December 24, 1973
"Have you told him yet?" Candy asked Marilyn.
Marilyn shook her head. "No, not yet," she answered quietly, "I've only told you, Rain, Evie and Cherry." She gestured to each of us as she said our names.
"Not even Sandy?" Cherry asked in a slightly confused tone.
Marilyn shook her head again. "No. She's my cousin and I love her, but I know she'll tell Danny. I have no problem with that but Danny has a habit of slipping and accidentally telling someone something without realizing what he said until he said it. I don't wanna take a chance."
"Aren't they still in California visiting their old friends from high school?" I asked.
"Well yeah, but before they left I never got to tell them. They can back in a week so I'll just tell them then, when Danny doesn't have a chance to slip while talking to Darry."
"Marilyn, it's been a week and a half since you found out," Candy said, "You have to tell him."
Marilyn nodded and smiled. "Well, I'm telling him tonight. When we do the little midnight gift things, I have a plan to tell him."
Evie gave a slightly confused look. "So, you're just gonna be like: Merry Christmas! Your gift won't be here for nine months but it'll be worth the wait?" she teased slightly.
Marilyn laughed. "Obviously not like that, but I guess the same concept."
This seemed to become a habit lately for every Christmas. The guys all ended up talking in the living room for a while, while all the girls ended up talking in the kitchen or dining room or somewhere else in the house. Either way, we divided ourselves into two separate groups. It's not like we intentionally did that, it just happened. One went into another room to do something specific and the others of the same gender followed and they ended up staying wherever they went. This year, the guys were in the living room and we were all in the dining room.
Anyway, if you couldn't tell: Darry and Marilyn are going to have another baby! At this point, she was six and a half weeks, but she was five weeks when she found out. For the past week and a half, the four of us had kept telling her that she had to tell him. It's not like she could go longer than three months without telling him. Apparently, the only people who knew at the moment- excluding Marilyn and the doctor who gave her the news- me, Cherry, Candy and Evie.
"So you're gonna tell him tonight at midnight?" I asked her.
Marilyn nodded. "Yeah. Like I said, that could be this year's little midnight gift," she shrugged.
Another tradition that had started was that when midninght hit, whoever had a gift would open one of them at midnight. You didn't have to if you didn't want to, but we all usually did cause to be honest, we were still kids at heart- which is a good thing. The tradition had been started a year or two previous to now, so we figured it'd be a fun thing to every year, considering we all ended up staying at the house of whoever had everyone over on Christmas Eve overnight. I guess it was just easier and even a bit safer too to some extent since there were Christmas parties going on all over and people sometimes got drunk at those parties… you see where I'm going with this, right? Good.
Candy and Soda had set a date for when they would be getting married: February 28, 1974. According to Soda's physical therapist, his leg would be fine and he'd be close to walking as if nothing had ever happened to his leg but the end of January. He would still have a bit of a limp, but that's just cause it was a bad injury. The two figured that if his leg would be fine by the end of January, then it would be a bit better and he'd get used to walking normally again by the end of February.
It was also decided by her that I'd be her maid of honor.
We all jumped a bit when we heard crying over the baby monitor. "I'll take of her," Marilyn called to Darry in the next room as she made her way toward her daughter's bedroom. I decided to go with her. KJ was in Mariah's room too, so I figured I'd go and check on him. When we got to the room, Marilyn soothed her daughter until she stopped crying. I went over to KJ and saw that he was still asleep. When Marilyn placed Mariah gently back in her crib and I started out the room, she stopped me and turned off the baby monitor. "Rain," she started, "Can I ask you somethin' real quick?"
"Of course," I nodded, "What's goin' on?"
"Ok, um… do you think it's weird that I'm somewhat nervous about having another baby while Mariah's still a baby? I mean, I know there ain't anything I can do about it, and even if I could I wouldn't, and I'm happy about it. But still, I'm kinda nervous."
"Well, what are you nervous about? You don't think Darry'll be happy?"
She shook her head. "No, it's not that. Not exactly, at least."
"What do you mean?"
"I know he'll be happy, that's just how he is. But I'm nervous that as time goes on, he'll start to worry about money and stuff and that we'll struggle cause we'll be taking care of two babies instead of one at that point and I won't be able to work yet. He told me his boss is making some changes around and if something happens I don't want him to get too stressed out."
"Well, did you guys talk about having another baby?"
Marilyn's cheeks turned pink. "Uh… we have, but we, uh… weren't actually
It was also decided by her that I'd be her maid of honor.
We all jumped a bit when we heard crying over the baby monitor. "I'll take of her," Marilyn called to Darry in the next room as she made her way toward her daughter's bedroom. I decided to go with her. KJ was in Mariah's room too, so I figured I'd go and check on him. When we got to the room, Marilyn soothed her daughter until she stopped crying. I went over to KJ and saw that he was still asleep. When Marilyn placed Mariah gently back in her crib and I started out the room, she stopped me and turned off the baby monitor. "Rain," she started, "Can I ask you somethin' real quick?"
"Of course," I nodded, "What's goin' on?"
"Ok, um… do you think it's weird that I'm somewhat nervous about having another baby while Mariah's still a baby? I mean, I know there ain't anything I can do about it, and even if I could I wouldn't, and I'm happy about it. But still, I'm kinda nervous."
"Well, what are you nervous about? You don't think Darry'll be happy?"
She shook her head. "No, it's not that. Not exactly, at least."
"What do you mean?"
"I know he'll be happy, that's just how he is. But I'm nervous that as time goes on, he'll start to worry about money and stuff and that we'll struggle cause we'll be taking care of two babies instead of one at that point and I won't be able to work yet. He told me his boss is making some changes around and if something happens I don't want him to get too stressed out."
"Well, did you guys talk about having another baby?"
Marilyn's cheeks turned pink. "Uh… we have, but we, uh… weren't actually trying this time, just yet," she let out a slight chuckle, "It kinda just happened, ya know?"
I laughed, "I get it, trust me. Believe it or not, that's how it was with KJ."
She laughed then frowned a bit. "I'm just nervous that he'll get really stressed out about his job and everything else. Cause you know as much as I do that does get like that."
"That's true. But I also know that things happen at certain times for specific reasons, so technically it's not like this was a complete accident. A happy accident, though, of course."
Before Marilyn could say anything else, the door opened slightly and Darry stepped halfway into the doorway. "Everything alright in here?" he asked.
Marilyn nodded, "Of course, why?"
He shrugged a bit. "I was just curious cause usually I ca hear you in here with Mariah and I like to make sure nothing's wrong from the baby monitor but I couldn't hear nothin', so I got worried."
"Oh, the battery must've died. I'll take care of it."
Needless to say, when he turned around, she turned the monitor back on and it magically started to work again. As we walked out of the room and to the living room, she turned to me and said a quiet "thank you." I smiled and nodded as we got to the living room and sat down.
I sat down next to Keith on the couch. He smiled and kissed my forehead as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Everything goin' alright?" he asked. I nodded, "Everything's just fine. KJ's still asleep in Mariah's room."
By that time, it was 11:55 and we were all in the living room talking. As we slowly got older, even month by month, our conversations even started to make us actually sound like adults. We sometimes even talked about politics. But whenever we did that, someone did or said something that would completely take all the seriousness out of the conversation and we'd all end up laughing our heads off. Plus, a lot of the time, we'd end up making fun of them or whatever we were talking about, which would always send everyone into a fit of laughter.
By the time 12:10 hit, we all went through our little tradition of the midnight gifts. Marilyn had told me, Cherry, Evie and Candy that she planned to do hers after everyone else had finished. What shocked and confused the five of us was that by the time everyone finished, Darry hadn't gone yet.
When everyone did finish, I saw a Soda start to smirk a bit as Darry took out a blue envelope and handed it to Marilyn. "What is this?" she asked in a slightly confused tone.
"Just open it," he smiled.
She gave him a weird look and opened the envelope like he said. When she did, she took out two pieces of paper. A moment later, she let out a sound that was like a gasp and covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh my gosh," she smiled and threw her arms around his neck.
"What happened?" Evie asked.
"I was promoted at work," Darry smiled, "And I got a raise."
After the five of us congratulated him, I turned to Keith. "Did he tell all you guys this already?" I asked.
He shrugged, "Maybe."
Marilyn went over to their tree, picked up a small package and handed it to him. "Your news make mine a whole lot easier," she smiled, "Open it."
He gave a confused look and started to open the package. When he opened the box, he took out a pair of baby booties. The four of us bit back smiles while all the guys had confused looks on their faces. "Mar', these are too small for Mariah," he said in a confused tone.
She still bit back her smile as much as she could. "Yes, I know that," she said.
"Then why-" He stopped himself and looked at her with wide eyes. "Wait, are you saying…"
She nodded and let her smile show. "Mariah's gonna be a big sister next year." Darry smiled, gave her a quick kiss and hugged her.
"And to think she was nervous," I said quietly.
Keith looked at me with a confused look, "Did she tell you all?"
I smirked. "Maybe."
I'm actually somewhat happy with this chapter, that hasn't happened in forever with this story. I'm actually not very fond of writing this story anymore but I will cause there might be some people out there reading this who are genuinely curious what happens with their lives based off one of the bonus chapters in "To Love A Greaser"
So hi! It's October!
I hate October.
Before you guys freak out on me like "why do you hate October?! Halloween!", I don't celebrate Halloween. What I do on Halloween is watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" and wait for "Thriller", "Ghostbusters", and "The Monster Mash" to play on WCBS FM 101.1 (last year, they didn't play the Monster Mash and I was so mad). But yeah, and then all the Halloween stuff is going on from September 30 to November 1 and some of it actually freaks me out and then all the horror movies are playing on television or movies that involve ghosts or monsters or whatever. Plus last year, the second half of October, I spent worrying about my bestest friend ever who I've known since I was a baby cause she had a tumor that grew around the tip of her pancreas (she had an operation and she's fine now, it wasn't cancerous) so there's that too. The only good thing that happened last October was that I read the Outsiders.
Call me a party-pooper and a complainer, I don't care. Call me rotten, go ahead.
Anyway, so yeah- hope you enjoyed the chapter and I apologize for my long author's note (which I'm doing a lot lately)- peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=