"Honey, I'm home!"

Jimmy loved to say that as he walked into his house, it was probably something to do with his obsession of hearing the old fashioned words rocket around the house until his wife replied with a smile and a kiss. He'd missed seeing her all day, even though he hadn't been working, he'd just been sorting out his best friends family.
Somehow, he'd managed to convince Lisa to stay at her Dad's, no matter how mad she was, because he knew that tonight, he just wanted it to be him and Jamie.

"I will never get tired of hearing you say that, Jim Jam" Jamie said as she walked out of the kitchen, standing up on her tip toes to kiss her husband. She was tall, apparently, at five nine, but the man she'd married was six foot four, and even she had to reach up to find his lips. He wrapped his arms around her belly and almost lifted her up off of the floor happily. The man was like a small child trapped inside an adults body, like Tom Hanks in 'Big'.
"How was your day?" Jimmy asked as he carried her into the kitchen, without her even saying a word.

"I...um...well, I..." she began, a little unsure at how to tell her husband the most important news she'd heard all day. Jamie hadn't been quite sure how he was going to take it, but she was sure that eventually, he'd be as happy as she was.
"Spit it out, babe. What happened?" he asked, his expression falling into one of a concerned nature as he noticed how nervous she had become.

"Well...I took a pregnancy test today. I've been feeling sick in the mornings and getting all these crazy cravings and...I just wanted to be sure" she whispered as she felt Jimmy put his arms around her waist, pulling her in closely to his body, so close that she could hear his heartbeat radiate through his chest and right into her ear.
"And what did it say?" he said quietly, running his hand in circles on her clothed back, his fingers pulling lightly at the soft material.

"That in nine months...we're gonna be parents"

Jimmy's jaw almost dropped right to the floor in surprise, and he picked Jamie up off of her feet, spinning her round happily and pressing their lips together. He was going to be a Dad- they were going to have a baby in the house soon. Another little person for Jimmy to turn into a drummer, to corrupt until they had a filthier mouth than he did.
"Babe, we're gonna be parents. We're gonna have a baby- a new mini-me. I love you" he whispered, so proud that his little wife had made him so happy.

She smiled. "I love you too Jimmy"

The two of them kissed again, and Jimmy found his hand pressing lightly against his wife's stomach, a little shiver running down his spine when he thought of what could be hiding in there. His child.

Maybe this was that feeling that Brian had told him about when they'd found out that Lacey was pregnant with Tyler. Pride mixed with a little fear.

He was scared- but she was scared with him, and that was all that mattered.

***

Lizzy had been half asleep when she'd heard the sound of someone throwing rocks at her window. Rather than think of it as a romantic gesture, like some would've been inclined to do, she'd grabbed the heaviest book she could find and slowly edged her way over to the window, ready to open the window and kill whoever was down there. Or at least give them a concussion.
But when she glanced out, she saw Zacky was standing on Brian's lawn, throwing rocks at the glass. When he spotted her, he beckoned her down to the garden.

She rolled her eyes, wondering why the man couldn't just stick to the convential text like every other person in America and silently walked out of her bedroom. She could hear Lacey and Brian fucking in the other room, and she was glad Tyler was a heavy sleeper- because the sound of your parents, or in her case her brother and sister-in-law, sleeping together was particularly scarring to an innocent mind.

Once she'd slowly let herself out into the cold night, she glanced around for Zacky, who seemed to have disappeared from view. She was ready to turn right around and go back inside the house, until a pair of familiar arms wrapped around her waist and carried her into the backyard, where all the pretty lights had been turned on. It was one of the Lizzy's favourite things about her brothers house- the beauty the lights surrounding it made.

"You always did used to go over the top with your romantic gestures. Shouldn't you be with your fiancee?" Lizzy asked as Zacky pulled her over to the little stone bench, the same one the two of them had made up on after Zacky blew up over her choosing to accept the scholarship to Harvard. Time had passed so quickly.

"To be honest, I'd rather be anywhere but with her" Zacky said as he crossed his legs, sitting side on so he could stare right into Lizzy's eyes. They were still as beautiful as he remembered them.
"So why are you here then?" Lizzy asked slowly, but he didn't respond with words. Instead, he leaned in slowly and kissed her as gently as he could, years of regrets he'd never had the courage to voice to Lizzy before staining his lips. They were older now. So much older.

She didn't pull away for a moment, and if anything, she began to kiss back, until Zacky leaned in further, and suddenly she wrenched their lips apart, red running through her cheeks and her eyes filling with tears. Close to crying, Lizzy managed to edge herself away from Zacky- far enough that it hurt, but not that she felt like she was losing him entirely.

"Why Zacky? Why now, why me? We broke up a long time ago- you have a fiancee who expects you to marry her in a few months. I don't want to wreck something you've spent so long trying to perfect" she whispered, wiping her eyes as she furiously told herself not to cry in front of him. He moved closer still, but she moved away again.
"It was always you Lizzy. Though years I was with Anna, I was thinking of you. You were the one I wanted, not her. You know that" he said, but she backed away again, almost as if he was a stranger.

"I can't be with you Zacky. You have her" she whispered solemnly, her hands clenching the white marble of the bench.
"Then I'll leave her. If I can be with you, that's what I'll do"

She didn't believe him, because she'd learned by now that men didn't keep the promises they made- not even when they whispered it on their heartbeats.

"You won't, because you never do. Brian was right. You don't have the balls Zacky Baker. And when you do- that's when you can come and find me" she yelled into the darkness, and with that, she got to her feet and stormed back into the house, tears spilling down her cheeks.