I wake up to the sound of my cell phone ringing next to my alarm clock. I recognize the One Piece theme song as Chica's ringtone.

"Hello?" I rub my eyes, trying to wake up a bit.

"LANNIE!!" Chica is overly excited as usual. "IT'S ADVENTURE TIME, BABY DUCK. OPEN YOUR FUCKING DOOR AND LET ME IN!!"

I hold the phone at arm's length as she yelled. "OK, I'll be down in a sec, just let me get dressed."

"Ugh, fine," she groans, "but hurry up. And bring your swimsuit!"

I grab my swimsuit, a two piece with white and orange stripes. I put my see through, peach colored dress over it and slip on my orange flip flops.

I try to run down the stairs but my ever growing stomach disagrees with the idea.

Chica is waiting outside tapping her foot impatiently on my front step. She wears her dark grey one piece swimsuit with Jean shorts and her blue and orange hoodie over it. "Bout time you got out here." She complains.

"Whatever," I laugh, "where are we going?"

"To the beach," Chica reaches into the entry way and shoves my purse into my hands. "Rhys called me last night and said you were super stressed out, so I'm here to make sure you have fun!"

"OK, let's do this."

In the car, I hand Chica the aux cord and she turns on her favorite Green Day album: Uno.
We sing along all the way to the beach a half hour from my house.

The beach has a boardwalk with a mini fair and plenty of tiny stores. Chica and I roam the boardwalk, with Chica pretending to flirt with every guy we pass. Whenever they inevitably turned her down she would say, "That's OK, I have a boyfriend anyway!"

We buy some cotton candy from a nearby vendor and walk down to the actual beach.

"Now, no swimming for at least 45 minutes," Chica lectures.

"Yes, mother," I roll my eyes and pull off another piece of cotton candy.

Chica tsk tsk and shakes her head. We share a laugh as we set up our towels, mine light blue with pink seahorses, hers black with white zig zags on each end.

I stand in knee high water and keep one eye on our stuff as Chica swims out farther into the bay. She waves to me once she's out as far as she can go. I wave back.

I hold my stomach and stare off at the boardwalk, letting the wind flow through my long unbound hair like Rhys's fingers. I close my eyes and let the beach envelope me.

Next thing I know, I'm drenched in water and Chica is laughing manically to my right.

I grin and splash water back at her. We proceed to have a water fight in the knee high water for the next hour.

Afterwards, Chica sunbathes on her towel and I continue reading The Silver Eyes. Chica hums Adorable by artist vs poets next to me.

Once I finish my book, we go back to the boardwalk. We buy some ice cream and brows a book store. I've always food book stores relaxing,with their musty book smells, soft lighting, and gently humming fans. I end up leaving with the entire Inheritance Cycle.

Chica suddenly gets super excited, "Let's go ride some rides!"

"OK, sounds fun."

"Yas!" Chica leads me over to the ferris wheel.

At the top of the ferris wheel, we can see the entire bay. The boardwalk extends into a full dock for private boats and a fish market. On the beach, kids the size of ants chase each other through the waves. A large red balloon floats past us from a vendor bellow.

"This is too boring," Chica complains. She puts her elbow on the side of our car and sets her chin on her palm.

I shrug, "I think it's relaxing..."

"That's just because you're pregnant and no fun," she teases.

I nudge her shoulder playfully, "Just wait until I get really pregnant and I start getting cravings, and morning sickness, and the depression."

Chica shakes her head, "Sounds like fun, I feel bad for you."

"Yeah but it's all worth it," I look down and rub my stomach, "just wait until you have kids."

"Maybe one day," Chica eaves her hand dismissively.

"Do you think you and Ryan will ever get married and have kids?"

"I really hope so, I think he might be planning to propose, he's been really secretive lately. Which means he is either going to ask me to marry him or he's cheating on me."

"Hopefully the first one..." By this time, our car is already back at the bottom and stopping to let us out.

We ride a few more rides before the sun starts to set.

"I already got us a hotel room, we're staying the night here."

Oh OK... But I don't have any clothes for tomorrow or my pajamas."

"That's fine, I brought plenty of money so we can buy whatever you need! But first... FIREWORKS!!"

The fireworks on the boardwalk are amazing. Chica and I sit on our towels and eat hotdogs and more cotton candy as the sun sinks below the horizon. Chica looks up at the clouds.

"Hey," she points up at a long skinny cloud with another fatter cloud touching it, "that one looks like you!"

I shake my head, "Yeah, in a few months."

"Close enough."

I laugh. The first fireworks begin to go off.

After the fireworks end, Chica and I drive to Walmart to buy some supplies. We bought pop  and stuff for smores to put in the microwave. We also buy an entirely new outfit and some cute pajamas.

I buy a black T-shirt with white graffiti words that spell out "Bad Wolf", black skinny jeans, and white converse. The pajamas are light blue with clouds on them.

Chica and I spend the whole night eating junk food and acting like kids again. I go to sleep happy for the first time in a while.