Complicated

Chapter 6

"Cribs are expensive."

I rolled my eyes. "My mother said she would-"

"I have to chip in something," Wes cut me off, still looking at his laptop.

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."

"Wes, we're buying other things."

"Like? I mean, what else could a baby need?" He glanced at me. "I mean, a car seat, a stroller, some diapers, and we're set."

"The baby will need clothes, Wes."

"Bah! It'll be summer. He can just wear his diaper."

"Wes."

"Seriously, Mace, what else is there?"

"A lot of things."

"Like?"

"I don't know. Bottles."

"I'm sure Delia could give us those."

"Pacifiers."

"Again, Delia."

"You sure are relying on Delia a lot."

"She has stuff left over from the girls. She's got our back."

"She doesn't even know I'm pregnant yet," I pointed out while Wes stood up. We were both on his couch, spending my last day before I headed back to school together.

"She will eventually," he said, going to get a glass of water from the kitchen. "You thirsty?"

"No," I called to him, cuddling into the couch. "You know, Wes, the sooner you tell her, the better. She's gonna start to think that we're hiding it from her."

"Aren't we?"

"I'm not. I think that we should have told her sooner."

"Whatever. It's not like it matters. Either way the baby will be here eventually, huh?"

"Then just tell her."

"I will tell her."

"Tell her today," I said as he came back into the room.

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to." He sat back down before picking the laptop off the table and setting it in his lap.

"Why not?"

"Why do you care, Macy?"

"I just think it's wrong, not to tell her. And if you don't hurry up and do it, you always run the risk of someone else telling her. Then she really will be mad."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I'm being pretty clear, Wes." I sat up a little bit. "Just tell her. It's not like she can punish you. We are adults."

"Yeah, I know."

"And we're not asking her for anything. If she offers, fine, but we don't need her."

"We don't need you mother then."

"Don't be offended, Wes," I told him. "I'm just saying-"

"You're just saying that your mother is better to help us out than my aunt."

"Well, yeah. Delia has two little kids."

"So?" He snorted at me. "You just think-"

"I just told you what I think. I think that my mother, who is running a successful real-estate agency, is better adept to help us out. That's all."

Taking a deep breath, he said, "I think that we should just do it all alone."

I nodded at his laptop, where he was still looking at cribs. "And what about that?"

"She can buy one thing. The crib. That's fine. I'll accept that."

I just rolled my eyes.

"Um…what are you doing?"

"We have mice," Bert explained, continuing to unload the grocery bags. Inside were stacks of glue trap boxes. I had come out of Wes' bedroom to find him and his brother in the kitchen, putting these traps down. "We get them from time to time."

"Wes, I don't like mice."

"What do you think the traps are for?" he asked, down on the floor in front of the fridge, putting them down. "To catch the mice. Besides, you're going back to school in the morning."

He had a point. Sighing, I went to go sit down at the table.

"How many mice do you think you have exactly?" I asked, frowning at the quantity of traps. "Guys?"

"They were having a sale," Bert explained. "Gotta stock up while the prices are low. Buy in bulk and all that."

"Ah." I smiled at my boyfriend as he stood. "Is this all we're doing today?"

"Something else you wanna do?"

"Not really, no," I said, shaking my head. "I just wanted to know if we had anything to do."

"Just spend wonderful time together, obviously," Wes said, going to get more traps. "Bert, your room. Now."

He picked up some traps too before following. I sighed, standing as well, though I just went into the living room. The dog was in there, scratching himself. I smiled, going to scratch behind his ears before taking a seat on the couch.

I sat around for awhile, listening to Wes and his younger brother go around the house, putting glue traps down. I was still in there when the doorbell. Wes saved me from having to get up and get it though by coming into the room to do so.

"Hey, Delia," he greeted, taking a step back to let her in the house. "Something wrong?"

"I just thought I'd come check in on you boys. Bert said something yesterday about rats-"

"Mice. We have mice."

"Rats, mice, is there a difference?"

"A big one."

She smiled over at me then. "Hi, Macy."

"Hi."

"You heading back today?"

"In the morning."

"It's been nice having you here," she told me, still all smiles. I gave Wes a pointed look, but he just closed the door behind her, sighing slightly.

"Yeah, it has been nice, seeing Mom and stuff."

She nodded, heading further into the house now. "Where do you have mice, Wes?"

"Everywhere."

Rolling my eyes, I got up to follow. "You guys must have food lying around or something. They only go to unclean places."

"I'm pretty sure Bert's room was their breeding ground."

"Safe bet," Delia agreed.

"While you're here though, I think Wes has something he wanted to tell you," I said, nodding at her. "Huh, Wes?"

I got a glare for that. Then Wes looked off, sighing slightly.

"What is it?" Delia asked, frowning at us. "Is something going on?"

"Well, uh, kinda, I guess. Macy's kind of…sort of…pregnant."

"Oh." She just stared at him for a second before back at me, not really getting it. Then she did. "What?"

"It's really not that big of a deal," my boyfriend tried, but she cut that right off.

"Not that big of a deal? It's not that big of a deal that you got someone pregnant? Really, Wes? Is that really what you're trying to tell me?"

"How do I even really know if I did or not, huh? It's not like she's living down here or something. She's over there in college, doing whatever with whoever. I-"

"Hey!" I stood finally, frowning at him. "Are you serious right now?"

"Oh, don't act like we haven't already discussed that."

His aunt shoved his shoulder, frowning. "Don't talk to her that way."

"Why are you taking her side? She's the one that's pregnant." Wes rubbed his arm, glaring at her now.

"Have you told your mother?" she asked me now.

"Yes. She's not… My sister's getting a divorce right now, so she's kinda focused in that," I said awkwardly.

"Who else knows? Huh?" Delia looked back to her nephew. "Does Bert?"

"Yeah."

"What?"

"We told everyone not to tell," he told her.

"Everyone?"

"Uncle Pete doesn't know if that makes you feel better. Or Avery and Lucy."

He got hit again. "Don't you smart off, Wes."

"I wasn't!" He took a step away from her. "God, why are you so upset by this? This doesn't even affect you."

"Oh, it doesn't?"

"Wes," I whispered, knowing he had just hurt her feelings.

"No, it doesn't. I don't even know if this is my baby! And even if it is, so what? So what?"

"Knock it off," I told him, but it was too late.

"Fine then, Wesley. Since this doesn't affect me, don't call me about this baby, don't ask me anything about this baby, and don't even think about coming over to my house to watch this baby when it's born. I'm done. I am completely done."

"Why did you do that?" I asked Wes the second Delia walked out the door, slamming it behind her. Bert, who apparently had been hiding in the hallway, poked his head out to stare at his brother. "Wes-"

"She's not gonna yell at me. I'm a fucking man. Yell at me in my house. She's not my mother." He shook his head darkly. "I'm not some little kid. Like who does she think she is?"

"So…about he rats…are we ignoring that problem or…?" Bert smiled at his brother. "'cause I think that's the bigger issue at the moment. I mean, if we don't fix this now, the rats might still be there, you know, when the baby gets here. What if the rats bite him? Or her? Or whatever?"

Bert's attempt to lighten the mood failed. Wes just stomped off to his bedroom while I sighed, shaking my head.

"Do you need help, Bert?" I asked finally. "Putting the traps down?"

"Yeah. I need someone to go up into the attic to put the traps up there, but I don't go to the attic."

"…Why not?"

"I hate the attic. It freaks me out. I thought Wes would go up there, but now he's acting all jerky."

"I'll do it," I sighed, following him into the kitchen to get the traps. Do the attic stairs just pull down or-"

"No. We have to get the ladder from the garage."

"Let's get to it then, I guess."

I had never been in their garage before. It connect to the house through the kitchen, but, as I found out, was just filled with some of rebar and old car parts.

"What's in your attic anyways?" I asked. "It looks like everything's out here."

"Not much. Just some Christmas decorations that we don't put out anymore and boxes of our dad's stuff that he never took."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"We'll probably put Mom's stuff up there soon," Bert told me, talking quickly like he always did when he spoke about his parents. "Or get rid of it. I don't know."

I swallowed. "We, uh, just got rid of most my dad's stuff. That's how my mom is. She doesn't like to keep things that remind her of the past."

"Wes doesn't like to, you know, touch her stuff. We don't even go into her room."

"I'm sorry."

He just shrugged, walking through the mess in the garage over to a discarded ladder. Picking it up, he carried it with him out of the room, me following.

"Come on. The opening is in the hall," he called over his shoulder. I just sighed, heading after him.

"What are the two of you doing?"

Wes walked out of room just as I climbed up on the ladder. He came up behind me and grabbed me before setting me down.

"Wes-"

"You're pregnant. Did you really think climbing a ladder would be a good idea?" He frowned at Bert. "You were going to let my pregnant girlfriend climb a ladder?"

"Uh, yeah, Wes. There's, like, ghosts and stuff up there."

Once again, Bert's joke fell flat. He's usually so serious that I think he was just throwing Wes off than anything else.

"She's pregnant. What if she fell or something? She doesn't need to be climbing on things or lifting things or anything like that." Wes looked at me. "You don't, alright?"

"I know. I just wanted to help is all. And I'm not that pregnant, Wes. I can still-"

"I'll just do it, alright? This isn't your house anyways. You don't need to be worrying about it." He took the traps from me before moving to get up the ladder.

"Thanks, Wes."

"What are you thanking me for?"

"Just for being so nice."

"Shut up."

I just smiled at him while Bert headed off to his bedroom, no doubt to combat the mice that, honestly, I've yet to see. The first mouse I saw though, I don't care what Wes says, I'm climbing up on counter and saving myself.

"I'm going to miss you."

Wes just sighed, staring at me. "Yeah. Same."

"Could you, like, at least to pretend that you're sad I'm going back to school?"

He just kept looking across the yard, at his aunt's house. "I'm trying. Really hard."

"Wes-"

"I'll miss you, Mace, you know that." He shook his head. "I'm just thinking is all."

We were sitting out on his front porch steps, me about to head back to my mother's house to stay the night there. I figure I had better spend my last night at home to make sure she wasn't still angry with me.

"You know, you could always just tell her sorry. Your aunt is a very understanding person."

He shook his head slightly. "She'll get over what I said. I wasn't wrong anyways. This doesn't affect her."

"It kind of does."

"In what way?"

"I just mean that we are gonna need someone to help baby-sit sometimes. And she is kind of your employer."

"I guess."

"And she loves you, Wes. This baby is gonna be related to her too."

"Maybe."

"Wes, would you stop? This is our last night together before I go back and you're going to act like this? Are you serious?"

He just groan, resting his head in his hands. "It's just complicated, alright?"

"Is it? Is it really? Is it complicated, Wes?" I stood then. "Fine. If you want to play games, fine. I'll go back to school and when I have the baby, then you can take a DNA test or whatever, find out if it's yours. Until then though, don't talk to me, don't call me, don't even think about me. Asshole."

"Oh, knock it off." He stood too, staring hard at me. "You know as well as I do that I'm gonna take care of you and this damn baby. You're always so dramatic."

"What do you expect me to be, Wes, when you're constantly accusing me of cheating on you?" I sniffled, looking at my feet. "Do you love me?"

"Yeah, Mace. You know that." He shifted his hands into his pockets, looking off.

"Then how could you think that I would do that? 'cause I didn't. I didn't cheat on you. Ever. I love you, Wes."

"I know."

"Then stop saying that. It hurts my feelings, okay?"

Taking a step forward, he moved to rest one hand on my shoulder, the other on my stomach. When I looked up at him, he kissed my lips.

"It's just a lot to take in. Being a…father. I don't…" He shook his head slightly. "My dad walked out on, you know? And I don't ever want to do that to my kids. I wanted to, you know, be married to their mom, making it a planned decision. Not an accident."

"I never planned to get pregnant either."

"I know."

"So can we just stop fighting about it all the time? It's not doing anything. We need to just call a truce. We're having this baby. Or I am. If you don't want anything to do with-"

"You know I do." He stroked my stomach gently. "This is my baby too."

"Okay then."

He kissed me again before taking a step back and slipping his hands back into his pockets. "You should probably get going, Mace."

"I love you."

He smiled slightly. "I love you too. And you call me about the baby, alright? Anything about it. I'll come up to see you the second I get the chance."

We hugged one more time before I was gone.

…I'm a bad author, I know. It's been over a year and I've only got 6 chapters. Still, we're getting somewhere. Finally out of their winter break, so now I can really get going. I hope.