But Who's Counting?

Chapter Eleven

Children get attached easily.

When Maya said she wanted me to be her mother, my heart nearly stopped. Not because I didn't want to be a mother of such a sweet girl like her, not even because she said she wanted me to be her mother. 

Alexander and I were barely friends. 

We put our differences aside only so that these babies could be raised in a stress free environment. So, after Maya held me in a long, tight embrace, she pulled away and went back to opening presents. The vibe, of course, was killed. I'm not sure if Alexander heard what Maya whispered to me, but he continued to look back and forth between us with sad eyes. But her whole rant about her mother had me concerned.

 Where was her mother? Who was her mother? That was probably my cue to begin to back away from this family as quick as I could. 

After we finished presents, I packed my car and went to my house. Alexander and Maya were going to his mothers house for dinner and I didn't want to intrude. So, I went home and called my family. I talked to my brother. 

He rambled on and on about how my cousins were acting like jerks to him because he accidentally ate the last piece of corn. Besides that everybody was fine. I talked to Jamal, who was basically my brother. He wished me a merry Christmas before talking about coming to see me soon. I shut down that idea, joking that I didn't want to see him that many times in one year, since I had seen him a couple months ago and will be seeing him eventually. 

After Christmas, I stayed at my house, alone. Crissy came over and we drank hot chocolate while watching The Vampire Diaries. She obsessed over Stefan while I obsessed over Klaus. After she went home, I decided I was going to get all my s**t together for this new year. I was planning to move back to California, I had three job offers over there that I just couldn't refuse. But now that this whole babies thing was in the way, I was conflicted.

 I didn't want to have my children away from their father but I also wanted to work. I didn't go to law school for nothing. I cleaned my apartment out, inside and out. By the time I finished, I was so exhausted I slept for two days. 

The morning sickness was getting bad, causing me to wake up randomly just to throw up. I couldn't stand eating any of my favorite foods like pizza, grilled cheese, or tacos. The only thing I could stand eating was avocados. Sometimes vanilla bean ice cream, but it had to be a really good day. Alexander texted me, saying he was putting Maya into a high-end daycare. He didn't feel like interviewing nanny's and decided it be best if Maya began to learn how to share and play well with others. He alerted me that Maya loved it. I was happy for them, but wasn't sure why he was telling me this. I brushed it off.

Anyways, I had taken a two week break from Alexander and was back to being very refreshed. Besides the text about the daycare, Alexander only texted me twice. The second time was him asking if I wanted to come to Maya's basketball game. Apparently it was her final one. I agreed, seeing I had nothing else to do.

Now, I was staring back at Chance while he talked about Crissy. Crissy wasn't here, just Chance. 

"I don't know. She's just so secretive about her family and I googled her and nothing came up. How do you have money but no article that even mentions your last name?"

"Management?" I suggested.

"All the management in the world can't delete you from the internet. Back to what I was saying. What we have is purely s*x. I don't know how to explain the to her. I don't love her. I can't."

"Then tell her before you break her heart."

"Yeah. Anyways, I don't know if I told you, but your stomach is f*****g huge." He said, looking down at my stomach. My stomach had grown rapidly over night. These twins were getting bigger and bigger. I felt the blood rush to my face. "I know." 

"How are things with my cousin?" 

"How are they supposed to be? I barely know him."

"Do you want to?"

"I mean..." I trail off.

"He wants to know you." He said, winking. "Chance."

"He likes ya. He wants to hold ya, please ya, need ya, love ya!" He sang. "Chance!" I laughed, while Chance continued to sing. He ran a hand over his curls before looking at me with a serious expression."He does, you know. For the children's sake." 

"You know why I can't talk to him. If I get close to him I'm going to fall for him. Just like with Marcus." 

"First of all, I told you Marcus was a bad idea. Second of all, I know this will turn out different. Trust me." He said, sincerely. I shook my head though, it was too early. I had broken up with Marcus and got pregnant within basically the same five minutes. I had s*x with a guy without being in a relationship after making the guy I was in a relationship with wait.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Hey... what happened to California?"

"I'm debating on whether or not to still do it."

"Don't let Alex stop you. That's a lot of money."

"I know.. I know. It's just Crissy and I don't want my kids to have to live between their mother (in California) and their father (in new York). I'd rather at least be in the same area. But then again Alex hates me so maybe it'll be for the best." I spluttered, playing with the hem of this tight ass shirt. My stomach was really stretching and soon I'd need another batch of new clothes. "What do you mean he hates you?" Chance asked questioningly.

"I mean, every time I am with him there is a problem, argument, or fight. He gives me the side eye. The only time he has been nice to me was Christmas and I'm pretty sure that's because I got him a present and he was also stuck with me since he demanded I stay at his apartment. He just gives me a vibe that he hates me. I'm fine with it though, we really wouldn't be friends if I wasn't pregnant so, no one to blame but myself." I said, sadly. It was true. I was the one who had the faulty birth control and we were now in this situation together because of that.

"He doesn't hate you, for sure." Chance said. He continued speaking but his voice slowly faded into the background noise. The immense pain I was currently feeling was drowning everything out. My hand immediately went to clutch my stomach as I stood, worried. It felt like the most God awful cramp I've ever had the misfortune of having. My whole stomach got tight, causing me to let out a groan.

 Chance shot up, immediately asking what was wrong.I let out a weak 'I don't know' before he instructed me to put on some shoes. Since my black crocs were right near the door, I slipped into those before grabbing my house keys. I clutched them and my phone while Chance grabbed his car keys. 

When he was halfway down the hallway and I was still standing at my apartment door, Chance ran back and picked me up bridal style. As if I weighed nothing, he quickly walked to the elevator. After hitting the button and waiting a solid 15 seconds for the cart, Chance said f**k it and decided to take the stair; while sill carrying my fat ass. The cramps increased on the way to the hospital, the pain making me want to cry. When I got a sudden sharp pain on the left of my stomach, I let out a cry. This cry made Chance drive faster. 

By the time we got to the hospital, I was sure Chance received at least five tickets.                                                                                          —

Three hours later, the doctors determine that the pain I felt was simply my uterus stretching. They said sometimes, especially in cases of multiple babies, the uterus will stretch itself so they babies had enough space and weren't crammed anymore against each other than they already were. Since this was a natural thing, there was no medicine for it. The 

doctor prescribed me some pregnancy stretches, breathing control, recommending sleeping positions and for me to take some more walks. They also said that if the cramping intensifies and causes any extremely sharp pains to immediately come up the emergency room. Something could be wrong. 

I thankfully thanked the doctors and nurses I had today, along with a Chance for carrying me down multiple flights of stairs and driving me to the hospital. He claimed it was nothing, although I was a woman holding two babies; I knew it was something. 

Afterwards, Chance and I went to Chick-fil-A for dinner. It was pretty crowded in there so it took a while to get our food. In the meantime, we talked about the pregnancy and a little more about Alexander. Since he was Alexander cousin, he knew a lot about him. He was also like a best friend for me, so I convinced myself that he was middle grounds. 

After we ate, Chance drove my car back to my apartment complex. It was dark already! 

He parked my car and grabbed his keys, hugging me goodnight and telling me to call him if anything happened. I agreed before letting him drive off before heading upstairs.The trip upstairs was quick. I was glad to be back home again. The usual struggle I have opening the door became nonexistent when the door was unlocked. Did we leave it unlocked earlier? Deciding against my better judgement, I walked in slowly. As soon as I did, I noticed one thing out of place. The air wasn't cold and empty. It was full of tension. 

I felt him before I saw him. 

The room was tight with tension. What was Alex doing here?

I looked around my living room, which was empty besides the large trespassing man. He looked comfortable. His shoes were off and he sat in a pair of sweats and a tee. His eyes were red, almost bloodshot but .. not?

He was leaning back on my couch, his long arms spread across them. In one hand he clutched a caprisun and in the other was his phone. I squinted at him. How did he even get in?

He wasn't looking at me. Instead, his eyes were concentrated on the ceiling. Just as I began to speak, he decided to look at me."You're moving in with me."

"What? No!"

"No? No! I told you what was necessary if you wanted to stay in this shitty apartment! You were supposed to call me if you had any problems. That was the deal! Wasn't it?" He spat, now sitting with his elbows on his knees while he clasped his hands. His hooded eyes trailed my body, stoping on my hand. I shook my head. How did he find out?"I was going to tell you." And I was. Just not in the immediate situation.

"When? When you saw me next week?"

"No, I was g-"

"Pack your shit."

"No! I'm not moving in with you."

"I don't care if I have to drag you out of here kicking and screaming, you're coming with me. Now, you can have five minutes to pack some s**t or you can have me pack your s**t up and then drag you out of here," he said, standing up, "I can't f*****g believe this! I had to find out from f*****g Chance! Why the hell would he know before me?"

"Because he was here!" I cried out, taking a step back when he laughed.

"I bet he was. Is that why he didn't come to work today? To hang out with you? Get your s**t. I'm not even going to give y'all the chance to even do that again."

"You can't control me! I barely know you!"

"Yet, you slept with me! Yet you're still pregnant with MY children! I can do whatever the hell I want because for the time being, you have two of my f*****g kids inside of you and I am the one in charge of protecting them! They are my flesh and f*****g blood and if you are being a home to them, then I f*****g control you too!" He yelled. The capri-sun that was in his hand early was damn near flat, he had squeezed it. The juice came out in a spurt out of the small yellow straw.

"That's not how that works." I said, my hands turning into balls. Alexander was taller than me and that was only adding to the anger.

During our intense stare down, my phone began to ring. I froze at the ringtone; it was Chance calling me. I broke my gaze away, fumbling to get my phone out my coat pocket while Alexander let out a maniacal laugh. I answered the phone while he shook his head at me.

"He- Hey.." I answered, trying to not concentrate on Alexander hitting his hand again his thigh. My breathing hitched when Chance spoke.

"Hey, can you buzz me in? I left my house keys."

It was like a movie. Just as Chance let out the word 'keys', Alexander recognizes his cousins keys. "Are these his f*****g keys? Sophia, tell me these aren't his keys! So not only were you hanging out while he had work, but you were here? What did you guys f**k too?" He angrily spat. I looked up at him before turning around and whispering.

"I think you can hear why that might be a bad idea." I said lowly, looking at my apartment door. I could feel why me turning my back was a bad idea. Chance was speaking on the other end of the line but I couldn't even hear a word he was saying because all I could hear was Alexander's unsteady breathing on my neck.

"Let me talk to him." He said, too calmly. It was making me nervous.

I tried my best to ignore him.

"Sophia, you have two seconds to give me the f*****g phone and let me talk to MY cousin or I'm going to go find him and beat the s**t out of him."

My body spun and the phone was out of my hand in a millisecond. Since Chance was downstairs, it wouldn't take Alex long to find him. He pressed the phone against his ear before swinging Chances keys around his finger.

I was beginning to become fidgety. Alexander was angry.

"Hey, cousin." He said, putting extra emphasis on the word cousin.

"Don't f*****g ask why I am here! How about I ask you why YOU were here?"

"Alexander... Chance and I are friends. I knew him before I knew yo-"

"Shut the hell up! I'm talking to Chance right now. Chance! I told you what the f**k was up but you just HAVE to keep going, don't you?"

"Oh, you're downstairs? Come up. Are you guys interested in f*****g in front of others?"

"Alex!"

"No, it is like that! I don't understand how I even f*****g told you, yet you are still at her house. Are you dating? Is that what this is? Or are you just f*****g around like you do with Crissy?" Alexander was spitting out words that stung. They all hit me in the right places, causing my eyes to become teary.

Three heavy knocks at my door had Alexander pushing me onto the couch and pulling it open.

Chance.

"Hardy hardy har! Look who we have here. Chance!" He said, looking back at me before pulling him by the collar and slamming the door. He held Chance against the wall, alarming me. Chance look past Alexander to me.

"No! Don't f*****g look at her! Look at me!" Alexander angry voice roared. If the police were kicking down my door in a minute, I wouldn't be surprised.

"Alex, you're overreacting."

"I'm overreacting? You regularly hang out with Sophia! The girl I got pregnant. For the time being she's f*****g mine! Okay? We went over this s**t!"

Chance went to peel Alexander arm off of him, but got punched.

"Alex!" I sprung to my feet, instantly appearing next to him. I began to attempt to pull him back.

"Sophia, get the f**k off of me. I do not want to hurt you."

"You're hurting Chance!" I said, pushing at him. Immediately, Alexander let go and all the attention was on me. I backed up, hitting the wall. Alexander placed a hand on either side of my head.

"Why the f**k aren't you packed yet?" He whispered into my ear, his voice full of malice.

"I'm -" i stammered, not able to concentrate with him so close to me and his breathing hitting my ear.

"I tried to be f*****g nice." he said, his breath hitting me harshly. Does he just chew on peppermint sticks for a living? Anytime he was in close proximity of me, there was a mint scent coming straight from his mouth.

"Alex, back up." Chances deep voice rang. He pushed Alex away from me as I stood frozen against the wall. Alexander hit the floor with a thud and I watched, frightened while Chance began to hit him.

Alexander punched him back, they were now on the floor fighting. Alexander wrapped his hand around Chance neck before looking at me.

"Unless you want to see him bleed out on this f*****g carpet, go pack your s**t. You have two minutes."

My feet carried me to my room as I threw random articles of clothing into my bags. Tears streamed down my face. This was all my fault.

Alexander and Chance were arguing in the other room. "You're not supposed to f*****g yell at her, she's pregnant!"

"It's not your f*****g child!"

"It's her child!"

"Why do you care so much? She's mine. I got her pregnant. I slept with her first, I fu-" I stepped out of the room with the two bags and my book bag just in time to see Alexander loosen his grip. My chest shook in sobs while I watched the two of them. Alexander stood, straightening his shirt and tossing Chance his keys. He grabbed his keys and his phone and my bags before telling me to walk in front of him. I opened the door while Alex turned back to his cousin.

"Chance, I'm sorry. I can't lose this one this time though." As I was walked out the door with Alex hot on my tail, Chance responded.

"I know."

Chance was now standing behind Alexander with a small frown. He looked at me sadly before letting Alexander take me to his place.