“Hey, morning!” Lauren said with a smile.
Alex walked up and kissed me on the cheek. “Where’s Libby?”
Grinning, I took another sip of coffee. “Taking care of something for me.”
Alex poured a cup of coffee and looked at me. “This early in the morning, you sent your seven-month pregnant wife-to-be out to run an errand for your ass?” Alex asked me as she put her hand on her hip.
That’s when I heard it. “Oh my God! What the fuck is wrong with my mouth?”
Alex dropped her coffee cup as Lauren and I both jumped out of the way. I was shocked the mug didn’t break. I saw Alex running back upstairs.
Alex screamed out as Lauren looked at me with a terrified expression. “I’m afraid to go up there.”
Then we heard Alex yell out. “Libby! Why are you filming this? Will! Oh my God, Will!”
Laughing, I set my coffee cup down and smiled at Lauren as I headed upstairs. Lauren was quickly on my heels. She began to giggle. “You used the red food coloring powder prank didn’t you?”
I nodded my head and said, “Yep.”
“Luke! That shit didn’t come off of my skin for weeks!”
Throwing my head back, I laughed harder. I walked into Alex and Will’s room to find my bride-to-be laughing so hard she had tears coming from her eyes as she sat on the bed holding her stomach.
“Can’t. Breathe!” Libby said.
Alex flew out of the bathroom. “Why is he bleeding?”
I walked into the bathroom to see Will trying to rinse out his mouth. “It doesn’t even taste like blood!” Will said as he stopped moving. He turned and glared at me and yelled out, “It’s a fucking dye!”
Biting the inside of my cheek, I tried like hell not to laugh harder. Will stood up, red coloring all over his lips and down his chin. “You bastard. You asshole!” Will pushed me and I stumbled back as Alex let out a scream. Then it hit her. Dropping her mouth open, she looked between Will and me.
“You did not,” Alex said as she narrowed her eyes at me. She spun on her heels and pointed to Libby who was still laughing. “Libby! You’re fixin’ to be a mom and you still let this jerk talk you into pranks! Why?”
Holding up her hand Libby tried to talk. “Can’t. Stop. Laughing.”
Will shook his head and turned to go back into the bathroom. Slamming the door behind him. I peeked over at Alex. She tried to act mad but when I busted out laughing she did too.
“Nice! You’re supposed to love me, Alex!” Will called from the other side of the door. This had all four of us laughing so hard we had tears.
The bathroom door opened and Will walked out. His lips looked like he had put red lipstick on. I couldn’t tell if Will’s chin was red from the dye or from Will scrubbing his face.
“I fucking hate you, Luke Johnson. Payback is a bitch.”
“RUN, COLT!” LIBBY yelled out next to me. Smiling, I watched Colt run it in for another touchdown. I wasn’t sure why Bruce was hesitating to throw the ball to Colt, but he was. The A&M coach had called a time out and talked to both of them on the sidelines. I had a feeling it was because of Lauren. She had broken up with Bruce after spring break last year. Not really giving anyone a real reason other than he was too high maintenance. They had started dating again two weeks ago. It was right about the same time Colt came over to the house one night drunk out of his mind.
Libby kissed me on the cheek and then Alex did as I leaned over and high fived Will.
Libby’s breath was on my neck and my pants felt two sizes too small. “Do you feel okay?” she asked in my ear. Shaking my head, I pouted.
“I’m exhausted,” I said.
This semester was starting to take its toll on me with my heavy workload. Libby was due in two weeks and she tossed and turned all night, which kept me up.
Frowning she leaned over and yelled to Alex. “Hey, we’re heading out. I’m feeling really tired.”
Alex nodded. “Get some rest.”
“I will. See y’all later.” Turning to me, Libby smiled and winked. I could take her in my arms right now and kiss the living day lights out of her I was so happy. Smiling, I grabbed Libby’s hand as we made our way out of the stadium and back to the house.
My head no sooner hit the pillow and I was out. I felt Libby pull the covers over me as she leaned down and kissed my lips. “I’m sleeping in Grace’s room. I love you, baby.”
Pulling the covers up to my chin, I mumbled that I loved her back and drifted off to sleep again.
BRUSHING MY HANDS down my face I swung my feet to the side of the bed and forced myself out of bed. Glancing at the clock, I saw it was almost noon. “Shit, I must have needed that sleep.”
I slowly stood and started to make my way to the bathroom when the bedroom door flew open.
Will came running and skid to a stop right before he knocked me over. “Dude! You weren’t answering your phone.”
Laughing, I turned away from him. “Because I was sleeping.”
“Luke, Libby’s in labor. She’s at the hospital.”
I stopped walking and let Will’s words sink in. Turning around, I whispered, “What?”
“Labor. Baby. No one could get a hold of you.” Will reached over and threw me a pair of jeans that were over the chair. “Come on and get dressed. You need the bag and we need to hurry. She was starting to push.”
I stood there, stunned. “She’s not due for another two weeks. We were at the doctor’s yesterday.”
Will shrugged. “Well the baby decided to make a grand entrance. Where is the bag? Libby said she needed her focus doll or something like that.”
I pushed my hands through my hair and quickly began putting on my jeans. My foot got caught and I began hopping. “Fuck. The bag. Where did Libby put the bag?”
Will spun around and looked at me. “You mean you don’t know where the bag is?”
“Dude, I didn’t even know she had a fucking bag!” I shouted as I finally lost my balance and fell to the floor.
Scrambling to get up, I saw Will bent over laughing his ass off. “Funny. Real funny dickhead, but you wait for the day Alex has a baby. I’m missing the birth of my child!”
I ran into the bathroom and rinsed my mouth out with mouthwash and pulled a T-shirt over my head. “I’m almost ready!”
I yelled out in pain as stubbed my toe on the scale that was for some odd reason sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor. “What the fuck? Son-of-a-bitch that hurt like a mother!”