Today doesn't suck

"Good plan," Claire said. There was no fucking way in hell that Claire would let Julie marry Kaiden anyway, baby or no baby.

"You wait until Keiran's ready, then you marry him," she said, smiling. She was so happy that Julie and Keiran were back together.

Julie actually smiled. Claire helped her remember that the future wasn't as bleak as it had seemed. It was just the near future that was scary...but maybe some of it would also be kind of exciting. Like finding out the baby's gender, or choosing a name, things like that.

"Thanks Claire," Julie told her, giving her a hug. Claire was such a good friend. "I'm sorry I kept it a secret from you."

Speaking of keeping secrets from people she shouldn't. "I'm afraid to tell my parents."

"Eh," she shrugged, "Don't worry about it." The jealousy had left after she and Julie had talked for a little while.

"And don't worry about your parents, they're very understanding. I mean, your dad might want to kill Kaiden, but what's so bad about that?"

"They're not that understanding," Julie said in a complaining sort of voice. "Especially my dad. He sets like, these insane moral standards that he expects me to live up to. Like I'm supposed to be perfect or something, and never do anything wrong in my life. He's gonna freak out when he finds out about this baby." Especially considering the circumstances surrounding its conception.

"Well, he's going to have to live with it. Plus, I've seen him with kids, Julie. Once it's born, he'll fall in total love. It'll be the best thing ever to him," she assured her.

"Well...that's true," Julie replied honestly. Still, that wouldn't be till after it was born. Until then...ugh, Julie didn't even want to think about it. "Still, him and my brothers are probably gonna want to kill Kaiden. Not that it'll be much of a loss if they do." Kaiden was frikkin lucky Julie didn't plan on telling them who he was. D= Why was she so nice to him when he totally deserved worse?

"When do you plan on telling them?" Claire asked. "Or are you waiting till they can just guess?" Claire knew it would be best if she just came out and told them, but she wasn't going to pressure Julie into doing anything. Plus she trusted Julie to do what she thought was best.

"I plan on telling them, if I'm ever brave enough to," Julie replied, frowning. She didn't know when that would be though. Every time she thought of telling them, she'd chicken out at the last second and make something else up. "By the time that happens, they'll probably have guessed though."

She looked at Claire. "I wonder how long it'll take before I start to show. Do you have any idea how long it normally is?"

Mom took about three months when she had Dayton, but it'll probably be longer for you since you're a first time mom."

Woah. Mom. Julie was going to be a mother...

Three months or a little longer. Four maybe? She was at like a month and a half. That kind of gave her a while to prepare, she supposed. D= And then she'd get fat. And then there would be no way to hide it from everyone. She looked down and put her hand on her tummy. It was so weird to think there was a baby in there. Insane.

"Thanks for making me feel a little better," she told Claire, looking back up at her. She offered her a small smile to show she really did feel slightly better.

Claire returned Julie's smile, though it was a little bigger. "You aren't alone in this, Julie," she said. I mean, sure, Julie had to deal with a lot of things that they couldn't help her with, but whatever they could do to make things easier, Lily, Keiran, and Claire would totally do.

"I know I'm not," Julie replied, even though she kinda felt like she was. Her and Claire sat there in silence for a while, both deep in thought, until another subject came up and they began to talk about something else, to Julie's slight relief. She needed a break from thinking about the baby.

END