March 18th, 1959. 7:39 pm. Lubbock Hospital

"Juliet, you're doing great!" I smile as Juliet squeezes my hand.

"Why does it hurt so much?!" She cries.

"There's two children being ripped out of you, it's going to hurt." I say smoothly.

She turns to Russel. "YOU DID THIS TO ME!"

Russel's eyes go wide. "I'm sorry baby, okay, you're doing great! Aren't you excited to meet our babies?"

"THE DEMONS ARE HURTING ME!"

I put my hand on her forehead. "They're going to be worth it, okay? You've always wanted twins, remember?"

"I DIDN'T KNOW LABOR WAS GOING TO HURT THIS MUCH!"

"Okay, Juliet," the doctor says. "One more big push and the first will be out!"

Juliet squeezes mine and Russ's hands. I'm on the left and he's on the right.

"It's a boy!" One of the nurses calls. "Would you like to cut the cord, daddy?" The nurse asks Russ.

"Oh, shit, yeah, sure." Russ says, letting go of her hand.

The nurse hands him the little clamp and he manages to push it down.

Thus baby number one is now a seperate entity from Juliet.

"Okay, you're half way done!" I say to Juliet.

"I REGRET EVERYTHING!"

"Shhh, I know it hurts." I coo.

"Oh, okay, so baby two is breech. We have to flip it around, okay?"

Juliet's eyes go wide as she looks at me in terror. "Vi, what?"

"Hey, they're just flipping him around, okay? Just gonna move him. Nothing more. He's fine." I try to console.

"Is it going to hurt?" She asks.

I contemplate telling her that yes, it's going to be extremely painful or if I should lie and say that it won't hurt.

I shrug. "Maybe, but it'll be worth it."

"Okay, okay it's okay." Russ smiles.

"OH FUCK IT HURTS VIOLET, YOU LYING WHORE!" Juliet screams.

I peak over the curtian and see the doctors hands fully inside of Juliet.

Jesus Christ. Do I actually ever want to give birth?

"Deep breaths, baby." Russ peaks over the curtian too. He shuts his eyes.

Juliet squeezes my hand so hard I think it might break. "WHAT IS HE DOING TO ME?"

"He's just flipping the baby, okay?" The nurse hands the doctor some sort of tool.

"IT HURTS!"

"I know, it'll be okay." I peak over again. It looks like a murder.

The doctor pulls a little bit. "He's positioned." He says to the nurse. "Are you ready, Juliet?"

"As I'll ever be!"

"Push every ten seconds." The doctor says.

"Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix!" I mumble.

Juliet pushes.

"Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix!"

Push.

"Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix!"

Push.

"Okay, another good push!" The doctor calls.

Push.

"Another little boy!" The nurse cheers, handing Russ the clamp again.

Clamp.

Baby number two is also a seperate being now.

"Welcome to the world, kid." Russ says softly to baby two.

"We're gonna get 'em cleaned up and then y'all can hold 'em! I'll send another nurse in to get their names and birth certificate details." The doctor says, taking off his gloves.

"I did it..." Juliet breathes.

"You did so well, baby!" Russ kisses her sweaty head. "I love you!"

Juliet closes her eyes. "I love you too."

A short brunette nurse with red cat eye glasses walks in. "Have any names picked?" She chrips.

"Wyatt Charles and Walter Calvin Smith." Russ responds.

The nurse writes it down. "Where is Mrs. Smith from?"

"Paris, France." Juliet responds.

"Are you a United States citizen?"

"Yes, I took the test."

"Okay, and Mr. Smith, you're from?"

Russ grabs Juliet's hand. "Indianapolis, Indiana."

"Fantastic. Date of birth, ma'am?"

"November 27th, 1936."

"And you, sir?"

"August 2nd, 1934."

"Making you twenty-two and twenty-four?"

"Yeah," Russ nods.

"Perfect, perfect. Okay, the children should be in shortly." She smiles. "Congrats on twins! I see it runs in the family!" She winks and walks out.

Soon enough, the same labor nurse trails in with the babies.

"This is twin number one," she hands him to Russ. "And twin two." She lays him on Juliet's chest.

"Hey Wyatt, welcome to the world." Russ grins, a tear slipping down his cheek.

I try to swallow the lump in my throat. I love babies, oh my god, they're so perfect.

"You're Walter now, okay?" Juliet gently rubs his head.

They both have tufts of blonde hair already.

They're so cute.

Oh my God, they're so cute.

I feel my eyes start to water. "They're so handsome, Juliet."

"Vi, I'm already in love with them, oh my God, look at them." She responds. "They're so small."

"I love you, kids." Russ mumbles.

"Are they okay? They're premature..." Juliet asks.

I nod. "They're perfectly fine, Juliet. They're healthy. It was only a couple of days."

"I love them so much," Juliet kisses Walter's little head.

"I'm going to let you have some time, I'll be back here soon, okay?" I say.

They both nod.

I grab my bag and walk out of the room. Buddy's sitting in the chair by the door.

"How are they, doll?" He asks, standing up.

I wipe my eyes. "They're so perfect already."

"Boys?"

I nod.

"You knew it, as always." Buddy smiles and grabs my hand.

We start to walk to the main waiting room. There sits my parents.

"They're healthy?" My mom asks.

"Yeah, they're perfect." I smile.

"Great!" My mom replies.

Buddy and I sit to the left of my parents.

"Vi, Buddy," my dad starts. "When are you going to have kids?"

I squeeze Buddy's hand. Code for 'you take this one'.

"Uh, I'm not quite sure yet. When we're ready." Buddy says.

"Uh-huh. When will you be ready? You've been together since forever." Dad rolls his eyes.

"Dad, most of that was when we were teenagers." I chime in.

"I guess." Dad mumbles. "Well, you're married now. When?"

"We just aren't ready for kids yet, dad. Please can we drop this?" I ask.

He sighs. "Nothing is stopping you."

"Neither of us is ready for the responsibility of kids yet. We're busy. We're rarely home. We don't have the time right now." I reply.

"Mhm. You're not busy, Vi. You aren't making records." Mom says.

Buddy leans forward and looks at my mom dead in the eyes. "Actually, Vi holds down the recording sessions."

"How?"

"Sound board. Coffee runs. Editing lyrics. Testing compositions. Food runs. Drums. Water runs. Calming everyone down. Resolving arguments. Making sure everyone is happy, piano." Buddy taps my leg with his left ring finger. Code for 'I have your back'.

"She does all of that?"

I nod. "Um, yeah."

"Huh."

"She works harder than everyone combined." Buddy nods.

"Here I thought that you just sat in and listened." Dad raises an eyebrow.

Buddy shakes his head. "Nope, not even close."

"Then why didn't she tell us?" Mom crosses her legs.

Buddy glances at me. "Never came up, I reckon."

"Selfish Vi, as usual." Mom sneers.

I forgot how rude my parents are.

"I'm a little hungry. You wanna go get some food, Vi?" Buddy asks. I can tell he's trying to get us away from my parents.

"Yeah, let's go." I respond, standing up.

"See y'all later." Buddy smiles to my parents as we walk out.

"Why are they like that? Why do they undermine me all the time?" I complain.

"Aw, doll. They have no idea what you do everyday. They could never do what you do." Buddy wraps an arm around my waist.

I roll my eyes. "I forgot how rude they are to me. They still don't like me."

"I like you, doll."

"Why does everyone think that when we have kids is their business?"

"It's dumb. We ain't ready. Simple."

We walk into the small restaurant across the street from the hospital.

"Vi!?" I hear.

I see Adalyn run up.

"Vi, oh my gosh! Why are you in town?!" She asks, hugging me.

I smile and hug ber back. "Juliet just had her babies like 20 minutes ago."

"She did?!"

"Yeah, little twin boys."

She pulls away. "That's amazing!"

Bob wanders up behind her. "Hey strangers!"

Buddy grins. "Hey, Bob! How ya been?"

Bob shrugs. "Wedding planning is a living hell!"

Adalyn and I laugh. "We know!" We say in unison.

"So y'all are finally gettin' married?" Buddy asks.

Bob and Adalyn nod.

"We broke up for a minute, but we're back and in love!" Adalyn grins.

I grin. "Great!"

"Well, do you wanna eat with us?" Bob asks.

I look at Buddy and he shrugs. "Sure."

They lead us back to their table. Buddy and I sit across from them in the booth.

Normal small talk commences. I half listen.

"Excuse us, we're gonna go to the bathroom." Adalyn says after a while, pulling me out of the booth.

We walk into the small bathroom.

"Why haven't you called, Vi?" Adalyn asks, pulling out her face powder and carefully touching up her nose and cheeks.

"I can ask the same to you." I reply.

"I've been busy."

"So have I."

"How was the Winter Dance Party, by the way?" She closes the compact and turns to be.

"Horrific." I sigh. "Worst weeks of my life."

Adalyn grabs my hand. "Why's that?"

"It was cold and the bus kept breaking down and Buddy and I had an argument." I respond.

Adalyn's jaw drops. "You had an argument?!"

I nod. "It was dumb."

"You never argue! You're the perfect couple!"

I roll my eyes. "No we aren't."

"You are to! That one story with the kiss?"

"Staged. Some guy made me go out there."

"Oh, damn."

"Mhm."

"Well, why were y'all arguing?"

I look in the mirror and adjust my bangs. "Chartering a plane."

"Did you not wanna?"

"Well, we'd both been having these really intense dreams where we died in a plane crash in a snowy field. He wanted to charter a plane from Iowa to North Dakota or something. I said no because of the dreams, and he kept on it."

"Oh, sorry."

"Eh, we got over it and Dion got a girlfriend out of it."

"How?"

"After the argument, I was crying, obviously. So I went to the bathroom and there was three other girls in there. They comforted me, like girls do. I took them backstage and Dion hit it off with the one named Dorothy."

Adalyn nods. "Ah, okay."

"What happened with you and Bob? Last I heard, you were already engaged."

"We broke up for a bit and now we're back together and I love him!"

I silently cringe. I wonder if Bob has ever told her about the infamous letter that he wrote me back when we were seniors.

He only confessed his undying love for me. No big deal.

March 27th, 1955. 3:44 pm, The Winter Household

I walk into the house and set my bag down as Buddy walks in after me.

"Vi, Bob left a letter for you earlier," Juliet says from the kitchen.

"Oh, neat." I say, kicking off my saddle shoes. I turn around to Buddy and he looks absolutely nauseous. "Wait, Buddy, are you okay? You look sick."

He nods. "Just a bad feelin 'bout somethin'."

I hear Juliet run back upstairs.

I put my hand on his forehead. "You do feel a little hot,"

"Hey, doll, I'm okay." He insists. "I just feel like somethin' bad is comin',"

I shrug and take my hand off of his forehead, walking into the kitchen. There's the letter on the counter.

"To Violet

PRIVATE!"

I raise my eyebrows and tear open the letter. There's atleast four pages.

"Dearest Violet,

I don't know how else to tell you this, but I'm afraid that I'm in love with you."

I look up from the letter and look at Buddy. He's busy rummaging through the kitchen.

"I'm sorry to say this. I couldn't help but fall for you. Your cute accent, your humor, your humbleness, it all amazes me."

Oh my God, please tell me this is a joke.

"I think you're beautiful. Your hair and the way it's always so neatly messy makes me so happy.

Oh, and your eyes, how are your eyes so green? They look like lost bottles at sea.

Your freckles so effortlessly scatter your face like little constellations. I wish I could get lost among them."

I stop reading before I actually scream. There's still 3 pages left. "Um, Buddy, we have an emergency..." I say, my heart pounding. This is probably what Buddy was feeling. He's right. This is bad.

He walks over with an apple. "What is it?"

"Bob likes me..."

"Holy shit, what? Are you sure?"

"It's all in the letter."

He takes the letter and hands me the apple. "He wouldn't dare..." He starts to scan the pages.

I try to calm myself down before I have a full blown panic attack.

Buddy slowly looks up from the letter, his face red. "He didn't..."

"Buddy, I'm sorry, I-"

"No, it isn't your fault, okay? You're completly amazin', but I can't believe he would do this t'me! That he would do this t'us!"

"I can't-"

He slowly sets the letter down. "Vi, please, I love you,"

I grab his hand. "What?"

"Please don't leave..."

My eyes widen. "Oh, shit, I would never!" I let go of his hand and wrap my arms around him. "I love you so much, Buddy. I could never walk out on you like that."

He wraps his arms around me back. "I can't believe this, doll. He isn't that kinda person,"

"He's steady with Adalyn!" I reply.

He kisses my head. "I love you, please don't leave."

"I promise I won't. Especially not for Bob."

"Doll, I dunno what t'do. He's my best friend, you're my girlfriend. Why do I gotta be caught up in this?"

I stand on my toes and kiss his cheek. "I'll always be around for you." I say. "You don't deserve any of this."

He squeezes me. "This can't be real."

"I hope it's not, really. I truly do."

"How do you manage to woo every guy you meet?" Buddy asks. "How is that possible? Why is everyone in love with you?"

I shake my head. "Not everyone."

"Me, Bob, Leon, Jack, Kurt, Richard, Jose,"

"No," I look up to him. "They would never like me if they knew me as a person. They like the way I look. That's it. You like me for who I am at my very core."

"I dunno,"

"They don't know how many issues I have. They don't know about my past, they don't know about my mental health, they don't know how mad my mind is. But you, you do. You know all of that, and you know what?"

"What?"

"You're still here. All of them would have left ages ago."

Buddy frowns.

"Just like how a lot of people like you. They see that you're talented and attractive and charming. They don't know that you're a massive dork and are petrified of coyotes."

Buddy laughs. "Aw, just had t'bring up the coyotes."

"Yep."

"Vi," he starts. "I really don't wanna seem like Jack. I really don't. I've always prided myself on knowing that we trust eachother more than anythin'."

I nod.

"I'm the only one, yeah?"

I frown. "Of course! Of course, you're the best person, I love you so so much. I feel so horrible that you even have to question that you're the only one. It isn't fair to you."

"I love you too. Can we not let this get between us?" He asks.

"I would be so devastated if it did get between us." I sigh. "You're so great, I could never shove you aside for something like this."

"Can we pretend this didn't happen today? I'm not in my right mind to deal with this right now."

I nod, unwrapping myself from him. "Let's just go upstairs and listen to some records and talk like we always do."

Buddy takes his arms back from around me. He picks up the apple from the table. "Allons-y."

I meander up the stairs and into my room, closely followed by Buddy. He closes the door.

"Vi?"

"Hmmm?"

"I'm sorry I questioned you."

"Oh, Buddy, I'm so sorry that you felt like you had to. You're my love. My best friend. My boyfriend. My stupid idiot."

He laughs. "And you're my dumb twat."

"What endearing names we have," I collapse onto my bed. "Oh! Did I tell you about last week?"

He lays next to me. "No?"

"My mom tried to give me 'the talk'." I laugh. "Little late, mom."

Buddy chuckles. "Oh God, yeah. Like, nine people too late."

I playfully punch his arm. "Hey! Classified!"

"Doll, you had me pick you up from guys houses multiple times!"

"I forgot about that, I'm sorry."

"I mean, I got you in the end." He pulls me closer to him. "What'd your mom say?"

"She sat me down and was like "Vi, I know you're going through changes right now and your body doesn't know what to do! You're going to have urges and I want you to know that it's okay to act on them. Just be safe and tell me if you ever need condoms." And I said "Mom you're a little late." And she goes "I know, and I want you to know that I'm not mad anymore. I just wish I had known. I knew you and Buddy loved eachother, but I didn't know it was physical yet." After that, I retreated into my room. It was a ridiculous talk, mostly because if she'd known if it was more than just you, I would have gotten slapped."

Buddy laughs harder than before. "Jeez, she was on you!"

"Hey, at least they leave us alone when we're in here now."

"That's true, doll." He wraps an arm around me. "Larry gave me the talk ages ago. Right when I started asking questions about it."

"I wish I had had someone to talk to a out that. I just heard from kids at school."

"It's real nice havin' Larry."

"By the way, we should certainly play back seat bingo more often." I smile. "Fun challenge."

"Of course, who do you think I am?"

"A good Baptist boy."

"I swear to God, Vi."

"Good little Baptist boy."

He shakes his head. "Y'know, we've been over this."

"Hmmm, nope!" I giggle.

"Good? No. Baptist? Yes."

I roll over to face him.

"Oh, doll," he says. "Did I tell you that I was thinkin' 'bout bein' baptized?"

I shake my head. "No, you didn't. What made you want to all the sudden?"

"I dunno, I just wanted to be closer to God."

"Okay," I smile. "Baptism is the holy water thing?"

"Mhm."

"I was actually baptized when I was adopted."

"Really? I never knew that."

"Yeah, at the Church of England."

"Great! Well, I'm gonna do it."

"Aw, it'll be nice, yeah?"

Buddy nods. "Yeah! I'm pretty excited now."

I smile. "Good!"

Just because I'm not religious doesn't mean my boyfriend can't be.

I sit back down in the booth. I can't help but notice that Bob won't make eye contact with me.

Buddy puts a hand on my thigh. Something is wrong. I can feel it.

I'll ask him later at home.