The Good Life

*Rian*

I left the bar after meeting up with Alex, Alan, and Oli. I know Alex was trying to give me a break from Cassadee, but it didn’t really help, she was all I thought about all night. I don’t know what I did wrong to her, but she’s been distant from me since Monday. Every time I tried to ask her what I did wrong she would just say nothing or sometimes she wouldn’t answer at all. So the whole drive home I tried to build up the courage to go inside and demand her to tell me why she was acting weird. I didn’t want to make matters worse, but I couldn’t stand being around her like this.

I walked through the door and went straight to my room to find Cass laid out in the bed watching TV in the dark and cuddling with a pillow. She wasn’t crying, she was just starting at the screen blankly watching 16 and pregnant. I waited at the door for a minute before walking in and turning on the light. She didn’t even look my direction she just kept staring at the TV screen.

“Hey” I gave her a small wave, but she didn’t acknowledge I was there. “Cass?” I tried again, but she still ignored me. I had had enough of it and lost my temper “Cassadee do you not hear me talking to you?!?!” I yelled at her, and she turned to face me.

“The girls in this show are too young to be pregnant let alone raise a kid, but they still have the option to.” She looked at me with tears starting to fall from her eyes.

“Cass what are you talking about?” I whispered, she was starting to scare me. I just wanted to know what was wrong.

“Nothing.” She turned back to the TV.

“No! It’s not nothing. You are going to tell me what I did wrong. Why are you pushing me a way? I literally have no idea what I did and I’ve tried every day this week to get you to talk to me about whatever is bothering you, but you won’t do it. I’m sick and tired of coming home to you being depressed, it’s making me depressed. All I want to do is fix us, but that won’t happen if you tell me nothing.” I was out of breath by the time I finished my rant, but I caught her attention. She was staring at me with tears streaming down her face.

“I’m sorry Cass, I didn’t mean to go off.” I said as I walked over and sat down on the bed pulling her into my arms.

“It’s not your fault, I know I’ve been moody lately, but I got some bad news from the doctor earlier this week and I didn’t know how to handle it.” She said through sobs.

“What do you mean?” I immediately thought of the worse things possible.

“I thought I was pregnant and so I asked Jack to take me to the doctor. The doctor told me I wasn’t pregnant, and decided to do blood work on me just to make sure I was fine, but I’m not.” She stopped and broke down.

“What did they find Cass?” I muttered on the verge of tears.

“He said I have Celiac disease. I’m twenty-five years old Rian and I will never be able to have a baby.” She whimpered, cuddling into my side crying harder.

“Why…why didn’t you tell me?” I was shocked. That was not at all what I expected her to tell me. I didn’t really know how to process the information.

“I was scared that you would leave me. I know you’ve always wanted kids, not right now of course, but some day.”

“I would never leave you Cass! Especially not for something you don’t even have control over. Besides we could always adopt or something.” I smiled at her, but she shook her head.

“I don’t know about adoption. I want my own baby, something that I made. I want to be able to go through all the stages of pregnancy and have maternal instincts come to me naturally, not be forced.” She cried out to me.

“I think you just feel that way now because you’re still in shock over the whole situation. Maybe in a few years we can talk about this again and you’ve changed your mind.” She nodded her head and laid back down on me.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you Ri.” She mumbled into my shirt.

“It’s okay. Just lay down and get some rest.” I was playing with her hair trying to help her relax.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Notes