Page 46 of Roommates
“You know, because that's kind of what we're doing here. Rebelling.”
“Is this because of that phone call you had with your mom last night?” Lucas asked, eyeing me skeptically over the rim of his coffee mug as if to remind me not to ruin morning coffee on him. It was the only dose of caffeine he allowed himself over the course of the day and it had become something of a holy ritual for him. I was lucky that he wasn't suffering any major mood swings, but disturbing him during coffee time was a crime he didn't take lightly.
“It wasn't about the phone call,” I said.
“What did she want, anyway?”
“The usual.” I shrugged.
“Still trying to urge you to go work in your family's company?” Lucas took a sip of his coffee. “You know if you just did it for a year or—”
“I'd never be home anymore,” I waved him off. “I'll find something else. Something that I actually want to do.”
“Okay then.” Lucas put his mug down. “You support me in my goals, I'll support you in yours, you know that. I was only thinking it's sad that your relationship with your family is deteriorating.”
“Don't worry about it. I'm just glad thatyourparents are supportive. Letting us stay here and all...” It was a little embarrassing, really, that Lucas' parents did more for us, considering that my parents had more money.
Lucas gave me a small smile. “My parents are pretty amazing. Still, I hope we can stand on our own feet soon.”
I nodded, resolving to write a few more job applications as soon as I was done eating. It was time toman up.I never got around to it, though.
At least not that day.
Before I could even shove another forkful of pancakes into my mouth, Lucas let out a shocked noise that made me look up. “Is everything all right?” I asked.
He stared at me. “I think... Fuck, I think my water just broke.”
“What?”
“My water broke,” he repeated, but the words still made as little sense to me as the first time he'd uttered them. How could his water have broken? Didn't we still have a month to go?
“It's way too early,” I uttered, dumbfounded.
“I know! That's why I've been ignoring the cramps. Shit.” Lucas cursed and made to get up from the table.
It was the panicked look in his eyes that finally made me spring into action. My pregnant partner needed me to take care of this situation, so I would.
“Keep sitting,” I said, laying a hand on his shoulder. “I'll stuff some things in a bag for you and then we're going to the hospital.” That sounded like a plan, right? Damn, we should have gotten that bag ready before, but we'd thought we had a little more time.
“Okay.” Lucas pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. “I'll call my parents.”
“Yeah, let them know what's going on.” His parents had left for work a while ago, but we could use all the help we could get.
Lucas nodded and I watched him fiddle with his phone for only a moment before I rushed up to his bedroom. We'd picked out a bag, and it lay by the door, we just hadn't put anything into it yet. I wasn't sure exactly what we needed, so I simply grabbed some clothes from his dresser and threw them in without much thought. I knew Lucas would cringe at the chaos later, but it was the best I could do. I also found a cellphone charger and Lucas' wallet, which I threw on top of the mess I'd created before ransacking the bathroom for items my mate might need.
When I walked down the stairs again, Lucas crossed my path, walking up.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I'm gonna get changed.”
“You're doing what?”
“My pants are soaked! I don't feelclean!” he complained, not stopping on his quest for fresh clothes.
Honestly, I wondered if getting changed was really the best use of his time right now. I hadn't read all those books about labor and birth that Lucas had, but I'd seen a video—well, only parts of it, really, but enough to know the whole process was sort of messy. I also knew that there was nothing I could say now to change Lucas' mind. If he wanted to feel clean now for at least a little while, I wasn't going to take that away from him. “I'm going to get the car started,” I yelled up to him instead. He grunted something in response. Taking it as approval, I took the car keys from a hook near the door.
Thank God Lucas' parents had two cars and they'd taken only one of them. And Thank God my mate didn't take long to change his clothes. I was getting kind of antsy just sitting around after I'd started the engine and stashed the bag.
