Who: Graciela Cervantes and Alexandrakis Smith
What: Graciela has some news for Alex!
Where: Her flat
Graciela had made three cakes, seventy-two cupcakes, had an apple pie in the oven, and she was currently mixing batter of cream cheese, sugar, and---and whatever else you put into a cheesecake mix, because she was pregnant and that was bad and no entiende que hacer and when she was nervous e asustada she cooked and and and ¡pero!
What? ¿Que? What was she going to do? Alex was going to be so upset; she didn’t want to believe Rhea’s words, but what if she was right? That Alex would leave once things became serious? Neither of them were ready for a baby, neither of them were ready for marriage because---oh, ay deus, her father was going to kill her, no—no wait, Papi and Santiago were going to kill Alex and then they’d kill her and then---and then---and then what? Ay deus mio,
She’d written a short note to Alex in the journals, told him to get over quickly, but it had taken her most of her baking before she’d got the nerve to do it. And now---oh, Graciela didn’t look up at first as she heard the door open and she didn’t look up when he approached the table and suddenly her eyes were full of tears as she manually mixed this stupid cheesecake batter, because she was about to ruin his life and how could she have let this happen? Graciela took a shuddering breath and looked up at Alex, gripping tightly onto the bowl and spoon (why didn’t she use her wand, like she did at work? She was loca, insane, absolutely---).
“Soy embarazado, perdon---perdon, I---I’m p-pregnant.”
Alex had been quite proud of himself all day. He was completely off his medicine and had been officially quitting for one month. One whole month - which meant almost a week without any meds at all. He never had really thought he'd get this far, despite the support he was continuously given. It had seemed so far away when he'd thought about it and he had been convinced he'd never make it. Sure, he'd been tempted to just give up several times, but it was getting easier now!
The scent of baking filled him as soon as he came into the door and he automatically felt the urge to ask what was wrong. He saw Graciela standing there, baked good everywhere, clinging to a mixing bowl, and looking particularly overwhelmed. He'd realized that baking was her way of letting go of stress and, as cute as it was, it caused him to worry whenever he saw an overload of goodies lying around (Merlin, that was a lot of cupcakes...). He'd been just about to ask when she started to speak in Spanish (or was it Portuguese? He could never tell!) and then the English hit and he nearly dropped the papers he'd carried back from work.
Scratch that; he did drop them. They hit the floor with several crinkling and swooshing noises and he was quite sure he had to look like a ghost. Alex was quite sure she'd just said she was pregnant. Now, while the actual thought of her being pregnant was scary enough, he had automatically thought of one thing; her family was going to murder him. Fuck, fuck, fuck!
"... Oy." He said finally his head feeling very, very light. He swallowed roughly, falling into one of the kitchen chairs, and leaning against his hand which was currently mussing up his hair.
The mixing bowl dropped to the table and her hands flew to her face. Ay, ay, she didn’t know what to do or say, this was---Graciela took a step back and leaned against the fridge, trying to calm her rapidly speeding up breaths. She was going to have a heart attack before she actually got to sit down with Alex and talk about things and try to figure out what they were going to do. Things were so confusing porque---porque the first thought that ran through her head was that they would have to get married, pero---while she believed that was what they should do---she didn’t think that was the right thing. Because…because they should get married because they wanted to, not because people might look down at them if they didn’t. Ay deus perdoname, she was going to Hell, for sure. Not only had she already broken sacred vows with having sex, now she was even considering not taking the steps to fix everything. Hell, she was going to Hell, and—and—
“I’m sorry,” she let out, dropping her hands to her thighs, tears finally spilling from her eyes. Graciela tried to look at Alex, but she felt so ashamed for doing this to him that she couldn’t. “I’m so sorry, Alex.”
Alex wrinkled his forehead when she began to apologize. What did she have to be sorry for? He stared at her for a long period of time, before reaching his hand out to grab hers.
"Gracie, you… You don't have to be sorry," he said quietly, before smiling weakly, "S'not like you did this all on your own or anything." In fact, he was quite sure that whenever this baby was made, it had been quite fun for both of them.
He didn't know what else to say though. It was awkward given that he didn't know whether or not she would be upset now that she knew he wasn't furious or whatever she'd thought he would be. He didn't know quite what he felt either. He didn't feel upset but he wasn't quite… elated either. He was too young to be a dad and he was quite sure that Graciela (and her family) would want them to marry. Who married over a baby? Not him, that was for sure. It just wasn't a good enough reason.
Though, he'd noticed being married to her had snuck into his thoughts more than a few times lately. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if the-
No! Stop while you're ahead, Alex. Again; he was too young for this.
He wasn’t mad? He was…making jokes? Graciela’s tears stopped just long enough so she could let out a small laugh and she held onto his hand tightly as she sat in the seat beside him. Breathe, okay, that was probably something she should try to do. Something heavy lifted off her shoulders (she’d never understood that expression until now) as Alex smiled at her and…okay. He didn’t hate her, which was what she’d been fearing the most. Because…if they were both okay with this, they could deal, sim? Sim. Graciela was finding it harder and harder to think about a life without Alex (her sister and his sister didn’t help this, pero---), and while she told herself over and over that she would be okay if they were to break up---when the thought of it brought her to tears, she really didn’t know how true that was anymore.
They weren’t an irrational couple, they were two very intelligent people that made a mistake. She wanted to date for longer and have a long engagement (if it came to that), and do things as right as possible…and now that was being thrown out the window.
“It’s a girl,” she said softly, her elbow on the table and her head propped up in her other hand. She suddenly felt very tired, but excited at the same time? Magic still boggled her mind, the way it could so quickly find this out, and it was a girl. A little girl and, ooh, their sisters were going to be very happy. Graciela smiled lightly; she felt like she could actually breathe now that Alex was here and not angry, even though she was exhausted. “I—I did the wrong test, I would have waited to find out with you, pero---I just grabbed one and paid quickly…”
Despite all his worries Alex smiled. A real, genuine, and unafraid smile. His hands were shaking lightly at the thought of all of this, but he knew - he didn't know how he did, but he knew that things were going to be okay. They may be young and they may be a bit naive on what it was to be a parent, but they could figure it out together. It couldn't be too hard - after all, she had her family to model after, and he had... well, he had books he could read! Yes, that would do well. He gave her hand a light squeeze. This could work.
His laced his fingers with her own, staring at their hands and feeling a sort of warmth building inside of him. He really did love this girl. It wasn't that he hadn't known that before, it just... a moment like this, as confusing and frightening as it was, was enough to make him realize just how much he cared about her. In a more joyous fashion than the attacks on Diagon Alley had done for the two of them (malakas, given that night, he wouldn't be surprised if that was when they made their baby -- their baby, oy...) he felt that same knowledge build in him that he could not lose her. It would hurt too much and, well... Alex could not stand the thought of hurting any longer.
His eyes still on their hands, his smile softened, almost looking daydream like as he muttered, "I always wanted a little girl."
Ayyyy, okay, now she was excited, and maybe she just wanted to be held, but Graciela didn’t hesistate in slipping out of the chair and onto Alex’s lap so she could hug him tightly. They were doing this! Somehow, they were doing it, and it would be okay, because they were smart, and they were together, and they had family that would love them (even after a lot of screaming, now that her mind was clear, she knew her family would support them, she truly believed. And Alex’s? Well, Graciela bet they would too). And…and she didn’t care if they were married or not, which was going against everything she’d been brought up to believe, but to be honest, Graciela liked to think that God would be okay with her being happy, than suffering trying to follow the rules.
She pulled back a bit to take a look around the kitchen at all her baked goods, noticing that some of the flavors and frostings were just odd. Taking a quick glance down at her stomach where…yes, there was a little girl growing (her heart simply soared at the thought, it was so much easier and better now that Alex was happy and and---), she let out a laugh, dropping her head to Alex’s shoulder.
“I was wondering why I made avocado frosting.”
