Logan sat in a deck chair by the pool waiting for Camille to get home. Her web series had really taken off and now she was always busy with interviews, photo shoots, and filming. He was really proud of her, but he missed her. The two had been separated for five months due to his break in Colorado and now it seemed they were still separated with her career exploding.
"She said she'd be home by 4:30!" He complained checking his watch to see it read 4:58.
"Have you seen Camille?" Jo sat down in the chair next to Logan. "I want to talk wedding stuff with her."
"You're not getting married for 16 months. What can you possibly discuss?"
"Everything."
"Phew!" Camille exclaimed appearing out of nowhere and kissing Logan on the cheek.
"Don't think you can just waltz in here late and expect me to…" Logan began. Camille smacked him. "What was that for?"
"Shut up, Logan. I missed you."
"I missed you, too."
Suddenly a flash of tanned bodies flew by them and cannonballed into the water with giant splashes soaking Logan, Camille, and Jo. The three of them glared at the two wet bodies in the pool.
"Sorry," Alexa and Carlos said not looking the least bit sorry. Alexa quickly turned to Carlos and dunked him underwater. While down there he ended up pulling Alexa with them.
"Anyway…" Jo pulled a folder from behind her somewhere. "Wedding details." The two females began pouring over the book.
"Women," Logan muttered.
"You know you love us." Camille pinched his cheek.
"Only sometimes."
"Haha, only sometimes," she mocked. "Well, Jo and I need to go over important wedding detail."
"And I need to change out of these wet clothes." Logan sent a look Carlos and Alexa's way.
"Join us in the pool!" Carlos shouted.
Logan shook his head and then headed up to apartment 2J. On the way he bumped, not literally, into Lucy heading into her apartment.
"Hey," he greeted her.
"You're all wet," she pointed out.
"Yeah, some goons down at the pool…"
Lucy laughed slightly. OK, just a little. Well, not really a laugh. All right, maybe Logan thought it was kind of sort of a laugh.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine…" she trailed off. "Ugh, no. My manager found out about the baby. I don't know. He's mad and I don't know. I don't know. He didn't say anything about the tour, but there's just no way I can go on it, you know? I don't know."
"Traveling would be kind of hard, but you're really only not allowed to travel after week 36. Well, plane travel's usually forbidden in the third trimester."
"Are you saying I should do the tour?" Lucy raised an eyebrow.
"I'm just saying…well, I mean…" Logan nervously rubbed the back of his neck.
"Don't you think performing would be kind of tough?"
Logan shrugged. "I've seen some musicians do it. Not heavy dancing or anything."
"But every night? I'm already so exhausted and I'm only in week 9."
"That's morning sickness, which should go away by, I think, week 14."
"How do you know so much? Do you want to be an obstetrician? Do you want to deliver babies? Aw, do you like babies?" Lucy joked.
"I do want to be a doctor, but I think I'd rather go into surgery."
"Are you trying to send me away? Do you want me to go on tour?" Lucy eyed him curiously.
"I'm giving you options. Choices."
"Are you in cahoots with my manager or something?" She opened her apartment door.
"I don't even know your manager." Logan raised his hands in defense. "Yeah, I think performing a rigorous tour schedule while pregnant will be tough. I just thought maybe you wanted choices."
"I don't know what I want."
Logan didn't know what else to say or do so he patted Lucy on the shoulder and then went to apartment 2J
"She's killing me, Logan," Kendall said. He was sitting at the counter with a glass of milk.
"Jo? Because she's already going on about the wedding?"
Kendall shook his head. "My m—"
"Honey, how about a blue tux for your best man?" Mrs. Knight appeared in the kitchen carrying fabric swatches.
"I haven't even picked my best man yet!" Kendall responded.
"You should hurry up and do that."
"What? I got sixteen months! I don't—"
Logan put an arm around Kendall.
"Hey, let's get out of here."
"But, you're all wet." Kendall shrugged Logan's arm off and brushed the wet area he left behind.
"All right, I'll go change." Logan hurried into the bedroom he shared with Kendall and appeared very shortly after in dry clothes. "If you want to stay dry," he warned, "I'd stay away from the pool area. We've got two Latin maniacs out there."
.O.
Lucy lay down on her couch and thought about what Logan said. She couldn't go on tour, not when she was as big as a house. Could she? No, performing would be a major hassle. She'd be tired all the time and how could she play her guitar? It wouldn't work.
She was surprised she didn't know where James was. Ever since he found out she was pregnant he hadn't left her side, except when one or both had to go to work. It was endearing, but also kind of annoying. However, today he wasn't there and she had to admit she missed him.
"Where are you?" She texted him.
After putting her phone down she placed a hand on her stomach. It hadn't grown any, but it felt hard.
"Business meeting," was the reply from James.
"What does that mean? I just saw Logan in the hall. He's not at some business meeting," she texted back. She didn't care. Her head was starting to hurt and ugh…
"Surprise." James walked in with a bag of food.
Lucy jumped from the couch and ran to the bathroom, throwing up.
"Babe?" James called out. He put the food down on the small round kitchen table and found Lucy in the bathroom.
"The smell," she coughed depositing more into the bowl.
"It's the food. I'll take it to 2J and make you something calmer for lunch. I'm sorry. I didn't even think about it."
"Can you—" she said between heaving "please leave?"
James's face fell.
"You—you don't want me around here?"
"Just the bathroom, please."
"I'll take the food."
Once James left the bathroom Lucy's stomach eased up and she fell back against the wall. She couldn't take much more of this and hoped to high heaven that the morning sickness would end soon.
"Hey, I haven't removed the—" James said when Lucy walked into the dining area. Immediately upon entering something hit her, a strange smell or something she couldn't quite place, and she ran back into the bathroom.
She hated this. She hated this more than anything. This was the worst thing she'd ever experienced. Part of her would have actually preferred having to bear her parents' wrath for becoming a rock musician rather than go through this. Although, when they did find out it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
When nothing came up, Lucy stood by the sink and wiped her mouth. The dark circles under her eyes scared her. This baby was going to kill her before it was all said and done.
"James?" she called as she stepped out of the bathroom.
No response.
She slowly sat down on the living room couch able to breathe a bit better. Her stomach didn't churn. She didn't feel a bit nauseous.
"I left the food with Mama Knight." James re-entered the apartment.
Lucy stomach spun. She placed a hand to her mouth and burped.
"Are you okay?" He sat down next to her and rubbed her back.
She shook her head, burping again.
"I don't think it's the food," she managed. "I th-think it's you." She ran back into the bathroom and dry heaved into the toilet not surprised with how there couldn't be anything left in her stomach.
"Babe, Lucy," James called out. "Don't cry."
"How can I not? My boyfriend makes me sick! You make me sick! I can't stomach being around you…I…"
"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, we'll get through this."
She quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. This pregnancy was making her such a wimp, crying all the time.
After James left all Lucy did was lay on her couch and watch mindless TV. She had no plans scheduled so she could just mope around feeling sorry for herself. When the TV got too mindless she decided to take a nap in her bed just wanted to sleep off this horrible feeling that had latched onto her.
"James's hoodie," she said to herself upon walking into her bedroom and finding the sweatshirt she wore to the obstetrician on the floor. "If I can't be with James maybe this is the next best thing." She took a deep breath of the Cuda smell practically woven into the material.
Her stomach lurched. Couldn't she just get one minute away from the stupid morning sickness?
"Cuda," she said to herself quickly balling up the hoodie and throwing it into the dark corners of her closet. She took a deep breath of the sweatshirtless room and upon sitting on her bed her stomach calmed down. She smiled weakly at the thought of what was upsetting her then ran into the living room to find her phone to text James.
There will be more Jo (there was a little in this chapter). As the story goes further down the timeline it'll be easier to fit her in, I think. As for Lucy, this won't be a story of just her throwing up. That's gross. ;)
I made a boo-boo in this chapter. Camille doesn't get home from the studio until near 5PM so why would James be bringing Lucy lunch? I fixed it.