The Sophomore || Tori Kelly

The Act

"But what about Jasmine? It's clear that she doesn't have a stable home life. And what if Maya doesn't pull through? Is Maya's family gonna take Jasmine? Are you going to take her?" Tori rapid fired. André shrugged. He hadn't thought that far. He just wanted to keep Jasmine safe until Maya woke up.

"I don't know," he said. Tori nodded.

"Exactly. And you shouldn't have to. She isn't your child. I understand what you are trying to do, but at the same time, three kids? Not just kids, but babies? Not gonna happen," Tori said. André's eyes softened as he glanced to the baby chewing on her hands. "Dré, snap out of it. We are having twins in 6 weeks. We can't take a 6 month old too," Tori whined. She could tell André wanted to refute, but she was praying Maya pulled through. Because Maya didn't deserve to die and they didn't deserve to have to take her child, when André was supposed to be the one behind the bullet.

1 AM

André sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair in a jacket he'd found under his truck seat. Tori was asleep on his shoulder and Jasmine was asleep on his chest. He watched doctors and nurses walk in and out of the huge automatic doors for hours, patiently waiting. "Maya Kline's family?" A brunette called. André made eye contact with the nurse and quickly woke Tori up.

"Baby, that's us," André said, placing a gentle hand over Jasmine's head as he got up. Tori silently followed, rubbing her hands under her stomach. As they followed the nurse, Andre glanced back to see Tori walking a bit slower as they followed the nurse to Maya's room. "You okay?" He asked, stopping to wait for Tori, taking her hand.

"I'm okay, just feeling the weight of the twins," she replied. They got to the room to see Maya with a bandage on her shoulder.

"André?" She asked. "What are you doing here?" Tori awkwardly folded her arms as André placed the sleeping baby on Maya's good side.

"Someone had to stay with your baby," he replied. Maya glanced to her child then back to her ex. "Dré, I'm sorry. I didn't—"

"You could've had me killed. Do you know what that could've done to Tori? I'm a parent now, just like you," André said motioning to his pregnant girlfriend. "We are parents now. All of us. And all this jealousy and childish stuff mixed with crazy solutions is going to get all of our kids taken and possibly our lives. You need to focus on your child and let us focus on ours," André decreed, practically forcing Tori out of the room and out of the hospital.

—

The couple silently sat in André's truck, by the pond in the heart of their new neighborhood. "I'm sorry about earlier and really everything," Tori apologized as André gave her a foot rub in the front seat.

"Hey, I know I haven't been the easiest to live with lately," André stepped in, "but I just want everything to be perfect for the boys," he said. "And I also wanted to ask you something," André whispered grabbing the ring from his glove compartment. Tori's eyes glossed over as her right hand slipped to her mouth. This was not how she imagine her big day, but this for some reason was better. "Victoria, you are the light of my life. And so are theses babies. Will you do me the honor of making me the happiest man alive?" André asked.

In shock, Tori held out her hand as André took off her promise ring and replaced it with an engagement ring. As a slow processor, Tori was still stuck on the fact that her boyfriend— fiancé was shot at. And now she was engaged.

Her mother had claimed that things would look up once the boys had made their arrival, but Tori was starting to see the brighter days already.

7:15 AM

The sun beamed through the open sliding glass door to showcase the half put together coffee table of Tori and André's living room. Tori flipped her hair off of her neck as she got into a new comfortable position, before a knock on the front door pulled her out of bed. She felt over to André's side, in hopes of making him get up, but he was already at work.

Begrudgingly, Tori got out of bed and headed to the door. Slowly, she opened the tall brown wooden door it to see her brother holding his backpack. "What the hell?" Tori groaned. Noah pushed into the house, past Tori, straight towards the kitchen.

"Mom sent me over here. She said, I had to help you move the rest of your stuff in before Nico and I could go to the mall," he complained. Tori shut her front door and followed her brother, pulling him out of her cabinets and towards the living room.

"Build this table and then go in the nursery and put the changing table together. I'm going back to sleep while the boys are still asleep," Tori mumbled, heading up the short amount of steps to her room. She could hear Noah starting a sentence, but shut the door before he could fully ask whatever it was he deemed important that she couldn't care less about.

8:40 AM

Tori walked out of her room to see not one, not two, but all three of her family members in her home. Laura was cleaning up the kitchen and organizing. Allwyn was holding two pieces together for Noah to screw together. And Noah looked like he was splitting the wood. "Uhhh, guys?" Tori said, pushing her hair into a bun and coming into her living room.

"Good morning, honey. How are you feeling?" Laura asked, putting the cleaning supplies away so that Tori wouldn't get sick with the fumes.

"Uhh, confused. Why are you guys here?" Tori asked, leaning on the back of her sectional, overlooking her father and brother as her mother moved to her side.

"We came to help. We wanted to come by yesterday, but Noah had practice and it got late," Laura replied. Tori didn't mind that her family was at her house, but she was definitely shocked and wished that they had at least called first.

"Ohh-kay. Noah have you even left that spot?" Tori asked, seeing her brother where she left him an hour and 35 minutes ago.

"Nope. I spent the first twenty minutes asleep on the couch. This is a nice couch by the way. Then, when mom and dad got here, I got up," he replied. Tori rolled her eyes and dropped her head a bit. Short strong movements hit her pelvis, as one of her boys flipped. She could only tell because it felt like the other was mad that they were touching and started to kick back. That was great for delivery, but bad for mommy.

Tori took a deep breath as her sciatic ignited. "Damn it," Tori whispered. When her sciatic started to blaze, there was no sitting or walking it off. Every movement hurt worse that the last and the pain lasted for at least two hours.

"You want to go lie back down? I can figure out what needs to be done upstairs," Laura suggested. Tori shook her head and stood up straight to start her ascent to the nursery.

"I'll be fine. I've got to put the rest of the clothes and diapers away," she winced as she limped towards the stairs. In a rush, Laura met Tori by her side helping up the steps, but quickly directing her to the master bedroom.

"No. I will get that. You are clearly in pain and in no shape to be climbing up and down stairs or doing a bunch of work." Laura diverted. Tori groaned as she sat on the edge of the bed. Before she could protest, her phone rang, forcing Tori to answer.

"Hello?" Tori sighed, placing the phone to her ear. Loud music blared, but was slightly muffled by a crying baby.

"T, we have a problem," André vaguely stated. Tori's face changed as she felt a slight pop, forcing Laura to become even more concerned.

"Yeah, we do," Tori breathed, "I'm pretty sure my water just started to break."

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To Be Continued...