Old Friends
"Do you just wake up and sit and wait for us?" Punk asked the next morning as he walked into Frankie's room where the one-year-old was sitting in his crib playing with one of his stuffed animals, touching it's ear and trying to poke it through the spaces in the cribs. Sometimes he even threw them out and onto the floor, "When are you gonna start talking to me?" Punk asked him, lifting him up from the crib. It'd been so great to watch him grow into a little person just like they had watched with Keala. He had the same adorable nature as Keala with a little more mischievousness about him. Punk was just waiting on him taking his first full steps and speaking his first words, which of course he was forcing dada onto him every day.
"Man, you stink." Punk shook his head in the middle of changing Frankie's diaper as he just laughed at his father and looked around, "Yeah, something funny?" Punk asked him as he just laughed again, causing Punk to smile.
"So are we gonna try more oatmeal today?" Punk asked him, buttoning up the vest once putting him in a clean diaper, "Huh? We gonna try oatmeal and not spit it out at me?" He questioned as Frankie just blew bubbles with his mouth, "Mhm, ok." Punk agreed, getting some clothes for him.
No matter what they done, Frankie just didn't seem to like any breakfast items. They struggled to feed him at breakfast time. Punk put it down to him just not being a morning person but he supposed he was just one. Considering he scoffed lunch and dinner, they knew there wasn't a problem, he was just fussy.
"What t-shirt?" Punk asked himself, "We have a turtles one." Punk held it up for him to see as Frankie just looked at his father like he had two heads, "Or we have one with a dinosaur on it." He said, holding the tiny little t-shirts up as Frankie just kicked his legs, "Turtles it is then." Punk made up his mind, putting him into the clothes and then picking him up, holding him by his hip and heading on downstairs where his wife was sitting with his daughter at the table. It was nice when they could have a day off together and spend a morning without rushing around like headless chickens.
"Oh, morning." AJ smiled as she saw Frankie notice her and smile, "You would never be able to tell that daddy dressed you today." She said sarcastically as she noticed the teenage mutant ninja turtles shirt on him.
"Uh, he picked it." Punk lied as AJ just smiled.
"Mhm." AJ said.
"Is that how you dressed me?" Keala asked worriedly.
"Yes I used to put skull headbands on you." Punk smiled to her.
"Didn't people think I was a boy then?" Keala said with panic.
"No." Punk scoffed, putting Frankie in his high chair and walking over further into the kitchen to start the oatmeal and other breakfast items for his family.
"Well… one time someone thought you were a boy, but you were still really, really little." AJ nodded, "Do you remember?" AJ smiled over to Punk who just nodded.
"Yeah, I remember." He scoffed, "I remember you pushing me back from beating him." He shook his head as AJ laughed to herself.
"What do we normally get him for his birthday? I've been around the guy since literally forever and I still don't feel like I know what he likes." Punk shook his head, 7 years ago in a store with AJ trying to pick up something for his brother's birthday. Their few month old daughter was in her stroller fast asleep.
"That's because he doesn't like anything. He's boring." AJ said, looking around and pushing the stroller, "What if we just get him vouchers for something?" She asked.
"What vouchers? He doesn't go anywhere." Punk said, "Might come down to just putting money in a card."
"That always seems lazy." AJ shook her head, "What about some cubs stuff. He stays wearing that dirty beanie. We could get him a new one."
"Woah, don't splash the cash." Punk laughed.
"Obviously we can give him money too." AJ made a face, "I just mean for something to open. It doesn't feel right not having something to open up on your birthday. He's just so difficult." She shook her head.
"Fine, let's just pick up some cubs or hawks stuff, see what they've got." He nodded.
They eventually grabbed a few things to wrap up for Dean and took them to the counter where a friendly man was standing behind and checking their things out. He of course noticed the stroller and decided to make light conversation.
"Oh, how old?" He smiled as he put their things in a bag whilst Punk brought his wallet out.
"Just three months." AJ smiled politely, leaning forward and making sure Keala was ok, tilting the hood of the stroller down a little so the man could see her. She loved showing her gorgeous baby off. Punk on the other hand just wanted to pay and leave the store.
"Oh, he's adorable." The man smiled as Punk and AJ both looked at him with the same angered expression.
"It's a girl." Punk said, the anger in his voice noticeable as the man just cringed.
"My apologises, I just thought with the skulls on her onesie-"
"Girls can't wear skulls?" Punk tilted his head as the man nervously took the money from him.
"They can I just… sorry." The man shook his head as AJ tugged Punk's hand, a signal for him to calm down and behave, "She's beautiful." The man nodded as AJ just smiled whilst Punk took the bag from the counter and shook his head.
"Thank you." AJ smiled, heading on out the store as she turned to Punk who still looked angry, "I told you to lay off the skulls."
"She doesn't even look like a boy." Punk made a face, opening up the store door and letting her out first with the stroller.
"All babies look the same. It's not like she's covered in pink." AJ shrugged, not feeling that offended.
"I hope she didn't hear." Punk stuck his head into the stroller, making sure Keala was ok as AJ just shook her head.
"I'm sure you care more than Keala does." AJ said, "Now take me for lunch I'm getting bored of this shopping stuff." She told him as he nodded and smiled.
"Why don't you try him with yoghurt?" AJ asked, sitting across from Punk at the table, watching him try to feed Frankie the oatmeal which just wasn't happening. They'd even try and trick him with putting some fruit with it but he still knew what they were doing and he spat it right back out and made the most hilarious faces.
"He'll hate that even more." Punk said, "I think it might be the texture. It looks like he gets the creeps. Like he doesn't like the feeling of it." He said, "And my patience is running out." He admitted, sitting the spoon back in the bowl and sliding it across to AJ who just laughed a little.
"When are we actually going to meet this… woman your dad has been seeing?" AJ asked curiously, trying Frankie with some more oatmeal as the one-year-old got frustrated and took the spoon away from her, "Oh, ok." AJ laughed at his angry little face.
"I mean, probably when he figures out if he's going to stick with it or just fuck it up." Punk shrugged as Keala looked up.
"Swear jar." Keala said, jumping off the chair and running over to the kitchen as Punk rolled his eyes. He watched as she climbed up onto the kitchen counter with the little muscles she had, and grabbed the jar and his wallet. Every time he swore he put money in it for her. It was a dumb in his opinion because he just kept swearing and losing money.
"I didn't swear." Punk scoffed, watching Keala run back over to him and hand him the jar and his wallet.
"You did you said the F word." Keala said, "JC says it all the time. And Uncle Dean. And mommy. And you. You're all bad." Keala concluded, "So put the money in." She demanded.
"Sometimes you scare me." Punk told her, taking a few dollars out of his wallet and putting it in the jar for her.
"Good." Keala smiled, running back over to put the jar and his wallet back over as Punk just shook his head as AJ smiled.
"She keeps you in line. Means I don't have to anymore." AJ shrugged.
"She'll get fed up eventually." Punk nodded, "Anyway, I've met the woman."
"Yeah, not properly though." AJ said.
"It's just weird. She's literally the same age as us." Punk shook his head.
"She obviously likes him, though. Otherwise why bother. And they're both dealing with the same stuff, maybe it's a good thing." AJ said, "He should introduce us to her properly."
"It kinda frustrates me, though." Punk said, "He's putting all his effort into the relationship. He's got his act together, he even smells nice sometimes." Punk nodded, "And he couldn't do a single thing for my mom?" Punk shrugged.
"Well hey, you're always gonna be bitter about that. Any person whose parents are broken up or something happened, and they move on, they find it hard. Good thing for you is you never really knew what it was like to have a mom and dad who were together." She shrugged.
"Or he just didn't love her like he says he did. I mean, they had me when they were still at school. I was probably the glue keeping them together and then Dean tipped it all over the edge." Punk said.
"No, I don't believe that. Whenever your dad talks about your mom you can see he loved her. You don't know what it was like back then. Must have been terrifying to have a kid so young. Lot of pressure." She nodded.
"Yeah, I suppose." Punk said, "We would have been fine with it." Punk shrugged.
"You don't know that." AJ said, "We broke up and that was without any babies or other commitments, who's to say what would have happened." She said.
"But the good old death row got us back together." Punk nodded, he liked to make light joke of it, otherwise it would have drove him insane. He liked to pretend he was over it. He wasn't. He never would be.
"I think we would have wound up back together some way or another. That break up was only good for one thing and it was realising how ugly life was without each other." She said truthfully.
"It is way too early for this." Punk shook his head as AJ kicked him under the table and he smiled, "Ok, you." Punk turned back to Frankie, "Please just eat some oatmeal. I know it tastes boring but… it's what little guys like you eat." He said.
"He obviously doesn't want it." Keala told her father like he was stupid.
"What if we give him a bit of pancake." AJ said, breaking it off and giving it to Frankie who took it from her and put it in his mouth, chewing on it as Punk and AJ smiled.
"He only likes the good, rich people food I see." Punk nodded.
"Only the best." AJ smiled.
"Why are you holding him like that?" 18 year old Vanessa asked, sitting up in the hospital bed as she looked over at JC who was awkwardly holding a few hour old Phil in his arms.
"Like what?" JC asked her.
"Like he's a cactus." She shook her head with a little smile.
"I've never held a baby before." JC said, taking a seat over by the bed, "He's like… super small. Should he be that small?" He asked her.
"He didn't feel small." Vanessa groaned a little, "I guess six pounds is kinda small." She nodded, "He's fine, though." She smiled. Although they were very much young and clueless, there was never one single thought to take any other action other than take their son home. There was so no considering abortion. No considering adoption. They knew it wouldn't be easy, but they wanted their son.
"I can't believe he's not called JC the second." JC said as Vanessa scoffed.
"You're lucky I let you slip Jack in there." She said as JC smiled a little.
"Can't believe I have a son." He shook his head as Vanessa smiled.
"Well you better because he's right there." She laughed a little, watching as the room door opened, looking over at the familiar face standing with a card in her hand. Vanessa and JC both looked over in shock, "Why are you here?" Vanessa shook her head as she looked over at her former best friend. Former, meaning that she stopped speaking to her after she began dating JC.
"I just wanted to give you this." Jean said, walking further into the room with the card, "Is he… ok?" She asked.
"Look for yourself." Vanessa said. She'd lost a hell of a lot in the space of nine months. She'd lost her family and best friends. All she had was JC and now their son. That was all she cared about, but of course it hurt her to lose the people she thought cared about her, especially one of her closest friends.
"He's really cute." Jean smiled, extending the card to Vanessa who took it from her and sat it over, "So… you… you're just not coming back to school anymore?" Jean asked.
"I think I'll be a little busy." Vanessa nodded, "Not that you'd care." She said.
"Don't be like that, Ness." Jean shook her head as JC stood up and put Phil in his bassinet.
"I'm going for a drink." JC told them, "Of coffee." He looked Jean in the eye to make sure she knew what type of drink he meant. He didn't want to be in the room with two best friends ready to scrap with one another.
"What's his name?" Jean asked, sitting her bag down as she got a better look at Phil sleeping in his bassinet.
"Phil." Vanessa said, playing with the end of the bed sheets, looking down, "You're the first person to come visit us." She admitted truthfully, "My mom didn't even call." She shrugged as Jean looked over.
"I just wanted to make sure you were ok." Jean said, "I hate the way things went with us."
"You mean you telling me to stay away from you if I wanted to be with JC?" Vanessa said.
"He is trouble. You know that." Jean said, "Don't you remember that night?"
"Yes, I do. Don't bring it up." Vanessa shut her down quickly as Jean just folded her arms, "I love him and he's good to me-"
"Is he?" Jean asked, "I told you when you started seeing him that this exact scenario would happen. You're now attached to him for life because of this little guy." Jean said, "That means he is in your life forever. You know he's on drugs, right?"
"Yes I know he is." Vanessa said, "He's not out of control." Vanessa said, "And he'll be a good dad."
"You're sure of it?" Jean asked.
"Is this what you came here to do? Shout at me some more? Be my mom?" Vanessa said, "Because I'm tired already. I just had a baby. If you have nothing nice to say to me you should just leave."
"I just don't want to see anything bad happen to you. His habits are going to turn into addictions, and then you're gonna have a son wondering where his dad is all the time, and you'll be on your own." Jean said.
"You should just go." Vanessa nodded, "To think… to think I thought you were like a sister to me." Vanessa said, "And now this is how you treat me."
"Think about how you're treating yourself, Vanessa. You're worth a lot more than this life. I'm sure you'll love that little kid." She looked down at Phil, "But think about how he's gonna grow up." She said.
"Just leave." Vanessa shook her head as Jean just nodded.
"I hope everything works out for you. I really do." Jean said, taking her bag and walking out of the room as Vanessa sunk down in the bed and sighed, looking over at the baby in his bassinet, his adorable little face already giving her so much anxiety.
A/N: Let me know what you think!
