Chapter 41- Not The American Average

After finishing our ice cream, we stayed at the park until almost five. When I walked through the door of our house, the smell of pastrami wafted towards me. Noah ran from the kitchen, 'Mommy!' she giggled and jumped into my arms. I laughed and hugged her. She wiggled out of my arms, 'We're making pasghetti!' I took off my jacket and hung it on the coat rack.
'You mean pastrami?' I smiled and let her yank me into the kitchen. 'Hey, Eli,' I acknowledged.
He was at the stove stirring the mac 'n' cheese. 'Hey, sis,' he looked at me and then noticed Nick who was rounding the corner. 'Nick.'
'Eli,' Nick nodded.
'Where's everybody else?' I asked wanting everybody to be here when I broke the news.
'Kitty and Nadia are in their room,' he wiggled his eyebrows.
I squeezed my eyes shut, 'Ohmygod, I don't even wanna know. What about James?'
He rolled his eyes and turned it back to the food, 'Kitty said he had a double shift or something.' My shoulders sunk slightly in disappointment, he noticed. 'I invited Raven over for dinner, she should be here in a few minutes.'
Well at least I'd be able to tell her the same time I told everybody else. 'Cool, um..' I looked over at Nick, who nodded approvingly. 'I need to talk to everyone before dinner.'
Eli shot his head up, 'Why?' He glared between Nick and I for a moment.
'You'll see.' Without another word, I went to my room. Checking the time on my alarm clock, it was 5:26. I fell onto my bed, mashing my face into the pillow. 'I can't do this.'
Somebody shut the door and I felt the pressure of them sitting next to me, 'Yes you can. I'll be right there with you,' Nick soothed.
I turned over and felt my stomach. There was something living in there, and I had no idea until now. Everybody said being pregnant was supposed to be a beautiful thing. I felt dirty and scared. 'What if they get angry when I tell them?'
'Why would they get angry at you?'
'Cuz of who the father is or that I'm too young.'
Nick laid next to me, leaning on his elbow. 'These are your friends, Alice. They love and care for you, there is no way that they wouldn't act the exact same way I did.' He lifted my shirt to expose my stomach, I closed my eyes as he traced patterns on my tummy. 'This baby, is going to grow up around people who would treat her as if she were family to them.'
I sighed in content as he continued to speak softly to me of how everything was going to be perfect once the baby was born. He made up cute stories of how Noah would try her best to be a big sister, sharing her dolls and letting her borrow her favorite stuffed animal if the baby were ever to have a bad dream. After a few minutes of talk of the future, the door opened suddenly.
I jumped up, knocking Nick to the floor. Eli stood in the doorway, frozen. My shirt was still half up which probably looked pretty bad. 'Dinner's ready,' he growled and stomped out.
He really was trying so hard to make me happy, normally he probably would have beat the s**t out of both of us. I almost smiled as I helped Nick off the floor. 'Sorry,' I said.
'That's okay, you think he's mad?'
I nodded and we started towards the dining room, 'Ooohh yeah.' As we walked through the hall and into the view of the dining room I noticed that everybody was here except for James. I felt guilty that he wasn't gonna know until later. I stood by the table, 'Um, could everybody go to the living room? I have something to announce.' I didn't want Eli to knock over the food when he tried to hit me.
Everyone looked at me questioningly before travelling to the living room. I knew I was visibly shaking and that that might seem as if I had done something wrong. Which I kinda did, I was worried about what Raven might do if I told her that her boyfriend was a soon-to-be father.
From what I could tell nobody knew what was going on. Kitty, Nadia, and Noah sat on the couch, while Raven sat comfortably on Eli's lap on the lazyboy chair. Nick sat next to Kitty on the arm of the couch with his arms crossed. He nodded, signaling I should spill the beans.
I rubbed my hands together and swung them at my side, trying to calm myself. After a moment of trying to slow down my breathing, I cleared my throat and spoke up. 'I just wanted to inform you guys on something that's been going on...' Eli looked like his ear were blowing with steam. I gulped and continued, 'I'm pregnant.' I closed my eyes and waited for a reaction.
Apparently my saying it bluntly had made things worse. Almost all of them at once said, 'WHAT?!'
Then the real questions started bombarding me, 'How?!'
'Who's the father?!'
'When did you find this out?!'
'What's pregnant?'
Eli was the only one who kept quiet. He was glaring at Nick, who looked at him questioningly. 'What?' he asked. Then, before I could even blink, Eli had pushed Raven off his lap and was on top of Nick. He couldn't really get a hit in because Nick had his arms up, blocking the punches.
I ran towards the fight to try and seperate it. Nadia and Raven got Eli off of Nick and I helped him to his feet. 'I'm going to beat your f*****g a*s, Nicolas!'
'What the f**k is your problem?!' Nick yelled, wiping blood off his chin.
I walked towards Eli trying to calm him down, 'Eli, settle down. Let's talk about thi-'
Before I knew it, he freed his arm from Raven's grip and backhanded me. I fell against the coffee table and onto the floor. For a moment, all I could see were pulsating black dots everywhere. When everything cleared, I realized that Nick and Eli were on the floor, fighting each other. Noah was screaming, Kitty was staring in horror, Raven was trying to comfort Nadia, who had a bloody nose.
'Kitty!' I yelled over the curses from Nick and Eli and crying from Noah. She looked over at me, with glassy eyes. 'Take Noah to her room!' She nodded and quickly picked up Noah and ran into the hall. 'Raven,' I got her attention and motioned towards the boys. We both ran over and tried to seperate them, but it was no use. The only things we accomplished was getting rolled over and kicked in the shins.
We tried yelling at them next, each calling the other boys name. After a few seconds of that, Nadia tried to help us seperate them again. But since they both wanted to fight instead of just one of them, it was more difficult to stop. It was easier to stop them in the car when all I had to do was push them against the doors by their balls.
Just then, the front door was slung open and Austin was there. 'Help us seperate them,' I begged. He nodded and helped Raven pull Eli back while Nadia and I yanked Nick away. They struggled to get at each other still. I stood in front of Nick and brought his face down to mine to get him to look at me. When he looked down, he completely stopped and relaxed, 'Settle down,' I told him sternly and he nodded.
I turned back to Eli who looked like he was trying harder to get at Nick. 'Dude!' Austin yelled, 'What the f**k is your problem?!'
Apparently registering that the voice was his best friends, he stopped. Snapping his head in Austin's direction, he yanked his arms away from him. 'Where the f**k have you been?!'
'What's your problem?' Austin asked again.
'My problem, is that f****r over there,' he pointed at Nick. 'He fucked my little sister and now she's f*****g pregnant!'
'That's why you were at the hospital today?' Austin looked at me, seeming completely broken-hearted.
I shook my head, walking over to him, 'No, it's not like tha-'
Once again I was interrupted by a slap to the face by Eli. At least I didn't fall this time. 'Alice!' Nadia warned.
I turned towards her to see her struggling to hold Nick back. I walked over to Nick and held his face in my hands. 'Nick, look at me,' he did. 'Look, see? I'm fine, it's okay.' He brought his hand to my face and came back with blood from my lip. 'I'll be fine, Nick. I promise, just please stop trying to fight Eli. You're making his harder for me.'
'What do you expect me to do when he hits you? Stand there?'
'Yes. Just please, Nick. For me?'
He sighed and nodded.
I turned towards Raven, Austin, and Eli. 'It's not Nick's... it's yours, Eli.' I looked down, very aware of the disbelieving look I got from Austin.