About six months after everybody had scattered, I got a knock on my door on a Friday night. This time, amazingly, I wasn’t even curled up on the couch and drooling.
It was Julia. How special.
“Hey!”
“Hey. What’s up?”
“Just dropping by to see Kristin, and thought I’d say hi.”
“I see. Hi.”
“How’s it going?”
“Oh, same as usual, work is kicking my ass, other than that, not much.”
We stepped outside so we could smoke chat. She made small talk for a few minutes, until the door to Kristen’s apartment opened. The figure standing in the doorway was in shadow, and my eyes had not yet adjusted to the light. Julia, however, recognized who it was.
“Oh, I think you two know each other already.”
“Oh? I…”
…
Yes, if you mean “we know each other” in the Biblical sense. It was the girl from Chapter 1. Apparently, Julia and this chick were friends, or at least knew each other. Probably not in the same sense I knew her, but you never know…
She stepped outside to where I could see her, and I noticed that she was… larger.
“Hey, how’s it going?”
“Not bad,” said I, with awkwardness dripping off the end of every word.
“Guess what? I’m pregnant!”
ERck…
If you could have hooked up a video camera and a microphone inside my head, I believe the scene would have been reminiscient of a bad Star Trek episode, with the engine room in complete disarray, and some idiot screaming that I couldna’ take it anymo’!. But we’ve already been over that.
“Commence instant panic attack here,” the left side of my brain commanded. I complied.
“Wait a second, dude,” said the right side of my brain, initiating damage control, “that was almost a year ago. She would have already had the kid by now, and you used protection.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. In doing so, I think I let out the air that was holding my body together, and damn near collapsed in a heap, where I would have been quite satisfied to stay for a good hour thinking that I wasn’t going to have to marry this freak and take care of a child that I couldn’t afford.
“Yeah,” she continued, missing my near-fainting spell. “I’m getting married to the father. We should be getting married soon. The baby’s due in about 6 months.”
“Oh, guess what?” Julia chimed in. As if this wasn’t enough. “I’m pregnant too!”
Big surprise, I had to force myself to refrain from saying.
Turns out that Julia had, in many ways, lived up to my predictions pretty well. She was no longer with her almost-husband, and her parents weren’t exactly happy. Not that I really blame them. She was staying with them until she could have the child and get herself a new job, at which point she was expected to get the proverbial hell out.
Luke was staying with his parents, apparently thankful he wasn’t going to be with Julia.
At this point in my life, I’m actually slightly morbidly curious as to where Julia is now.
I said slightly. I’m not about to find out on my own accord.
So, why this long, drawn out story? Why all the yammering about a private little drama?
Simple. Before, I had a very difficult time disassociating myself with those in emotional strife and preventing myself from getting drawn into the middle of situations that I had absolutlely no business being in. All of this has taught me one, very important lesson, one that I refuse to forget or ignore, and one that I will follow almost always, unless there is no other option for me, or I intervene completely by choice because the stakes are too high.
And that lesson is?
Stay the fsck out of other people’s business. My own business is screwy enough.
Comment on this post below
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.