I Will Not Sing of Love {Jason}

[JOEY ROOKS]

You know what sucked? Carrying groceries. You know what also sucked? Not having a car. You know what sucked the most? Being pregnant and carrying groceries. Granted she could have probably called a friend for help, Joey didn’t want to be one of those people pregnant people that seemed dependant on their friends. It also didn’t help that Joey was sort of in denial. Like when she looked down she’d have her tiny, flat tummy back instead of the bump that was evidence that Joey wasn’t as innocent as most people liked to believe. She was nineteen—young, but at least she was out of high school. At least she was an adult. Granted not a lot of people saw that. They saw a four-foot-eleven girl with obscenely orange hair, an animal hat atop her head, and a bump of sin beneath her shirt. There had been a few times that Joey heard whispers, and that people assumed she was some poor sap trying to get on 16 and Pregnant.

The baby inside of her had taken some of the life out of her, strangely enough. She was tired more often, and a lot more irritable. It was hard to be excitable when she had to avoid her best friend—father of the baby—and when each one of her decisions effected two lives now. She wasn’t going to abort, and she had been playing with the idea of adoption. But even then, she hadn’t exactly found the right parents yet. In all honesty, this was a little too Juno, which made her that much more frustrated with everything. Her arms shifted slightly with the bags in her grip, ignoring the doctor’s advice to not strain herself, to not carry things that were too heavy. Hell. She couldn’t skateboard, she couldn’t swim, she couldn’t play on the jungle gym—she was lucky she still had the ability to carry things. If it were up to her doctor, she’d be curled up in bed with her feet up not a care in the world.

But that was not Joey’s speed. That doctor, with his, ‘Josephina’ this, and ‘Josephina’ that. The doctor wanted her to be a Josephina. What he didn’t understand, was that until the day she died she was going to be a Joey. Athletic, happy, fun hyper Joey. Even if she was currently hindered by something completely else. After all, it was her own stupidity. She didn’t regret it because it was Jamie—but she regretted it because they weren’t smarter, and because she couldn’t possibly ruin Jemissa and Jamie with something like this. Maybe, just maybe, the person growing inside her would help her get over Jamie. To move on and carry about her life, instead of chasing something that would never happen.

In the middle of this pondering, Joey was basically steamrolled. Again, she should have been safer, paying more attention. Instead, while she was thinking her crazy train of thought, she had been watching a pompom from the end of Pengu, the penguin hat atop her head, bounce on her shoulder. That’s when she ran into a brick wall. Or, what she thought was a brick wall. As against this pregnancy thing Joey was, it was the first thing that came to her mind when her bags fell from her hands. One hand reached her stomach which protruded beneath her striped shirt, feeling the baby fluttering inside, just as startled as she was. “Ginger with a package here, bro.” She said, looking around with wide-eyes, then up. This guy was a little over a foot taller than her, which in her eyes felt like a mile. “Sorry, wasn’t paying attention, I do that a lot.” She mumbled, trying to ignore the insistent kicking in her gut. Still pressing a hand to her stomach, Joey crouched down slowly, starting to gather the small bags of groceries. At least she was still able to crouch and get back up—for the most part. She was lucky she hadn’t been bursting into tears it. But the moment she couldn’t bend over, or crouch down anymore could be the beginning of her no-tears record.

OUTFIT

[JASON MEGALOS]

You know that feeling you get when you realize you may have just done the absolute most despicable thing on the planet? That perhaps, you may have just upset the universe in ways that could never be forgiven? That you have bought yourself a one-way ticket to Hell?


Yes. He was going to Hell.


Jason had just been walking back to Barrie University from the Central Park Zoo (yes, he was that much of a loser that he was in college and still got his kicks from going to the zoo), not paying any attention to where he was going, when he ran into this short little redheaded kid. Just as Jason looked down at the kid, about to apologize, he saw that it wasn't a kid at all.


He'd run into a pregnant girl. Which was why he was going to Hell.


"Oh, God, I'm so sorry," Jason started stammering, kneeling down to retrieve the groceries for the young woman so she wouldn't have to. Hello! She was pregnant! You didn't let a pregnant girl who you'd just smacked into and knocked the groceries from her hands pick her own groceries up! Unless you wanted a seat next to Satan himself in Hell.

"Here, let me get these," Jason insisted, grabbing the bags before the redhead could manage to get a hold on them. "You don't know how sorry I am. Are you alright? Is, um...." How did you ask a girl whether her baby was alright? Without seeming rude, that is. Aw, crap. Jason bit back a groan at the expense of his own stupidity, hoping to God that this girl wasn't going to rip him a new one for possibly damaging her child in any way. Could simply bumping into someone harm the infant inside? Weren't pregnant women even more fragile than normal? And this girl looked pretty young. Surely she had more risks than the average pregnant woman. Was there such a thing as an average pregnant woman?


Yup. There was no doubt about it. He was going to Hell. If not for his fault when it came to not looking where he was going and practically knocking down a pregnant woman, then the fact that he was sitting there, holding onto this girl's groceries, wondering about her pregnancy. And not even in the ways a normal person would, like if she was married or something. Or were you not supposed to wonder about stuff like that?


Father God, just please smite him now.

[JOEY ROOKS]

Joey looked a little startled when Jason started to pick up the groceries on his own, and she just managed to stand there awkwardly. She glanced around the street, then looked back down at Jason with large eyes, looking increasingly a little more uncomfortable. Joey wasn’t used to people doing things for her; it made it feel strange and a little awkward. “Yeah, no, I’m fine.” She stammered, nodding before letting that cheery grin spread across her lips. She held her hands out to retrieve the her bags, lifting both brows at him. “Is wha—oh. Oh!” Joey looked down at her protruding stomach, as though it were the first time she were seeing it.

“Yeah. She’s tough. I think there’s like a steel wall around there, like. I thought pregnant bellies were supposed to be soft and squishy. But they’re actually surprisingly hard. I wonder if they build like little walls in there with whatever else is in there. It’s crazy, I think they know. That’s probably why they kick so hard. Because they think it’s a brick wall, and they don’t actually realize there are—“ She tilted her head down at her stomach, as though speaking directly to the baby while her voice climbed a little bit louder, “Nerve endings in there. Playing monkey-bars with my ribs is not a good way to start out, kiddo.” She lifted her head back at Jason with that dorky grin, yet again.

“But really, everything’s fine. I mean. Seriously. She’s playing Tekken against my stomach, so she’s alive and well. Actually, admittedly---I’m sort of glad you ran me over. I mean that was an excellent way to see if I was pregnant. I’ve had random people—usually women just walk up and grab my stomach. Hell-ooo, does this stay ‘Public Property’ across it?” Joey rolled her eyes, and slowed down, taking a deep breath. Apparently, the kicker inside of her didn’t exactly like it when she spoke too much, or too quickly. It only made the baby fuss around more, which made Joey just a little more tired. Idly, one finger tugged on the pompom of her penguin beanie, and then pushed her orange hair out of her eyes. “I don’t suppose I’ll be carrying those back on my own?” She asked quietly, raising a brow at him. He looked panicked, and scatterbrained enough that he might just end up walking off without her groceries.

“I’m Joey, by the way. Like a baby kangaroo. But I guess this go around, I’m not the baby kangaroo anymore.” Her mouth scrunched to the side, while she pulled the side string of her beanie across her upper lip like a strange mustache. “What’s your name, tall stranger? Unless you’re a Native American, and you go by He Who Runs Over Midgets.”

OUTFIT

[JASON MEGALOS]

Oh, wow.

This chick was talkative. (Wait - could you call a pregnant girl a chick? 'Cause chicks were usually children. But you didn't call her a chicken, even if she was a mother....did you?) Jason found himself having to process everything she said quickly, in order to comprehend the next sentence before it was too late to hear it. Walls of steel, nerve endings, monkey bars, Tekken, public property, baby kangaroo, Native American, He Who Runs Over Midgets.

A confused expression came across Jason's face for a moment, when it all added together in his head. The picture was not making sense, and the tall young man had to admit that his quick method of though process was not a good thing for him. Slower, and then he was good. "Umm, no, I'm Greek," Jason replied a bit late, smiling sheepishly as he realized he gave his origin before his name. "And my name's Jason. Like the Argonaut."

Welp. That was actually a stupid way to introduce himself. Half the people he knew didn't understand who the Argonauts were, and now Jason was probably going to look stupid. But it was better than saying 'like the serial killer'. That just made him look scary.

Realizing he was still holding Joey's groceries, Jason made another face, feeling foolish. "Oh, umm, do you want help bringing these back to your place?" he asked, hoping to God that she didn't have some overprotective boyfriend waiting for her at home. But if she had an overprotective boyfriend, he would've been there, right?

Probably. But still. Jason knew that he was going to end up in Hell because of nearly running the small redhead down, but he at least wanted to live life a little bit more before he had to take his place down there.

Wouldn't you?