Secrets Don't Make Friends

Jack

"Hi it's nice seeing you all again!" Dr. McKinnon greeted me, my mom, and my grandma. Today was going to be my fourth prenatal checkup. I just hit the fourth months pregnant marks and I could tell. My weight went up even more and now I weighed one-hundred and fifty-two pounds. That was a seventeen pound increase in weight. I know it was partially due to the baby weight, but I also felt like my eating habits contributed to the weight gain too.

"Hi Dr. McKinnon." I told her and she smiled at me.

"Alright so let me take a look at what the nurse wrote down." She opened my folder and skimmed through it. "Okay, it looks like you gained more weight which is normal. Um your blood pressure is kind of high though. I might need to give you something to help with that." She said.

"Did I do something wrong?" I asked.

"No no, Sweetie. A lot of people's blood pressure go up while they're pregnant. It's called gestational hypertension and it's sort of common. It has a lot to do with the changes going on in your body. We just have to keep an eye on it so it doesn't become preeclampsia." She told me and I took a deep breath.

"What's that?" I asked worriedly.

"Preeclampsia? It's a um pregnancy complication that comes as a result of high blood pressure. It can lead to damage of your organs or uh worse, but I don't want you to worry about it. Right now you and your baby are perfectly fine." She told me. I didn't feel fine, I felt like I was going to be sick. I didn't want to stress myself out because it was bad for the baby. I just nodded and stopped asking questions so I wouldn't have to hear any more about it.

"You're okay." My mom told me as she ran her fingers through my hair.

Dr. McKinnon had me lay back so she could do another ultrasound on me. I lifted my shirt and she placed the gel on my stomach. I hated looking at my stomach now because there was a dark line starting to form in the middle of it. My grandma told me that it was called the Alba line and that it was normal, but it still looked weird. Dr. McKinnon placed the arm part on my stomach. She pressed down and moved it around until she found the baby.

"There he or she is!" She exclaimed. She turned the screen towards us and I smiled. I could see an outline of my baby laying my stomach.

"He or she is sucking their thumb." She pointed to the screen where the hand was.

"That's so cute!" My mom exclaimed and I agreed. The baby actually looked like a baby in this ultrasound.

"And if you listen closely, you can hear their heartbeat through the Doppler." Dr. McKinnon told us.

We all became quiet to get a better listen. Suddenly the room was filled with the sound of the muffled repeated rhythm. I wiped at my eyes as happy tears began to form. Hearing my baby's heartbeat was the best thing to come out of my pregnancy so far. My mom handed me a Kleenex and I thanked her and dried my tears.

Dr. McKinnon moved the part around my stomach for a few more minutes. "I was looking for the genitalia, but they're too shy today. So we'll just have to find out next session." She said and I smiled.

"I get to find out the gender next month??" I excitedly asked.

"Mhmm, next appointment you will be five months right?" She asked and I nodded. "Okay, it should be easier for me to distinguish the sex." She took the sonogram part off my stomach and handed me some tissues to clean the gel off myself.

"Do you have any questions for me?" Dr. McKinnon asked.

"No not right now." I said.

"I have one." My Grandma said. "You said his blood pressure is a little high. Do you think that light exercise might help lower it?" She asked.

"Yeah it might help. Maybe walks around the neighborhood or Pilates or even mommy-and-me classes would be great ways for him to get in some light exercise. Also a change in eating habits will especially help. Limited fast food and more fruits and vegetables should help a lot." She explained.

"Okay, thank you."

"No problem. I'm going to get a prescription sent out to your pharmacy and I will see you all next month."

We thanked Dr. McKinnon one last time and told her bye. Then we walked out of the room and to the secretary to make my next appointment. Missing school once a month wasn't so bad. My teachers didn't seem to notice I missed class often so I didn't get asked about it. I was going to have to tell them next month because it was going to become impossible to hide it. Even now I got a few weird looks from people that could tell my stomach wasn't big from normal weight gain. I tried my best to ignore it.

"No more fast food for you mister. Lillian, you need to start cooking healthier food for him." Grandma scolded both of us in the parking lot.

"I will, mom. We're going to the grocery store now to buy food for this week." My mom told her.

"Okay. Well I'm going to go get dinner started for Basil. I'll see you two later." My grandma met us at the doctor’s office after she got off work so she drove her own car here.

"Okay, bye, love you." Mom told her.

"Love you too."

"Bye Grandma." I said and she waved at me.

My mom and I got in her car and she began driving us to the grocery store. I frowned when I saw her drive us to Target. We never went grocery shopping here. The prices were higher than Walmart's most of the time.

"Why did we come here?" I asked when she parked.

"Cause it was the closest. Plus I don't want to deal with the people in Walmart today. It's always crowded and I didn't want you surrounded by all those people." She told me.

"Oh okay." I got out of the car and followed her to the front door. I wondered if this was the Target Alex worked at. There was another one close to the mall so he could have worked at either.

My mom and I walked through the sliding doors and she grabbed a basket. We went straight to the produce aisle to get fruits and vegetables like Dr. McKinnon ordered. I hated vegetables, but I was going to eat them for the baby. I grabbed apples, grapes, tangerines, and bananas. My mom shook her head at me as we walked over to the vegetable side.

"Okay you're going to eat a cup of vegetables every night with dinner so take your pick." She gestured to the rows of vegetables

"Uggggh I don't want any." I whined.

"Too bad Jack Bassam." She said and I sighed.

"Can I eat carrot sticks with ranch?" I asked.

"No. How about corn? You eat that don't you?"

"Yeah." I mumbled.

"And edamame, salad, and broccoli." She said as she picked out each vegetable. "That way you'll have an equal number of fruits and vegetables."

"This baby is already taking the fun out of life." I joked and she laughed.

"Let's go get milk, juice, and something to cook for tonight. I also need to stop and look at the makeup and then we can go." She said and I nodded.

My mom and I were walking towards the checkout fifteen minutes later. I looked through each lane and finally found Alex standing there checking out a customer. He looked cute in his work uniform.

"Is that Alex?" My mom asked.

"Yeah he works here now." I told her.

"Let’s go through his line. I bet he'll give us stuff for free." She said and I playfully rolled my eyes.

We pushed our basket through and began placing our items on the conveyor belt.

"Have a nice day." Alex told his last customer. "Hi how are y- oh hey." He said when he noticed it was us.

"Hi Alex." I said and my mom waved as she continued taking our stuff out of the basket.

"Are you guys cooking tonight?" He asked trying to make small talk.

"Yeah probably, this one here needs to start eating healthier." My mom told him while pointing to me and Alex chuckled.

"Did the doctor say that?" He asked.

"Yeah. She also said I need to start exercising too." I told him.

"Hmm maybe I should start letting you walk home." He joked and I lightly chuckled.

"You've been taking him home?" My mom asked. I internally groaned, I forgot I was keeping that a secret from her. The entire week before break I told her that Cass and her mom were taking me home.

"Yeah, I didn't want him to have to wait for you to get off when I could just take him home on my way home." He said and my mom nodded. I knew that was something she was going to talk to me about when we got to the car.

"Okay that'll be fifteen fifty-four." Alex said once he finished ringing up all of our stuff.

I looked at the bags to make sure he got everything. We had way more than fifteen dollars’ worth of stuff. At least thirty dollars with the makeup my mom got.

"Ummm?" I hummed curiously.

"Shhh." Alex shushed me with a smile.

My mom swiped her card while Alex helped me put the bags in the cart. "I dislike you less." My mom told him and he chuckled.

"I accept that." He said and handed her the receipt.

"Bye Alex." I told him.

"Bye, don't forget to text me." He reminded me and I nodded. My mom thanked him for giving us free stuff and then we left out of the store.

We put the bags in her trunk and got inside of the car. I didn't have to wait long for her to start asking questions.

"Sooooo Alex has been taking you home?" She asked.

"Yes and the reason I didn't tell you is because I didn't want you thinking it was more than just that." I rushed out.

"You didn't even tell me you were even talking to him again."

"It's weird. He called me one night drunk and confessed that he still has feelings for me and that he wants to be a dad now. And so we talked after that and we're kind of okay now-"

"-You don't tell me anything anymore! When did all of this happen?"

"On the night of our anniversary-slash-his birthday. But it's not like we're trying to get back together or anything. He's just been helping me kind of like Zack used to."

"Have you talked to Zack lately?"

"No. The last time I talked to him was at school when he was trying to convince me to let him take me home. I told him it was best we spend some time apart. It just seems awkward to be around him after dinner with his parents. I didn't think he would even want to be around me."

"That's how you know he really cares about you. He doesn't care that you don't love him as much as you love him. He just wants to take care of you and the baby. He would be such a good father." She told me.

"Both of them would be." I said and she looked over at me.

"Are you sure there's nothing going on between you and Alex?" She asked skeptically.

"Yes mom, I'm sure." I stated.

"And why did he say 'don't forget to text me?' Why do you need to text him?"

"Why are you so nosey?" I asked and she rolled her eyes at me.

"Because I'm your mom and I need to know everything going on in your life."

"Oh sure. If you must know, Alex wants to hang out and talk over the break. Not about getting back together, but about the baby. He wants to know more so he can start helping."

"Yeah right." She chuckled.

"I'm serious, he said so."

"He's going to mention getting back together at least once."

“Well if he does I'll just try to change the subject." I said and she laughed, not believing me.

Notes

Next chapter will be more Jalex oriented!

Title Credit: Take Cover by ATL