Taylor arrived at the hospital a few hours later. Rose was still in labor, nothing significant had happened except her contractions were closer together than they were a little while ago and she was slowly approaching ten centimeters. I never figured having a baby could be this boring. We rushed to get to the hospital and there we were, seven hours later and not much had happened.
"Did I miss anything?" Taylor asked as soon as he walked in the door of the private waiting room.
"No," I said, looking up from my magazine. "Rose is still in her room with Mom. I'm bored so I came in here to check out the magazines. Not much has happened since I called you." Taylor rolled his eyes.
"Dude, your baby is in the process of being born! How can you be bored?"
"Try sitting here for seven hours without anything happening." He gave me a look. "Why don't we go see her, huh? Will that make you happy? I'm sure she'll be happy to see you."
"Okay. Lead the way." I got up, leaving the magazine on the table. Zac had fallen asleep on the couch. I wished I'd thought of that. It would have passed the time a heck of a lot quicker, but then again Rose would never stop yelling at me if she found out I fell asleep while she was in labor. We went down the hall to Rose's room. I opened the door and walked inside, Taylor behind me.
"Taylor!" Taylor smiled and walked over, throwing his arms around her. Mom looked at me questioningly. She must not have known about their friendship. "I didn't think you'd make it!"
"I said I'd get here as quickly as I could. And that's what I did. I got the first flight I could catch. I didn't know if you were going to take a long time or not. I was afraid I'd miss it but I didn't!" He kissed her cheek. "You're still cooking." She rolled her eyes.
"I'm just happy you're here," she said. "Unlike some people who've been in the waiting room the entire time..." She gave me a pointed look.
"What?!" I said.
"I'm just kidding, honey. I don't want you in here." I huffed. Taylor smiled, sitting on the edge of her bed.
"So are you okay? In a lot of pain? Ready to kill Ike for knocking you up?" he asked. Rose laughed. My eyes subconsciously drifted to my mother, who was sitting in a chair next to Rose and Taylor. She was trying hard not to pay attention. "No, seriously, how are you doing?"
"I'm fine. I had an epidural."
"Oh you wuss," he said, crossing his arms and looking away. "The Rose I know would never have an epidural."
"Okay, how bout I rip you a hole, contract your pelvis ten centimeters apart very slowly, then push a baby through it. Then after I've done that, you tell me if I should have an epidural to lessen the pain." Taylor thought about it.
"Um...how about no?"
"That's what I thought," Rose said, turning back to her ice chips my mother found for her. She was only eating them to occupy her time. She jiggled her cup. "I'm out of ice chips," she announced.
"I'll get you some more," Mom said, taking the cup and leaving the room. She just wanted to leave us alone for a while. Rose looked up at Taylor.
"You lost more weight. I'm worried about you," Rose said, glancing at me as she said it. She wanted me to add to that. I looked at him. Now that she pointed it out, he did look a lot skinnier than when he left. He had baggy pants and a long-sleeved shirt on, but even with that I could tell he looked thinner.
"As a matter of fact, Taylor, you do look really thin," I added.
"No, it must be the lighting or something," he said, blowing it off. "I've been stuffing my face nonstop in LA. They got some really nice places to eat there." He was lying. I knew it and he knew it. "But we're not talking about me here. Are you two excited? You're going to be parents."
"Which is absolutely ridiculous," I said. "We can barely take care of ourselves." Rose agreed.
"No, I think you guys would make awesome parents. Ike, everyone in the family thinks of you as Dad when Dad's not around and even when he is around. You've been an awesome father to all of us. And Rose, I think you're going to be the best damn mother a kid could have." She smiled.
"Thanks, Taylor."
"Hey, I'm just stating the truth," he said. "I call godfather!"
"I don't know," I said, standing on the other side of Rose. "Do we want Taylor to have that responsibility?" Taylor nodded, looking at me. "I'm not sure if you're ready for it, Taylor." He gave up pleading with me and pouted at Rose. She covered her eyes with her hands.
"No! No! Don't!" she yelled. "Stop it! Ike, make him stop!"
"Taylor, stop it. Of course you're going to be the godfather. Who else is going to do it? Zac?" I asked, huffing. "Zac will want nothing to do with this child." Taylor shrugged.
"You never know, he could all of a sudden change his mind," Taylor said, looking out the window. "Speaking of which, here he comes." Zac all of a sudden entered the room.
"Mom went home to get some stuff," he said, handing Rose her ice chips with a smile on his face. He was rather chipper for just waking up. He was rather chipper for Zac. "Here you go." He turned to leave and his eyes connected with Taylor. He looked over Taylor's undernourished frame and shook his head, not saying anything as he walked to the door.
"Wait, Zac," Taylor said, getting off the bed and running after him. They both left the room and I saw Taylor catch him down the hall. Zac pushed him away and they both disappeared from view.
"What's with that?" Rose asked, taking my hand in hers to get my attention.
"I don't know. Taylor will explain when he comes back in." She nodded and rested her head against her pillow, sighing. "I don't like it when they fight either."
"It's just stupid. I've been talking to Taylor and they fight about petty things and they do it all the time. It's been three weeks since they've seen each other and nothing's changed," she said, looking up at me. "But let's not think about this now." I nodded.
"Okay."
Nine-thirteen in the morning of July 28th, I became a father. Rose was in labor for sixteen hours until she successfully gave birth to Ryan James Hanson, our first-born son. Despite that he was a month early, the doctors said he was perfectly fine.
I sat with Rose on her bed. She was exhausted and looked ready to crash, she was sweating and her hair was a mess but she was beautiful because she was the mother of my child. I could see the tears in her eyes as she held our son. All the doctors and everybody who'd been in the room were gone, leaving us alone. She was fighting to hold back her tears but she lost and began to cry. She looked up at me.
"Honey, we're parents." I nodded, not really able to say anything. I kissed her forehead and silently, I took Ryan from her and held him in my arms. It was so weird. I knew I didn't have as much time as she did to prepare for this but it looked like all eight months that she took just disappeared into nothing. She looked completely out of her mind, but in a good way. "God, can you believe it?"
"No. Not at all."
It was a while later, Rose finally went to sleep and I had some time to think it over. Ryan was in the nursery with the other newborn babies so the rest of the family could see him. I walked over there to see him and was surprised to see that Zac was the only one there. I stood next to him and it took a few minutes before he noticed me there.
"Oh, hey Ike."
"Where's everybody else?"
"They're back in the waiting room. They came out here, ogled, then went back to the room. I couldn't stay in there with that many people so I had to come out here."
"And there's not a lot of people out here? You're looking at thirty babies, Zac."
"Oh, they're little people and they don't care about me yet. The people back in the waiting room are judging me, criticizing me every chance they get."
"What makes you think they care about you that much?" I joked. A horrified look crossed his face. "I'm joking."
"Well maybe you shouldn't joke like that anymore, Ike. What the hell is your problem?" he asked.
"What is my problem?" I asked. "My problem? You're out here trying to get away from people but you're still worried about them caring about you. You're so damn confusing sometimes..."
"Don't!" he yelled at me. "Don't go off on me like that. If you're just going to act like them and tell me how to live my life then I don't want to talk to you. Leave me alone." He turned around and ran away. I knew better than to go after him. That was something Taylor hadn't learned yet and he usually made things worse. I turned back to the babies and saw Ryan, which instantly brought a smile to my face. Maybe I'd stay a little while.
I had to get out of there. I didn't know how; I was still fifteen. I had three months before I turned sixteen. I didn't have a license; I didn't even know how to drive a car. I hadn't even been behind the wheel yet because my mother said, "You're not stable enough to drive a car. We'll learn later." I didn't even know where to start. I checked my pockets for my wallet only to discover I didn't bring my wallet.
Sighing, I walked back into the hospital. Isaac would want to stay, so would my parents, leaving my last resort as Taylor. I took an alternate route to get to the waiting room, hoping I wouldn't run into Isaac. He just didn't know when to stop. He actually joked that no one cared about me when he knew what a state of mind I was in. Sometimes I thought I should kill myself, just to show them how much it affected me. The thought had crossed my mind quite a lot lately, actually a lot the past few days, but I needed a better reason that just to put a few people in their place.
I found Taylor by a candy machine, not actually buying candy, but just staring at it. He must have been starving. I bet he didn't eat anything while he was in LA. It showed. We had an argument about it earlier in the waiting room when nobody else was in there and I told him how worried I was about him, but he somehow turned the whole conversation back on me. I got upset and I was still mad at him, but I needed him to take me home.
"Trying to improve your telekinesis, Carrie?" I asked, patting him on the back. He jumped and looked at me.
"Oh, no, I was just seeing if they had anything healthy."
"That Twix bar is calling your name," I said, stepping closer to him, purposely trying to taunt him. "It's going 'Taylor! Taylor! Come on, I'm the peanut butter kind! You know I'm your favorite. Eat me!' " He gave me a look. "Just get a fucking candy bar, Taylor."
"What do you want?" he snapped.
"I need a ride home."
"Why? Don't you want to stick around for a little bit?" I shook my head.
"I'm mad at Ike and I'm indifferent to Rose. The people in the waiting room are starting to get annoyed by me and Ryan just kind of sits there," I said. "Plus the cute nurse I was flirting with went home."
"Well what makes you think I want to leave?" he asked, crossing his arms. "Don't you have your license yet?"
"I'm fifteen and you know I'm still fifteen. I don't have any money for a cab so either give me some or take me home. I'm perfectly fine walking home but it looks like rain. I might get pneumonia and die and we all know how horrible that would be," I said, returning the apathetic look he was giving me. He huffed and walked past me.
"Fine. I'll take you home."
"I'm also pretty hungry. Maybe we can stop at McDonald's for a greasy, fatty breakfast. There might even be Twinkies in the car..." He stopped and turned around.
"No, I'm taking you home then coming right back here," he said. "If Rose wakes up while I'm gone you're toast."
"What's up with you and Rose?" I asked, following him down the hall to the exit of the hospital. "She's marrying Ike and it's his kid...unless you were secretly doing her on the side. That kid did have some bright blue eyes. It might be coincidence because it's the same gene pool you're dipping from but..."
"Zac, stop it! Rose is a good friend of mine and that's all she is. I don't like her that way, not anymore."
"Anymore? What, do you mean something happened between you two before? Was it before or after her and Ike started dating?" I asked. We walked out of the hospital and the sun was bright through the clouds. I blinked to get adjusted to it.
"It's none of your business, Zac."
"You brought it up," I said. He looked at me.
"Dammit," he muttered. "Fine. Before Rose even met Ike she and I dated for a little while. It was just a few weeks, nothing big. I never loved her or anything, I actually get along with her better now then I did when we were going out. Then she met Ike and it was pure coincidence because she didn't know we're brothers and when Ike mentioned her name I didn't think of it being her until we met."
"Did you tell Ike?" I asked. He nodded.
"She didn't want to, but I finally convinced her to do it a few weeks ago. He was okay with it and he has a better understanding of my relationship with her because before he was wondering how we got to be such great friends when we barely knew each other."
"Did you sleep with her?"
"That is really none of your business." We arrived at the car and he unlocked his door. I smiled.
"You did! Wow, you slept with Rose. Does Ike know about that?" He unlocked my door and I got inside the car. He started it and pulled out before answering.
"Yes he does. And he's okay with that. Now let's never bring it up again."
"Why'd the two of you break up?" He looked at me.
"Why are you so interested?" he asked. "I thought you could care less about Rose and I thought you were still mad at me from earlier."
"Oh, I'm still mad at you. I'm always mad at you. But I still want to know. It's juicy gossip and I'm like a girl when it comes to stuff like this." He rolled his eyes.
"I slept with someone else and she found out. She got mad, which was expected, and we broke up."
"Who was it?"
"I have no idea," he admitted. "I didn't know her name then and I still don't know it now. Let it be a lesson to you. Don't sleep around, it can kick you in the ass and ruin your reputation. It took me a long time to get Rose's trust back even as a friend after that. She still uses it as an excuse when she's mad at me. I let her because I know what I did was wrong and I was an idiot for doing it."
"Yeah, but if you didn't do it, do you think you would still be with her?"
"I don't know. We were different people when we went out. I'm sure if we broke up for another reason we might even be together right now. She didn't forgive me until she started to get really serious with Ike, and I think if she didn't have that burden over her she wouldn't allow herself to get close with Ike and end up back together with me."
"Oh, so sure of yourself?"
"You don't know Rose like I do, Zac," he said, tapping on the steering wheel. "She's always told me she can open up to me better than Ike, can talk to me easier than Ike, and I think if she didn't let herself get so close to him, she'd find herself back with me." I nodded. "Now don't tell Ike any of this because he'll only get mad and I don't want to ruin anything they have. I care about Rose, she's a really great person, and I know she'll be happy spending the rest of her life with Ike. They are going to have a wonderful life and that kid is going to grow up knowing he's got the best parents in the world."
"Let me guess, you already called godfather?"
"Oh yeah."
"Good, I didn't want to get stuck with it."
"You will, don't worry. Don't think they're going to stop with one kid."
"Great. Well, don't expect me to be a role model."
"No, we'll just refer to you as that 'other uncle.' " I sighed. I knew he meant that as a joke, but I had a feeling that was actually going to happen.