When I woke up sometime that night, and didn’t see Bentley there, I started freaking out. I walked out of the room, and stopped when I heard Bentley, Lillian, and Mom talking.
“So you’re saying she just dropped the glass, and when you went in there she was clutching her stomach?” Mom asked.
“Yeah,” Bentley said, “she was in major pain, her face was contorted like it is when she’s hurting, and she was gasping, though she didn’t realize it.”
He was right, I hadn’t. “I’m not sure what to do about that,” Mom responded.
“It was probably nothing but just something she ate,” Lillian said.
“You’re probably right. Don’t say we’re worried though, we don’t want to frighten her,” Mom said.
Bentley and Lillian agreed, and I would have, but it was too late, I had been worrying about it even before they had.
I padded into the room, yawning, acting as if I just woke up, “oh, hey, sweetie, you have a good nap?” Mom asked.
I looked at the clock, it was eleven at night, I nodded, “yeah, it was good.”
She smiled, “well, I was just going to bed, and we’ll talk about the suspension in the morning,” she said in a firm voice.
I smiled apologetically, “sorry.”
She laughed and went into her room, “I’ll see you guys later,” Lillian said as she started towards the guest room.
“Hey, Lil, we should watch a bunch of movies tomorrow.”
She smiled at me, “I’d like that.”
I grinned and she left, leaving just me and Bentley together. He walked over to me, taking my hand, “sorry I slept most of the day,” I said to him.
He pushed my hair back behind my ear, “no worries, I don’t mind. I’m not tired,” he said, winking at me before kissing me.
“Are you sure?” I asked, worried that he would be too tired in the morning.
He smiled and kissed my neck softly, “your mom said I could stay here until we’re back in school, to let my parents calm down.”
I grinned joyfully, “really?”
He smiled again, “yeah, really.”
“Okay,” I said, and then he led me towards my room. He sat me on the bed, and then he kissed me softly, again.
“How was your nap?” he asked me.
I thought back, and realized with a shock, that I had had the same dream I’d had a week or so ago, where I was having… issues in labor. I must have jumped, because he sat back, “what’s wrong?” he asked.
“Oh,” I shifted my eyes, “nothing.”
He stared at my face for a moment, “you’re sure?”
Should I tell him? Nah, I’d just make him worried. “Really, nothing is wrong, I just thought about something is all.”
“Would you like to tell me what that something was?”
“Sorry, but no.”
He grinned, “Thought I’d try.”
I nodded, and then he stared at me for a moment, “Serenity, what happened in the kitchen today? And please, don’t lie to me.”
I sighed, “I had a simple stomach pain, it was nothing. Really.”
“You’re sure you don’t need to go to the doctor?”
I shook my head, “really, I’m perfectly fine, so is she. I mean her or him,” I tacked on lamely.
He stared at my face, searching for any hints of lying, “okay, that’s good then.”
I nodded, and he laid back on the bed. “It’s hot in here,” he said.
I looked down at him, and back at the ceiling. “You’re right. You want me to turn the fan on?”
He nodded, “yeah, I actually am kind of tired. Do you mind if I go to bed?”
“Not at all, honey.”
He grinned and took his shirt off, I gulped, He pulled down the covers on his side, and waited for me to crawl in with him, I did, thinking I should change into shorts, but I’d probably get cold in the night. He wrapped his arms around me, and when his bare chest touched me, I had to fight not to hyperventilate. Man, was I a whore.
He pulled me closer, and then a few minutes later, he was snoring. I sometimes wondered if I affected him quite as much as he affected me, but after awhile of being in his calming presence, I simply drifted off again too.
I woke up and some point in the morning, and I heard myself moan in pain, another painful squeeze in my stomach, and then nausea came flooding up, but I didn’t throw up this time. “Serenity?” Bentley asked groggily.
I panted to get control, “I’m… fine,” I said against gritted teeth.
He sat up, and turned my lamp on, “what’s wrong?” he asked.
“My stomach,” I gasped, and then as suddenly as it happened, it stopped. I took big deep gulps of air.
“Serenity… we need to get you to a doctor,” Bentley whispered looking at me, drenched in sweat.
“Bentley, this is normal,” I lied, “I even read that it happens often in some circumstances.”
“Oh, well… alright. Are you okay to go back to sleep, though?”
I nodded, “of course.”
He smiled groggily, and fell back asleep quickly. I cried myself to sleep after that. When I woke up in the morning to Bentley kissing the side of my neck, I was prepared for my stomach to hurt, but it didn’t. I sighed in relief, and let him finish kissing me, before I kissed him on his mouth.
“Good morning,” he said, smiling.
I grinned, “hey there, sunshine.”
We turned on the television to the weather channel, and I heard the weatherman say, “it’s a scorcher out there today, folks. Turn the air conditioners on, but it won’t be for long, until we’re back to the cooler, spring weather.”
I smiled, and turned the t.v. off. I got up, stretched, and padded out of my room, with Bentley not too far behind (with his shirt on again) thank goodness. We ate breakfast, and then I shooed him. “Go find a boy to play with, I’m going to spend the day with Lillian,” I told him.
He smiled, “alright, I’ll be back around six, okay?’
“Who are you going to be with?”
“Well, that Ryan guy asked me to play football with him today, so I figured I’d go, is that okay?”
I nodded, “well, sure, Ryan’s a great guy.”
He smiled, “alright, see you later,” he kissed me, “love you.”
“I love you too, babe.”
He left, smiling, and Lillian and I sat down and watched all kinds of tearjerkers, which always had us sobbing at the end of them. Especially that movie Beaches, we thought about that a lot, when it came to our friendship. That’s been our theme movie forever now.
When six started to come around, we grabbed all of our popcorn, candy, and sodas and cleaned up. When Bentley walked in the door, there wasn’t a speck of our day left, other than the smiles on our faces. “Hey, Serenity,” Lillian whispered to me, I looked at her, “Serenity, I have to leave tonight. I didn’t want to tell you until it was time to go, so you wouldn’t feel bad.”
Tears rose to my eyes, “you really have to?”
She nodded, tears rising to her eyes, too, “your mom’s taking me to the airport at eight.”
Tears fell down my face and I hugged her tightly, “I’ll miss you like crazy, Lill.”
She smiled at me, crying with me, “we’ll always meet up again. I’ll come back down next month, I wanna see your belly get big! And when you have her, I’ll be here for good then. My mom said we were going to move back down!”
A big grin split across my face, “that’s fantastic!”
She smiled and nodded enthusiastically, “yeah!”
We let go, and Bentley, Lillian, and I all sat in the living room and talked until eight. We all went with her to the airport, and when it came time to say goodbye, I gave her a big hug, and sent her on her way.
When we got back to the house, Mom went straight to bed, tired from her day at work, the air conditioning had broken at some point while we were gone, and the house was unbearably hot.
When Bentley and I got to my room, I got out a pair of my booty-shorts, and tank tops out, trying my best to keep cool with the fan on, but it was pretty close to impossible. Bentley stripped down to nothing but a pair of shorts, and I had to struggle to keep my cool then especially. I laid down on the bed, staring at the ceiling fan going around and around.
“Do you miss her?” Bentley asked, climbing on the bed beside me.
I nodded, “she’s my best friend, and she has been for the longest time, it’s really hard not to have her around.”
He looked at me with understanding, but then his eyes slowly traveled down, all the way to my feet (slowly), and back up again (just as slow, if not slower). They changed from understanding to a hunger I could feel all the way in my bones.
“I want…” yes? What did he want? He repeated, “I want…” again.