Normal Life
Chapter 2
By: Bella
Surprise!" a living room full of people shouted as Tristen entered her home with a bag full of groceries in one hand, keys in the other, and sunglasses in between her lips. The surprise happened to surprise her so much that she dropped her bag of groceries, keys, and sunglasses and shrieked.
"Ahh! Oh my Lord, you guys scared the shit out of me!!" she exclaimed, trying to calm herself down. She looked around the room and saw that the room full of familiar faces had decorated her house in baby shower decorations while she was gone. She knew that it couldn't have been Billy, because he had gone to pick up Benji and Joel at the airport. She had decided to go shopping instead because airports made her nervous for some reason. She had always hated airports, and although she was eager to see her husband, she decided to wait for he and Billy to come back.
"How did you …?" Tristen started, before covering her mouth and letting a few tears roll down her cheeks. She was touched. She started a cheesy group hug. "Oh my gosh you guys!"
---
"You guys look like shit," Billy said as Benji and Joel came sluggishly walking up to him when they had spotted him waiting for them in the airport. The twins both looked like they hadn't slept in years, had hoodies on over their heads, and walked slowly with their heads down and their hands in their pockets. It was times like these, when they were both tired, dressed the same, and without make-up, that they truly looked like identical twins. Tired, identical twins.
"Thanks, it's nice to see you too," Joel said sarcastically as they walked to claim their luggage.
"I'm so tired. All I want to do is see my wife and go to bed," Benji said, yawning.
"MTV worked you guys over pretty good this time, huh?" Billy said as he helped them with the few bags that they had.
"I swear, it will be my goal that one of these days I'M going to be the one fucking MTV in the ass," Benji said as they passed an older looking woman holding the hand of what appeared to be her daughter or granddaughter. The woman looked at Benji shocked after his little comment and Benji was immediately embarrassed. He started walking quicker and avoiding the death glare that the woman was giving him.
Once they got to Billy's car and put their bags in the trunk, Joel walked over to the passenger side and called out loudly, "Shot gun!" followed by a huge yawn.
"You're so immature," Benji said, shaking his head disapprovingly and getting into the back seat. He noticed a present in the back seat as well, which was wrapped in baby shower wrapping paper.
"What's this?" He asked, curiously. He assumed that it was for he and Tristen and wasted no time in trying to pick up the large box and shake it.
"Careful, asshole. That happens to be fragile," Billy said, getting into the driver's seat and starting the Nissan Sentra that he had borrowed from his girlfriend because his new Lincoln Navigator was still being repaired after he had been hit by a student driver the previous morning. He was extremely unhappy about the minor accident and hated his girlfriend Maggie's car. Maggie was Tristen's cousin and he had met her at the wedding reception and had been dating ever since. "C'mon and start, mother fucking piece of shit."
"Why the hell are you driving Maggie's car?" Joel asked, confused.
"Don't ask," Billy said flatly.
"You still didn't answer my question, dumbass," Benji replied.
"If you must know, that is a little gift from Paul, Sandy, and I that I picked up earlier for a baby shower that I'm going to this afternoon. I had to pick it up on my way to come and get a couple of MTV's little bitches," he said with a snotty smirk on his face, knowing that Benji and Joel hated to be called this.
"Fucker. And whose baby shower might that be?" Benji asked, having a pretty good idea. "And why wasn't I informed earlier?"
"You'll see," Billy replied simply as they headed back to Benji and Tristen's house.
---
Tristen was talking with a few friends and snacking on chips and salsa when she saw Benji enter the family room and run toward her.
"Babe! I missed you!" Tristen said, happy to see her husband again. She hugged him as tightly as she could, although her stomach was sort of in their way.
"I missed you too," Benji said, kissing her and ignoring the other people in the room. Joel came up to them and got next to their faces.
"Get a room!" he shouted loudly, which made them break apart and every one laughed.
"Did you know about this?" she asked, looking around.
"Nope. Didn't have a clue until I saw that big ass present in the back of Billy's car … or Maggie's car, actually," he said, pointing to the present which now sat with the other gifts.
"Did everything go OK while I was gone?" he asked, sitting down with her and eating some of her chips.
"Yep, everything was great. Billy is the best baby-sitter ever," she said, smiling at Billy who was with Maggie in the kitchen getting some sodas.
"OK guys, what should we do first? Cake or presents?" Jill asked everyone. She, along with Paul, Sandy, and Billy had done the majority of planning for the shower.
"Presents!" Benji yelled excitedly, quickly forgetting his sleepiness. Joel, however, had not forgotten the fact that they had only gotten two hours of sleep the previous night before, and was already asleep in the dining room, sitting in a chair with his head resting on the long table.
Everyone went into the living room, where people had piled presents as they came into the house. Benji and Tristen opened presents, while Sandy kept a list of what they got and who it was from so that it would be easier to write thank you notes afterward. They received a lot of clothing (unisex, because they had decided not to know the sex of the baby before its birth), some baby bath products, stuffed animals, nice blankets, and many toys, among other things. The last gift that they opened, upon Paul's request, was the gift from Billy, Paul, and Sandy. It was two boxes, one on top of the other. The one on top was smaller than the one on the bottom.
"You have to open the bigger box first," Sandy explained. Benji and Tristen did, and discovered that it was a huge stereo.
"Wow! Oh my gosh, this is awesome!" Benji exclaimed.
"I noticed that the nursery was missing something very important, so we decided that we needed to do something about it," Billy said, smiling.
"Thank you guys so much!" Tristen said, hugging Paul who was sitting right next to her.
"Open the smaller one now," Paul said. Benji and Tristen obeyed, and unwrapped a box with 5 cd's in it. One from Silverchair, one from Depeche Mode, one from Tori Amos, and one called "Sleepy Time Lullaby's."
"This is our little contribution to the baby's music collection. I think you can figure out who chose which cd. And the lullaby one … well, we figured that it might not enjoy the other cds until it was a bit older so I guess every baby needs a few lullaby's," Sandy said.
"That was so sweet you guys, thank you so much!" Tristen said, as she suddenly felt an unfamiliar gush.
"Damn Tristen, I knew you'd be excited, but I didn't know you'd get THAT excited," Billy said, laughing, as everyone looked at Tristen. Her tan capri maternity pants now looked like she had a little "accident."
Benji and Tristen looked at each other with wide eyes and both let out a, "holy shit," at the same time.