When I arrive home, Mom is in the kitchen with her hands wrapped around a mug as she's sitting at the kitchen table in her night clothes.
"Hey Mom," I say dropping my bag on the floor and taking a seat across from her.
"Hey Lena," she says with a weak smile.
"What's wrong," I ask her concerned.
"How are you Lena," she asks ignoring my question.
"I guess I'd better make myself a cup of tea as well," I say then stand to make my cup of tea.
"You know, when I first found out I was pregnant I was scared, shocked, and nervous. My body has already started to show signs of going through the change so pregnancy was the furthest thing from my mind. Last week when I was out of town I felt terrible, so I called Dad and he came over to take care of me the same morning. I had to reschedule two meetings with two important clients because I felt so terrible, it wasn't until the different smells of food caused me to vomit that the fact that I might've been pregnant dawned on me. When your father arrived and saw what I was going through he immediately went to a convenience store and bought several pregnancy tests. Every single one of them came back positive and we sat in shock for quite some time," she says smiling at me.
"I can imagine so," I say in a small voice as I feel the emotions that took over her as she tells me her story.
"After getting over the shock and talking about it, we decided that we would take care of and love this baby the same way we did with you guys. The thing is that you guys are older now, the twins will be sixteen years old this year and you're turning twenty so life for you guys with a baby would be a little hectic. Your father and I always discussed buying you a condo, granted it would've been for when you graduated college, it was always a topic of discussion between us. However with the arrival of two new babies…" she says with a wide smile.
"Two," I say shocked.
"Yes, so with the arrival of two new babies, we just found out today, the house will be a lot noisier. This is a high risk pregnancy because of my age so we are taking all the necessary precautions to ensure a safe delivery," she says.
"Wow…another set of twins! That's…just wow," I manage to say.
"Yeah, it's amazing! A rare occurrence to have a set of twins back to back like this," she says and takes a long sip of tea.
"That is amazing. Mom, I have considered moving out and I will do it, especially if it makes everything easier for everyone. I will still come home to visit, stay, and possibly not leave for some time just to help out around the house. If it's alright with you, I'll move when this semester's done so that we can have time to prepare for the babies' arrival and I want to find part time work in education field so that I can support myself somewhat and not have to fully depend on you guys for everything," I say to her with confidence.
"That's fine Lena, we don't want to push you out the door. Are you sure you're comfortable with your decision," she asks.
"Yes, I'm sure. I've gone through the motions of feeling unwanted and liberated to be able to move out. It is a big step for me and I'm willing to take it," I respond.
"As long as you're sure then we'll move forward," she says.
"I'm sure," I say.
"Okay, your grandparents will be coming sooner than later because of the high risk. I will be working more out of the house in the coming months than at the office so it will get pretty busy around here," she says.
"I understand. I'm sure I'll be busy enough and will definitely help out whenever you need me to," I say to her.
"Good, how's your vacation planning coming along," she asks changing the subject.
"We've all booked our rooms and flights. The guys are going to come along with us," I say to her excited.
"Mekhi is going with you," she asks.
"Yeah, at first I didn't want him to because the relationship is still so new, but it's spring break so I might as well share the experience with someone other than the girls and not be the odd man out," I say to her.
"That's good. You're young, live your life…he is good for you. I don't want to jinx it, but he may be the last guy you bring home," she says with a knowing look.
"You think so," I ask her.
"I do," she says.
"Well, you have yet to be wrong," I say to her.
"I know, now let's go to bed. I just wanted to talk to you to see how you were doing with this news," she says standing to take her cup to the sink.
"Thanks for waiting for me Mom because I wanted to talk to you as well," I say washing both of our cups.
"Good night Na na," she says as she leaves the kitchen and go to her bedroom.
"Good night, Ma," I say wiping the table down.
Once I'm finished cleaning, I grab my bag and head to my own room. I begin taking my clothes off and preparing for my shower routine. Today has been long with studying and decision making, the little break I got to take with Mekhi was much needed.
Ring!
Ringg!!
Ringggg!!!
"Hello," I say seeing that Mekhi is calling just as I'm thinking about him.
"Hey baby," he says with a huge yawn.
"Hey, you sound exhausted," I say to him trying to hold back a yawn of my own.
"I am, I just got out of the shower," he says.
"Hmm, I was just about to get in," I say to him.
"It's kind of late for you," he says.
"Yeah, I know. I was up talking to my Mom. She waited for me to get in so that we could talk," I say
to him.
"Oh yeah, how did that go," he asks.
"It was a good talk. We're on the same page with everything and she told me that she's having another set of twins and her pregnancy is high risk so she'll be taking it easy in the coming months," I say to him.
"Wow, twins again," he says surprised.
"Yeah, I know," I say to him.
"Well, I'm glad you had a good talk with your Mom and that you're in better spirits," he says.
"I am, thank you," I say to him.
"You're welcome, love. I'm going to go ahead and go to bed, I can barely keep my eyes open," he says sleepily.
"You didn't have to call me," I say to him.
"I did, you told me to call when I'm done with practice," he says defending himself.
"You could've just sent a text instead. I would've understood," I say to him rolling my eyes.
"No, I did what you said…good night baby," he says.
"Okay, good night," I say.
"Dream of me," he says with another yawn.
"Always," I say and end the call.
When I hang up I place my phone on the charger and turn my speaker on low. I gather my things to wash my hair and begin the process of taking my hair down. When I'm finished I start the shower water and finish getting undressed. Stepping into the warm shower water I shiver before leaning my head back into the down pour thoroughly wetting my hair. As I'm washing my hair I think about the days I have left in this shower and my bedroom and I have a lump in throat from the bittersweet feeling that arises. I let the tears flow as I rinse the soap from my hair and prepare to wash my body.
When I'm finished in the shower, I wrap my hair in a towel and proceed to wash and moisturize my face. Then I unwrap my hair and begin to section, comb, moisturize, and blow dry it until it's all straight. After blow drying my hair, I get dressed and run a flat iron through it as well. I haven't straightened my hair in months so I give it a trim before wrapping it up and getting ready for bed. Before I lay down I write in my journal filling the last pages and place it under my mattress when I'm done. With nothing else to do and the late hour I turn off the music and lights and finally lay down to sleep for the night.