Getting By
Sorry about posting the wrong chapter! My ass wasn't paying attention lmao. Enjoy!
"This is super nice." AJ nodded, standing in the baby store and looking over at the cribs and the different furniture with Anna who was 6 months pregnant. Frankie was in his stroller which AJ was pushing and Keala and CJ were wondering around touching things they probably shouldn't have been touching.
"I don't know if that's a little too boyish." Anna said. They'd found out just a few weeks ago that they were expecting a girl, which excited Anna and terrified Dean.
"What about this white one then?" AJ asked, "We had white furniture for Keala I'm sure." AJ said as Anna looked at it, checking it out thoroughly. She was so glad that this was finally happening for them after all they'd been through. After the first miscarriage, they went onto have another one. Anna wasn't sure she even wanted to try again, but thankfully they did and this time their baby was doing great.
"That is nice." Anna admitted, looking at the matching dressers to go with it and the changing table whilst AJ looked too, both of them suddenly turning around when they heard a smash.
AJ looked over first to where Keala and CJ were standing, looking on at them standing still and looking down at the ground.
"Let's hope it's not expensive." Anna laughed a little as AJ left Frankie in his stroller with Anna to go over to CJ and Keala.
"What happened?" AJ asked them, walking around the corner where she saw a bowl of some sort had smashed.
"Keala did it." CJ immediately said as Keala gasped.
"No, I didn't." Keala said, "Mommy I didn't." She told her mother truthfully.
"I don't care who did it, are you both ok?" AJ asked them as they nodded, watching as the shop assistant walked over, "I'm so sorry about this." AJ shook her head as the shop assistant stayed silent.
"I'm afraid you'll have to pay for that." The assistant nodded as AJ looked across at her.
"It was just an accident." AJ said.
"It's policy. There's a sign on the door too." The shop assistant said as AJ placed her hands on her hips and looked at CJ and Keala.
"How much was it?" AJ nodded, watching the woman pick up the same item and look at the bottom where the price was.
"One fifty" She smiled.
"One hundred and fifty?" AJ raised her eyebrows as the woman nodded, "Alright, fine. I'll pay it before we leave the store." AJ nodded, "But… just so you know, I think it's mildly dumb to have ornaments and objects in place which could break in a baby store, where parents take their kids sometimes. They have little hands. They didn't deliberately break them."
"Well, we expect parents to keep a closer eye on their children." The woman said hastily as AJ felt rage in her stomach, turning to CJ and Keala who just stood watching.
"C'mon." AJ said, biting her lip, placing her hand on Keala and CJ's shoulder and guiding them over to where Anna was with Frankie.
"Mommy, I didn't mean to I'm sorry." Keala said, owning up to it after feeling guilty. She'd only picked it up to see if there was something inside and it slipped out of her hands.
"Oh, no it's ok, baby." AJ nodded to her, "Don't worry." She told them both, "We won't be long in here and then we can go for some lunch. Just… don't go wandering around." She told them whilst walking back over to Anna.
"What's the damage?" Anna asked.
"One hundred and fifty." AJ shook her head.
"Oh my God." Anna shook her head, "Who prices things in here?"
"Probably the bitch who just spoke to me." AJ said, "They probably sit all their expensive ornaments hanging off the edge of shelves so people will knock them over." AJ shook her head as Anna nodded, "Anyway, do you like this one?" She asked, still looking at the white furniture.
"Yeah, I do actually." Anna nodded, "I think I'm gonna go with this one." She nodded.
"Why didn't you wanna go baby shopping with Anna?" Punk asked, standing outside the garage with Dean on his break, "And why have you started this shit?" Punk asked, trying to pull the cigarette from his brothers mouth as Dean slapped his hand away.
"Because I've been stressed. Moving out of the apartment into an actual house. Trying to get everything ready for the baby. Finding out it's a girl has added another layer of stress anyway." Dean said.
"Why?" Punk laughed.
"Because it's different. I'm not saying I'm gonna love her more than CJ but like…it's a girl." Dean said as Punk laughed a little, "And plus, I've never actually had a baby before. Yes, I have CJ but… I wasn't there when he was born or when he was a baby." He said as Punk nodded, "So this is all still a first-time for me." He reminded his brother, "Plus, the two miscarriages are giving me anxiety." He said.
"Smoking won't help with that." Punk informed him as he just blew the smoke in his face as Punk pushed him over, "You know the baby is healthy and fine. Don't worry yourself over things that don't need to be worried out." He said, "So why didn't you want to go shopping with Anna?"
"No big reason." Dean said honestly, "She asked me and I was working anyway, and then I just said it's not really a big deal to me. She knows that wasn't me being rude or anything, and then she said she'd rather AJ there anyway so." He shrugged.
"AJ hates shopping so that is all on Anna." Punk laughed to himself, "Especially shopping with kids. She just cuts the trip short, goes for food and then comes home." He said.
"Well good luck to her because Anna likes to spend a full day shopping." Dean shook his head.
"Came up with any names yet?" Punk asked him, eating a bag of chips and sliding down the stoned wall to sit on the ground. They normally took their break outside as there wasn't much room inside the garage, and most of the workers smoked so most of them were outside anyway.
"No, not yet. We've ran through a few but… we've not found anything we liked." Dean said.
"Yeah, took us a while." Punk nodded, "Call her Phil. These unisex names are becoming more popular by the day."
"I am not calling my daughter Phil." Dean rolled his eyes.
"It's a good name." Punk shrugged.
"No, it's an awful name, even for a boy." Dean said as Punk just rolled his eyes, noticing their father walk down the sidewalk towards the garage.
"Call her JC." Punk laughed to himself as he stood up whilst Dean elbowed him.
"Not working as usual." JC nodded to them.
"We are entitled to a break, you know." Dean said as JC just waved his hand.
"I'm kidding." He said, "I just came to see if you needed me to watch the kids tomorrow?" He asked Punk, "AJ never said to me when she left last night."
"No, I'm off tomorrow but probably the next day, yeah." Punk nodded, "I'll give you a text or call." He said as JC nodded.
"Right on." JC said.
"You off to a meeting?" Dean asked him as JC nodded.
"Yeah." JC nodded, "And why are you smoking, boy?" He asked, grabbing the cigarette from Dean, putting it on the ground and standing on it.
"His excuse is he's having a daughter." Punk nodded.
"I'd take two daughter's any day." JC shook his head.
"Shut up old man, don't you have another date with your rehab buddy?" Dean asked.
"Oh yeah, what's her name again?" Punk asked, "Lydia?"
"The blonde who is twenty years younger than you." Dean said as JC just nodded.
"You two got jokes, it's cute." JC said, "Jealous your old man still has game?"
"Jealous is not a word I'd use to describe how I feel about this." Punk said, "But if it keeps you going to the meetings then whatever." He waved his hand.
"I just hope you know I'm not referring to her as my step mom when I am the same age as her." Dean said.
"I've been on like four dates with her." JC shook his head, "It's either her or the hookers. You decide."
"You got some problems." Dean nodded, "No wonder mom had to slap you around senseless."
"Trust me, you two never got to see your mom at the peak of her anger. Unrecognisable." JC nodded.
"I can imagine." Punk nodded, watching as his father's eyes looked over into the garage where Sam was lurking and had looked out at them, "Stop staring." Punk told him.
"He still keeping away from you?" JC asked.
"Yeah, he is." Punk nodded, "So stop death staring him please." He said as JC just turned away, "Thank you."
"To be fair, he's probably wanting us back in, our break expired like ten minutes ago." Dean admitted.
"I need to go anyway. Just call me when you need me to watch the kids." He said as Punk nodded, "See you later." He nodded to them as they said goodbye and headed back into the garage.
"One hundred and fifty dollars?!" Punk shook his head, standing in the kitchen with AJ whilst Keala sat at the kitchen table with Frankie also sitting in his high chair waiting for dinner.
"Oh, daddy don't shout at me." Keala placed her hands over her ears as Punk turned around to her.
"Well why were you picking things up that you shouldn't have been?" Punk asked her.
"Because I wanted to see what was inside the bowl and it just fell and I didn't mean it." She said, her lip starting to quiver as Punk watched and instantly felt a hollow feeling in his chest.
"Alright, alright. Don't start that." Punk sighed, "It's fine." He nodded, walking over to her and sitting down across from her, "Accidents happen." He said.
"But you're mad." Keala huffed.
"I'm not. I'm mad that someone priced a bowl at one hundred and fifty dollars." He turned to AJ, "What's that all about?"
"I have no clue." AJ said, "The good news is Anna got the furniture she liked." AJ said whilst Punk quickly dried Keala's tears to avoid him feeling any worse. Sometimes he came across more angrier than he seemed, and there was something about his voice being loud that Keala just didn't enjoy, so he instantly felt bad.
"I break things all the time, it's fine." Punk assured Keala.
"Yeah, you do and I don't shout at you." Keala said angrily as Punk nodded.
"I didn't mean to shout at you, baby." Punk said, "It's not your fault." He nodded as Keala dried her own eyes and pushed his hands away.
"Keala tell daddy what other stores you went into today." AJ said whilst fixing dinner up.
"No, I'm not talking to daddy right now." Keala said, refusing to look at her father as Punk just nodded.
"Fine, Frankie will talk to me." Punk said, looking at Frankie who was banging one of his toys off the board on his high chair, babbling nonsense as Punk just nodded in agreement with him.
"Frankie doesn't want to talk to you either." Keala mumbled as AJ just smiled a little. She had the same little snarky attitude he did, he assumed it's why they clashed sometimes.
"Ok here." AJ said, giving Keala her dinner and sitting down some for Frankie too which Punk took over to him to feed him, "How was work then?" AJ asked, taking her seat at the table whilst Punk multi-tasked by eating his own dinner and also feeding Frankie.
"It was fine. My dad stopped by wanting to know when he was babysitting next." Punk said, "He was going to one of his meetings."
"It's great he still goes. I mean some people think that once they're a few months clean they can just split from the group meetings and the talks." AJ said, taking a sip of her water.
"Well, really he just goes for the woman he sees, who is the same age as me." He rolled his eyes as AJ smiled a little.
"He is handsome." AJ shrugged.
"Please don't." Punk said as AJ laughed a little.
"For an older man I mean." AJ said as Punk just shook his head.
"Would you like me hitting on your mom?" He asked her.
"What mom?" AJ scoffed, "And I'm not hitting on him." She said, "If it's making him happy then you should be happy for him." She shrugged, "He's came a long way." She nodded.
"Yeah, I know." Punk nodded, "Hey, you still not talking to me?" Punk asked, looking across at Keala who refused to look at him, "Alright well I'll guess we'll just have to cancel our pizza date tomorrow then." Punk shrugged as Keala slowly looked up as AJ smiled to herself, "Oh now you look up?"
"Don't cancel the pizza." Keala shook her head, "I'll talk to you." She nodded as Punk smiled, giving Frankie more mash potato as he kicked his legs around.
"Good, I'm glad." Punk nodded as he just exchanged smiles with his wife.
