The Flame

We see Amy's sonogram, how Rainy tells everyone, and how badly Mariah gets flamed.

Mariah

Amy and I spent the whole day giving each other Mani/Pedi’s’ and shopping. We went to Papaya for me and some maternity shops or her.  For her, we bought clothes for the whole nine yards- months- and for me, I was set until the end of the year with seven outfits. I also had my other clothes. How could we afford seven outfits without crying? Well Amy’s family is not multi-billionaires. They were multi-millionaires, and she told me not to stress about prices because she had me covered. She said, “You’re practically my daughter. You know me being your guardian?”

I just nodded and let it go. She was my guardian after all. We went back to the small house and sorted out our new nail polishes, putting them in alphabetical order of what they were called. I painted my nails a salmon-looking pink color and Amy painted hers brown. After we finished, we put our feet side by side and took a picture. When we finally got up, it was time to go to the obstetrician.

That was sad because we had just finished our toes so we had to wear flip flops, but we took our tennis shoes because it was fast-dry nail polish.

When we got to the obstetrician, we had ten minutes to spare. So we put on our socks on slowly, easing our feet into the shoes.

After we got our shoes on, we opened the car doors and were about to head inside when Cade’s car pulled up next to ours. It was 300 Chrysler. It was a very pretty car.  His tall figure stepped out of the short car and he clamped me in a bear hug. “Cade!” I yelled struggling to fight back. Amy came around the side, hitting Cade on the shoulder forcefully.

“Ow, s**t, baby,” He said grabbing her and pulling her into a lover’s lip lock.

I just stood there. “You guys... done yet? I’d like to see the baby.” I asked, clearing my throat and tightening my ponytail.

Reese

“That’s not going to happen. No. I’m not letting you get away from me, Reese.” Rainy bawled, tears brimming at her eyes.

I didn’t want to see her cry but hey, “You brought it on yourself.” I said shrugging my shoulders and gently moving her out of my way, sitting in my seat.

She punched me on my arm. “Of course you pick the s**t. The w***e. The skank. And now, everyone in here knows what happened and by lunch, the whole school will know,” I dropped my eyes, feeling sorry for Mariah. “Hey, it’s the power of Facebook, hun.” She shoved my shoulder lightly and walked off to her own desk, huffing the whole time.   Wow. A whole four years. I’m so through with relationships.

 “You slept with Mariah Houseman!?” I looked to my left to see my friend Clark with a wide eyed look on his face.

“Slept with her. Not fucked her.” I rolled my eyes looking left then right. All eyes were on me. Some were pity.

It was now lunch and everyone was looking at me. My friends said things like: “Whoa man. Mariah?”

“That’s one hot piece of a*s, Reese.  I want a go at Mariah.”

“Dude, she’s easy. I hear�"“

“What the f**k man?” I said, jumping up, throwing my French fries down. “She’s not easy. Let’s see you get taken in by a girl when you need it and she doesn’t try to move in on you. I’m pretty sure she hates me and she still took me in when I needed someone. While you have no one.” I knew I hit pretty hard when I said he had no one because he lives in a foster house, but I was too pissed to care. Drake has gotten to me way too much in the past two minutes.

“Sorry, dude. I didn’t know you felt that way about her,” He said frowning at me and turning back down to his tater tots.

“F**k this,” I said, picking up my plate and walking out of the cafeteria. I knew I was making some sort of a scene, but I couldn’t help but be pissed.

Mariah

After my brother and his wife finished kissing, they rushed to catch up with me. “What Riah!” I slowed my pace and Cade and Amy were stumbling over each other to get me. I swear they’re like teenagers. 

After they caught up to me, we walked at a normal 2.0 mph pace.  They were laughing while I still pondered over the fact that Reese came to me last night instead of his girlfriend. Maybe it was because of his girlfriend. I really wish I knew. We got to the front doors of the hospital and Amy went to the receptionist’s desk to sign-in while Cade and I sat in chairs nearby. I was shooting a text to Melany when Cade took the phone out of my hands.

“Why was Reese in your room last night?” I could tell he disapproved about last night.

“He needed somewhere to go and his b***h of a girlfriend obviously turned him down.” I reached for my phone, but he moved it out of my reach.

“Did you guys do anything last night?” He read the last text Melany sent me out loud and looked at me with a questioning look. “Did you?”

“No Cade! And if we did it’s not even any of your concern!”

“He has a girlfriend, Mariah. What are you doing?”

“He and his girlfriend broke up today and we didn’t do anything except sleep! Like old times!” I whisper-yelled, thinking of the times when Reese and I would sleep in sleeping bags on his living room floor, watching Balto and The Lion King over and over again. I missed those times. When we could be just friends with anyone. Not having to worry about angry girlfriends or boyfriends or social status, but growing up has its ‘perks’. Perks I hated. Cade handed me my phone back, rolling his eyes at me as soon as Amy approached.

“Amy Houseman?” A nurse in blue scrubs asked for Amy. We all got up and followed the nurse to a small room with a birthing table and three chairs. “Get on up there, Mrs. Houseman,” the nurse commanded. Amy climbed up on the table and lied down. “Alright, this is going to be cold, but it’ll warm up, it always does.”  Amy nodded staring at the screen in anticipation. “Oohp! There’s definitely a little one in there. Take a look here.” The nurse said, pointing at the screen at the small thing inside Amy’s stomach.

“It’s hard to see,” Cade said. He squinted his eyes like it would help. I then trained my eyes on it a little bit more when I saw a tiny baby. It was really small. And to be honest, it wasn’t very cute.

“Is this in 3D? Because I’ve heard of 3D sonograms.” Amy asked, tucking her hair behind her hair.

“Yes, this is in 3D.”

“Oh, cool.” Amy nodded her head and smiled. “That’s my baby!”

“Okay Mrs. Houseman, you’re at the end of your first trimester, or third month as some call it, come back next month and we’ll sonogram and check up on your little one.” The nurse grabbed a cloth and wiped the gel off of Amy’s stomach and tossed it in the trash can. Amy pulled her shirt back down and slid off of the examination table.

“Cade I’m so excited, this is our baby! Oh! Can I get some pictures?”

“Oh yeah.” The nurse went behind the sonogram machine and some pictures had already printed out. She handed three pictures to Amy and smiled.

The three of us walked out of the small room and out to our car. “Aren’t you guys excited for the baby?!” Amy scratched her head. “If it’s a boy, I’m so naming it either Cade or Caden. Whichever one we decide. And if it’s a girl, I’m naming her either Dakota or Ava. Whichever we decide. Or what about Lauren? And if it’s a boy we could name him Isaac. What do you think? Oh, Camden!” Amy was talking so fast and so much, I decided to just tune her out.

I opened my phone and went to Fruit Ninja, deciding to entertain myself on the fifteen minute car ride home. As soon as the car stopped, I flung myself out, heading for the front door and unlocking it with my brick red key. When I went into my room, I slip off my shoes and carefully peeled off my socks.

I sat down at my desk and opened my laptop. First, I opened an internet browser, then I opened a game of solitaire, then I opened the Sims 3. My saved game off solitaire loaded and I pressed play on the Sims launch menu and I opened up Facebook on my internet browser I was already logged in and I scrolled down through some posts. Mostly I didn’t care about the posts but as I kept scrolling, one caught my eye. It said: Mariah Houseman is such a s**t. No wonder she’s boyfriendless.

Another: I pity Rainy. Her man taking by a w***e. Smdh.

And another: Wows, what a b***h thing to do Mariah. I always knew you were a w***e.

Tears filled my eyes and I refused to let them fall. I could have sworn I sat at the computer for a whole hour. I heard the doorbell. I got out of my seat and went to answer it. It was Reese. “I thought you didn’t do something and then tell it.”

“Look Mariah I am so sorry.”

“What am I supposed to see?!” I furiously wiped a fallen tear from my cheek. “I’m being completely flamed on Facebook, Twitter and they probably found a way to get me on to Tumblr also. Why did you tell?”

“It came out. I got in a fight with Rainy and it came out. I’m really sorry. I can take care of it.”

“No! There’s nothing you can do! Just look at this,” I screeched, grabbing his arm and pulling him to my bedroom and on my desk so that he could see my laptop screen. “Oh,” I threw in a fake laugh, “Here’s another: ‘Mariah H is so f*****g easy.’ How could you just accidently blurt that to the world? I didn’t do anything to deserve this! What’d I ever do to you, huh?”

“I’m so sorry.” I Reese closed his eyes, ran his hands through his hair and scratched his neck. “F**k, I never-. S**t what did I do? I’m so f*****g sorry. I can fix this.”

How come this is happening to me? And no. Everyone knows Reese can’t fix this situation because it’s already way too deep.

“Just go.” I said, holding my hand when he approached me.

“Here’s your homework.” He said, handing me very thin stack of papers.

“Yeah thanks. See you around.”

“See you.”  He turned around mumbling to himself and the only thing I could do was close my laptop, put my homework on top, and crawl into my covers.

When I woke up again, it was six o’clock and Cade was standing over me with Amy on his back while singing SpongeBob’s campfire song. Oh. My. Gosh. “Get out. I’ll be out in a minute.” They nodded, singing fast while Cade turned around and left the room. They looked like gorillas. I couldn’t help but laugh for a second when I realized the situation I was in. I covered my face with my hands and hung my head. This is not happening to me. Yes it is. No it’s not. Yes. It is happening, my life is officially over. Before I sat down for dinner, the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it!” I yelled to Amy and Cade who were already seated. I opened it to Melany and Olivia.

“You’re just in time for dinner!” I yelled throwing my arms around her neck.

“I know. You guys always have dinner at six.” Melany smiled.

“Let’s go eat. I smell ravioli!” Olivia sang, fluttering out of the living room and into the dining room. I knew they only came to console me and for that, I’m so glad I have them as best friends.