FicWad

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:

“Aubrey?” he mumbled and barely opened his eyes. “You’re dreaming…You’re a rock princess.” I used a quote from Camp Rock. Kevin tired eyes glared at me. “Not going to work.” he sat up. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.” I apologized. “It’s fine.” he nodded and hung his legs over the edge of the couch. “I just couldn’t sleep; I was fine until I got a text from Joe at like midnight, and now I can’t sleep.” I sighed. “Was it something bad?” Kevin looked over at me. “No, it was just distracting, and well…it’s stupid, but it made me miss him.” my cheeks got a little hot. “That’s not stupid you just miss him. What’s wrong with that?” he chuckled. “It’s only been one day without him Kev…I mean honestly, that’s pathetic!” I shook my head. “Aubrey, I promise you that its not a bad thing to miss the person you love.” he smiled at me. “I guess you’re right.” I nodded. We talked for a little while and then I fell asleep in the recliner.
“Up! Up! Up!” Joanne’s voice echoed in my head. Morning…darn it. My feet dragged as I stumbled into the bathroom. “You’re up?” I asked Brooke who was straightening her hair. “Nah…I’m asleep.” a glob of her hair ran through the straightner. “Ha ha ha.” I rolled my eyes. She smirked over at me. Brooke tossed me my brush from one of the bags that was sitting on the counter. “Thanks.” I said as it hit the floor and I had to pick it up. “You seriously need to have Nick teach you how to catch or something.” she laughed. “I don’t think that even Nick could help me.” I sighed.
Finally we were ready to head out. “Call me later honey.” Joanne kissed the top of Brooke’s blonde hair. Her little sisters ran out and gave us hugs before Kevin and I got in the car. I looked at Brooke as her mom said something to her before she got into the car. Something had definitely changed.
My fingers fumbled around my phone pushing in the numbers to my house. Ring…ring….ring… “Hello?”

“Mom?” I asked
“Hi baby girl!” she sounded excited to hear my voice.
“Hey, we just left Joanne’s house and we’re headed home.”
“Oh, ok. What is this about? I got your e mail saying that you were coming home, but I didn’t understand.”
“Well…uh we’ll tell you when we get there.
“Who’s all with you?”
“It’s just Brooke, Kevin, and me.”
“Alright. Well I was going to say that my house isn’t near clean enough for all of you. I wouldn’t even have a place for everyone to sit.” she laughed.
“No, it’s fine Mom.”
“Ok, well I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Yea. I love you.”
“I love you too Hun.”
“Bye”
“Bye”

I hung up the phone. “You tell her that we were on our way?” Brooke asked me. “Yea.” I nodded. “I really hope that your mom takes it well.” she looked almost more worried about telling my mom then she had with telling her own. “Brooke, you know that even it she does get upset she’ll still love you.” I put on a smile. “I know.” she breathed out. “Do you guys even realize I’m here?” Kevin asked barging into our sister-like moment. “Yes Kevin we know you’re here!” we both stated and looked at him. “Geez! You guys need to take a chill pill or something.” he looked at us. “What we meant was, of course we know you’re here. How could we not know that someone so great and wonderful was here?” Brooke batted her lashes. “I figured that’s what you meant.” Kevin leaned over and kissed her. “Watch the road!” I shook my head.
It didn’t take long for us to get to my house. There was no preventing the smile that fell on my face when I seen Mom’s car sitting beside my house. Home. Dorothy was right when she said that there’s no place like home. The loud barks of my old lab, Katy sounded out, and of course I looked one of the kitchen windows to make sure that my little dog Belle was barking excitedly too.
Kevin helped Brooke out of the Tahoe and we walked up the steps. Mom met us at the door and pulled all three of us into a huge hug. My eyes looked down at Belle who was wriggling and barking. “Hey Belley girl!” I picked her up into my arms. Anyone who said that you couldn’t have a connection with a dog was wrong; Belle was like my child, and it actually hurt sometimes not getting to see her.
“Oh! I missed my girls!” my mom smiled at us. We followed her out of the entryway and into the kitchen. I watched as she took her coffee from the microwave and say down at the table. “Well, sit down.” Mom looked at us strangely as we stood there. Kevin, Brooke, and I all took a seat. “Nancy, you know that I’ve always thought of you as a mom to me, and you would’ve found this out eventually so we came here to tell you something.” Brooke stated quickly. With my stomach clenched I waited for Brooke to tell her the rest, but instead Kevin spoke. “Also, both Aubrey and Brooke have told me about you and I would just like to say thank you for helping make them who they are.” Kevin? A suck up? Honestly didn’t see that coming. “Thank you, but I would like to hear what Brooke has to say before we get all lovey-dovey.” Mom was always good at getting to the point.
Brooke took in a deep breath. “I…” another breath. “I’m pregnant.” she hung her head. “Is it Kevin’s?” my mom asked slightly confused. “Yea.” Kevin spoke. “Oh honey, baby, I’m so sorry.” she took Brooke into a hug. By now Brooke had started crying once again. My heart beat unevenly as I felt the tears coming to me also. “Brookey, you know that I’m here for you. How did your mom take it?” Of course my mom never gave herself time to get mad in these situations. “Better than I thought, and we worked it out.” Brooke nodded as she tried getting her composure back. “Good. How far along are you?” Another question. “About a month and a half.” Kevin broke into the conversation. “Are you going to keep the baby or have you decided?” Mom was always so quick with questions. “I really want to keep the baby.” she answered. We sat and answered questions for a while, because my mom was full of them.
It didn’t take long for my mom to be giving Brooke advice about having the baby and other such. “Kevin, Aubrey will you please let Brooke and I have a minute?” they both looked over at us. “Yea, sure.” I nodded. “We’ll be outside.” Kevin whispered in Brooke’s ear as he kissed her cheek. We walked outside and over to the swing that was hanging from the oak tree in our front yard. “How are you holding up?” I asked Kevin. No one had really asked him anything. “Alright, I guess.” he ran a hand through his hair. “Push me.” I said and sat on the swing. He looked at me for a moment, but slowly walked behind the swing and pushed. “You know, Kevin. Sometimes we build up a plan and we believe that its what we want, then we’re disappointed when it doesn’t come about. But then later we learn that everything was really for the best. As tough as this is going to be I think that it will be ok.” I was shocked at how good it sounded when it came out. “Wow Aubrey, that was deep. Did you seriously just give me that great of advice?” he asked. “Yes, yes I did.” I simply stated.
It was silent for a little while as Kevin pushed me; I just assumed that he was thinking what I had said over. “You know, it’s a wonder that we didn’t work out.” he said out of the blue. “What?” I asked surprised. “No! I’m not like saying we should get back together!” he sighed. “What I meant was that we are such good friends and yet we broke up in like a week.” His hands pushed me back into the air. “You’re right, that is weird. It’s a good thing we didn’t make it though.” I laughed. “Yea, I would’ve hated having to deal with Joe complaining to me all the time about you.” he chuckled. “Oh he wouldn’t of put up that much of a fight.” I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see it. He put his hands on the ropes and stopped the swing. “You must be kidding right?” I looked over to see Kevin’s face right beside mine. “Sure, sure.” I grinned.
“And you can’t forget that Brooke would be so upset like all the time; she probably wouldn’t even be my friend anymore!” my mind paused thinking about what her not being my friend would be like. “At least she wouldn’t be where she is now…” he sighed and his pushes got lighter. “Kevin, you know that she wouldn’t give all the moments that she’s gotten with you for anything.” my feet dragged the ground as I slowed to a stop. “Maybe so, but everything that she’s going through and will go through is my fault.” another sigh escaped his lungs. “No its not. She had a choice too.” I stood up and faced him. “Yea maybe you guys didn’t make a good choice, but it was both of your faults and guess what?” I looked at him. “What?” he looked up from the ground. “We all still love you guys!” I hugged him. “And isn’t that what really matters?” I did my best attempt to smile nicely. “I suppose you’re right.” he did a smirk that made me remember how charming he was.
Brooke came out the door and walked over to us. “Hey get off my man!” she laughed as she pulled me away from Kevin. “Geez! Clinger!” I threw a stick at her. “Oh no you didn’t.” she shook her head. Before I knew it all three of us were throwing whatever we could find at each other. “Get off me!” my breath became labored from laughing and Brooke practically tackling me. Kevin began tickling me while I was on the ground. “Hey! Hey! Hey! That’s cheating!” I yelled and pushed Brooke off. I took in deep breaths. “You all don’t play fair.” as a reaction my bottom lip puffed out. “You’re the one that started it!” Kevin and Brooke both stated, ironically, at the same time. “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes.
Today hadn’t been so bad. Actually for a couple moments, I think, both Brooke and I felt the same feeling that we used to when we played around outside my house…and to be honest…that was good enough for me.