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Post by Craig Blackwood on Jul 1, 2010 1:17:15 GMT -5
A lot of Craig’s stubbornness when it came to sharing his feelings was mostly due to his pride, yes, but part of it was also a result of him being unable to sort out exactly what was being felt. Right now it was hard for him to make sense of anything and he hated to admit he was feeling insecure, yet what he was saying made it more than obvious that he was. What Craig didn’t get was that Mia could read in between the lines most of the time, yet somehow he felt he could tip-toe around certain subjects without revealing the truth. Turns out he’s terrible at it. It didn’t help for him to just voice his thoughts that were confusing even to him, but somehow he figured that maybe he’d be able to figure them out if he said them out loud….nope. He hadn’t even done so much as think about what another man would think about raising a baby that wasn’t theirs. His mind was far too single-focused at the moment for that, but at least he realized he wasn’t making perfect sense.
What was the purpose for all of this? Surely he didn’t believe that Mia would actually want to leave him after all they went through. His insecurities were getting the best of him and he wasn’t at all used to feeling this way, which just made it all the more difficult for him to understand. He had once believed that any woman was lucky to be with him and having them leave him was laughable, but those relationships hadn’t lasted long at all and certainly weren’t as deep and meaningful as the one he was in now. In fact, he wasn’t sure any of his past relationships had much meaning to him at all. Now the tables had turned and feeling so vulnerable was confusing the crap out of him. He had everything he could ever want with Mia: a best friend, amazing sex, and someone who returned the love that he felt for her. Maybe he wasn’t ready to be a father, but that certainly wasn’t worth throwing away the best thing he had in his life right now. Being overly worried about her leaving him was only making the situation worse and he had no reason to believe she would want to be with anyone else.
When she spoke, Craig almost wanted to deny that he was feeling hurt and jealous, but it would take an idiot not to see that he was. There was very little logic in Craig’s accusations earlier. It had a lot to do with being jealous and insecure, but little to do with having any actual evidence or thinking about it carefully. It was then that he began to realize how ridiculous his thoughts were at that moment. He was worried about Mia leaving him for another man? When he really thought about it, it made no sense at all. She had already chosen him over Jess and made it clear that he was the only one she wanted to be with, yet he still had the nerve to question whether it was all true? When he saw the tears in her eyes, he instantly felt the guilt shoot through him. “I’m so sorry, Mia. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I want this to work and I’m just making things worse,” he told her, now that he realized that everything had been perfectly fine before his little break down about the relationship. For whatever reason, he still couldn’t get past beating himself up over things that weren’t a problem at all before he made them a problem.
Her next question was a little surprising to him, but it probably shouldn’t have been. Here he was talking about all of his doubts about being a father, so why wouldn’t she suspect that he might back out of the father thing altogether? “Of course I do!” he assured her, wrapping his arms more securely around her. As much as being a father scared him, he wanted to be a part of their baby’s life. It came a little sooner than he would have wanted, but he had always figured that children were in his future. He was excited to be able to watch their kid grow up, but being able to raise it right and being able to provide for it was another story. He shook his head when she asked if he was trying to get out of this. “No! No, I’m not. I’m just worried things won’t go right. And you know I am perfectly capable of being an idiot,” he said in reference to her earlier comment about them not being idiots about it. A small grin was visible on his face as he said it, which was the first sign that he was coming to terms with everything and was realizing how silly this all was.
He pulled her a little closer to him and kissed her cheek. “What I really want is you, Mia. I want to raise the baby with you. I’m just worried, I guess,” he said while taking her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “But I know now that it will be okay. I don’t know why I freaked out. I mean, even if I screw up, at least I’ll have you to fix it,” he said with a grin. It didn’t matter if he thought he’d have a hard time with the father thing because he was going to have to go through it either way. He imagined it would be difficult at first, but no one could expect a first-time parent to know exactly what to do in certain situations. “As for Jess, well…it still bothers me, but I’ll try to handle it a little better,” he assured her. He didn’t feel as though he would get over it anytime soon, but he wasn’t going to let it get between them if he had no reason to. “Are you feeling okay?” he finally remembered to ask. “Sorry for waking you up and dragging you into something so stupid.” He couldn’t help but feel bad. She was pregnant, not feeling well, and he had just created a stressful situation that could have been easily avoided. Yeah, not the most considerate guy in the world sometimes…
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Post by Mia Testardo on Jul 2, 2010 0:47:53 GMT -5
Mia would never admit it to Craig, and she had a hard time admitting it to herself, but she did feel that there may have been some good that came out of her relationship with Jess. She had never actually been in a relationship before she was with Craig and she felt that it may have been good for her to see what a relationship would be like for someone besides her current boyfriend. She didn’t enjoy it nearly as much, which did, in the end, help her relationship with Craig. She now knew she wanted to be with Craig over anyone else and she was happiest when she was around him. She finally knew it wasn’t just being happy because she had someone with her, but because she loved the man that was with her. However, she would never tell Craig she felt anything good came from being with Jess, that wouldn’t be good, and may actually finally make Craig put his fist into Jess’ face, which she did not need.
She also thought that Craig would handle this better if he would allow himself to feel the jealousy she felt he had to feel. She knew that after he cheated any sort of jealousy in her was always raging, and she let him know that as well. Even when his eyes would wander to another good looking woman at the club or restaurant she would give him a kick and glare at him and she let him know that she still didn’t really trust him. Obviously, that wouldn’t work for her current situation, because she wouldn’t take well to not being trusted when Craig knew she ended the relationship she had with Jess, but she did feel that if he would talk to her about how he was feeling she may be able to help him out a bit. There were random times over the time they had gotten back together that she felt he was finally over the whole Jess thing, but then his name would come up and Craig was obviously still not over it all and the fact that Craig would never tell her that he was having a difficult time never helped them get past it.
Mia sighed deeply when he said something about making things worse, but decided not to say anything because, well, he was right, but she didn’t want to be honest and make things worse but she certainly didn’t want to lie. Mia allowed him to hold her closer, actually enjoying it. Sure, they had cuddled plenty in the last couple weeks when she hasn’t been feeling well, but she was always up for having Craig’s arms wrapped around her. It made her feel loved and safe and, for the short amount of time, made her worries about having a child start to fade and she would relax. She listened as he tried to calm her worries and smiled at him when he attempted a joke. “That’s true enough,” she teased, pushing her head against his neck and shoulder before kissing his neck softly. She liked to see the grin on his face, it calmed her down significantly, but upon calming down she also suddenly felt a lot worse than she had moments before. With adrenaline flooding her system she had pushed her mono aside and she was now feeling what effect all the yelling had had on her already sore throat.
Mia squeezed his hand after she felt him do the same, leaning on him a little more. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was starting to notice that her weight was going up slightly, but then again, he hadn’t been picking her up and she hadn’t been putting too much weight on him lately due to her worry about the child, but with all her leaning she couldn’t help but think about it. Though she wasn’t showing her pregnancy yet, she was noticing other changes in her body all ready, and none of the changes were something she liked. Craig, well, she did think he would like the swelling in her breasts, but he’d like it more if he was allowed to play with them. She giggled when he said she could fix his mistakes. “Only if you get up at night for the first nine months,” she teased, her thumb running up and down the back of his hand. She figured that was actually fair, to be honest, she was suffering through this whole pregnancy thing, he could then suffer the next sleepless months, especially because it would be her body still taking care of the child after she gave birth, which she knew would not be fun as well.
“Please do,” she said softly, moving away from him slightly to look for him. “I know it’s hard and you have every right to be a little… upset but… it’ll be a lot easier for me, and the baby, if it wasn’t… as big of a deal. At least when you’re talking to me,” she said, reaching up to kiss his cheek before relaxing back down, resting her head against him once again because she was just so tired. She smirked again when he apologized; glad he had because she did feel she deserved it. “I’m all right, a little weak, head and throat hurt,” she answered honestly, taking a deep breath before deciding what she wanted to do. “How about you stop and get me a smoothie then take me home?” she asked, looking up at him. She didn’t see why it would be a problem so she moved over to the passenger’s seat and buckled her seat belt. Normally, after a fight like that she would stay close to him even if they were driving, but now that she was pregnant it wasn’t about what she wanted but about what was safe for the baby she was carrying.
Once they were on the road ((if he agrees)) she rested against the back of the seat for a while before deciding to bring up something she had wanted to for a while. “Uh, Craig?” she asked to get his attention. “Um… what do you think about uh… going to a parenting class with me?” she finally asked, glancing at him for a second before looking back down at her lap. “I’m going, rather you do or not, but… I would really love it if you would come with me. It’s just like once a week for three weeks and… please?” she asked, looking up at him again with a hopeful look on her face. She was very scared that he was going to say no, but she would never know unless she asked. She just hoped he would realize how much it meant to her, even if he didn’t want to come.
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Post by Craig Blackwood on Jul 12, 2010 2:35:18 GMT -5
Craig wasn’t entirely sure how he managed to make such a big thing out of nothing. All he knew was that he was apparently very good at it. He was lucky he was with someone who could tolerate it at the very least because he never failed to make it rather extreme with his accusations and everything else he makes up in his mind. It was true that he would probably be able to feel better about everything if he would just talk to Mia about it, but he supposed he just thought that not mentioning Jess would somehow make the situation go away on its own and everything would be fine eventually. That might have worked if Jess lived in a different state, but instead he saw Mia at work quite often and there was nothing he could do to change that at the moment. That fact alone made things far more complicated than they would otherwise be and Craig wasn’t handling it well at all, obviously. Perhaps after this mess he would get some sense and start to realize what steps he needed to take in order to feel more at ease about Jess.
He chuckled when she agreed with him. Even though they both joked about it, they knew that he was the one that was more likely to screw up simply because he didn’t always think about things before he did them. Besides that, he saw Mia as being a great mother. Sure, they’d both have their struggles, but he really did believe that she would be far more likely to know what to do in any given situation. It probably wasn’t too smart to depend on her too much, of course, but it would at least help give him a bit of confidence during the first few months after the baby’s birth. He made a face at her next comment before shrugging slightly. “Ok, but will you still love me if I become a zombie or something?” he joked, but attempted to keep a straight face as if it were a serious question. A grin appeared after only a few seconds, however. He couldn’t say he liked the idea at all, but he also didn’t quite understand everything that Mia would have to endure with the pregnancy. It would take some time, but hopefully he’d figure it out and with that he’d be more willing to do things once the baby was born. Mia would need a lot of rest, after all, so it was important for him to not underestimate just how much she had to deal with. It hardly mattered if he didn’t like to do something because he had just as much responsibility to that baby as Mia did.
A small nod was given when she responded about the whole Jess situation. It wouldn’t be easy, but he was going to try his best to make sure his jealousy didn’t interfere with their relationship too much and he hoped he wouldn’t feel the need to bring it up or make it a big deal when it wasn’t necessary. “Alright. That’s fair, I guess,” he agreed. He was feeling better about the matter, but that wasn’t a guarantee that it wouldn’t bug him in the future. Despite not having a lot of confidence that he’d be able to control his jealousy at all times, he knew that he had to. Maybe that meant taking a few minutes to himself every once and a while to think things through, but he’d figure it out. When Mia told him how she felt, he bit his lip slightly and felt a little more guilty than he had before. Obviously this wasn’t the type of thing anyone would want to deal with when they were sick and pregnant and Craig wasn’t helping her to get better by adding to the stress factor. “Sure thing. I think I owe you at least that much,” he said with a sheepish grin, knowing he would owe her more than that to make up for the fuss he caused, but he guessed that would do for now.
He started the car and headed back towards the house. It really made him feel bad knowing how far she had walked in the condition she was in after he had brought up the subject of Jess. Sure, maybe storming out had been a little extreme, but he had been stupid not to go after her right away and try to fix things. Of course, the only problem with that was that Craig wasn’t a very quick thinker so who knows what he might have said. It was likely he would have made things worse and made a scene on their driveway or wherever it happened to be, but he supposed there was no point in dwelling on any of that now. They had been able to talk things out and more or less resolve the situation. Craig did still owe Jess an apology, but the chances of that happening were rather slim. He may feel better now that he could assure himself that nothing was going on between Jess and Mia, but he couldn’t say he liked Jess any better at this point. But hey, miracles happen, right? Maybe someday Craig may actually be able to treat Jess with some sort of respect, at the very least.
Mia’s question had caught him a little off-guard. As much as he wanted to be a good parent, the idea of a class made him nearly cringe. He listened as she continued, but wasn’t yet sure of what he was going to say. He released a deep breath and stared at the road for a few moments in silence before glancing over at her. “I…umm…so that’s only like three classes, right?” he asked as he turned his gaze back to focus on the road. He turned onto their street and soon pulled up to the house, parking his car in the garage this time. “Yeah, I, uh, guess I could go,” he said finally after giving it some thought. It couldn’t be too bad, right? Craig had a rather poor attention span so even the idea of a parenting class just made him want to fall asleep. He had to make an effort, however, and this was a fairly small request in the grand scheme of things. Once they were in the house, Craig went to let Kerr outside before walking back over to Mia and putting her arms around her. “Mind if I join you for a nap?” he said with a smirk on his face. He really did feel he could use a nap, so he wasn’t trying to get in her pants for a change. Well, he did have enough sense not to ask for it when she was feeling as terrible as she was, so he supposed he couldn’t expect a medal for this one.
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Post by Mia Testardo on Jul 13, 2010 21:51:42 GMT -5
Though Mia would never voice her concerns to Craig, she was also very worried about her ability to be a mother to their child. Sure, maybe a lot of her fears weren’t exactly rational because most were stemming from the fact that her first child had died but she couldn’t help but put them blame of that onto her and let it follow her into this child as well. She knew she needed to calm down about that because the worrying wasn’t helping anybody, but it was harder than she thought it would be. She, however, really didn’t want to tell Craig about her worries because she knew that wouldn’t help him calm down at all, and because she didn’t need him to try and reassure her of something she already, in her right mind, knew. She knew there was nothing to worry about and that this pregnancy should go better than her last thanks to medical intervention and all that, but her logical mind wasn’t connecting with her feelings right now and that was a weird feeling for her. She normally had a firm handle on her emotions and there was a logical reason for her to feel the way she did, but not now and she couldn’t help but admit, and that scared her.
Mia giggled slightly when he spoke and she shook her head before pretending to think about his question. “Well, I suppose so, but only if you’ll still love me when I’m ugly and fat,” she said, raising a brow in his direction. That was something else she was worried about. She was wondering how hard it would be to lose the pregnancy weight after the birth and was still worried about what Craig would think of her body before it as well. Obviously, her main concern right now was not keeping toned for her boyfriend (not like it was normally, but she did think about it), but keeping the baby she was carrying safe and healthy, and that would mean gaining some weight and looking rather unattractive, at least in her opinion. Mia honestly didn’t quite get that Craig couldn’t see how hard this pregnancy was on her. She was still getting over the early symptoms, such as morning sickness and aches and general tiredness (well, right now she couldn’t be sure if that was from the pregnancy for the mono) and knew she was about ready to start feeling like a balloon with swollen feet and cravings for food she would normally find disgusting. And none of that even mentioned her hormones going insane. What was really bothering her was that she didn’t remember having any of these symptoms with her first pregnancy so this was just annoying. Either way, she hoped some of her misery would at least be apparent so Craig would know how hard things were for her right now and help out a bit, but she’d have to see.
She nodded once again when he said he owed her, giving him a look that could easily mean “obviously” as he started the car. As they drove she did pull out her phone and looked to Craig for a second, “Just so you know, I’m gonna text Jess, just to let him know everything’s all right,” she said, hopefully making it clear that she wasn’t asking his permission but instead tell him what was going to happen. She sent the text quickly before starting up the conversation about the classes, his response to which she was a little upset about. “Yeah, three,” she rolled her eyes before looking back at him, “Come on Craig, please? For me?” she asked, pushing dark hair from her face and looking at him with a slightly annoyed, yet slightly hopeful face. A part of her almost wanted to threaten asking Jess to go with her if he wouldn’t, but she had more sense than that, thankfully. When he finally said he would go Mia let out a deep sigh. “Thanks,” she said softly, “it means a lot, I really didn’t want to go alone,” she said, glancing up at him with a smirk before looking back down at her lap.
Back in their house Mia was about to tell him she was going to head back upstairs and see if she could get anymore sleep, but before she could Craig came up to her, which she allowed and let some of her weight lean against him. When he asked about the nap she smirked back at him, “Only if you can promise me it’ll only be a nap,” she said, her arms moving around his body and her fingers playing with his shirt. “Still not feeling well enough for anything else,” she said, quite matter-of-factly, but hoping he would already know that. She turned and, with a hand on his arm, encouraged him to follow her upstairs. She was still in pajamas and didn’t bother on changing as she climbed onto her side of the bed. Mia was quite strict about that, for whatever reason. Even if Craig wasn’t in bed with her she never moved past the center line, which she had to figure was nice for him. Once he had joined her in bed she moved over to him and rested her body against his for a second. “Hey, sorry for stomping out, by the way,” she said, moving her hand under his shirt just because she could. “I can’t really explain that one, but it seemed like a good idea at the time,” she tried to joke, ”blame your kid, I guess,” she said, now quieter as she closed her eyes and hoped for sleep to overcome her, but in the end couldn’t. She felt that the two of them hadn’t even had an actual conversation since she had gotten sick and did want to change that.
“It may be time to start thinking of names. Put any thought into it yet?” she said, gently taking his wrist in her hand and moving his hand to her stomach, placing hers on top of his. “And telling your parents,” she added in, glancing up at him to see what sort of reaction that was going to get from him. “I mean… I guess we’re kind’a out of the woods with all the problems in early pregnancy and all that and I don’t wanna wait too long,” she said, with a shrug as she looked back down. She did hope he would agree that it was about time to inform his family about her and his child and she was hoping more than anything that the meeting would go well. She really wanted a mother figure through all of this, someone she could call when she was confused or needed help or anything like that and she didn’t have anyone like that in her life, currently, so she did hope her baby’s grandmother may be able to fill the void ever-so-slightly, but she knew that also may be too much to hope for.
((sorry, couldn't help but post! lol))
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Post by Craig Blackwood on Jul 21, 2010 1:32:25 GMT -5
He couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at her response. Sure, Craig wasn’t entirely aware of to what degree Mia’s body would change, but he knew that wouldn’t change the way he felt. Before answering, he gave her a more serious look as he realized she may be rather self-conscious over the fact that her body was going to change. Normally Craig was oblivious to these things, but every once and a while he caught on. It certainly wasn’t something that should be expected though. “First of all, you could never be ugly. Second of all, when your belly starts getting big, it’ll just remind me of our baby and could only make me love you all the more,” he told her with a smile. It would probably bother him a bit at some point, especially when it made sex more difficult, but he wasn’t thinking about that now. She would still be the same person and he highly doubted she could ever look unattractive in his eyes. If he had gotten her pregnant more towards the beginning of their relationship, it was possible that he’d give into the temptations that surrounded him. Of course, it was also possible that he would have simply left her altogether with how selfish he had been in the past. Now, however, he just couldn’t imagine ever being with anyone else.
The idea of her communicating with Jess in any form still made him want to cringe, but his blood didn’t boil nearly as much at the sound of his name this time. That had to be a good sign, right? “Yeah..uh, okay,” he said, knowing very well that he didn’t have a choice in the matter. If he did, he’d probably forbid any communication between them whatsoever, but that was clearly a senseless thing to do. He wasn’t quite willing to make an effort to get along with Jess as of yet, but perhaps in a little while. Maybe if Jess got a little chubby and set an orphanage on fire? Yeah, maybe then Craig would feel a little better about the whole situation. Well, either that or Craig could work on the whole maturity thing. It was stupid to somehow thing he was still competing with Jess, even though she had chosen Craig and made it clear that she didn’t want to be with Jess. Hopefully after what happened that day he would cool off significantly when it came to the idea of Mia and her ex being co-workers, though it may take a while for it to fully sink in.
He smirked when she responded about the nap and nodded slightly. “Okay. I’ll be a good boy, I promise,” he assured her before dropping his arms from around her as she began to lead him upstairs. It was still disappointing to him to know there was no possibility of them fooling around, but he was willing to behave nonetheless. Once they were in the room, he removed his shoes and socks before climbing into bed with Mia. He preferred not to sleep with anything on besides his boxers, but right now he figured it just made things easier if he had more clothing on. He wrapped his arms around her lightly when she moved closer to him. When she spoke about storming out earlier, he shrugged his shoulders slightly. “That’s okay. I’m sorry for being an idiot and looking through your phone,” he replied, remembering that he hadn’t yet apologized for doing so. He clearly had no right to do so, especially when he had no reason not to trust her.
Now that she mentioned it, Craig realized that he hadn’t given much thought to names at all. He was too busy worrying about his skills as a father. He shook his head in response to the question. He figured she would have better ideas than he would since he wasn’t exactly the more creative one between the two of them, but before he could ask she told him about her next idea. He looked at her in a way that indicated he was a bit worried about it. He hadn’t been giving it much thought, but he did know that he would have to face it eventually. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure how his parents would react. He guessed they would be little upset about the fact that he had never told them about Mia after dating her for over a year, but he didn’t see how they could be too upset about getting her pregnant after his parents had done the same thing when they were in college. He sighed and nodded to show that he agreed before thinking of what to say. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’ll try to figure something out soon. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind flying out here since I haven’t seen them in so long,” he told her as he thought of the possible scenarios for the meeting.
He was a little hesitant to ask his next question, but he was curious and he figured it would be a good thing to know. “So, umm…were you planning on telling your grandparents, or…?” he asked, unsure of what her reaction would be. She had mentioned before that her grandparents wouldn’t be happy with the fact and was unsure if it was wise to tell them at all. Craig thought it would be best to tell them in case they happened to meet sometime in the future, but he obviously didn’t know much about her grandparents so it was difficult to know what would work out the best for everyone. “I mean, whatever you want to do is fine with me,” he added, making sure she knew he wasn’t going to pressure her into telling them if she really didn’t think it was a good idea.
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Post by Mia Testardo on Jul 27, 2010 10:51:33 GMT -5
When Craig responded to her concerns about her appearance she smirked and shook her head slightly, but in the end did place her hand on his knee and smiled at him. Did she really believe him? She wasn’t sure, it sounded a little farfetched to her, especially after he had just made her worry that he wanted nothing to do with the baby. That being said, after he said something so sweet, she couldn’t sit there and try to prove he was lying to her, that wouldn’t be right, so she just had to hope and trust that he was truthful in what he said. She wouldn’t be nearly as worried about this is they had planned the pregnancy, because Craig would then know what he was getting himself into when it came to the changes in her body, but know she felt that instead of also being thrown into the idea of having a child he was also thrown into the idea that his child was going to cause his girlfriend’s young looks to fade. It also didn’t help that he was so gorgeous. She knew he could get any woman he wanted at least for a one night stand so that worried her to. Sure, it had been almost a year since he had been unfaithful to her and he hadn’t shown any want to do it again, but it also wasn’t something she easily forgot.
“Yeah, don’t do that again,” she teased, but was of course serious, about her phone, as she remembered it and turned over to place it on the bedside table on her side of the bed but then cuddled back up to her boyfriend, her face lightly pressed into his chest. She had been hoping Craig had been thinking about names, but wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t been. She hadn’t been intentionally looking either, just more hearing a name on the street or seeing it signed on the restaurant bill and thinking “oh, that wouldn’t be a bad name” or “ew, that’s rather unfortunate” but beyond that, names hadn’t been in the forefront of her mind. She figured she would look more closely when they knew the sex of the baby, which they could figure out soon from what she understood, as long as Craig wanted to know of course. If not she figured they would have to narrow it down to two, and they’d also have to talk about what the child’s last name should be too, but she figured that conversation could be saved for later, when she had more of a voice and wasn’t about to fall asleep.
Mia bit her lip when she saw the look on his face after his parents were mentioned, but it soon grew into a small as he agreed with her. She gently ran a hand through his short hair and kiss his neck a few times as he spoke, but when he finished she pulled away with a slightly confused look on her face. “What?” she said softly, pulling her head back onto the pillow, “I… I guessed I always assumed they lived closer than that,” she said, a slightly giggle in her voice as she shrugged her shoulders. Pasadena was a very large place so it wasn’t hard for two people to live there and never see each other, as it was with Mia and her grandparents. For some reason she just assumed Craig hadn’t gone too far away from home, but apparently she was wrong. They didn’t talk about his family too much, probably because she didn’t have much of a family to talk about so the conversation always turned into something very one-sided, so wasn’t much of a conversation at all.
“But yeah, sooner rather than later… at least I’d prefer that,” she encouraged, still forcing a small smile. “Maybe invite them over for my birthday or something… I don’t know,” she said, making it obvious she was just throwing out any ideas that popped into her head and that she wasn’t really set on any of them. Right when she was about ready to go to sleep Craig had to bring up another subject, and this one wasn’t one Mia was exactly happy about. When he asked she looked at him and bit her lip before looking sheepishly away and running a hand through her still very messy hair. “I um…” she started, moving back so her face was pushed into his face. “I don’t know yet,” she finally admitted. “I just… I really don’t need the lecture yet again, which I know I’d get and then there’s the fact that we’re living together and… I don’t know,” she finish, with a deep sigh. “I uh… maybe I’ll call them when they shouldn’t be around and leave a message so they can contact me if they want… I’m not sure what I want to do yet,” she admitted, with a small shrug of her shoulders, to make sure she wouldn’t shoulder him in the chin, that wouldn’t be fun for the poor guy.
Mia was about ready to go to sleep when she heard a text message come in. She sighed deeply and turned around again to check it, just in case it was important. When looking on the screen she realized it was Jess and sighed deeply before pressing a few buttons to read it. Her face immediately twisted into one of completely confusion. “Wha…” she said softly before shaking her head and flipping the phone open to respond. It was a fairly quick message, and one she typed out with meaning before sending it and flipping her phone closed again and setting it on the table once again, now convinced she wasn’t going to touch it again until after her nap. She looked up at Craig with a slight smirk over her face, but she was having trouble trying to make it appear as though she wasn’t upset. She did hope he wouldn’t ask, but she also knew that there was a possibility that he would and then her nap would have to be put off once again, which wasn’t something she was looking forward to.
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Post by Craig Blackwood on Aug 6, 2010 0:12:01 GMT -5
It was difficult to tell whether Craig was attempting to tell Mia what he thought she wanted to hear or if he was being truly sincere about what he said concerning the expected changes to her body. If he was guilty of anything it would be underestimating just how many changes to expect, so he really was being honest with his words. He couldn’t blame her for doubting him a little bit because he would admit that he didn’t know exactly what to expect. However, he did know that he could never be repulsed by her or anything like that and he couldn’t imagine any of those changes affecting the way he felt about her. The baby itself still scared the shit out of him, but he was doing his best to look at the positive pieces of the puzzle. It was only scary because he didn’t know what to do or what to expect, but that was something he could easily change, especially if he went to those parenting classes with Mia. Mia would have to do the reading as far as parenting books went or anything like that because, well, Craig hadn’t picked up a book since college and he planned to keep it that way. All of his information would come from online sources, if anything at this point and that would only be for quick references.
He smirked slightly when she confirmed the idea that he wouldn’t be touching her phone again. He still felt bad about it, especially when he was able to put himself in her shoes. If she started looking through his phone and reading his texts, yeah, he’d be pissed too. Sure, he wouldn’t exactly storm out and walk to the next familiar place, but he wasn’t the one who was pregnant either. Craig was fairly oblivious to the fact that Mia wanted so badly to fall asleep, so he decided to keep the conversation going more or less for the sake of curing his own boredom. He wasn’t all that tired, after all. He chuckled a little at her response, shaking his head slightly. “Naw, they were in New York for a while, but recently moved to a city just outside of Chicago…god, I can’t even remember the name of it,” he said as he let out a small laugh, amused by the fact that he couldn’t remember the exact place his parents had lived. “Obviously I haven’t visited them in a while, but I can’t see why they couldn’t find time to visit. I’m sure they’ll love you,” he said with a smile. His father would be a little skeptical, he knew, especially since there was still a bit of bitterness between them from all the trouble Craig had caused his parents throughout his childhood. There was a possibility that his father would view this as Craig’s latest screw up, but he would just have to hope for the best.
A nod was given as she said she preferred it to be sooner rather than later. He agreed with that since he knew that he would end up putting it off if Mia didn’t make it clear that she didn’t want to wait too long to meet them. “Okay. I’ll call them tonight,” he told her. “But is that something you want to deal with on your birthday?” he asked, knowing that meeting his parents would be stressful no matter what happened that day, and if it went badly? That would hardly be considered a good birthday. He knew she wasn’t set on the idea, but he figured he would mention something before she gave it any more thought. He didn’t know how his parents would react exactly and he wasn’t even sure how to go about telling them yet. It had crossed his mind that he would tell them by himself after they had met Mia so that he had a chance to explain the situation without having Mia feel too overwhelmed. Of course, in the end it would come down to whatever they agreed on and he wanted to make sure he didn’t end up doing something that would upset Mia. She had enough to deal with at this point.
He gave her a slightly confused look when she mentioned them living together. That clearly wasn’t something Craig considered to be wrong and he didn’t realize why other people did. “What’s wrong with living together?” he decided to ask, since he really had no clue what the reasons for the objections were. He let her finish before giving another nod. “Okay. Just let me know if you need any help with that,” he offered, though he wasn’t entirely sure what he could do. From what she had told him thus far, he didn’t imagine her grandparents would be too excited to see or talk to the man who had knocked up their granddaughter. He was really starting to doubt whether or not anyone would really be understanding of their situation, even if they told people how they felt about one another. Who would believe them, especially those who knew Craig and his past? Somehow the former player with commitment issues wasn’t believable as a man who was currently in love and prepared to father an unexpected child.
Craig was ready to attempt some sleep once they got those things cleared up, but that was before he heard Mia’s phone make a sound that indicated she received a text message. He didn’t think too much of it, though he was still hoping that it wasn’t Jess that was texting her. He noticed her shake her head and start to speak, which had him immediately curious. When she turned back to him without saying anything about it, that made him slightly suspicious. Was it something she didn’t want him to know or was it something she simply didn’t want to talk about at the moment? Either way was possible and the latter did make sense with how tired she was now. However, he couldn’t help but to ask. “Are you okay? What did the text say?” he said, trying his best not to sound too concerned about what it said, but rather was just a little curious and knew it wasn’t just a simple ‘hello’ from a friend. He didn’t want her to think that he was ready to accuse her of anything again because he knew better than that by now, but he still felt it was something he might want to know after what had happened that day.
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Post by Mia Testardo on Aug 11, 2010 17:25:59 GMT -5
Mia was really hoping that Craig would be able to have his maturity grow when it came to the child. She was wondering, at this point, whether he really understood that this child was his as much as it was hers and she was going to expect him to do just as much work as she did, including problem solving. She just needed him to realize that after this baby was born he was going to have eighteen years of responsibility for the child and that, even if they broke up, she would be in his life at least until the child was off to school. This wasn’t just something that had to be dealt with for nine months or three years, this was an accident that was going to affect the rest of both of their lives and rather he had come to terms with that yet, she didn’t know. She knew she was having trouble thinking that in fifteen years she’d have a high schooler in her house, but she was also hoping that she would be prepared for that when the time came as well. Now she figured it was best to just worry about the present and with her history with children, that was probably all that was needed at the moment.
“Oh,” was all she said when Craig started to explain where his parents lived. “My grandparents live in the area, unless they moved, so I guess that’s why I never really thought about it,” she said with a slight shrug as she moved closer to Craig, hoping he’s hold her tighter. She was glad he hadn’t yet gotten to a point where he was insanely gentle with her in fear of hurting the child or whatever else. That would be no fun for her. She wasn’t going to say it out loud, but she did wish they lived closer now that she knew they were quite a distance away. She was actually thinking that she wanted his mother with her in the delivery room, just a female who knew what she was going through would be nice, but now it didn’t look like that was a possibility unless they wanted to spend a few weeks around her due date in California with them, which she would never ask them to do. Mia gave him a little smile when he spoke of his parents loving her before something came to the forefront of her mind. “Will the age difference bother them at all?” she asked, glancing towards his eyes with a small smile. They were just over four years apart, which wasn’t that large of a gap by all means, but since they were so young she couldn’t help but wonder and she knew they were high school sweethearts so she would think that they didn’t have much of an age gap at all, but what did she know?
When her birthday came back into the conversation she just shrugged and scrunched up her nose slightly. “Just another day,” she stated, almost as if in passing. “I mean, yay, I’m turning twenty,” she joked. Yeah, twenty wasn’t too exciting of a birthday. Now if she had been turning twenty-one (and wasn’t pregnant, of course) she would probably want to avoid his parents being around that night. Though she had to admit, she wasn’t sure if she would really drink too much. Before she was pregnant with Lucas she had been one to drink quite often, but ever since the most she ever had was a sip of whatever Craig was drinking at the time (which she was even avoiding now) and wasn’t sure if she was going to start up again because she was legal, but she had a year to figure that out. “Besides, I can always have you lick me out or something that night, that would make any birthday pretty good,” she teased, her hand running gently up his shirt as she did.
She knew that, no matter what, meeting his parents would be a stressful situation. She just hoped she could stay relaxed enough to not harm the baby in any way. She actually found it almost funny that so many people said that expectant mothers needed to relax, but the most stressful times of Mia’s life had been when she was pregnant. Sure, it would have helped if they would have thought about telling his parents about her long before so she didn’t have to meet them at the same time she had to inform them they were going to be grandparents, but even telling Craig she was pregnant was quite a stressful situation. Then again, she supposed that when the pregnancy was wanted and expected none of this was a big deal.
Mia’s head jerked up when Craig asked his next question and she gave him a very confused look. “We’re not married,” was all she could think to say right away, figuring that would be enough. Maybe it was just because she had grown up in a religious family but it seemed fairly obvious to her. “My grandparents would rather I didn’t even kiss you before we tied the knot, and absolutely no sex because that’s strictly reserved for marriage and living together means sex and…” she shrugged slightly, not finishing what she was going to say and went back to resting her head against him. Honestly, she wasn’t entirely sure why living together was so wrong either, except for the fact that it often meant the parties involved weren’t exactly celibate. She nodded when he offered his help, but was with him when she realized she wasn’t sure what he could do, unless her grandparents agreed to be part of her life again if they met her and her child’s father at a church service and she needed him to actually dress up for a change.
“Yeah, of course,” she answered when he asked if she was okay. “It was… uh…” she paused for a second, trying to decide how to put with without Craig getting too upset, if he would get upset at all. “It was just Jess, asking… uh, asking if I was sure the baby was yours,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Yes, I am sure, by the way, but you already know that,” she said with a slight glare in her eyes. Craig had been to every doctor’s appointment so he knew how far along in the pregnancy she was and he also better know that she would never be unfaithful. It was after she said this that her phone went off again and, for the last time, she reached over to get it. She flipped it open and read the text quickly before turning the phone so he could look at it. “I just told him I wasn’t even four months yet, and not to tell anyone,” she tagged onto the end. The text read, “ok sry had to ask. i wont glad ur ok”, short and sweet but she knew he was working at the moment so shouldn’t really be texting either way. Once she was sure Craig had read what was there she closed the phone again and set it back on the table, not bothering with a response. “See, nothing to worry about,” she said softly, reaching up and giving his lips a soft kiss. “I’d never cheat on you,” she said, very matter-of-factly, finally turning over and cuddling as if to say she wanted to sleep. “I just… have I done something to make you think I would?” she finally asked, not able to stop herself. “I don’t want you even worried about it,” she said, her arms wrapping around his body and her lips finding his neck for a new moments as he answered.
((hope I gave ya something to work with =]))
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Post by Craig Blackwood on Aug 16, 2010 1:14:38 GMT -5
There was a good possibility that Craig would experience a series of mental breakdowns when it came to the baby. He was just beginning to grasp the idea of being a father, so he hadn’t even had a chance to think about the other elements that went into it. Once he started to realize those other things, it would most certainly freak him out, but most likely not to the extent where it would become any major issue. He was committed; he knew that much, so coming across new realizations could hardly be enough to faze him too much. At least, they could only hope. Right now he was focusing on simply getting used to the idea that Mia was pregnant and then there was the fact that they would have to tell his parents sometime in the near future. He wasn’t sure whether to look forward to that or not. It had been a long while since he had spoken to either of his parents, let alone seen them in person. There was no doubt they would be a little curious about what was going on his life and would perhaps even be delighted to find out he was dating someone seriously. The baby, however, wasn’t something he would expect any parent to be entirely happy about at this stage of their relationship.
He nodded slightly and gave a small shrug of his own in response to her comment. He hadn’t realized how little he talked about his parents until recently. They just…hadn’t really come into the picture until now. Sure, it would have been smart to tell them he had a girlfriend before things got to this point, but he hadn’t been at all used to telling his parents about girlfriends. It would be far too often an update, given his past, so he supposed he wanted to make sure things with Mia would stick before telling them. They had gone through some rough times, after all. He still wished he would have been able to tell them sooner. Hell, maybe even a bit of relationship advice from either of his parents would have helped him out a bit. It still baffled him a little that she was still with him, but he supposed that only helped him not take her for granted.
His head jerked towards her as she asked about the age difference. It wasn’t something he had really taken the time to think about. He took a few seconds to consider it, then shrugged. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I would guess not, given that you’re not just some college freshman that I hooked up with,” he told her, now considering the age difference for himself. It had never really bothered him too much, most likely due to the fact that Mia was more mature than a lot of women her age. “They might have a lot of prejudgments based on, well, what they know about me at this point,” he said as he realized that he was slightly ashamed of himself for creating the reputation he had. It was odd, considering how proud he had once been of that very same reputation. “In other words, you can just blame me for any assumptions they make about you,” he added with a small smile, hoping that somehow it would help for her to know that those judgments wouldn’t necessarily be based on anything she did. Of course, it probably wasn’t too great of a feeling knowing that those judgments could be there in the first place.
When she downplayed the thought of her birthday, he gave a small chuckle and hugged her a bit tighter for a moment. He made a mental note to make her birthday something she would enjoy and would be able to look future in the years after. He understood that birthdays probably weren’t much to be excited about when she was homeless and struggling just to get food and a place to stay for the night. Craig would admit he was rather spoiled when it came to most of his birthdays, so he couldn’t really complain. What he could do was think of something elaborate and special for her, though he wasn’t sure if she would like him making a fuss over her twentieth birthday. It wasn’t a big milestone or anything, but it was her birthday nonetheless. His thoughts were interrupted as she mentioned licking her out, which he had to admit made his lower half a little anxious. “You know better than to put those thoughts in my head right now,” he said, pretending to be angry, though it was obvious he couldn’t be further from it. “But I can definitely put that on the list of things to do that day,” he agreed with a smirk and tried not to let his thoughts wander too far in that direction.
Craig was clearly clueless about the why some people out there didn’t agree with the idea of people living together outside of marriage. When she gave him a confused look, he, too, was a bit confused. When she explained, he felt himself tense a slight bit. The thought of not having sex for that long was a strange thing for a guy who had a hard time going a month without it. Ok, so sex wasn’t everything, but he had focused far too much on it for a good portion of his life and so he couldn’t easily imagine going without it until he married the woman he was with. “Okay,” was all he could say, since he clearly didn’t fully understand it. He figured he wouldn’t have to unless he met her grandparents someday and based on what she had just told him, he wasn’t exactly rooting for that to happen.
He couldn’t help but be a little frustrated with what Jess had asked Mia. Okay, maybe frustrated didn’t quite cover it since punching the guy in the nose didn’t sound like a terrible idea at that moment. He didn’t say anything for a moment, but did have a baffled look on his face. What the hell kind of question was that? “And what if it wasn’t? I’d say he’s trying to steal you back,” he said with a small laugh, indicating how ridiculous the idea was to him. Of course, Craig’s jealous nature was still apparent, but not near what it had been earlier. He glanced at the text as she showed him and suddenly felt a little guilty for the fact that she even bothered to show him. He really had made it seem as though he didn’t trust her, didn’t he? Idiot. His eyes were cast downward as she told him she’d never cheat, which just made him feel worse. Of course he knew she wouldn’t, so why had he made such a fuss about the Jess thing? Jess was the one he didn’t trust. He wrapped his arms around her when she cuddled next to him. “I know you wouldn’t,” he said quietly. “And no, of course not. I feel like an idiot for making you think that. I’m sorry,” he added honestly. There were still plenty of things he needed to work out concerning the whole Jess thing, but he hoped he’d be able to figure it out on his own rather than taking it out on Mia.
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Post by Mia Testardo on Aug 20, 2010 19:40:08 GMT -5
Mia, personally, got relationship advice from anyone who would be willing to give it. That by no means meant she would apply it all, but she liked to hear how others would respond to the same situation. Craig was her first relationship, more or less, and she hadn’t really been happy with the ways things worked between her and Jess so having someone tell her what they thought she should do was helpful. She had been getting this advice from anyone who would listen to her problems since she was willing to tell them she was in a relationship and so far it seemed to be working for her. Sure, there were times when she messed up, like she wasn’t exactly happy with herself for withholding sex for as long as she did after he had cheated on her and that time she had tried to make him jealous while they were at a club still haunted her (though it may have had the desired effect if Craig wasn’t such the jealous type in the first place) but generally things worked out well.
“College sophomore,” she corrected in quite a teasing voice. If she had gone to college right after high school, as most people did, she would be a sophomore, so she felt the need to emphasize that for whatever reason. Before she had gotten pregnant Mia had been planning on going back to school in the near future. She had been saving up money and things had been looking good for her. She was on the fence between a nurse or an elementary school teacher and was getting quite excited about her plans when the pregnancy test came back positive. Now she knew she would have to put off schooling for a little while longer once again. However, she had decided that if she was ever put on bed rest she would start a few online courses just to get started, and give her something to do. That had been one of the hardest things about finding out she was pregnant. She was finally at a point in her life when she was able to keep her head above water and was almost ready to start swimming only to have something push her back again. She knew she could never regret the child once he or she was born, but she did wish the timing had been a little better and fit into her plans for life a little more.
When Craig spoke of the assumptions that might be made about her Mia bit her lip slightly. She hadn’t even thought about that yet and now that he brought it to the forefront of her mind she had to admit she was very worried about it. Sure, they would know nothing about her, but the assumptions that were made about her through what they knew about their son would pretty much be correct. She hated when the term was put onto her by someone else, but she had been a slut when she and Craig had met. Hell, she had basically been prostituting herself for a place to sleep at night, which wasn’t exactly model girlfriend, or mother by all means, behavior. Of course she wasn’t like that anymore. She did still have sex, of course, but with one man. She may party late, but with her girlfriends, or Craig of course, but was now smart about it and, most of all, she had a job and could support herself if she needed to. Okay, fine, she would need a roommate in order to pay for an apartment without dipping into her savings, but roommates were fairly easy to find, especially with all the college students around town. She was doing much better with her life now, aside from being pregnant for the second time at nineteen, and she hated the idea that someone may put her old titles back on her because they thought they knew her boyfriend.
Mia giggled when the conversation about her birthday continued and shook her head slightly. “Hey, if that’s all you wanted to do you are more than welcome anytime,” she teased, running the tips of her fingers over his chest in an attempt to tickle him. Generally such a treat from him was followed by expected reciprocation, which she understood, she expected the same, but she did believe they had both agreed to bend such rules on either of their birthdays. Though talking about sex had become very easy with Craig, and something that was fairly common between them and she knew made their sex life better, she could still never imagine ever being able to even bring up the idea to her grandparents, which also had to do with why she didn’t quite understand their views on sex and living together. Sure, she had gone to church and tried her hardest to pay attention, but it was never really spelled out for her or explained except as “you shouldn’t do it” and that didn’t help a rebellious teenager, by all means.
“It might be time to stop calling our baby ‘it’,” Mia said, not defensively at all, because she knew she had been doing the same since the day she had discovered the pregnancy but she was starting to connect the child inside of her as a little human so did start feeling that it may be the wrong term. “If he is he’s going about it pretty poorly. Besides, I would think he would realize that, if I had been six months, he would have known about it before today,” she teased, knowing that in a little over two months she would have a nice baby bump going on. She figured it would be nice to mention that to Craig just because she felt it made Jess a little less creditable. She did, however, think that Jess had a right to ask the question. He had every right to want to know if there was a baby in the world that was his, after all.
Mia gave a small smile when Craig apologized and cuddled up against him, pushing her face into his chest as she often did. “Thanks, babe,” was all she said before letting out a deep breath and forcing herself to relax. Her throat and head were killing her by now and her whole body felt weak and she was just ready for that nap she had planned for at least an hour earlier. Reaching up once last time she gave Craig a short kiss. “I’m gonna sleep now, I can’t keep my eyes open,” she admitted, a little sheepishly. And with that closed her eyes and was slowly able to let herself drift into a fairly restful sleep.
[end thread]
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