"I'm pregnant!" his always chipper wife told him as she entered the house.
He felt as if a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped on him. He tried to smile, to go and hug her, but the most he could utter was a grunt.
Really? Pregnant? So soon? He was hoping for that day to be really far off, if anything, but preferably never to happen, and now there she was, 3 months into the marriage and pregnant already.
He had almost regretted marrying. He had always thought that she was the love of his life, and for the most part she was, but there was something about their dynamics that seemed off. They were just so different, and the thing that had brought them together had long been healing, to the point that he felt he could let go of her hand now.
He never had much of a family life, his mother died when he was very young, and his father hated him with a passion, so he had always longed for that kind of companionship, and well, his wife was full of warmth and love. He had fallen for that warmth that she radiated with, had fallen for the strength that she possessed, he felt safe with her, but at the same time he saw beyond her motherly qualities to see the woman that stood beneath, and he fell even more in love, but that had been six years ago, and he had been a child. It was more than a child's love, but nonetheless a child's love, being as he had never experienced anything like that before, and the intensity with which he had once loved her had dwindled to conformity. He didn't want to lose her, she was a part of his life, but at the same time his heart didn't do a back flip when she smiled at him, nor did his heart wrench at the thought of not being with her. He had only been married 3 months and he was already jaded. He felt like he had been married forever.
"Is something wrong?" she asked at his lack of emotion over what had to be great news.
"I'm just shocked, can't I?" he said a bit crossly.
She just shook her head. "It's alright, I was just as shocked."
"I need to cool my head, I'm going to go take a walk." He told her, trying to get out of there as soon as possible.
Once he was gone, she plopped heavily on a chair. She had noticed his change ever since they had gotten married. It was as if something in their relationship had changed once they had given the official "I do's", but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.
He realized he was not thinking straight and that he had been too cold to her. I mean, it took two to tango, and it was as much his fault that he was about to become the unwilling father of some mewing, snot-nosed kid in a matter of months. He violently shook his head trying to clear the fuzziness he felt. He knew he had been cold, he knew he had to be nicer to her now that she was pregnant, he knew it was his kid, and he knew that he was forever tied to her and that child, and yet, even knowing that, he still could not find it in him to feel happy or even mildly excited. He asked himself how was it that people could get so excited over someone taking over their lives completely; he just could not understand that.
As he walked aimlessly around town, he thought of visiting a certain cousin of his who seemed to fit into fatherhood just fine, but then he realized he'd get a beating if he expressed his discomfort to someone who was a very happy father.
He cussed slightly, realizing for the first time that he really didn't have any friends outside of his huge family, and right now he needed someone who was not so in love with her.
And then, as if the gods had heard his prayers, someone called out to him.
"And you are?" he asked the breathless young man in front of him.
"You seriously don't remember who I am? I was in your class back in high school." The dark haired man told him, feigning hurt.
He shook his head, "Sorry, I don't remember you."
"I used to tease you a lot. I was there when that girl confessed to you and you so graciously rejected her."
He looked at his new companion suspiciously, "What, when did this happen?"
"I knew you were slow, but not this slow!" the young man mused, "It was during our class trip."
He reached into the farthest recesses of his mind to try and remember that event, and he finally did.
"Oh yeah her. She was annoying."
"So do you know who I am now?" the other man asked in earnest.
"No, not really."
"Arggh! Well it doesn't really matter, what have you been up to?"
He felt like he was talking to a complete stranger, even if this stranger swore to him that they had been friends in high school.
"I just got married and I'm gonna have a kid." He told him dispassionately.
"Gee, you sound so happy about that." The man told him sarcastically.
"I may be slow, but I can tell when people are making fun of me." He said crossly.
"I was being serious; it sounds like someone just told you your cat died or something."
"If you must know, I just got married. I don't really want an annoying kid right now."
"So who was the poor unfortunate soul that ended up marrying you?"
He felt a head ache coming, but at the same time he felt like there was a person who wasn't going to try and kill him for the fact that he was less than thrilled over his impending fatherhood.
"It was…" but the other man cut him off.
"Oh don't tell me it was that one girl you were dating back in high school."
"Yeah it is her."
"So man, you wanna go get a drink or something?"
He wasn't much of a drinker but he acquiesced, he just didn't want to go home yet.
"So what can you tell me, besides the fact that you got married and having a kid?"
"Not much, I just returned from abroad, I was studying martial arts."
They were just going through the motions, he couldn't remember who the man was, and the man didn't really know what to do with the information he was given.
"So yeah, how come you don't want to have kids?"
"It's too late for that now, I'm having one, but its just that I've never seen myself as a father, and besides I just got married, I wanted some more alone time."
"Oh, alone time, right." The other said coyly.
He spend a few hours with this relative stranger until finally he remembered him.
"I remember you. You were that guy."
"Yes I am."
So he had needed a friend, and he had found one that wasn't too fast on trying to beat the crap out of him, and for that he was grateful.
"Keep in touch man, I'm always here." His new friend told him as he headed home.