optional soundtrack: “If It Makes You Happy” by Sheryl Crow
Heidi stepped out of her junky car and into the biting cold air of late February. Everything seemed colder back in her hometown of Lansing. Perhaps she had just gotten too used to the urban heat complex of Kimball Station. Or maybe it was something else.
The door of the triplex’s leftmost unit swung open, her nephews walking out into the yard in shock.
“Aunt Heidi?”
"How are my favorite little dudes?" Heidi said, Peyton begging to be swung around. "Damn kid, you're not so little anymore! You're almost as tall as me!"
“Oh man, you finally made it!” Logan yelled out, jumping up on her with a big hug. “Mom's not gonna believe this!”
"Happy birthday, kiddo! Sorry I'm late!"
Logan motioned for his aunt to follow him into the house.
"Auntie, check it out! We got a new TV for dad's birthday last month--"
"Shhhh Peyton! You're gonna ruin the surprise!"
"--and now me and Logan have the old TV--"
"Can y'all please move? I'm trying to watch this match!"
"--and we can play all our games on it whenever we want!" Peyton yelled.
Chelsea turned around. "Oh my god, it's Aunt Heidi! Mom! It's Aunt Heidi! Mom was saying you weren’t going to stop by!”
Heidi's nephews corralled her into the kitchen.
And there was her big sister Gretchen, surprise in her eyes and a cake pan in her hands. Heidi felt like she was seven years old again, in trouble, and completely ignorant of what she had done to deserve this ire.
"Hey," Heidi said softly. "I brought a present!"
Gretchen stared blankly at her. Heidi ignored Peyton yelling “come upstairs!”
“Are Mom and Dad here?” Heidi asked.
“No,” Gretchen said, her voice sharp as she turned away. “They left around nine.”
“You don’t have to--”
“Just spit it out, Heidi,” she said, sighing as she worked on getting the cake leftovers out of the pan. "I'm not giving you anymore money."
“I’m here for Logan,” Heidi protested, dropping the gift bag on the table.
“We both know why you’re here,” Gretchen said, putting down the spatula. She turned around and stared her younger sister right in the eye.
“I lost my job,” Heidi said, and tears started prickling in her eyes.
“Bingo.” Gretchen slammed down a fork on the counter. “Do you realize how bad this is going to look when you try to get a job in the future? You worked there for what, five months?”
“Four months,” Heidi whispered.
“Four months. And this is your fifth job in two years,” Gretchen said. “When are you going to get it drilled into your thick skull of yours that you can’t just--”
"They were downsizing the department! It wasn't my fault this time!" Heidi said as she took a seat at the table.
"Wait, so you were fired the other times? You said you were laid off with the other companies, too!"
"No, I was! I was only fired from the software place because they were like 'you come in drunk too much' but I wasn't drunk, I was hungover and--"
"For somebody so smart, how the hell are you so goddamn stupid!"
"Gretch!"
"Heidi, you have got to--"
"Just shut up! Please! I know I fucked up, okay. You don't have to slap it back in my face. Don't be like Grandma."
Heidi took a deep breath.
“I’m also--” Heidi said, choking on the words for just a second as tears streamed down her face. “I’m pregnant.”
Gretchen’s expression melted from annoyed anger to something between disappointment and fear. Heidi couldn’t bear to look her in the eye.
She heard the chair squeak against the lineoleum, and Gretchen sat down beside her. A plate of cake was placed in front of both of them.
“I'm sorry." Gretchen said. They couldn't even look at one another. "Heidi…”
“Heidi, you were the only one of us to go to college,” Gretchen said, her voice croaking. “When you were accepted, I was so proud. And when you graduated, I…” Gretchen wiped at her eyes and began again. “I thought that finally, you were going to be okay, we were going to be okay, and that there was some hope left in this family. Somebody that my kids could look up to.”
Heidi began to sob. “I’m sorry I let you down. Let your kids down.”
“I’m still proud of you. Nobody knows what the hell Brent has been up to, but at least you beat both me and Lewis. I was fifteen, his wife was eighteen,” Gretchen said with a sardonic laugh. “But I would be lying if I didn't say I’m worried. I’m very worried.”
It was silent again.
“Who’s the father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is it Wes?”
“Oh, god, no. No. We wouldn’t touch each other with a ten foot pole,” Heidi said, ignoring a twinge in her gut.
“So it was just some casual fling?”
“Yeah. I just remember he had red hair,” Heidi sighed.
“How far along are you?”
“Eleven weeks.”
There was another long moment of silence.
"I'm going to keep it."
Gretchen was a bit taken aback. "I wasn't going to ask you that. That's your choice, Heidi. Your choice and your choice alone." Gretchen shoveled a bite of cake into her mouth. "Parenting is hard, though. That baby isn't going to be a baby forever. One day it's going to be a teenager begging you for money and video games and clothes and concert tickets."
"I'm behind on my rent and I feel like I can't tell Mom and Dad because they're going to be so disappointed in me and I don't know what to do," Heidi blurted out.
"You can't stay here, Heidi. This unit is already so tiny. The boys are already practically living on top of each other in that bedroom upstairs. We can't fit two more people here," Gretchen sighed.
"Yeah..." Heidi sighed. That was the answer she expected. "Your landlord did fix the toilet in your upstairs bathroom though, right?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Shut up you stupid dolt, I won that FabioKart race fair and square! You're just jealous that I won all the races and you got twelfth place!"
"Get off of me, Chelsea! It's my birthday! You can't fight me on my birthday! Dad said so!"
"Guys, shut up!" Peyton yelled. "Shhhhh! Do you hear that?""Eww, oh my god, is somebody puking? Wait, is Aunt Heidi puking in the bathroom? Oh my god! Gross!"
"CHELSEA GET OFF! DAD! HELP!"
--
Todd sat down on the bed, trying to fluff up the worn-out pillows.
“What was all that screaming and yelling about earlier?”
Gretchen sighed.
"Logan got mad at Chelsea for--"
"No, I mean before that."
“Oh. Heidi lost her job again,” she said.
“Figures.”
“And she’s pregnant.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah.”
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notesHeidi actually got the ROS roll for layoff, not oops preggy! Plot twist lmao.
Here are all the birthdays for February 2055:
1: Jeremy Duncan (46)
5: Rodney Keller (52)
7: Jeff Corley (16)
8: Ravi Fitzgerald (14)
11: Robert Kim (45)
15: Levi Fitzgerald (47)
19: Robert Tidwell (21)
20: John Fitzgerald (79)
21: Logan Keller (12)
23: Michaela Duncan (45)
26: Patrick Wilbanks (80)
28: Rowan Keller (1)
Logan was the only age-up this month.
I think he looks more like mom, but that could just be the eyebrows, lol.
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