Chapter 3

Kuki and I stood at the counter adding stick on jewels to the new plates we had just bought. "What's this?" she asked, tearing a piece of paper off a pad. She handed it to me.

"Oh, these were the baby's names." I returned to bejeweling the plate.

"You picked them out? Without telling me? I thought he was a boy?" Kuki looked confusedly at 'Raine'.

I put the plate down. "It was a while ago, before we knew I was having a boy. Brady," I smiled. "Hey, Hoagie!" He walked into the kitchen, looking pissed. I'd forgotten about the fight we had earlier for a second. "It's Brady."

"I know," he replied quietly. Hoagie ruffled my hair and walked away.

Kuki raised an eyebrow at me. "I'll tell you later." The phone rang I went to pick it up. On the other end, a giggling girl asked for Ace.

I gave Ace the phone and he went in to the bedroom to talk to the girl. When he was done, he hung the phone back up. "Hey guys," he said, turning off the TV, "some people are going over to Stork's to toilet paper and some other crap." Bartie Stork was the quarterback of the football team and any time the team won his friends would toilet paper his house.

Hoagie grabbed his sweatshirt. "Sweet, I forgot they won!" The guys all left.

"OK! I've been trying to wait, but I can't anymore!" Kuki exclaimed. "I have something super-duper important to tell you!"

"What?" I asked crabbily. I hadn't slept nearly enough in the last few days and things weren't going too great with Hoagie and I.

"Wally proposed!" she gushed. Kuki paused and waited for me to say something.

"That's great, girl," I said lamely. That stupid fight! Tears started to fill my eyes. "Kooks."

"What's wrong?" Concern flooded her face. Even though the boys called her 'Kooks' all the time, I rarely did. She knew something was up.

"Hoagie and I got into this fight today about whether or not I tried to get pregnant on purpose. I don't even know where he got that idea, probably from Patton or something." We had ended up in Kuki's room and I lay down on the bed.

"You didn't, right?" she asked quietly.

"Of course not!" I exploded. "Why on earth would Abby want a baby now? I'm nineteen! I just want to have fun!" Kuki wrapped her arms around me.

"How did that topic even come up?"

"I don't know. Out of the blue he just asked if I had been on the pill and I hadn't been because I didn't think we were gonna…well you know. And then he said I should've stopped him and I said it takes two to tango, boy. Then he said the baby was a mistake and Abby's pretty sure she said marriage was a mistake," I explained.

Kuki's eyes got round and she gasped. "No you didn't! You have to talk to him, Abby." She wiped a tear off my cheek.

"I guess…" I whispered.

Later on, the guys came back and Kuki wanted to go out. I didn't want to hold Hoagie back just because I didn't feel up to it. He left with them. I sat in bed and thought of what I could possibly say to Hoagie to make this better.

I answered the phone when it rang. It was Hoagie. "Come downstairs," he said. I was so happy to hear him wanting me. I grabbed my jacket and shoes and locked the door on my way out. Hoagie was waiting in the lobby. He took my hand and led my out of our building. We walked for a while, getting closer and closer to the good side of town.

"Where are you taking me, boy?" I asked because I was curious, but also because my feet were hurting a little.

"You'll see." He was studying the number on each building intently. Hoagie led me into a very nice apartment complex. We entered the elevator and he pressed 5. The doors opened. We walked down the hall before he stopped me at a door and pulled a key from his pocket. Why did he have a key to this apartment? He dragged me inside. "Honey, I'm home!" Hoagie yelled.

Inside the front hall were a crib, stroller, car seat, and other baby stuff. When I had gotten over the initial shock, I turned and planted a huge one on him. "You are amazing! How can we even afford this?" All our extra money went towards our 'buy a safer apartment' fund. Maybe he had used that.

"Well, seeing as my grandma finally croaked, my mom got into her bank accounts. And it turns out the old hag was loaded, filthy rich! And all those years she just sat there and hit us with her cane! Anyway, my mom bought the apartment."

"THE APARTMENT'S OURS!" I shrieked.

"Yup and then I used our apartment fund for all the baby stuff. I love you, Abs. I want the baby to have everything it could ever need. I'm sorry about earlier," he said quietly.

"Abby thinks we should just pretend it never happened." I smiled at him. "Give me a tour, Gilligan! How big is this place anyway?"

"Oh, you know, pretty modest. 3 bed, 3 bath, kitchen, family room, and laundry room!" He finished excitedly.

"Oh my God! That's huge!" Hoagie grabbed my hand to pull me through our mansion of an apartment.

"Here's our room." I peered inside. A bed! That alone was enough for me after months of sleeping on that mattress. "This'll be the nursery….and this is Wally and Kuki's room."

"Wally and Kuki get to stay!" This was turning out to be one of the best days ever.

Even though we weren't moving in for a couple weeks, Kuki and I were very excited and started planning everything. We moved all the baby stuff into the nursery and bought paint when it was on sale so that Kuki could paint the walls. Hoagie got a raise at his job and he let me buy a new slip cover for the awful couch and a new rug. However, we planned to put these things away whenever Patton was around and beer was within reach. Soon, I entered my third trimester and the baby was kicking like crazy all the time. I was getting anxious.

"What's this?" Hoagie asked, approaching me with a liquor bottle in hand. It was empty.

"Where'd you get it?" I turned the bottle over in my hands.

"It was over by our mattress; I'm trying to get the last of our stuff packed up. You haven't been drinking, right?" Hoagie looked at me with his pale blue eyes. I knew he wasn't accusing me; he was just worried.

"No!" I placed both of my hands on my huge belly. "Of course not. It's probably from some party or something!" I tossed it in the trash just as the door opened. All the guys walked in. "You know, there are a lot of things we could've been doing that you guys wouldn't have wanted to see," I said to the three guys standing in front of me. I put an arm around Hoagie's waist.

Patton gave me a once over. "I can't think of any," he smirked. He hopped over the back of the couch and turned on MTV.

"I can't wait to move," I said, exasperated, turning back to Hoagie. "We are not making them keys." I went over to the kitchen and started chopping lettuce.

"I can't wait to move," Hoagie replied, "because we'll get to do more things that no one wants to see." He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck.

After we ate, I looked around at the apartment. There was hardly anything that hadn't been packed up in a box. "I guess we can start moving stuff tomorrow," Wally said with a grin. He washed the salad bowl and put it in the box labeled 'kitchen'.

Over by the TV, Patton looked down at the rug. "I'm gonna miss this thing," he sighed. "So many memories…or lack of, for that matter."

"Oh, don't worry, buddy," Hoagie reassured him. "That's making the move with us. You will not be ruining the new rug or hard wood floor."

"We might also buy a tarp," I joked. I glanced over at Kuki; I hadn't heard her tinkling laugh at our joke. She looked really upset. I followed her into the bedroom when she left. "Hey, Kuki, I wanted to talk to you about something," I said as I walked into the bathroom. She had sat on the bed. "I was talking to Fanny Fulbright on the phone yesterday and…" I trailed off having discovered something I probably wasn't supposed to. An unopened pregnancy test. "Girl, what is this?" I stood in the doorway with one hand on my hip. The other held the box.

Kuki looked down at her lap. "You know what it is," she said nervously.

"Kooks, why didn't you tell Abby about this? You're supposed to tell me everything!" I walked over to the bed and sat next to her.

"Abby, I'm scared," Kuki whispered. She leaned her head against my shoulder.

"Well, go take it. Abby'll stay right here." I folded my legs Indian style beneath me and placed both hands atop my belly.

"I'm only like couple weeks late." She was making up excuses. I handed her the test and put on my sternest look. Five minutes later she walked out of the bathroom with the test and a look of complete hopelessness. I had never seen my usually bubbly friend look so sad.

"It'll all work out, Kuki. You're gonna be a mom! You always wanted that." These words sounded fake even to me.

The door quietly opened. "What are you two doing in here?" a thick, Australian accent asked. Kuki's tear-filled eyes looked at Wally. "K-kooks? Why are you crying?" He looked back and forth from me to Kuki, searching for an answer. Kuki extended a shaking arm and gave the test to Wally. "Crud," he whispered.

"Do you want Abby to leave?" I asked Kuki. She nodded slowly. I left hoping nothing bad would happen between Wally and Kuki. I ignored the guys and went straight over to my mattress. Things were definitely going to change around here. I hoped for the best.