Adobe Slabs: Segment 3

A glass dish clanked against the cold metal sink. M fumbled to catch it. A pause in the conversation led M to believe the others probably stopped to look over at him. That, or because Billy had taken another long swig of beer. M couldn't be sure; he tried to play it off like nothing happened.

Billy exhaled. “She’s at home with my mom. She's been napping around this time every day lately. It works for me so I didn’t wanna break that habit.”

"Oh! That's convenient! A little disappointing though, I was hoping to meet her..."

“Daughter?” M said quietly, thinking it to himself more than anything.

All at once the three guests looked over at M.

"Like... Daughter, daughter?" M asked.

"Um." Billy started.

"She's yours? Like you had her?"

"Yeah, she is. And I didn't, personally--"

“How old are you? How old is she?”

Zephyr broke the seemingly endless line of questioning. “If you'd let him speak, M. You mean to tell me you didn’t know?” He asked incredulously and turned to Gale.

Gale shrugged and looked at Billy.

Billy just scratched at his forehead. “I thought you guys told him.”

“We thought you did.”

M shook his head as he tried to wrap it around what he just learned. They acted like it was common knowledge. Well, maybe it would've been if he'd kept in better touch with them. Everything just happened so fast. "Didn't we go to high school at the same time?" M calculated in his mind. "You've gotta be around my age. Right?"

Billy sighed. “Sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I really meant to mention it and then I just, y'know. I dunno." He bit his lip and fidgeted with the almost empty (second) beer bottle. "But, well, yeah. I’m twenty-one. I have a daughter. She’s six months old now. I think that pretty much covers it?" He finished off his beer and set it back on the table a little heavier than he probably meant to, if his grimace was any indication. "Hope this doesn’t change things. She’s really well-behaved and I have everything taken care of myself. I won't ask you to watch her when I'm not around or stuff like that. I can get all of it worked out on my own.”

M absorbed everything Billy had just said. There were so many other things he wanted to ask, but it didn't seem right to ask him and he wouldn't even know where to start. But he remembered some basic manners and said, "well, first of all, congratulations."

Billy gave a very slight bow paired with an equally slight smile.

“Erm, secondly, I don’t see why a baby would be a problem,” M scanned his ill-kept living area, “I’d have to clean up first though.” His mind raced. He didn’t think this place was big enough for even he himself, much less two other people.

Billy pulled his own phone out of his pocket and excused himself from the table, "oh hey, one sec, I'll be right back," to call his mom and check on the baby.

As Zephyr (who'd somehow managed to finish his meal amidst the commotion) passed M on the way to the trash can, he tsk’ed to catch his attention and gave M a look he knew all too well; a look that conveyed much more than words themselves could ever do.

    

Did he come off as more apprehensive than he meant to? Honestly, babies were not a common occurrence for him, it’s not like he could've known how to properly react. Maybe he acted a little spastic? But wow, a baby. A real-life mini person. M truthfully hadn't known many in his life. How was it going to work out? How were they going to fit?

He did the math:

Small one bedroom apartment ÷ (M + roommate) = kinda plausible. Kinda tight though.

Small one bedroom apartment ÷ (M + roommate + mini-roommate) = ???

Um. Maybe he slept that day in math class.

Billy came back to the table with a quiet, proud report. "She's still asleep. Amazingly."

M heard Gale mutter back. "She's gonna wait for her daddy to come home, so she can stay up with him all night."

"Funny you say that, Gale, but she actually requested you instead. Said she likes you for some reason."

"Oh, she told you all that?"

"Word-for-word."

"Smart baby."

While they bantered, M racked his brain for the proper questions to ask. He rejoined the others back at the table as well after dropping the last of the dishes in the sink, and finally decided something along the lines of, "so, what are we talking here? A couple days, several weeks, a few months?”

Billy let out a sigh that sounded like it had been restrained for quite some time, and had a lot of history behind it. “I don’t really know. It all depends on how long it takes for me to save up enough to afford a place of my own. But still, I’ll be outta here as soon as that happens.”

“No rush. Just let me know when you’ll be moving in so I can make sure to get this place baby-friendly.”

"Of course." Billy looked as though he felt some sort of relief. "I'll give you a heads up, for sure." M noticed that Billy had fished his phone out again and checked it. Like it was already such a habit. He shoved it back into his pocket and stood up with a stretch. “It’s about time I hit the road though guys. I need to make sure to get at least a little bit of sleep. Er. Try to. Got work in the morning.”

Gale stood up with him. “I’ll walk you out.”

“Thanks man.”

“See ya later.” M waved a lazy half-wave from his stakeout. All he wanted to do was flop down onto his bed and enjoy a nice night of rest. Subconsciously he thought it might be his last one for a while.

He had to admit, the idea of having a baby around scared him a little. There were only a few things he knew about them: they cried, they ate, and they pooped. All in excess. How was he going to know what to do if she cried, or if she was hungry, or if she needed a diaper change?

M listened for the door to shut, then said, “this... is going to be interesting.”

Zephyr looked like he was about to burst.

"Oh! Right, you wanted to talk to me. I'm not in trouble, am I?"

And then he responded like a balloon letting out all its air at once. “Yes. No. Let me ask you something: you’re not concerned, are you? Does this worry you? I didn’t overestimate you at all, did I?”

M laughed. “Overestimate me? Psh, not at all. Like  I told you over the phone the other day, it’s not about him moving in. I can make space. Really. I mean, it is sudden, but I know it can't be helped." M stared absently at the bottles on the table. Following Billy's spontaneous call that night, he'd called up Zephyr to have him explain. But Zephyr hadn't given him much more to go on than Billy had. M had expressed his distaste for change, but Zephyr helped him come to the conclusion that a change may be welcome and worth trying. "Besides, school is so easy for me right now anyway, so it's really not a big deal. In fact, now I'll actually have something to do.” He leaned back further in his chair, and finally grabbed the unfinished beer nearest him, and took a drink. "I have no idea whose this is," he admitted. He squinted at the label as if it'd tell him. Real smooth-like.

Zephyr held a hand to his chest. “Well, okay. Good. That’s what I thought. And I'm sorry about dropping that surprise on you so suddenly. I really thought he had told you already. I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose. But seriously, he is a sweet guy. You won’t have to worry about the whole situation for too long. Billy's really trying his best to become independent and--”

“Hey, it's okay, don’t sweat it. A kid was never a deal-breaker for me.” M lowered his voice as if there were still others around and leaned in closer to Zephyr, “You told him I was loaded, didn’t you?”

Zephyr turned away from M and rubbed his hands along the length of his legs in a nervous sort of way, as if wringing his hands was something he used to do and now he was trying to change that. “Not in so many words. You see, you have plenty of other mentionable redeemable qualities, and can generally be counted on in times of adversity. I just took these factors into consideration when compiling a mental list of contacts for him to reference. Conversely, it wasn't the most sizable of lists, I'll have you know. There are few that I consider so dependable. I would think it to be an honor. I highly doubt you'd take offense to such praises. Why must you always act as though I think of you as nothing more than a financial asset?”

M couldn’t help but just stare at him. He would be lying if he said it didn’t take him a bit to process, especially how Zephyr spoke so quickly and naturally as if memorizing pages of a thesaurus was natural. “Zeph uh, the way you speak, it sounds like you should be in college right now instead of me. Your word choices verge on professor-like. Like I'm sitting in on a lecture or something, it's trippy.'”

Zephyr gave him a wry smile and held out his hand, palm up. “I’m always accepting donations, friend.”

A calming, calypso-like beat --that fell just short of a sunset-warmed beach--filled the air. Zephyr patted his pockets until he came across his phone, and he clicked a button. “Hey hon. Aww, you’re so sweet! I’ll be right there. Mmkay. Bye.” Zephyr hopped up. “I suppose it is about that time. Gale said he pulled the car around, so it looks like we're heading out for tonight as well.”

M walked with Zephyr to the front door and opened it for him like any gentleman would do. He even offered to walk Zephyr to the car.

Zephyr smiled. "That's alright." He moved in for a quick, tight hug. “Listen, the baby is nothing for you to be concerned about, but please tell me if she’s cute. Send a picture, I’d love to see her.”

“Certainly. Anything for you.”

"Let us know when you’re free. We’ll go catch a meal at the Fifth’s, like old times, okay?”

“Sounds amazing. My treat.”

“All the more incentive. Goodbye!” Zephyr called over his shoulder and climbed into Gale's car. The two of them waved from the vehicle as they took off.

M shut the door and collapsed against it with a heavy sigh. There was a lot to be done, but there was even more in his mind that prevented him from doing it. He massaged his temples as he trudged through the murky swamp waters that flooded his brain. There was Something in particular that needed to be done.

He meandered around the living room, hoping something would jog his memory, but nothing was quite jumping out at him like he'd hoped.

Was it hygiene-related? He ruffled his hair and smelled his armpits. Nah, freshly showered.

He headed into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator as if doing so would tell him something. “Man, why don’t appliances talk?" No response. "Life would be so much easier.”

Maybe it was something in the bathroom. He clicked the light on, checked himself out in the mirror, and awarded himself with a satisfied grin.

There was only one place left: his bedroom. He walked in. The light was left on and, wow, did things looks different after over a year of living in the small place! It had started to feel almost as comfortable as his room back at home. Being displaced again wasn’t going to be an easy feat, especially without his massive bed. He went over to the bed and affectionately pat it a couple times, then remembered he was trying to remember something.

His computer stared at him blankly from across the room, beckoning for him to come get distracted. He almost fell for it too, that sneaky son of a motherboard. He habitually reached to pull the chair out from under the desk, until he realized THAT'S what he needed to do. “Rent!” He threw his head back in a sort of relieved manner.

The computer bleeped upon him pressing the power button with his big toe, and was up and running in no time. Good thing he remembered rent was due tonight; the repercussions for such delinquency were less than pretty, especially given how young he was. Without a prompt from M, the browser popped open. M gave himself a hypothetical pat on the back when he remembered he had set his homepage as the website he paid the rent on. Such responsible behavior. Ah, mom would be proud, he thought.

He logged in to the browser. Better get it over with fast so he could catch some shut-eye. Another deal flashed in front of his face:

Always with the offers, every month. With a click of the ‘no thanks’ button, he paid his rent. Before he shut his computer down he slouched in the chair.

The resistance of the carpet made it hard for him to scoot his chair back, but he did regardless, just so he could plant his head on his desk in defeat. Because the place was far from clean. He knew help was needed, and there was one person he could always count on. And he knew he wouldn’t get her help or hear the end of it if she didn’t hear the whole story from him.

The problem with that one person, was that that one person happened to be Ema.