Something Else Entirely

25 - Is it supposed to have that many limbs?

"What the fuck happened?!"

Neither Dad or I could figure out a way to keep this from Sadie. The cut on my cheek and Dad's split lip made it a little difficult, and the torn t-shirt collars also didn't help anything either.

"One of you had best tell me what the hell happened right now before I go over there myself and ask those degenerate scumbags myself!" It wasn't even a threat. She just really would.

"I messed up and had a go at them," I said, not even having to fake my deep shame about it. "Jaeden and Jared didn't really appreciate it." I tried to laugh away the tension, hoping she would ease off, but I was sensing that wasn't going to fly today. "It's my fault, Sadie. I'm sorry."

"Come here, Jetty," she said, grabbing and peering up at my face where the bruise was already coming through, before moving on to do the same with Dad, who winced when she touched his lip with her thumb. "Ruben, what happened?" She looked so mad I thought she might combust right there.

Dad and I explained it to her while Madden lingered in the kitchen, hanging on to every word after her loud swearing dragged him out of his room and down the stairs. "Those ungrateful fucking assholes," she continued to curse, pacing up and down the living room, her anger boiling over. "I'm going over there to talk to them," she said, grabbing Dad's keys from the side table and moving towards the door. Dad may have made to follow her, but I moved quicker, standing in front of the door so she couldn't go anywhere. "Move, Jet. I need to see them."

"No. You don't. You can't be going there. Not now. Not ever. And definitely not while you're p—" I stopped my pleading just in time, catching myself before I blurted out that she was pregnant.

"I don't care that I'm pregnant, Jet! You're my son and I won't let them get away with this!" She continued trying to get past me, completely missing that she had just told the whole house—maybe even the whole street—that she was pregnant.

Dad's "Sade?" and Madden's "Mum?" came in simultaneously, both standing side by side in the living room at the end of the hallway, watching her try and fail to move me away from the door.

Dad was the first of the other two to reach her, peeling her arms off me and turning her to face him. "You're . . . We're . . ." He was crying again, begging her for answers while he struggled to push through his overwhelming emotions to even form a coherent question in the first place. "Pregnant?"

Sadie looked between Dad immediately in front of her and Madden who had followed closely behind him, suddenly realising what she must have blurted out in all the heat of what just happened. She took a visibly deep breath and nodded at them both watching her closely.

Madden's smile stretched wider than ever across his face when he looked at me and I confirmed by way of another nod that it was true; and Dad, seeing it happen, let Sadie's shoulders go, his hands whipping up to cover his mouth as he gasped, more tears filling his eyes. When he realised that Sadie was watching his reaction apprehensively, clearly terrified he might have taken the news badly, he reached back out to her and pulled her into him, enveloping her completely and kissing every inch of her face and head before dropping to his knees and burying his face in her stomach, kissing her navel repeatedly.

Madden crept over and wrapped his arms around Sadie, desperate to get in on the hugging action, and I closed in on her other side, kissing her temple and sighing with relief that my Dad had reacted just as I told her he would. I don't know what I would have done if he'd freaked out.

Dad looked up at Sadie above him, his hands tenderly held over her stomach. "We're really having a baby?"

"Well, unless you can find a way to push it out of your vagina, I'll be the one having it," she joked. "But, yes, we're having a baby, Ruby." She looked down at Madden beside her. "Get ready to be the middle child, kiddo."