Sidney looked down at the concrete. Stubborn weeds had begun growing through cracks in the hard surface. Her knees quaked and her stomach did flips in her abdomen so she closed her eyes and tried to imagine herself as the weed. Popping up in a place she wasn't wanted but where nature demanded she be anyway. Her baby was in there.

The door to Aiden's home would open at any moment and she prayed that her resolve remained intact. Her anxiety had her ready to bolt. She looked back at her red SUV with Whitney sat in the driver's seat watching her intently. She gave Sidney an almost imperceptible nod. The guts that had carried her across the city and down to Aiden's house without calling, without offering any warning, bloomed back up in her belly. She pushed the doorbell again. Her finger was still on the button when the door swung open, the ding dong echoing through the house and out onto the quiet block. A surprised Aiden stood before her with his hands wrapped in a dishtowel. She focused on a single droplet of water running down his forearm and pooling at his elbow. Anything to keep from looking him in the eye. Seems like her resolve had not accounted for the weakness she always felt when she looked into his eyes.

"We need to talk."

His jaw was stilled. The tension settling through him. There was no way he could know what to expect from her. After years and no more than a few words between drop-offs and pick-ups, she could hardly believe that her feet were planted on his front porch. She'd wedged everything down so perfectly that she was afraid. Terrified that once she popped the cork on all the emotions she'd never be able to close the bottle again. She remembered herself on that day when everything shattered. A writhing and unconscious mess on a dirty coed bathroom floor. Pregnant with her and Aiden's baby while he was in the arms of the man he loved.

But he stepped aside. Sid pulled herself from the past as she glanced back at the car again. Whitney's eyes were still on her. Providing her with a little courage to move forward to whatever the future held. The threshold seemed like a mountain to climb but once she was across it and Aiden closed the door behind her she knew there was no turning back.

She ignored the same pictures she always did as she made her way to the family room. An overstuffed couch anchored the room on a paisley carpet beneath the bay window. In front of it, her eyes met the big beautiful brown eyes of her sweet baby boy. Just as she made to rush over to him and sweep him up in her arms she registered the figure lying on the floor next to him. A chunky red Lego in his long fingers. His long legs stretched clear across the area rug, causing his feet to rest on the hardwood floor. 

Sid thought back to the last time they were in the same room. Her tummy recoiled and every piston that fired in her legs urged her to leave. She had been running away from the hurt that these two people caused her and all it did was invite more uncertainty. She thought she was protecting herself. But all she'd done was allow that wound to remain fresh. It had not healed at all and being here and standing there between the two of them sent fire through that wound. But she bared it. For those beautiful little eyes and that full head of curly hair that was barreling toward her. She stood firm.

AJ squealed with delight and she melted. Picking him up into her arms felt like a shot of adrenaline and protection. She breathed him in and planted kisses all over his little face before he wriggled down and grabbed onto her hand to lead her over to the Lego's. Over to him. Sid's sneakers dug into the rug. Jamal pushed himself up off the ground.

"I'll go." He said, his body angled toward the stairs to the second level. Sid's chest relaxed a bit.

"No." The sound of Aiden's voice suddenly punching through the room caused everyone to stop, even little AJ. Sid looked between the two of them and watched them communicate the way that two people who knew each other intimately did. Only with their eyes. Sid could see Aiden demanding that Jamal stay put even though he wanted to be as far from here as possible. Sid's shoulders dropped when she saw Jamal's eyes confirm that he would stay.

Aiden retrieved an iPad from a hidden drawer with Mickey Mouse headphones attached to it and scooped up AJ. He placed him on that couch that seemed to swallow his little body whole and slipped the headphones over his ears. With Bubble Guppies on the screen, AJ was transported to an undersea world and they had all the privacy they needed to hash out...them. Here they all were again. Jamal stared at his bare feet and Aiden shot lasers Sid way. Neither one of them seemed like they were going to kick off this convo so she cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there this morning. I have..." She was about to explain her situation but she knew it wouldn't help her case. Aiden already thought she was a complete mess. "...a lot was going on. I should have called. I'm sorry. But you can't just take AJ from me Aiden. We have to talk about stuff like this."

"I have been trying to talk to you for years, Sidney."

"Talk now. What do you want to talk about? What do you want to say?" Sid

"I want us to be able to be civilized. Instead of you pushing me out like I'm some kind of stranger. I talk to Whit more than I talk to you!"

"Well, Whit didn't get cheated on and left." And there it was. They were in the thick of it like children who had wandered too deep into the thicket. Sid, hoped they would ease into this part. Maybe skirt around the issue for a while before mumbling apologies. But looking into Aiden's eyes she knew that something else was behind that. She suspected she wouldn't be getting an apology today.

"No one left you."

"Yes. You did. From the moment we stepped foot on that campus you left me. I needed you so fucking much Aiden and you just slowly peeled me away like some disgusting bandaid." Sid fought to push the hurt back into the place where she had buried it but it was busting up through the dirt. Hand outstretched and grabbing her by the throat. She tugged at the sleeves of the hoodie she wore. "You said we would figure it out together. After my Dad...you said we'd get through together. Why'd you say that? If you were going to leave me...why did you say that?" Sid forced herself to look at Aiden and for a moment she saw it there. That seventeen-year-old boy who held her in his arms brought her Oreo's and explored the city with her. But he was only there for a second before the new Aiden took over.

"Because I wanted to, Sid. I wanted to be there for you. And I was. All day. All the time. Every moment. But Sid, I was seventeen. I was still figuring me out and..." He took a step toward her... "and you knew."

Sidney could hear Jamal's ragged nervous breaths from across the living room. She didn't want him to be here. She wished that she could push him into that ridiculously huge couch and it would suck him into a different world. Her eyes darted over to him and locked with his for a moment before he looked back at his feet. Like he already knew what Aiden was about to say next.

"I didn't. I did not know."

"If we're going to have a fucking conversation, Sid, we're going to have a truthful one, OK?" Aiden spoke to her like he was trying to calm a wild beast. All slow enunciation and deep authoritative tones. The voice he used on AJ when he was delirious with tiredness and acting out.

"You made me be your boyfriend in middle school. And I did because I loved you. I was in awe of you. So headstrong. Spoke your mind. Had your whole life planned out. All I had were questions about me, who I was. What I was... but you made that all go away. You told me I was yours and that was that. And then senior year when I found out you were going to move, I told you. Remember?" Aiden took another step toward her. Trying to close the gap between what he knew to be true and what Sid had told herself all these years. Sid shook her head and tried to look anywhere but at him. "You asked me how do I know what I like if I never tried. So, that day, before everything happened...we tried."