I'm back to sitting shotgun of Eugene's old car, while he goes off on how dumb I must be to have landed myself right back here after Kneller was good enough to give me a second chance at life, to spend with Mikal no less.
"Some fucking way to thank that asshole, huh?" he scoffs. "What you wanna be back here for, anyway?"
"Eugene, I'm not in the mood, alright?" I sigh, trying to space out, staring out the window.
As if I wasn't already thinking about that, myself. Maaan, I really blew it
Eric, my roommate from before, has probably already found a new roommate by now. One that keeps his hands off his damned cottage cheese and pisses sitting down.
Worse, yet, though, I know I've let down Mikal.
I don't even wanna think about what this is doing to her.
"Zia!" Eugene raises his voice, interrupting my train of thought. "Are you even listening to a fucking word I'm saying? Huh?! Zia? Zia?!
Zia!..."
His voice trails off, fading into Mikal's voice, as I begin to feel something shaking me.
"Zia!" the voice repeats again.
"Zia! Wake up!" Mikal raises her voice slightly above a whisper, finally breaking me out of my slumber.
...or rather startling me out of my slumber is more like it. "Yes! Eugene, alright, I hear you!"
I scramble, slightly, to sit up and assess my surroundings, gradually accepting, thankfully, that it was just a dream.
"You okay?" she chuckles.
"Yeah.." I chuckle nervously, trying to catch my breath. "Just had a bad dream."
"You wanna talk about it?" she asks, concerned.
"Just the usual." I shrug, realizing the time and that I should probably be worrying that she might've woken me up for something besides my usual sleep shouting, hard to sleep through as it may be. "Wha- uhh, what's wrong though? Why'd you wake me up?"
A grin came across her face and she shakes her head. "I think the baby moved!"
"Ohh...OH, wha- wait, really?" I stammer, half tired, half trying to process what she's just said. "They can do that?" God, I hope that didn't come off as dumb as I'm realizing it sounded.
"Sure" she says. "Close enough to five months, that's right about when they start, I think.
Has it been that long already?
"Well is it still doing it?" I ask instead.
"No, I don't think- wait...wait, there it is!" she answers, excitedly, guiding my hand to that spot.
It takes a minute...it seems to stop, and then starts back up again right as I'm about to say something.
It's not quite a kick, but it's something.
I smile and her face lights up, even more.
"This the first time it's done this?"
She nods. "As far as I know, anyway."
I keep my hand there for a few more moments and then kiss her. "Well, thank you for the wake up. This was much better than getting yelled at by Eugene."
"Well, I should hope so!" she laughs. "You're welcome."
