The next day, I ended up going shopping with Courtney and Sierra (who ended up dragging Cody along, against his will.). Courtney wanted me to come with her to do some final baby shopping for her son before he was born; Sierra had just kind of invited herself along with her hostage Cody—he obviously didn’t have any consent in this.


The mall was crowded since Christmas was less than a week away.


Sierra and I were just providing opinions for Courtney while Cody was, well he was just there.


“Ow,” I heard Courtney moan. Both Sierra and I turned around to look at her.


“Are you all right?” Sierra asked.


Courtney nodded, rubbing her stomach, “It’s these Braxton Hicks contractions—they’re fake contractions. They’ve kept up lately. I’ll be fine.”


We continued on until later that day. I went back to Alejandro’s house afterwards and I have to say that I was surprised to say the least.


“Would you like some tea Mrs. Nickelson?” I heard a voice call; it sounded like it was coming from the living room. I walked towards the room only to find myself in hysterics.


Alejandro was dressed in what looked like a pink dress with a tiara sat upon his head, sitting at a children’s size table across from Clementine. There were some play tea pots among other tea party toys. There were stuffed animals set up around them. I could see him grimacing, but I had figured he’d gotten himself into the situation.


“Mrs. Nickelson, would you like some tea?” Clementine repeated.


I couldn’t take anymore of this and went upstairs to drop the bags I was carrying in Alejandro’s room. Right as I dropped the bags, I heard a voice call behind me, “Hello Beautiful.”


I turned around to face Jose as he stood up from a cot that had randomly been placed in the room. What was going on?


He placed a book on it and walked over to me, “You’re even more beautiful than when we first met.”


“Fuck off,” I replied, glaring daggers at him.


“You’re still feisty,” He smirked. He stepped closer over to me, “And yet, you’re still so enchanting.”


By now he had placed both hands on my shoulders, holding me pinned in one spot so that I couldn’t leave.


“Are you sure that Alejandro’s the right one for you? I think you could do so much better.”


“What is your problem?” I exclaimed; I tried to squirm out of his grip, but I couldn’t.


“What is your problem? Can’t you see that you could so much better than my loser of a brother?”


My mind had taken control of my body without my consent and I found my fist heading towards his jaw. I guess you could say my hormones were making me angrier than usual. Whoops.


“Heather are you—“ I heard Alejandro come in, panicked, but he stopped mid-sentence.


I saw Jose glare at me as he held where he had just taken a blow. He started to punch me back but Alejandro grabbed his fist to stop him, “Leave her alone.”


“Says the guy in a dress.”


I could see Jose roll his eyes.


“Just leave her alone Jose, Heather doesn’t need to be bothered by any of this stuff.”


“What’s going on?” A new voice asked. The three of us turned around to see an older-looking man.


I heard Alejandro and Jose asked in surprise, “Dad?”


“Who else would it be?” The man chuckled, “I come home to find that you two are fighting, and in front of Alejandro’s girlfriend,” He stepped in the room and towards me. He reached up for my hand and kissed it. Awkward: that was a perfect word to describe this situation I was in.


“Fernando Burromuerto," He let go of my hand, "Alejandro has told me all about you, Heather."


He turned to his sons, "Try to get along for once. You don't want your girlfriend under stress in her condition do you, Alejandro?" Alejandro shook his head “no.”


“Good, I’ll see you two later,” With that, Mr. Burromuerto left the room.
--
Days went by, and before I knew it, it was Christmas Eve. And all that time—it turns out—Jose was supposed to stay in Alejandro’s room since Adrian and Clementine were staying in his old room. It was horrible few night’s sleep.


Alejandro's family didn't do anything special for that day so Sierra and Serena invited us over to celebrate with them. It was just eight of us there: Sierra, Cody, Trent, Courtney, Serena, Chris (You would think that Serena would have learned.), Alejandro, and me.


"I love this half of your tree," Chris told Serena.


Unsurprisingly, half of the tree was decorated with Chris ornaments while the other half was covered in Cody ornaments. I seriously wondered how on Earth those two were able to find so many pieces of merchandise of Chris and Cody.


"Thanks," Serena smiled, "I decorated that half."


That was such a surprise.


"Oh Codykins," Sierra cooed, "Did you see the other half of the tree?"


"Uh... Yeah," Cody replied.


Sometimes, that girl scared me and I couldn't imagine how freaked out Cody would be in that situation.


"Are you all right? You've been quiet all night."


I turned my head around to face Alejandro; I was lying back onto his chest, "Yeah, I'm fine."


"I love you."


I smiled up at him and we kissed, "I love you, too."


"Let's go outside where it's quiet for a minute."


I nodded, standing up. He got up after me, leading us to get our coats. We slipped our respective coats on; he took my hand, taking us out into the backyard.


There was a garden outside, but the plants were gone for the winter and covered snow. In the center, surrounded by snow-covered plants, was a sitting area with stone benches.


Alejandro led us over to them and we sat down.


"You know, Heather, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."


"Yeah?"


He stood up and started to get down onto the ground. He had managed to get down on one knee, rummaging through his coat pocket. Was this really happening? No, this couldn’t be real.


Suddenly, the backdoor of the house burst open; Trent looked panicked as he stared at us, "Courtney's just gone into labor!”


Of course, there just had to be a diversion.