I smiled at him. But instead of smiling back, he lurched forward and kissed me on the lips. It caught me so off guard that my brain needed a few seconds to register what had happened. First I froze, then I jumped back as if I’d just stuck my finger in a light socket. Mike jerked away too as I shouted, “What the hell are you doing?”
I tried to figure out what to say, but I didn’t have much time, because Naya shouted, and we looked over to find her with her hand over her mouth and the hem of her skirt soaking wet. Mike asked, “Did you just piss yourself?”
Naya shook her head and said, “Sorry for the drama, guys…but I think my water just broke.”
None of us knew what to do. We were probably the three least responsible people in the house. I shouted Will’s name and took off running for his bedroom. He jumped out of bed and shouted that he was asleep. “Come quick!” I told him. “Naya’s water broke!”
That got him moving in record time. Before I knew it, he had on a shirt, pants, and shoes, and had slung over his shoulder the two bags he kept packed for emergencies. He got on one side of Naya, and Mike got on the other. Will grabbed the keys, and the two of them walked her to the door.
“Are you OK to drive?” I asked. Will looked frantic, but Sue was gone, and I doubted he wanted Mike or me behind the wheel of his car.
Just then, the door opened, and we all turned to Jack, who rolled in his suitcase and announced, “Guess who decided to come home early?”
I can’t imagine what he thought when he saw the state we were in, but he soon understood the situation. He dropped his suitcase by the door and grabbed his keys.
“Get your car and wait for us downstairs!” Will shouted.
Jack didn’t need to be told twice. He rushed away while I hit the elevator button about a hundred times in a row. Naya was already hyperventilating,saying, “Oh God… Oh God… I can’t believe a baby’s going to come out of me… What if it can’t get out?”
“Everything’s fine, Naya,” I said, smoothing down her hair.
“It’s not! There’s no way it’ll fit! It’s going to get stuck!”
“It won’t,” Mike said, patting her on the arm. “You’ll see, it’ll be totally smooth.”
“Shut up, Mike!” Naya shouted. “Don’t think I didn’t see what you did!”
Will looked at us, confused, before we all crowded into the elevator. Naya screamed as I hit the button for the first floor. With his usual impeccable sense of timing, Mike started defending himself, saying, “It’s not what it looked like, OK, Naya? I can explain.”
Will warned him, “Mike, I don’t know what you did, but this isn’t your moment. Shut up and give me a hand.”
I had been staring at the ground the whole time, but when I felt the cool air rush in, I started rubbing Naya’s back. Jack was already downstairs waiting for us, and he helped Naya into the car. Will, Mike, and I piled into the back seat, and Jack took off like a race car driver. For once I was fine with it, and I told him, “I never thought I’d be thankful for your reckless driving, but good job.”
“Shit, shit, shit shit!” Naya screamed from the front seat.
“Don’t curse in front of the kid!” Will said.
“The kid can’t hear me! And I feel like I’m getting ripped in half!” Naya shouted. “It hurts! I’m dying.”
Will rubbed her shoulders and said, “Mike, get your phone out and time the contractions.”
Mike objected, “I don’t know what a contraction is.”
“Jesus, you idiot,” I said, getting my own phone out and tracking them as best I could. It only took us ten minutes to get to the hospital, but there were two in that time, which I was pretty sure meant this was serious. Jack screeched to a halt at the intake area, and Will and Mike struggled to getNaya out. I rode with Jack into the parking deck, and when we’d parked, we took off running. The women in reception sensed who we were with and pointed down a hallway, and soon we found everyone in one of the patient rooms.
Naya had already changed into a hospital gown and was lying on a stretcher. Her chest was rising and falling quickly, and her face and neck were bright red. Mike was holding one of her hands, and she was twisting his fingers mercilessly. Every few seconds, she would shout, and Mike’s eyes would open wide with fright. Will, in a panic, was pacing back and forth.
“Jenna, come here!” Naya called to me. “I need you!”
Will hurried over too, but she turned away from him, saying, “Not you. You’re the one who did this to me! No, I’m sorry, babe, I didn’t mean that, it’s just…”
She couldn’t talk more because tears filled her eyes, and she looked at him lovingly for a moment before pain overtook her face.
“I’m dying!” she said. “And that stupid doctor said he can’t do anything till my contractions start coming every two minutes. This is horrible! I’ve changed my mind! I don’t want to be a mother! Can’t they just take it out now?!”
“Babe,” Will told her calmly, “I know it hurts, but you’re doing great, everything’s going fine. You’re not dilated enough yet, and we have to wait.”
Jack asked, “Does it really hurt that bad?” Naya responded by unleashing a string of curses that reminded me of the girl inThe Exorcist, and, worried that she’d kill him if he said something else stupid, I dragged him out of the room, saying, “Let’s grab something to drink.”
