“Where are we going?”I ask with a blindfold over my eyes. After we finished opening presents and ate breakfast, Kai told me to get dressed. Then he blindfolded me and walked me outside.
“Walk up a few steps.”
“You better not make me fall.”
“I promise. I won’t.” He stops me from moving. “Wait there. And don’t take off your blindfold.”
I hear the sound of metal clinking together and then aclick. The anticipation of what Kai is doing is killing me. Kai’s hands gently guide me forward. A feeling of curiosity coursing through me. He carefully unwraps my blindfold, and my eyes flutter open as I gaze around, taking in the sight of a small square of a white-walled living room with a brick fireplace that someone has painted white.
“What is this?” I keep frequently blinking to see if what I’m seeing is actually here.
“It’s ours.”
“What! How?” I walk into the kitchen. Wooden cabinetsline the kitchen. The kitchen is a little smaller than the living room.
“Kevin signed the lease for us.”
I turn to face Kai. “I don’t understand. He already has an apartment.”
“Yeah, but it’s under Mike’s name. It’s only a couple of buildings down from where Kevin is staying, in case the landlord comes by.”
My eyes light up with a wide grin. “So this is ours?” I take a few steps to the hallway. To the right is a bedroom and across from it is a bathroom.
“It’s not much. And it’s pretty small. But it’s something.” He shrugs his shoulders.
I jump into his arms. “It’s perfect.” I release my arms and look at him. “How much is this? Can you afford it?”
“It’s five hundred a month. It’s making things tight, but we’ll figure it out.”
“Are you sure? Cause if you can't, we can stay with Kevin.”
“Uh, well. Kevin is the one who found this. I have a feeling he doesn’t want to be living with a baby.”
“We could have stayed with him to save up more money until the baby comes.”
Kai rubs his temples. “After last weekend, he doesn’t think it’s a good idea for us to be staying there.”
My face drops. As nice as it is for him to find this for us, he did it forhisbenefit.
He threw a Christmas party the weekend before Christmas. The first weekend I moved in. That week had exhausted me, and I had already thrown up all my food for the day. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and right as I was falling asleep, the sound of people echoed into the room. Kai got mad at him, but Kevin was already drunk, so there was no usein saying anything to him. I wasn’t able to fall asleep until five in the morning, once everyone left.
“I can’t wait to start our family here,” I say.
I wrap my arms around my belly.
Everything will be alright.
“Oh, my God. I can’t believe you have your own apartment.” Paige walks into the living room, looking around.
“Yeah, well, don’t be so jealous; it came with a soon-to-be baby.” I giggle.
With everything going on, I hadn’t had the time or energy to catch her up with everything that happened. And she was still grounded with no phone, so I couldn’t reach out to her.
“So your mom really did kick you out, then?”
I nod. We’re still on Christmas break. The time between Christmas and New Year is such a strange time—it feels like things go so fast but so slow all at once.
The good thing about this break is that Kai is able to work full-time hours until school starts back up. It should help us a little.
