Best Friends Forever, Chapter Eleven
"We could go early," Nadia repeated, and
hissed as her finger was burned by the dish in the oven. She doubled
the
potholders and tried again, this time finding that she hadn't seared
her flesh.
Eric shrugged in a distracted way. "We could, I
suppose. Hey, the guys are coming over tonight-"
She straightened up. "Why?"
"Terry's place is being renovated, Mike is a
wacko, Gray needs to clean, John has a girlfriend,
Terry Gilliam lives in a box, and I have an open space." He blinked at
her.
"You have a girlfriend too, you know." She
pointed out, holding a spoon out like a sword. He plucked a spatula
from the
pottery on the shelf and held it out like her.
"Ah, but I don't mind if they see you like John
minds. You don't mind, do you?" He swatted at her with the utensil.
Nadia ducked the plastic and jabbed him sharply with
the end of the spoon. "I guess not. But if I have to feed them and this
is
shit, they asked for it. Maybe I'll put laxatives in it and they'll
never come back-"
"Aw, don't repel them; they like you!" He
hugged her from behind when she retreated to check the steaming dish.
"When are they getting here?" She asked, ignoring the kisses he was
putting on her neck and shoulders.
Eric glanced at his watch. "Oh, about ten,
fifteen minutes."
She laughed. "When were you planning on telling
me this?"
"Before they came, after you
cooked." He replied without hesitation. "You cooked, Naddy." He added,
and she rolled her eyes.
"Yes, and it looks like an outerspace
alien's vomit. Care to try?" She held up the spoon and he carefully dug
in, a look of mild surprise crossing his face.
"What is it?"
"Outerspace Alien
Space Vomit Casserole," she replied and he feigned a choke on the food.
"Otherwise known as Roasted Vegetable and Cheese with
Pasta."
"So you put what in it?" He asked, starting
to back away before he was tempted to eat the whole thing.
"Not important, you should just get your little
friends here and eat before someone tries to eat it all first." She
waved
him off and turned on the light in the laundry room, sitting before the
easel
again. Eric had been trying to figure out what she was painting from
the day
she started it, but as of yet could not see it. At first it looked like
a
landscape, but it wasn't anymore. Now it looked like a person. Every
time he
tried to talk to her while she sat in that seat, she went temporarily
deaf.
He'd ask her a question and she would sit, eyes tuned
to the blank canvas, brush in hand, paint on pallet. She sometimes
would jump
when he stepped into her view, but then she was blind to him as well,
painting
and talking to herself in French. Before she got the paints out, Eric
took it
upon himself to ask her a question.
"What language do you think in?" He asked,
leaning to catch her eye.
She turned and cocked her head. "I don't know, I
guess it depends on what I'm thinking about."
"Me?" He asked, but it was more of an invitation.
"Quand je pense de vous,
Eric, je pense dans la langue la plus belle de tout: le français." She
replied, and he smiled.
"Very cute," he said with a grin, and
turned to answer the door.
Once the door was open and the guys uneasily slid in,
he noticed Nadia was talking to herself again.
"Anyone hungry?"
He asked, trying to cover the sound up.
John's stomach growled. "Oh, I think I am."
He started to smile, but a noise distracted them.
"Shit! Je vais vous tuer, Aphrodite!" There was a sharp slam and a
shaken looking cat sauntered into the room. She mewled at Eric and he
bent to
make sure Nadia hadn't kicked her, but she just looked like a
frightened cat,
not an abused one.
He stood and put his hands on his hips, standing
before the laundry room door. "Nadia!" He
sounded stern, and the guys could only poke their heads around the
corner,
curiosity getting the better of them.
The door swung open and her face peered out, paint
smeared on some parts, the entire left lens speckled with blue and gray
shades.
"Que?"
"Don't kill the cat, please." He replied.
She made a face. "I'll kill the cat if I want
to! Look what she did!" She pulled her arms from behind her where a
pair
of scratches ran.
He made a face at her right back. "I'll get her declawed!"
Nadia was about to argue further when she noticed
Gray standing behind Eric, a smile on his face.
"Fine," she stood and closed the door
behind her, stopping by the kitchen sink to rinse the paint from her
cuts and
scratches, pausing to scratch the drying paint from her glasses,
chipping most
of it off.
Those who were hungry ate, excluding Terry Gilliam,
who had showed up late and only sat without a word, taking a paper out
for drawing.
Nadia was always on good terms with him, and they often times could be
seen on
the roof smoking a cigarette and talking quietly about the art of
drawing.
Today Nadia seemed to be in an odd mood, and when the guys would have
accused
Eric of making the whole scenario up, the whole idea they were getting
married,
Nadia would trip up their trap.
They never seemed to want to touch or even catch
glances in front of anyone, and if that was because they were shy, then
they
were all the Queen of England. The two were just not shy people, but
when it
came to affirmation of any kind, it was silence on their part. Mostly
unbothered by this, the guys plowed on, but Nadia had to instigate some
sort of
riot or her purpose wouldn't be served.
Eric stood and started to make for the door which
Nadia had left open when she ran out to get the mail and grabbed little
Nimue and Merlin before they wondered out into the cold. He
was looking up when Nadia returned, and he handed her the tiny bundles
before
jumping over the back of the couch to sit again, an unexpected sound
emitting
as she landed atop him, letting both of the animals go back into the
wild.
"Oh, hi." He
smiled as she curled up on his lap, somewhat tired.
"Bonjour," she muttered and he smiled
again, lifted an arm to support her shoulders.
John snickered and then Nadia was wide awake.
"What's that?" She asked, cupping a hand to
her ear.
"Oh, nothing."
John retorted, rising to walk innocently from the room, but Nadia stood
and
blocked his path.
Eric snickered. "Don't piss her off, John, she could kick your ass."
There was some disbelieving laughter around the room.
"Riiight,"
"I have a video, you don't have to kill
them," Eric complained.
Her face lit up. "You have an actual video of me
fighting? I don't even have one!"
Eric blushed lightly. "Well, it was the only
fight you were knocked out before round twenty-eight, and it was the
one where
I thought you were dead and I ran up into the ring to make sure you
were going
to make it. Fifteen minutes of golden footage with you smacking at my
head
while I hugged you and nearly cried in front of near one thousand
people. Of
course I have a bloody copy." He smiled as the guys squirmed in
apprehension.
"I'll have to watch that sometime," she relented her death stare on
John and sat on Eric again.
There was a good pause of wonder as the guys realised that Nadia was
shaping up to be a lot more than an
ordinary girl.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~
They left early. Snow was falling lazily on the
buildings in the tiny and crowded town just outside Paris, the church
bells rang all day and
at midnight, but most of all it was the houses that Nadia dragged Eric
into. The first one, the one she had grown up in-now a summer
cottage-sat on a
small inland lake with the Alps in the background of the whole scene.
They had scaled the
grounds then walked around inside the unheated building before Nadia
drove him
back to her parents' current home, a luxury building in downtown Paris.
It was enormous, and the rooms
they had been given for staying were also spacious. Too
spacious, if Eric had an opinion. For one thing, he knew for a fact he
wasn't going to set a finger on the bed in the room unless Nadia became
inexplicably pissed at him in the next fourteen hours, and for another
thing,
each bedroom on that floor had a full bathroom with all the added
luxuries.
"It's wonderful," Eric near-whispered to
himself as Nadia led him to the balcony on the top floor. The scenery,
the dull
drone of the city in the distance, even the lights in the distance as
the sun
went down was comforting. He was in love with Paris almost as much as
he was with her.
She smiled at him. "It's funny how a big, metal
thing like the Eiffel Tower can make you proud to be a human.
Just a human in general, too; there's no animosity whatsoever. You just
think,
'People like me made that, people like me!' There's no, 'The proud
French made
that, my home country!'"
Eric smiled back at her. "I didn't see half the
things I saw today on my first trip here."
"The tours usually don't stop at the Smart
houses and show off the lovely architecture." She replied with a smirk.
He
nodded and returned to gazing out over the perfect blanket of white
covering
the city and her yard. She put her head on his shoulder and sighed,
hugging a
scarf she had knit herself tighter around her neck, waiting for the
amazement
of it all to stop drifting over Eric so they could return to the
warmth. A full
twenty minutes later, as he kissed the top of her head (covered in
snowflakes
or not), they heard some rapid speaking and footsteps and turned just
as the
balcony doors were thrown open and in the bright light stood her mother
and
father, looking worried until they finally found the couple.
Nadia's mother let out a relieved sigh. "Thank
God you're here! I think for minute you two gone somewhere and got in
accident!" Her English spilled from her like a flood, and Nadia could
only
smile reassuringly.
"We're here, safe and sound, Mama." She
glanced at her father, who was throwing an amazingly soft gaze at Eric.
He took a quick step onto the balcony and pulled both
Eric and Nadia's heads to his shoulders, a quick but compassionate
gesture that
simply told Eric he was perfectly at ease with him stealing his
daughter away.
Eric smiled at the man as he pulled away, the stern face back.
Abruptly Nadia's mother burst into heavy sobs,
slapping at her husband with a happy look.
The next three days were all preparation for the
wedding. Helen had roped Mike into coming that early, and as
compensation, had
talked Nadia into letting her be a bridesmaid for the ordeal. She had
all sorts
of great ideas for the dress, and was showing up the next day to help
pick it
out with Nadia's mother, Nadia, and Terry's wife, who would also be
arriving
early. Terry hadn't been too pleased about leaving all that early
either; it
meant less time with family, which led for bitter reunions the next
time
around. The house was big enough to house most of them, and those who
were left
roomless found it easy enough to pair up with someone
who wasn't coming escorted.
Nadia was snapped out of her trance as her mother
mumbled something about another set of grandkids, to which Nadia
frowned upon.
Her parents vacated the area, and Nadia decided it was time she found
out just
what Eric thought about children, the whole kid-raising concept. She
knew what
she wanted to say, but it all depended on him.
They sat down together in the drawing room, a sort of
warm-looking library with a fireplace that roared at all hours of the
night and
a coffee and tea brewer hidden away in a corner for quick access of
caffeine.
"What do you think about kids?" She asked
as she poured herself a cup of tea, lifting her eyebrows in silent
question.
Eric was caught off-guard. "Uh, well-"
"Tea?" She interrupted, eyes down.
"Yes, I think." None of his answers seemed
like he had any thought behind them, because when she handed him the
cup and
sat down, he only stared at the leaves floating at the bottom,
dumbstruck.
"Well?" She asked, impatient.
He shrugged and put the cup down, not knowing what he
was going to say. "I don't know, Nadia. You know me and kids; I'm
awful. Nothing that can't be cured by practice, like my mum says, of
course."
She squirmed. "I know what I think. I'm a
terrible mother but a great aunt and babysitter. I think if I had any
kids I'd
have no time for them and I'd be the single most horrendous example for
them
ever. Not to mention the entire pregnancy thing. You have a fourth of a
responsibility to fill in there. You help me get started,
I feed it, comfort it, and make sure it has a welcome into the world
when the
time comes. Then you get to take half again." She nodded her head
decisively. "It'd be dead in three months, no doubt."
"Don't say that," Eric smiled, "you
know that people tend to do much better when they're in a crisis.
People like
us, anyway. Hand us a kid in a crisis and we'd probably do a pretty
good
job."
"So, is that a full gutting of my opinion?
Because I'm not saying never, just not anytime soon
for me." She felt like he was pushing her backwards. Ten minutes ago
the
thought of rearing a child made her want to throw up, now she was
considering?
He shrugged. "I'll do whatever you want to do.
Kids should be a two-way concept, right?"
She smiled in a bemused way. "It does take two
to tango."
"Settled then. Let's
move onto something where I feel a little less like any second now I'm
going to
fall out of this chair and die." He smiled in a nervous way.
Nadia stood and sat on his lap with a pout. "Aww, you feel nervous?"
He let her kiss him for a moment, agreeing quietly
into her mouth until he ran out of breath and took in a deep gulp of
her
fragrance. He smiled for a moment, unable to stop it, then
made himself aware of the careful footsteps coming their way.
She pulled off just as the door swung open again, and
her mother stood, at her side an older woman of about forty-five, and
with her
was a rack of white dresses, all about Nadia's size.
"Tomorrow we begin!" Shouted the woman, and
she swept Nadia into a tight hug with a laugh, pulling back to survey
the man
that had made himself a cushion.
"Is this the groom or what?" She asked in
French, looking straight into Eric's eyes.
Nadia nodded carefully, waiting for her mother's
friend's opinion.
"His face tells me I should leave you two alone
again." Quipped the woman, and Nadia turned quickly, not expecting to
see
Eric's face a dull red.
"Why the blush?"
She asked what felt like the millionth time since the entire dating
"thing" had begun.
He looked at her. "Why don't we just strip right
here and go at it on the table, eh Nadia? We need a locked room for
Christ's
sake!" He smiled at himself and turned away.
Returning to Claudette, Nadia ignored Eric's
fidgeting. "We can start tomorrow, Claudette."
"Fantastic!" She clapped her hands and
walked from the room, chin up proudly. The door was swinging shut when
it
snapped open again and Lexi stomped in, shaking snow from her coat.
"Didn't think I'd miss this, did you?" She
asked with a grin, eyeing Nadia's dropped jaw nervously.
She stood and hugged Lexi, not quite sure how she was
going to react. What if she was overcome with her damn impulses at the
wedding
and stopped them? What if she had a dirty little secret to share with
Nadia? WHAT
IF?
"Where's the honeymoon?" Lexi pressed,
sitting down after pouring herself some tea. Nadia sat dumbly and
glanced at
Eric, who was staring straight up at the ceiling, counting the planks
that
crossed the wood. He was always uncomfortable around Lexi it seemed;
she was
casual and still stared at him like any moment words would spill from
her
mouth. "Remember that night on the beach?" Christ, of course he
fucking remembered the night on the beach! He did not want to relive it
by
glancing into her eyes, where every second she met stares she replayed
the look
in his eye when she fell to the sandy shore and he had done the
sweetest
thing...
It wasn't all that sweet, now that he thought about
it. She'd twisted her ankle in the fire pit and fallen as a group of
teenagers
walked by and shoved her. The rocks had lacerated something on the back
of her
knee, and Eric was slightly perterbed by the way the
bleeding had a slight pulse. Thinking she might bleed to death before
he could
get her to a doctor, he'd taken off his shirt in the fifty-something
degree
weather and tied a rough tourniquet on her leg and carried her to his
car. The
entire time she was whimpering and apologizing, and all he could think
was,
"She's going to die in the car and I'm going to have a bleeding body
there. God, woman, you better make it!" In the slight hysteria, Lexi
had
started to pass in and out of consciousness until Eric felt her
breathing stop.
He put her down on a picnic table and tried to figure out what had
happened, but
she had sat up again, and he knew she was alright. She had started to
cry, and
Eric, frantic to have her quiet so he could think, had kissed her over
and over
again until she was at a loss for words and shaking in his arms. Once
at the
hospital though, the interlude ended abruptly, a a week later he broke
up with her.
Even now Lexi would look at Eric and remember how
selfless he could be. Nadia couldn't know that, could she? She'd always
done
things for herself, never one to ask for help. How the hell could she
know what
Eric was like when he was afraid? He put a front for her, even Lexi
could tell.
He tried to be laid back and calm; she couldn't know what he was like
that
night. He couldn't know how much he still meant to her.
"We don't know," Nadia said suddenly,
throwing Lexi from her thoughts.
"Well, jet lag is taking its toll; I'm off to
bed. Think about Cancun; I hear it's nice." She said stiffly, then
stretched her
shoulders and stood, looking better than she had the moment before. She
waved
to Eric blankly and stalked off to the room Nadia's mother had shown
her to.
Eric looked up over his hands and waited for Nadia to
move. When she did her movements were graceful and slow, like she was
thinking
too hard to really notice what she was doing. "Let's go somewhere
private;
I'm sick of people wandering in here looking for us."
He nodded stupidly and followed her to her room,
whereupon the door closed and he felt his back land in an impossibly
soft bed.
Nadia paused, uncertain, then felt Eric's hands on her
hips, slowly and nervously pulling on her jeans. Her head mumbled a
quiet,
"Why not?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lexi paced her room. So, maybe she did know. Maybe
through all their time together now-another angry thought entered her
head
rudely. They'd disappeared moments after she'd left the room, like no
one knew
what they were doing. She wanted to scream. She should have known
sooner! Of
course they were fucking! Of course they were! Why else would the dolt
think he
loved her? Her fingers knotted themselves into a weak fist, and she
felt her
hand pop a sleeping pill into her mouth. A gulp of water,
and in twenty minutes she'd be able to nod off without dreaming of them
there,
a floor down, doing whatever it was they were doing. That beautiful
creature
Eric, what the hell did he see in her anyway? He'd seen her wig out
more than
once; why would he set himself up with such a fragile thing? People
like Nadia
didn't find anyone special, they found drugs. Why was it taking her so
bloody
long? A few weeks ago Lexi would have been better off, but she'd found
drugs
and was now resentful. Her special someone couldn't be too far away,
her ass!
She was approaching thirty far too quickly for her taste. Twenty
minutes ended
abruptly, and she felt her hand clench into a fist once more as her
body
collapsed to sleep.
The morning had cleared her head enough to help her
do the deed she now committed. Eric, peacefully sleeping, lay unaware
as Lexi
crept in, knowing her window of opportunity would close if she didn't
take
advantage of Nadia's absence. The bottle of baby aspirin in her hand,
she
opened the drawer of the elegantly adorned bathroom and grinned
wickedly at the
small, circular case. Flipping it open she saw nearly a full amount of
birth
control pills. She dumped these into hand impatiently, carefully
putting the
baby aspirin in the place of the pills, nearly identical. Lexi
sincerely hoped
Nadia didn't check every morning. A baby was one thing Nadia couldn't
handle in
her state; she'd probably get depressed and run off in shame before
trying to
raise the thing, leaving poor, broken Eric unable to take her back let
alone
get her back, leaving Lexi to take back what was rightfully hers.
Their honeymoon, no matter where it was had to be
full of the newlywed sex, right? And if Lexi played her cards right,
the one to
two week period would sufficiently work all of the
drug out of Naddy's precious system, and then the
regular, married sex would take care of the rest. By the way Eric
slept, Lexi didn't think it'd take more than three months,
if she could continue the routine every month after Nadia renewed her
dosage.
It couldn't be that hard; she lived fifteen minutes away and could make
an
excuse to have an extra key around the house. She snapped the lid on
the baby
aspirin and started out of the bathroom, jumping as she saw Eric
sitting
straight up upon her entering the room.
He opened his mouth in horror. "What the hell
are you doing?" He asked snappishly.
She held up the bottle. "Naddy's
aspirin, got me a headache. Sorry to wake you."
She gave him the sweetest smile she could and exited, hoping he didn't
get too
crushed when precious Naddy-kins called it quits on
him. She'd be there to pick up the pieces, she vowed, and walked down
the hall
to the stairs.
Around noon Eric sauntered from Nadia's room
into his own and changed into a set of clothes that was in the rare
casual
dress state. He wasn't quite sure why, but a real shirt appealed to
him, and
when he pulled it on and straightened everything, he felt an odd sense
of peace
overcome him. Normally nothing would put him quite in this mood like a
good,
long think. Once everything in his head was quieted he was left with
the
ringing in his mind's ears, but now, as he lit a cigarette and
carefully
inhaled and exhaled into the brittle air, the feeling settled uneasily
on his
shoulders, almost like a parrot making a perch, though he was a bit
worried any
second it'd bite his ear off. A hand tapped him on the shoulder,
causing him to
snap the window shut.
Lexi grinned at him innocently. "Didn't mean to
startle you," she spoke softly.
"No problem," he smiled back at her
uneasily and put out the cigarette with a quiet hiss into a glass
ashtray.
She clucked her tongue at the other remains in the
ashtray. "Nasty habit, Eric, you might want to quit."
It was then, of course, Nadia made her appearance,
and she didn't look too pleased. Helen bounced in at her side, and a
very
uptight looking Mike poked his head in the door, extremely pleased to
have
found Eric.
"Thank God!" He cried and edged in. "I
was afraid if I heard one more minute of that mindless babble I'd drown
in my
own femininity!" He briskly shook his head, and Eric snickered to see
Helen's
eyes attune to his hair, flying in every direction.
"Watch your back, Mike, scissors are in the first drawer on your left."
He pointed to
the desk, laughing as Mike spun and ducked without really paying
attention to
the fact his wife hadn't moved. He threw a dirty look at Eric and sat
down,
accepting a glass of liquor from his friend as they sat in the drawing
room.
Nadia cleared her throat. "Getting my dress
fitted, Lexi, you should come to get your dress fitted as well."
She jumped up, a grin on her face. "Alright, I'm
coming!"
Poor wittle Naddy-kins...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Too perfect I tell you!" Nate shook Nadia's shoulders hysterically.
For a moment
Nadia lolled around and then she stopped, grabbing her brother's arms
with a
snap.
"Something will go wrong. I'll trip or
something, better?" She asked, rearranging the dress on her.
Lexi poked her head around the corner. "Hey, Naddy? Can you try to
throw that bouquet my way at some point?" She wagged her eyebrows
comically, and a flower head hit her square in the face. Nadia
rearranged the
flowers and let her shoulders slouch.
Her mother's head poked around the corner above
Lexi's. "He looks good in a tux-"
"I know, mother. Can I go yet?" Nadia
pressed impatiently.
A piano started to play somewhere, and without
waiting for an answer, Nadia walked from the curtained room with a slow
gait,
her arms at her side calmly. The dress she wore was exquisite, a sort
of plain
white strapless with folds where her curves made themselves apparent, a
bunching cloth cascade on her lower back. Her mother had
insisted on the veil tradition, and gave her a pair of contacts to wear
for the
ceremony, which felt bulky and weren't the proper prescription. She
blinked a
few times to adjust her vision and then heard the piano stop. She faked
a trip,
winked elaborately at her brother, and smiled broadly at Eric. His
mouth was
open a bit, looking her over a few times before giving her a quick
wink.
The nuptials were quicker than they should have been.
The priest talked and talked in rapid French before he waved
elaborately to
Eric, to which he replied with the proper response,
and Nadia mirrored it. The ring was put on her finger,
and one on his before they were technically man and wife. The veil
lifted, and
for the first time everyone saw them share a real kiss, one that wasn't
pressed, forced, or awkward. They just kissed. Cheers broke out
finally. Chaos
entered the room uninvited as Lexi waited patiently for their wedding
night to
come with them miles away in their private room. Oh, it had to work.
Her plan
just had to work. She sniffed hard to keep her nose from aching and
excused
herself to the bathroom with a flask of whisky.
Nadia and Eric waited until Lexi had disappeared
before sneaking out to their rental car. The reception in the basement
of the
church had been a pleasant affair, plenty of laughing and dancing along
with a
stirring rendition of the song titled "Basement Talk," which had
quickly become Nadia's favourite song. The language
was heinous, but most that were offended were too young to really
understand.
Both sets of parents were appalled at the language the newlyweds
possessed, but
Nadia and Eric hardly cared. The reception now over, they ducked out
early,
driving through the snow with hardly contained mirth. Every few seconds
one of
them would laugh, and this would spur the other. For the next two
weeks, she
had Eric all to herself, and now that her family and his family and
their friends
had seen they were serious about the other they didn't have to worry
about
being snickered at. Eric parked the car outside the villas and sighed.
"Ready for wedding night?
You aren't," he paused, taking Nadia's hand seriously, "afraid,
darling?"
Nadia gave him a cool look. "I brought the
whip."
He clapped a hand to his leg. "Hot
DAMN!"
They scrabbled out of the car, Eric stripping his tie
and jacket as Nadia held up the bottom of her dress with a free hand.
They took
all their things in three trips, finally locking the car and taking a
real look
at their surroundings. French vanilla flavored room, Nadia mused. It
was all
golden and white, creams, off-whites, all beautiful. She felt the
covers of the
bed and smirked; satin. Eric kissed her neck and sighed.
"I honestly never thought I'd see the day when
we were both married, especially to each other." He remarked.
Nadia giggled. "When exactly did you decide that
you wanted to be married? That was your vow in your first year-"
"People change, Naddy.
Everything you did screwed me over huge. Do I need to go into detail
about how
strange I acted for you?" He lifted his eyebrows to her. "Since when
do I mope around after someone leaves me? Since when do tell girls I
love them?
Tina was the only other girl I ever loved, and she ended being
a...well, she's
a bitch." He shrugged it off.
Nadia worked her way from the dress, draping it on
the chair next to the bed. She was standing in some tradition
undergarments,
all white, a nervous tic in her hands. What would it
be like tonight? Rough and anxious like they'd been apart forever? Or
slow and
steady to celebrate the fact they had the rest of their lives for this?
Eric
kissed her again, playing his fingers over her navel with a smirk. Even
that
was adorned with white.
Lexi's plan worked.
!~*~*!*~*~!*!*~!*!~*!*~!*~!*!*!~*!*~!*~!*!*~!*~!*~*!*~!*~!@*~!@*!~@~!~*!#~!@!~*@~*$~*@!*
Three months of utter married-ness had done wonders
for Nadia and Eric. It wasn't for several weeks that they had anyone
over, it wasn't until Nadia sadly took down the sign for the
kittens since she still had Nimue and Merlin in the
house. The others had gone. Mike and Helen had made a pitstop
for whatever reason after being in the area, and were surprised to see
that
Eric had undergone a huge transformation. It didn't reflect outside his
living
room, to them anyway. Where romance-Eric would grope and giggle like
they'd
seen him since college, this romance-Eric was clingy and kissy,
always a grin on his face when Nadia was near. She was the same way,
only she
would say the same phrase in French to him, which he'd catch in his
hand and
pocket with a dreamy smile. They would often spend their weekends out
and
about, and weeknights curled up together in any room that happened to
be
closest.
Nadia had been home sick for the fifth day in a row,
her face still pale and sickly as she threw up again, hand on her
forehead. She
flushed and stood, wiping her miserable face with a cool cloth.
"Damnit all..."
She mumbled as a knock came at the door.
She opened it to see Lexi, grinning at her
mechanically. "Hey girl, you still sick? I brought you something..."
Soup. How thoughtful. Nadia
took the soup and thanked Lexi, letting her in. They made small talk
for a
while, but Lexi was bouncing out of her shoes at that precise second.
Nadia's
face went a gross shade of green, and as she hurled, she heard Lexi
cluck her
tongue.
"You might be preggers,
Naddy."
Nadia choked and sputtered, sitting up quickly. Her
glasses were skewed on her face, her sweat beading at her brow. How the
hell
did Lexi think that? Unless! Nadia seized her birth-control pack and
opened it.
Little white pills, and as she lifted one, she felt a sinking
sensation. Baby
aspirin! Lexi smirked at her.
"Eric's in trouble-"
"YOU BITCH!" Nadia shrieked, throwing her expert punches left and
right. Lexi screamed
in terror, lifting her hands to avoid blows which had already struck.
She
stumbled from the house and ran to her car, mouth bleeding. Nadia
locked the
house behind her, ignoring her awful clothes as she threw the car into
gear and
sped off for an emergency appointment for Doctor Greenwood.
She begged the receptionist and the doctor saw her.
She sat nervously, telling the nurse it was the only reason she was
there. One
trip to the bathroom later she was sitting nervously in the room again,
picking
at scabs on her fingers, gnawing her lip. She began to tear up, her
terror
mounting. If Lexi really had done it to her, what's to say she hadn't
poisoned
her? What's to say she hadn't tried to hurt Eric? What's to say she
could stand
having a baby? Nadia sobbed; she wasn't ready for this, not even close.
She had
a job, her husband had a job! She felt sick and suicidal as the doctor
entered
the room, unsure remorse and joy on his face.
"Definitely pregnant," was his diagnosis, and Nadia burst into heavy
sobs. He consoled her,
puzzled by this. She was married, wasn't she? She explained to him all
her problems, and he gave her her prenatals, wishing her good luck and
telling her it wasn't
going to be nearly as bad as she thought it would be. Nadia could
hardly see
straight as she drove home. The second car, they'd have to sell it to
have
enough money for the baby, the baby's college fund. Eric's car was in
the
driveway. She sobbed harder and slumped into the house, collapsing upon
entrance.
Eric gasped and ran to her side. "Nadia, what's
the matter? I was worried sick about you-"
"Lexi wants to hurt us, Eric,
she's trying to tear us apart!" Nadia sobbed, clawing at her face.
"She switched my pills! I'm pregnant! ME!"
His heart thudded painfully. What? What? WHAT?!
"She what?!" He
asked, shaking her.
Nadia cried harder. "Switched
my birth control with baby aspirin! I'm pregnant, Eric, and I'm not
ready for it! Oh, God, please..." She tried to slump into oblivion
unsuccessfully.
Eric's face fell. "We'll be fine, I promise,
Nadia. I'll love you, I love you! The baby-" His voice cracked as he
rubbed his face hard. "We'll love the baby, won't we?" He shook her
harder. "Please answer!"
"I HATE MYSELF! I JUST WANT TO DIE!" She
screamed at him, eyes shut against his tears.
"Don't you do this to me!
Don't you break down! I love you Nadia, you're not going crazy with me
here.
I'll love you and the baby, don't worry, please stop crying, it'll be
alright..." He begged, holding her close. She allowed him to rock her
to
sleep, sobbing nonetheless.
Eric placed her in their bed and stared sadly at her,
wiping at his face as if some creature had curled there and died. He
wanted
off, away, and yet there for her. He couldn't move in case she woke up
alone,
frightened, suicidal! Christ, when did things get so complicated? Why
was she
so upset by something that caused so much joy for others? And above
all, why
hadn't he felt elation? Worries arose. They'd have to sell the second
car,
they'd probably have to move into a bigger house, maybe buy a
minivan...
Thinking like this only made him feel worse, and he found himself
staring at
her stomach without emotion.
Her eyes opened through the clear lenses and her
pouted lips shot upwards into a very fake grin. "Why hello!"
He couldn’t smile. "Are you alright?"
"No, but I'm going to pretend like nothing's
wrong and I'll be just fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go
throw
up." She stood and stared at the bathroom door with a woozy passion. He
helped her along and heard himself apologise
endlessly for putting her through this, for not knowing better. She
only gave
him a dangerously pissed off look and closed the door behind her with a
snap,
locking it.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nadia was four months pregnant. She looked at her
stomach, which was starting to hang out from her jeans like a pitiful
bubble,
and she decided she hated it. The end of March, which meant she had
lovely
summer to look forward too, and school ended. She had called her mother
and
explained her fears, and had the worst feeling, one which could only be
consoled by the Scarlett O'Hara notion that everything would be alright
if she
could just bury her face in the folds of her mother's dress and cry. Oh
how
Nadia want to cry and be held by her mother's firm hands!
Eric had become very protective of her, very
protective and very defensive. A harsh word to her from the boys and he
was
glaring at them heatedly, a nasty feat. Nadia had a sinking feeling he
hadn't
breathed a word to them for whatever reason and felt ashamed to be his
again.
He told them a fair bit about her, his first feelings about her after
their
kiss, but not about their baby? She wanted to scream. Sure, he'd
promised he'd
love her AND the baby just like he knew he could, but would he?
With a sigh of inarticulate rage and weepiness, she
scribbled a note on the refrigerator pad and took up her things. Merlin
mewled
pathetically as Nimue raced away from him and Nadia
wanted fiercely to kick one of them, shut them both up. Instead she
slammed the
door and took her fat self to the airport, to Paris, to home, to her
mother's
protective hands and her soft skirt. Her eyes began to warm themselves
up on
the ride over.
When Eric walked into the house, something wasn't
right. It was completely silent, so silent he could hear the kittens'
footfalls
as Nimue and Merlin traipsed about the carpeted
living room. He stared at them with silent confusion. Had she run out
for
errands? Where was the car? He walked around the whole house and
checked every
room, panic welling up when he saw her drawers open, her toothbrush
gone. Where
had she GONE? He walked by her note several times before seeing it, and
when he
did, her loopy handwriting carved the words into the back of his eyes.
"Eric, I'm going home for a while. Don't know
when I'll be back, I left a phone number in case something happens.
Don't call
unless there's a problem; I'll call you tonight and tell you what's
going on.
I'm sorry, but I couldn't stand being there one more second, I hope you
can
understand. Nadia."
There was no endearment, no "Love," or even
"Sincerely," for that matter! He felt despair again. What on EARTH
was she doing running home to France? He didn't remember exactly what
she'd told him about taking up the job for Cambridge for another year,
but it sounded
like she'd have to come back by August. His heart pounded. She wasn't
really
going to be gone for three months, he reasoned with himself. I love her
too
much.
Nadia sat at her mother's feet, face buried in the
soft folds of the black skirt, tears spilling freely, her glasses in
her left
hand while her mother balefully ran her hand over her daughter's head.
"I can't do this," Nadia muttered, trying
to remain strong though her courage had failed her.
Her mother sighed. "The first child is always
scary, Nadia! You must keep a straight face and hope for the best. You
and Eric
shall make wonderful parents, you've got more than
enough love for one child."
"And not enough time! What am I going to do?
Nurse it at school? Leave Eric with it when we're home?"
"That's part of the process! It's all a big game
of push and pull, push for time, pull away for
space."
"I don't want to play,
I'd rather play sex and party for a few more years."
Nadia's mother made a face. "Don't say that,
dear. You can play that when you're my age, for God's sake!
Child-rearing
happens in the prime of life, so you can give them the best years of
your life.
If they don't appreciate it you're not doing your job."
"I'm a horrible person!" Nadia smirked,
feeling gently for her mother's hand, which grasped her tightly.
"You were my angel, Nadia. Naddy-angel
was your dad's nickname for you, or do you forget?"
Nadia shook her head. "No, I don't forget, Maman."
"Good girl," her mother murmured and kissed
her daughter on the cheek. "If you're lucky," she continued,
"your child will love you like you love us and you'll be as proud of it
like we are of you."
Just like that she had courage. She felt a little weak
and ill-fated still, and of course she hadn't heard a breath from Lexi
since
she'd beaten the shit out of her in her home, but it was an unspoken
hatred.
Lexi had flopped over the edge of jealousy into insanity. Between
guessing
Nadia was sick when she hadn't been speaking to her for about a week,
suggesting her pregnancy, and instantly accusing Eric, Nadia had
speculated it
was Lexi's doing, to tear Eric and she apart. Well, it wouldn't work!
She
needed space, but that didn't mean they had separated! "I sure hope she
doesn't seek him out while I'm gone, God knows what Eric thinks about
me
leaving..." She thought this carefully as she dialed her home phone
number
and got the answering machine.
"Hi Eric, listen, I know I promised I'd talk to
you tonight, so call me when you get this, I promise I'll talk to you
for as
long as you like then. Love you, bye." She hung up and sighed loftily.
Her father, who had been walking by, had smiled
softly at her and said something about how beautiful Nadia's baby would
look.
She smiled at her father and blew him a kiss before retreating to her
room. The
number she'd given Eric would ring the phone in the hall outside her
bedroom, therefore she'd hear it at any hour in the night.
She lay awake, hand on her
slightly swelled stomach, eyes wide but without her glasses. Everything
was a
little fuzzy, a little out of focus, a little dulled around the edges.
She
experimented by tuning them on something nearby and untuning
them quickly, deciphering shapes and such with ease. She felt weak
bumps, like
half-hearted kicks in her stomach and wondered briefly if that was
normal. She
didn't want to end up like Carmen and have kids that got the hiccups
inside
her, it was a strange experience to see Carmen’s stomach jerk a little,
a bump
through her taut skin, and then Carmen would smile and say something
about
hiccups. Another bump, this one harder. Too young to
be kicking, Nadia mused and wondered if it was an alien. Or
just a boy.
The phone rang, interrupting her reverie, and Nadia,
in a haze of color and fuzzy edges, picked up the phone and held it to
her ear.
"Bonjour,"
"Nadia! What-?"
"Eric!" She replied happily, holding the
phone closer.
"Why did you leave? What's going on?" He
sounded hurt.
She wouldn't let that make her smile falter, and
grinned in a happy way. "I just had to get out of Bloomington for a
while, and I wanted to see
my mother. She's cheered me up a bit, Eric, I'll be
okay when I come home."
"So, are you coming home tomorrow then?" He
sounded hopeful, wanting to keep a close eye on her again.
"No, I'll be here for three weeks
probably."
"Three weeks?" He asked, incredulous.
She nodded. "Yeah, it's just good to be home,
and my mother's more understanding about my worries than Carmen. Tough
love is
not what I need." She toyed with the phone cord. "I didn't leave you,
I'm taking a vacation from the area, not you. If I
could have brought you I would have." She lied about the last part; she
still felt like the only thing she needed was to let her frustrations
out on
her mother, no one else, not burden Eric with her worries or her
depression.
"I can call you tomorrow, can't I?"
"You don't need to hear me every day, do you?
I'd like some time alone with my mother, without interruptions. Please,
let me
call you the day after tomorrow. Don't call here anymore, I'll call
you!"
She sounded hysterically. Eric replied (in quite a gloomy voice) that
he
wouldn't call anymore.
He had always been like that, protective and considerate,
but this was like that times one hundred. With a baby of his in Nadia's
womb,
he felt like he had to double his efforts and she was blocking him out.
"See you in three weeks," Nadia chirped and
told him she loved him before hanging up without hearing a word from
his gloomy
lips.
Three weeks dissolved into a month, which faded into
two, and then two more weeks. She was spending every waking second
learning
valuable information about birthing and raising children from her
mother, all
the necessary stories from her childhood, like what her mother had
done,
letting her find what she thought looked beautiful instead of reading
fashion
magazines. A few picture albums revealed Nadia and Lexi at a younger
age, their
jet black heads glued together, faces bright with
laughter, the only difference easily seen were Nadia's ridiculously
thick,
black glasses, which hadn't changed since she was nine. The sizes had
varied,
but they'd always been square, black, thick frames that matched her
hair. She
touched her current frames and smiled wearily.
At the end of two-and-a-half months (and, if she were
Eric, sixteen hours, forty-eight minutes, and thirty-seven seconds),
Nadia
retreated home. She gathered her things and got on the plane home,
thanking her
mother; the feeling of persecution and uneasiness took its place again
as she
sat in her seat. An uncomfortable silence enveloped her mind. Six and a
half
months.
Eric sat at home, beer in hand, all the other Pythons
littered around him, shifting uncomfortably. She'd been gone for over
two
months and hadn't called for about two weeks; naturally Eric was a
little
worried, but he looked at ease. They all wanted to know what was wrong,
what
had been wrong since that Monday he'd walked into work and had fallen
to the
floor with a careful shriek, hands over his face. Worry had consumed
him, worry
of Nadia's suicidal tendencies, of her sudden self-loathing, and of her
rejection of their CHILD, the perfection of the two of them in one
being, the
only part of them they would leave behind to spread; it was almost a
kick to
the face. He longed to tell Graham, who always seemed to be able to
work out a
logical explanation, but Nadia had moped around for weeks, not allowing
anyone
to touch her, nothing to see her until she had thrown on the loosest
clothes
she could find to hide her barely grown belly. It had happened so
quickly, the
pregnancy. And that bitch Lexi had had the guts to walk up to him while
he was
moping around London looking for someplace to sit down
and collect his thoughts.
"Alone?" She asked, grinning to bear a
scabbed lip.
He curled his lip slowly. "Piss off,
wench."
The hurt look he expected didn't come as she hefted a
small compact and wrinkled her nose. "Suit yourself, but you know where
I
am when she kills herself. She'll be creative about it too, you know.
Maybe
she'll make a sculpture from her bones and brains, or draw you a
picture with
her blood-"
The memory of her flicking open the compact to reveal
a good amount of cocaine stuck in Eric's mind, and the rage that had
built up
over him had subsided instantly. Drugs had done this to Lexi, not her
mind. She
had snorted the white powder up right in front of him and smiled
dreamily, as
if remembering something that never happened. Despite the hell, the
absolute
pain she put him through, he walked away without another harsh word and
without
a backward glance.
"So," Gray cleared his throat nervously,
"where's Nadia off to, Eric? You never told us."
"Parents'," he replied gruffly, lighting up
a cigarette. "Visitin' her
mother."
"Ah,"
"What's wrong with her?" Mike then asked, eyes narrowing as Eric
started to give him the death
glare.
Eric shrugged. "She had some matters to attend
to with her mother and didn't want me to go. She kept saying she wasn't
leaving
me, though, and she'd come back soon. Here I am two months later," he
grumbled quietly to himself after trailing off and bit his finger as he
removed
the cigarette.
As if that had been some important cue, Nadia walked
in and deposited her bags on the sofa, humming a dreary tune and
keeping her
back to them. She turned and Eric's face literally shone brighter than
the sun;
he stood and started towards her, not quite able to pretend he hadn't
seen her
figure had swelled considerably in the last few months. But God, she
was still
beautiful. The others gaped fully, having not seen her in such a long
time, and
to see her like this, in such a position! She smiled carefully at them,
keeping
her eyes low.
Eric gasped. "Is it kicking?"
Nadia's face darkened. "Breeding
itty bitty football players, honestly, Eric."
He laughed, the first real
laugh they'd heard in what seemed like ages. "Didn't get it from me,
trust
me!"
Nadia giggled. "Maybe it's a kickboxer."
His eyes sparkled, but not with mischief or some
ulterior motive, just happy she wasn't so sad, so fearful, and so
bloody
fragile. She'd shaken this; they could take anything.