Fifth Month

Christmas was amazing. Red and Blue were all smiles (mainly Red) the rest of the day until Blue dropped Red off at his house before his mom came home. The thought of home made Red's stomach churn. The thought of his mom made him sick. Knowing he was going to be torn apart for that fight made him cry once Blue left him alone. He'll just stay in his room unless she made any moves to talk to him. Which she didn't.

Red didn't speak to his mother since that fight. He tried to keep sane in his room, his room where he spent most of his remaining vacation time. He had no one to hang out with, and Blue was always working long hours. They couldn't even text each other. The boy would start to write stories or doodle pictures, but he never liked them and eventually stopped trying. He once read in a book that babies could hear people and noises outside the stomach, so Red tried that. Nothing worked. He would shyly begin conversations with his stomach, pat it, or even sing a tune to it. Red got no response. No moving, sounds, or anything. Maybe the baby didn't like him. Red didn't mind; he didn't like himself either.

Mid terms were approaching-those tests taken in between second and third quarter to see how much you've learned so far. Red took them very seriously, unlike many students in the school. But this year, Red couldn't even recall what was assigned for homework before Christmas break. He wouldn't have done his homework anyway, which his mother always yells at him for. No matter what, she would end up putting the blame on both her son and her son's boyfriend. Red didn't want to think about that.

But everything after Christmas break is dull. Nothing happens besides two or three holidays...but Red forgot New Years existed.

That didn't matter, because he wasn't going out anyway. Shadow is having a New Year's party at his house, since his parents would still be away on their holiday vacation. Him and Vio, of course, were bringing all the people they knew...and setting their own "BYOB" rule. Blue wanted badly to go once they announced it in the beginning of December; it would give both of them an excuse to be "alone" and have fun...but that was before Christmas. And before his job. All those plans were part of the past now, and here Red was curled up in his bed, asking his unborn baby how it was feeling.

His mother was no different than the high schoolers he hung out with. She had her own get together, with friends and co-workers; no family this time. But she had previously popped into Red's room briefly, the first time in that whole week, stating that he was not allowed to come downstairs while the party is going on. She closed his door for him.

10

Red sat against the headboard of his bed, his night shirt rolled up over his bump. His hand rested underneath as it cupped. He sighed.

9

He began to hear the people shouting the countdown to New Years. He can imagine all the people from his school at Shadow's party, stupid drunk, as they chanted along.

8

And here Red was, sitting by himself, not even with his boyfriend, mentally counting backwards to the better days.

7

The celebration last year was amazing. Red was snuggled in Blue's lap on the couch, a crowd of party go-ers bouncing enthusiastically after shouting each number.

6

By this time next year, Red would be a father...he would have a baby to take care of.

5

No more parties, no more laying around, no more doing what he wanted to do.

4

He had a baby coming; his baby with Blue being taken over by the watchful eyes of his mother.

3

Sweet Din, he hated his mother.

2

He didn't like himself, either...

1

He wanted to die.

The bottom floor of his house erupted in a roar of cheering and hooting.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Red pulled his shirt back down over his stomach, laid down on his bed, and fell asleep.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The next week and a half was similar to last month's. Blue hardly answered his texts and rarely picked him up for school anymore. But at least Red knew it was because of his new job. He would never betray him. But those Mid-terms were in a few days, and Red hardly picked up a book or went to review. He had the time, but the little sicknesses he would get here and there, and the chores he was still asked to do. His little bump was becoming a burden when lifting laundry or cleaning the floors. Then his mother would scold as to why he hasn't studied.

Mid-terms were tomorrow.

Red went to the school at his required time, to be tested on certain subjects, but hardly lifted the pencil. He was greeted with the usual hate glares and no one spoke a word to him. Even Blue had to be in and out at a pace, because he would get in trouble if he wasn't at work in time. Red was feeling lonely without Blue around, and a little bit weak and vulnerable. After his last test, Red curled up on his couch when his mom was still at work, and dialed him up on the house phone. The first thing he heard was that booming shout that was slightly muffled over the phone, like whoever answered was covering the speaker.

"HOLD ON A SECOND, LET ME GET THIS WILL YAH!"

It was Blue. And he was yelling at his job. Red still forced a tiny smile. "Hi, Blue."

"HELLO? O-oh...hey, Red." He shouted relieved, and a bit tired.

"I...just wanted to call up on you? We haven't spoken in days...I'm just worried about you."

Blue ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed his face roughly. "Yeah, I'm fine...just REALLY frickin' tired...they have me working every day of the week now."

Red cringed at the news but started to pull out the positives. "O-oh, well..hey! You get more money!"

He could feel Blue's eyes roll by the sarcasm in his voice. "Yeah, a whole 7 rupees an hour for 12 hours...I deserve more."

While he was trying to make Blue feel better, he didn't entirely agree as he nervously smiled. "It's...understandable though, Blue..it's minimum wage?"

"Oh," Blue's frowned over the phone with people at his work pestering him for questions at the same time, "you don't believe I should get more money? You don't think I can do it? I see how it is!"

Red's blood ran cold and he was left stuttering. "N-n-no, please, Bl...Blue, I didn't mean it in a bad way just...don't yell, please."

He could only hear the voices of strangers muffling together. Blue sighed dramatically and rubbed his mouth with his hand. "Sorry...I don't feel well and I want to go home."

"I could...leave you alone if you want to." Red's ear perked up when the sound of the garage door opening reached him. "Besides, my mom is home."

"Congratulations." Red wasn't sure if that was another sarcastic comment towards him or a bad one towards his mother. "...Okay...when will you have off? Do you know?"

Blue grumbled nonsense to himself as he was scribbling down words on a piece of paper. "I dunno. My boss is fucked up."

Red sighed and flipped over on his other side. "I know you're frustrated, Blue, but please...don't curse."

"Whatever." Red's mom opened the back door with pocket book and empty coffee container in hands, and walked in the living room where she stopped in her tracks and glowered at the sight of Red on the phone. "Red?"

His eyes wavered and slowly averted away from his mother's, holding his hand over his mouth and the speaker. "M-my mom is home...I can't talk anymore..I'll, uh...see you later?"

Blue's voiced sounded dead. "Yeah. Later."

Red's smile vanished. "Bye..." His roamed his thumb around for the end call button.

"I love you."

He paused and got that familiar tingle in his chest. He giggled and smiled. "I love you, too. Bye."

"Bye."

He hung up and looked at him mom, who was placing her belongings down. "H-hi, mom."

"Who was that?"

Red sat up and started to head towards the kitchen, trying to act naturally. "Just Blue."

He could see her mother standing there in the corner of his eyes, but proceed to go about his way in making himself lunch.

"Finished all your tests today?"

"Yeah, today was the last one...around noon."

"Should they up at the website already?"

"Um, I think-" Red turned around to look at his mother, but she was already down the hallway towards her office.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Blue waited to hear Red's end go dead until he finally slammed the phone back in it's cradle hanging on the wall.

'Fucking job.'

"Where's are food? We've been standing here for 5 minutes!"

Blue whipped around and growled once him and the customer's eyes made contact. "Give me a SECOND!"

The people on line groaned and began to get themselves comfortable by leaning against the wall and windows. There were two other people working in the cafe, not including the two chefs in the back. But all the work was always dumped on Blue while his co-workers found excuses like mopping the floor or restocking in the back. He was the only person at the register, but they were taking their time in the back, leaving him to awkwardly do nothing as he and the angry crowd of people waited.

Blue wanted nothing more than to fight every single person he made eye contact with. Every face was pissing him off. He began cracking his knuckles until the stubby little woman came out from the kitchen doors with an arm full of orders. 'About fucking time.'

He began handing them out, repeating "enjoy your day" until it lost all meaning. Soon, the impatient people were gone. He slumped by at his station, cheek nested in the palm of his hand as he began to doze off. He held a picture of Red tightly in the other hand rested on the counter. He wanted nothing more than to be with him right now and to fuck all these people.

"Excuse me."

Blue snorted and jolted out of his daydreaming when a business woman approached the counter, smiling warmly. "Hello, sir."

"Uh, yeah," Blue coughed and rubbed the back of his hand, "How are you."

"Fine, thank you." She kept staring at Blue. Not at all in a lustful way, but as if she was confused, or trying to remember if she has seen him around. "Just a pretzel, please. No salt."

'Finally, something I can do without fucking up.' He took out one of the bland pretzels from the machine and plopped in on the plate. "That's 2 rupees."

"Who's that?"

Blue blinked and looked to where the woman had her eyes on. It was the little pictograph of Red he was clutching onto, and apparently left on the counter, all crumbled.

"O-oh, shiii..ot, shoot, uh, just my," he quickly grabbed it and stuffed it into his pocket, "b-boyfriend."

The woman kept smiling. "I see." She kept looking at Blue with that same wondering expression, even as she dug through her purse for her wallet. "You look exhausted, young man."

Blue glanced awkwardly at her as he opened up the cash register. No one ever made small talk with him before. He didn't know how to continue. "Ah...I'm fine."

She chuckled and took out her two rupees. "Looks like you'd rather be home with your boyfriend, huh?"

Blue blushed wildly and snatched the rupees from the woman's hand, dropping them in their incorrect amount slots. "Y-yeah, so? I got this stupid job so I can support us for later!"

"Oh?" The woman ripped off a piece of her pretzel and popped it in her mouth. "What's going to happen later?"

Blue didn't even realize what he was revealing to this random stranger. He was getting frustrated and angry. "The baby! That baby that's coming because I'm an idiot and got him in trouble!" He kicked the slushie machine next to him, causing it to shut off.

The woman remained silent once he ranted. She didn't look as if she was going to joke about it or use it against him. "So you and your partner are expecting?" She took a moment to examine Blue; typical dirty hair, baggy jeans and sweatshirt, and bad attitude. "...How old are you both."

Blue mentally winced. "He's 17 and I'm 18."

"Oh-so this is teen pregnancy in the making?" She smiled only for a second before eating another piece of her snack. Blue mumbled something and leaned against the broken machine, looking down at his feet. "I didn't mean for this to happen...but I still want to be with him. And I don't really want to get rid of the kid, either, but...I'm honestly scared about what will happen next. I can wake up and all of a sudden my dad and I could be on the streets with the little money we have. But I really and truly want to be responsible enough...especially to show off his frickin mother. I want to protect both of them from her and everybody else who is givin' us shit. I really do-"

The woman slipped a card in front of him. He blinked and looked her in the eyes. She was looking back as she shut her wallet and dropped in back into her bag.

"I've seen teenage relationships crumble and even lead to traumatic lifestyle changes. But you, young man, are something different, in the sense of fatherhood that is." She motioned for the tiny white card on the counter. "I work for an organization that can help people just like you in any financial or physical situation, like teenage pregnancy. Just send an email to my company leaving your names, addresses, and background, and who knows..." She smiled gently, picking up her food and placing her bag on her shoulder.

"Maybe you can walk up tomorrow with a better future. Please, consider it."

Her high heels echoed across the tile floor of the mall, in that tiny corner where the cafe was kept. His jaw was dropped, but it soon broke out into a huge grin, and Blue went charging out the double doors, throwing his apron off in the process.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

He was innocently cleaning the dishes, just to be nice for his mother. Okay, maybe he wanted to coat her up in good deeds in case he seriously flunked any of his tests. Red's mom was perched on her chair in her office her entire lunch break and was out the door on time. It was around the time she would be done for the day, and be marching into the house asking why he didn't make dinner for once, yadda, yadda.

Red was finishing up his last dish and the door flew open.

"Below AVERAGE?" His mother lashed, throwing her pocket book to the ground and waving around the printed out piece of paper with Red's test grades. "All of them-LOOK! The highest you got was a 78!"

He was hyperventilating at the pressure and was nervously rubbing the dish cloth on a bone dry plate. "I-I, ooh. I'm not, umm...sure how-"

"I know why," she snapped, pacing back in forth of the kitchen, "it's that boyfriend. He takes up too much of your time. He's always touching you and distracting you, I know it!"

"Mom!" Red gasped and placed the plate down. "Blue didn't do anything! It's not his fault! Nothing is his fault!"

His mother turned her head and narrowed her eyes towards him, shooting an accusing finger at Red's growing stomach. "At least one thing is his fault."

His heart was pounding in his ears, and his hands actually flew up to cover them. "Stop it! I don't want to hear it! I don't need you yelling at me anymore!" He began to rush out of the kitchen into the living room but his mother was ride behind him.

"Don't you dare walk off like that young man!" She held that piece of paper high. "If it wasn't that lousy boyfriend of yours, then who or what else can you blame for these grades?"

Red honestly didn't know. Besides the fact that Blue was always on his mind, and that he is too tired physically and mentally to actually try on his school work...but he could never say that to his mother. There will be no end to the shouting.

"I...don't know." He sighed on the stairs, the place where he slowly dropped down to his knees where his mother stopped him.

"Of course you don't know, that's your answer to everything." She rubbed the bridge of her nose and fiddled with the tight bun in her hair as she paced and thought. "I can't allow you to keep your grades like this..."

All that could be heard in the house were the ticking of the clocks. His mother stood in the middle of the room with her hand on her forehead, frowning. Red stretched out on the stairs, eyes staring at his mother, waiting...

She finally looked up. She took a peek out the window and saw that familiar pick up truck pulling in front of their house. Red heard her inhale through her nose and picked his head up.

"Tell Blue you never want to see him again."

Red frowned. "What...?"

His mother turned around with her arms crossed. "I don't want you to get hurt, Red. He may be all over you now, but when the time comes, he'll be running away, making up excuses...and before you know it...you'll be me in the hospital room. Without the father."

He wasn't sure what he was hearing. Maybe she was joking. "Mom, you can't be serious...Blue would never-I can't!" He practically shouted the last word, but his mother approaching him got him to panic and sweat.

"Answer the door and tell him you don't want to see him again. Delete his number, ignore him in the hallways. It's better if you and I stick together, trust me, Red."

"No, no!" Red stood up crying and started bolting up the stairs until the doorbell rang.

He froze in his tracks.

"Mom, d-don't."

His mother was standing next to the closed front door, glaring daggers at her son. "Red. Do what I say."

"M-mom.." His knees shook and hands trembled. Red's face was wet with tears with each step he took. His mother stopped glaring. The doorbell kept ringing.

Red took one last look at his master; a desperate and silent plea to get out of this.

"Do it, or I'll tell him myself."

He turned the doorknob without slipping the lock undone. a quiet sob escaped his lips as he jerked the door open and peeked through the crack.

He was greeted with Blue's beaming face. "Red, guess what! This weird woman came to work today and I was tellin' her about us a-and she gave me this card! It said we can win a bunch of money! If you want, I-"

It wasn't until Blue stopped to look through the crack to notice the broken face that was avoiding eye contact. "...Red?! What happened? Why are you crying? Was it-"

Blue cut off short once his hands grabbed the door and tried to pull it open but noticed the lock was still in place. "What's going on? Open the door!"

He was staring into Red with bewilderment, and was searching for an answer that was somewhere written on his face. His boyfriend's expression never changed. It was still beat red, eyes overflowing with tears he had no control over, and his lips quivered as he tried to pry them open.

"I-I," Red croaked, eyes falling to ground, "...I never want to see you again."

His reaction wasn't what Red expected, but his heart was still thundering in his chest and head. "Yeah, very funny, Red." He barely smirked before he tried to reach his hand inside the door crack, but quickly pulled away when Red attempted to close it on him.

"...I don't...w-wa-want to see you...ever again."

His mother stood to the side, her head bowed.

Blue's eyebrows knitted together in disbelief and was starting to get anxious. "Seriously, Red, what's going on? Why you saying that shit?"

Red hiccuped and let out a strangled plea. Blue heard a low whisper when he noticed Red's delay.

"...I...don't want...want you...t-to be-e around...when the baby co-omes.."

He sure reacted then. "WHAT?!" He suddenly gripped the door and began rustling it. "Red, what the fuck!? What has gotten into you!?"

Red shook and was ready to break down crying. His mother kept whispering.

"I...I could neve-e-er...let you be the...the father."

Red made the mistake of making eye contact with Blue-he could've sworn he had just teared his own heart out and threw it to the ground.

"Y-you..." Blue's body was shaking with rage, but not at Red. He was getting angry with himself. "Was it something I did? Was it? Please, I'll fix it! I'll get a better job! I-I'll spend more time with you!...WHY WON'T YOU TALK TO ME?"

"N-no," Red gasped sharply and his eyes trembled, but instead he tucked his head underneath his arms that held the door. "Please...p-please go."

"NO!" Blue made a quick attempt to shove his arm through the crack and hopefully bust the door open but it was too late, the door was about to close and Red was was going to be gone. He began banging his fists against the door, growling and cursing and spitting in his tantrum.

"Red! RED! Open the FUCKING door! RED!"

He kept kicking and banging, but it didn't disturb Red when he leaned back against it and broke down into a crying, moaning mess on the ground. His mother stood, looked, and listened to everything. She eventually turned and left the room, leaving her son on the ground in a puddle of his own tears.

"Red...Red, TALK TO ME! Please..." Blue sank to the ground, his hands barely scratching the door now. "...I love you."

He got no response. He could hear the faint sobbing on the opposite side, but stopped trying. Everything Blue had was gone now. He stood, walked to his car and drove off. Red stood, ran up the stairs, and locked himself in his room.