it's okay. Maybe we should just go."
Before this gets worse.
"What?" Zimmerman yells, "Did we or did we not set up this checkup???"
"It's been a bad day," I reply.
And YOU'RE here.
"Whatever your name is," Olive points to Zimmerman, "Just do what you do and get it over with."
He puts more stuff on me. After more ultrasound stuff I am asked if I want to know the gender.
Um… maybe?
"Should I get the gender?" I ask my sister.
"Well you should have asked Mark before we left…" she replies.
Why DIDN'T Mark come? Oh yeah. He was too freaked out.
"Yeah," I say, "I guess we'll just wait. Let's get going."
"Yeah. Before something bad happens," Olive replies.
"I think somethin' already did," I say, "Who's this?"
"Ummm…" Zimmerman begins.
"His girlfriend, Carly."
Girlfriend???
"Oh, um… I kinda know him…" I mutter.
I'm blurting agian…
"April, do you really want to go into this?" Olive asks.
"Shut up, hooker…" Zimmerman snaps, "I mean what? Hahaha… ha?"
Hooker? Him too??? He didn't PAY me to sleep with him, therefore, by definition, I am NOT a hooker!!!
"WHY IS EVERYBODY CALLING ME A HOOKER???" I shout.
"WHAT???" Carly yells.
"Oh God, here we go again!" Olive exclaims.
"CarCar it was a long tine ago!" Zimmerman protests.
"CarCar???" I ask, beginning to stifle laughter.
What a dork! He calls his girlfriend CarCar!
"How long?" Carly demands.
I promptly stop laughing.
"Uh… almost two years?"
"Um… wow, this is going to get bad isn't it?" Olive remarks.
"Ya think???" I reply.
You can kinda see that just looking at this scene in front of you. Here is the man who slept with me a while ago (resulting in twins) and then I'm getting a doctor appointment from him while pregnant again with my fiancee's child.
"Okay what happened???" Carly snaps.
"Oh, well April was a dancer and she got pregnant with his baby… well, twins, actually," Olive explains.
"Pretty much," I say.
"So… you're a slut?" Carly asks.
Why does everybody say that??? Wait, don't answer that. It's true.
"Hey, she isn't a slut!" Olive snaps.
"Cool it, Olive," I say, "She's kinda…" I grimmace, "right. I hate saying that."
SO much.
"Well I really don't like to think of you that way," Olive says.
"I kind of figured that out," I reply.
"Well now that this is over we should go."
"Good idea. I wonder if I can change doctors…" I mutter.
"You probably could," Olive says.
Thank goodness.
"Good. I'm gonna," I announce, "I don't think I can stand another run in with this guy."
"Same here."
"Let's get out of here. Mark's probably waiting for news," I say walking out.
I ride the whole way home, wondering if I should tell Mark about the incident at the doctors.
Might not be a good idea.
"Hi Mark," I say entering my apartment.
"Hey, April. Anything new?" Mark asks.
"No," I reply getting on my toes and giving him a kiss.
Mark slid his arms down and picked me up to hold me closer.
"What was that???" he suddenly asked, abruptly breaking apart.
"What was what?" I stare at him blankly.
"Didn't you notice?" he asks when I suddenly realize what he's talking about.
"Oh, that?" I ask grabbing his hand and putting it on my stomach.
He gives me a stunned look and nods.
"Mark, that's normal," I laugh as he keeps looking at me.
"It is?"
"Yes, the baby kicks," I say, still smiling.
"Oh. I don't remember that before."
"Well, A, you never felt there before and, B, you weren't with me until last September."
"So that's really mine?" he asks, still thunderstruck at new knowledge.
"Who else's?"
Mark raises an eyebrow. My eyes go wide.
"I haven't done that again, I swear."
I hold up my right hand.
"Still can't believe that," he says. "When I said I might like to have a family some day I didn't think it would be so soon afterword. Now I'm not so sure."
"You don't want it?" I suddenly ask stepping back.
"That's not what I meant!" Mark says quickly, "I meant… um… I have no idea what I meant."
The phone rings. The machine goes off. We bought a new message machine with the little money I made from working as a waitress.
"Hi, this is Mark Cohen," Mark's voice says.
"AND APRIL RHODES!" I sing operatically in the background.
Mark continues.
"Please leave a message after the-"
"SSSPPPEEEAAAKKK!!!"
"Mark? Are you there? It's mom. Mazeltov on getting engaged, who's the girl?"
Mark's mother. Perfect.
"Mark, should we pick up?" I ask, turning back to Mark.
"The less I answer the less she calls. Let's not encourage her," Mark replies.
"I think she should at least know about us. If I had parents that weren't mentally insane I would have told them if I was getting married."
I walk over and pick up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Mark, have you been inhaling helium again?" Mrs. Cohen asks on the other end.
"No, this is the girl you asked about," I say flatly.
"Oh, well my, your voice is… unusual."
"Yes, I know. That's what everyone says."
Literally everyone. That's why I've been rejected so many times from shows.
"Oh, well I'm sorry if I offended you. Can I talk to Mark?"
I look at Mark. He gives me a look and waved his hands around a little.
"Um, he's… busy. Out. Filming more," I say lamely.
"Oh, well, I should know more about you. What jobs have you had?"
That subject isn't a good start to anything. I have a feeling she won't like this.
"Um, I was a… dancer… and then I started serving pies."
"Are you saying you're one of those exotic dancers like Roger's girlfriend???" she demands, a colder tone sliding into her voice.
Crap. Figured it out. How does she hear about Mimi? Roger sometimes sends postcards but I didn't think he would mention that.
"Unfortunately yes," I say, "There weren't any jobs available at the time. I was trying out for Broadway shows at the time."
"And any family?" she asks.
"No… just…" I think for a minute. "Two children but, um… I'm pregnant," I finally admit. "I've got an older sister."
Olive might shed a brighter light on my situation…
"Did you just say you're pregnant???" she screeches.
Or not.
"And HOW old did you say you were?" she snaps.
"Um…" I look at Mark with a pleading look, "Twenty."
She begins to flip out when Mark suddenly runs over, noticing the look on my face and grabs the phone.
"Mom! Stop!" Mark yells into the phone. "April's a good girl!"
"Mark, I'm not liking the sound of this girl. April, did you say?" I hear her reply.
I walk into a corner and plop down onto the couch. Suddenly I find myself breaking down and crying.
"Now look what you've done! April's crying!" Mark snaps.
A flurry of horrible words come though the phone and I start sobbing harder. Mark starts arguing with his mother when I ran out of the room to vomit.
I thought I was done.
"April, are you okay?" Mark asks rubbing my back.
"Yeah," I sniff and go back to the couch and continue crying.
The phone rings.
SSSPPPEEEAAAKKK!!!
Just on cue a blizzard of insults come flying through the machine's speaker.
"April, just ignore her! I always do. She just wants me to marry the richest, purest girl I can find," Mark comforts hugging me, "But I don't want to. That's what Benny did. I want you."
That's sweet, Mark, but that's not helping.
I try to say something but the crying doesn't stop. Mark keeps trying to comfort me and the machine keeps spewing obscenity which doesn't help as my self esteem deteriorates with every word.
"But it's all true," I wail.
"No it isn't. You're better than that. She doesn't even know you!" Mark protests. "I am going to marry you and I don't care what she says. I love you and I have since you arrived on Avenue A, even if you didn't seem to notice me."
"I'm sorry!" I sob.
I was so stupid! I saw him glance at me with a look on his face.
"It doesn't matter!" Mark exclaims, "I don't care how long it took you! You care about me much more than Maureen ever did!"
"I do?" I sniff, finally stopping a little.
"You do."
Mark pulls me closer, leans in and pulls me into a passionate kiss, much better than any of those boys at school or even Zimmerman, and he was DRUNK that night. I close my eyes and the tears welling up in my eyes slow down until they stop. My cheeks were stained from all of the crying. I could tell that my eye makeup was runny and smudged but I didn't even care about that.
"It's going to be okay," Mark murmurs and somehow, I believed him.
