Chapter 32: Chapter Thirty-One

The next Monday, our favorite teacher held Jonah and me in the room after class.

"So," Mr. Herberg said, clasping his hands together and setting them down on the desk in front of him. "How's your project going?"

"It's going great," I said with a slow nod.

"Is that so?" We both nodded. "How about the home movie? Are you filming your activities together? Have you been hanging out?"

"Yep," I said again, still wondering where the teacher was going with this.

Mr. Herberg smiled at us, and it was the kind of smile that just made you feel like you were being left out of some important stuff. "So you've been getting along with each other well, haven't you?" We both nodded again. "Alright, so how's the baby?"

"A pain in the a—butt," Jonah piped in, a dark look on his face. I tried to hold in my laughter.

"It's his turn to take care of her this week. He's only started yesterday," I explained to Mr. Herberg who looked mildly amused.

"Okay, but aside from that, things are good, right?" he asked. We nodded again. "Alright. You're free to go. Good luck."

We both got out of the class, equally confused by what had just happened. But then I rolled my eyes, because Mr. Herberg had never been a not-weird teacher since he arrived here—his good looking face was just a cover of whatever it was hiding in his mind—and walked calmly toward the lunch room, with Jonah by my side.

I noticed that he was looking more tired and way grumpier than usual, but thankfully he hadn't snapped at me so far—couldn't say the same for another freshman who became his victim after stepping on his foot this morning—so as we both stood in line to get our lunch, I calmly asked, "How was our baby girl?"

He made a sound at the back of his throat, full of disdain. "I tried to find where her batteries are stored so I can plug her off."

I couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face. "Don't. She probably has a self-destruct feature. She might blow up if you dismember her. You didn't throw her at the wall though, did you?"

"No," he grunted. "Not yet."

"That's good, then," I said cheekily. "You didn't forget to burp her after feeding her, right? And I already taught you how to put her diapers on. Oh, and what about the rocking? You didn't swing her too hard, right? Just do it gently, lovingly, and maybe she'll stop crying."

He groaned out loud. "Please, do shut up."

I held up my hands in surrender. "Just making sure you're well on your way toward the Best Father of the Year award."

"Can you take care of her when I'm at work every day, though?" he asked, rubbing his temples tiredly, before muttering to himself, "Does Herberg have any regard at all for people who have a job?"

"Of course, Jonah," I said sincerely. "I'll keep an eye on her. That won't be a problem. Besides, this is just like how real life works, right? If you're a parent who has a job, I mean. You gotta find a way to work it out. It's no problem."

"Thanks. And, um, it goes both ways. If you happen to have things to do during your babysitting shift, you can just hand her over to me. If you want," he told me quietly, before nodding goodbye, ready to part ways with me to go to his lone lunch table.

I bit my lip, remembering what he'd said about not having friends, and called out, "Hey, Jonah?"

He turned around. "Mm?"

"Do you... want to, um," I started, jabbing my thumb toward the general direction of my usual table, "sit with me and my friends?"

He paused, and he just stared at me with his forehead knitted, his lips slightly jutted out as he considered my offer. I let out the breath I was holding once I saw him nod at me, and he walked back toward me, letting me lead him the way to my usual table where my friends were already sat.

To put it nicely, both of the girls were surprised by Jonah's presence.

"Come sit," I said to Jonah, patting the empty chair next to the one I'd just sat at. I gave him a reassuring smile and he gave me a nod in return, and I turned my attention to the girls seated across us. "Gina, Bey, this is Jonah, my Life Skills partner," I told them, ignoring the coy look Gina was sending me, and turned to Jonah, "Jonah, this is my best friend Gina, and her girlfriend, Bey."

"Nice to meet you," Bey said brightly after throwing a meaningful look at me. A few weeks ago, Gina and I finally told her about the whole (abandoned) Operation Bite the Apple, including how I had been crushing on Jonah forever. Long story short, she hadn't gone a day without teasing me about it.

"Hannah's been telling us a lot about you," Gina chimed in, and I sent her a dark look.

I looked at Jonah and saw that he had a small polite smile on his face. "Good or bad?"

"Bad, Jonah," I cut my friend off. "Bad, bad things. I told them that you're the worst person in the world. Just terrible to be around. Horrifying, really." He rolled his eyes at me, but he was silent.

The rest of the lunch hour was well spent, except for the fact that Gina and Bey would flirt relentlessly in front of us and making everything awkward between Jonah and I as we both tried not to pay attention to the blatant public display of affection in front of our lunch.

My friends decided to be abnormally insufferable today, but I had to forgive them since Jonah seemingly, despite the fact that he hid it pretty well, was having a great time at our table with them.

Maybe then he'd start to realize that friends weren't such bad things.

[]

Having my nights ruined by Daisy's cries, I wasn't all that surprised when my sleeping pattern became a little bit wacky.

My eyes would automatically snap open around two in the morning—the hour when Daisy cried the most—as if my body was expecting the sound of her wailing. I would immediately fall asleep again, though, when I realized that the spawn of the devil was far away from me and that I was safe from her evil ways of torturing my much needed beauty sleep. But this time, before my eyes could snap shut again, my phone vibrated from my bedside table.

With my eyes closed, I swiped the screen to answer the call. "'Lo?"

A sound of what was possibly a mixture of a groan and a sigh came greeted my ear, along with the familiar crying sound. "She wouldn't stop crying."

I slowly sat up, rubbing my eyes and letting out a huge yawn before replying, "Is she hungry?"

"No. I fed her."

"Diaper?"

"No blinking light so I didn't bother."

"You rocked her?"

"Been doing that for the last one hour and forty minutes and it was gonna be either my arms falling off or this fucking doll out of the window."

"Hold your temper, Jonah," I said patiently, yawning again. "Maybe she's cold?"

There was a mumbling that sounded a lot like a curse, and then some rustling as if Jonah was moving around so I lay my head back into my pillows, and I felt myself slipping into the  dreamland until his voice rang out. "—Nah? Hannah? You there?"

"Mmm," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand. "Still crying?"

"Yes she's sti—wait, she just... stopped," Jonah said, his voice sounding like he was in awe. "Oh thank god. Oh god," he repeated over and over again, sighing in relief. I heard a soft thud, like he just dropped onto his bed in exhaustion. "Thank you, Hannah."

I smiled, liking the fact that he called me Hannah like a normal person would call me. "S'alright."

"Sorry to wake you up."

"It's fine," I said, only to be cut off by another yawn, the one so audible that even Jonah heard it.

He chuckled. "So, I understand why she stressed you out so much."

"Well, I did tell you so," I said lightly. "So what's the problem? She was too cold?"

"Yeah, my heater wasn't working well so it's a bit colder tonight in my house," he explained with a sigh. "I'm used to it, and I've got my blankets, but I forgot about her temperature function. Should've known she would cry because of that."

"Yeah, she does detect temperature," I said in agreement. Then I wondered why he didn't immediately sleep once Lily's cries stopped (because that was exactly what I always did) and instead stayed on the phone with me. "You going back to sleep?"

"In a sec. And you? You sound exhausted," he asked unsurely.

I was sleepy as hell, but tired? "I'll go in a sec, too."

"Okay."

I almost said "okay" back just because, but I settled with, "Alright."

Ironic how we decided to spend the next five minutes in silence, with me trying to find something to say and at the same time not to fall asleep. It was a tough work for me.

"At what time did she wake you up?" I randomly asked, nearly smacking myself in the face afterwards. What a useless question. "She usually woke me up at one, stopped crying, and then cried again around two or three, stopped again, and then cried again a few minutes before my alarm clock rang. And she never cried for less than thirty minutes."

He whistled lowly. "That's tough. Well, she didn't wake me up."

"She's been crying that long?"

"No." He chuckled just slightly. "I'm a bit of an insomniac," he admitted. "So she didn't ruin my sleep at all. She just got on my nerves and also, now my arms are sore. I thought she needed cuddling, because nothing else seemed to be a problem."

"Pain relief patches always work fast," I suggested. "Mom bought me like boxes of them after the first night. I still have some, if you want."

"That'd be great."

"Cool. I'll bring you some tomorrow. So you're an insomniac, huh?"

"Yeah. For a while now."

"So what do you do at night? Don't you feel restless by the lack of sleep?"

I could almost hear him shrug. "Dunno. I watch TV, listen to music, sometimes study when I'm feeling like it, or just toss around in my bed. And I'm used to it."

"Doesn't that feel weird?" I asked. "I mean... nights are so quiet. Very lonely."

"Well, it wouldn't be lonely now with this doll," he half-joked. "It's not that bad. Sometimes I'm able to sleep before two a.m."

"Do you ever not sleep at all at night?"

"Hm, sometimes."

I let out a snicker. "No wonder why you're so grumpy."

If he were here, I would definitely see the glare he had on me.

"You know what, Gibbs?" I said, chuckling to myself. "You're like a grumpy cat. You always frown, you never look all that friendly, and everything just never seems to impress you. It doesn't hurt to smile once in a while."

"Grumpy cat, really, Taylors?" he said, unimpressed (just like I'd predicted). "And I do smile. Sometimes."

I just grinned, but a yawn interrupted me from replying to Jonah's comment. I sighed softly after the yawn, feeling the sleep starting to pull me under again. I didn't want to end the call, if that wasn't obvious, but I needed my beauty sleep, and even if I enjoyed the call at this moment, I wouldn't enjoy my restless state by the time I woke up for school.

"Sleepy, Taylors?" he asked, rather softly. "Do you want me to hang up?"

"Not really," I mumbled honestly, because hearing his voice this early in the morning was one of the things I'd never even dared to dream of happening.

"Hm."

"Are you sleepy?" I countered back, turning to my side so the phone was pressed in-between my ear and my pillow. I pulled my blanket up to my neck, snuggling into the warmth.

"No, I'm not."

I sleepily asked, "Do you want to hang up?"

There was a pause, until, "No."

"Then just talk."

"But I'm insomniac and you're not."

"That's what friends do; accompanying their friend when they can't fall asleep," I murmured in a know-it-all manner.

I heard him chuckle, but I wasn't so sure because my mind was started to get foggy. "Just sleep, Hannah, you need it."

I smiled when he said my name again, and this time, with sleep clouding over my eyes and as my body started to numb away into darkness, I said, "Okay."

Jonah was saying something else, but his voice faded away into a lullaby, and it made me wonder if he was, in fact, lullabying me. But I was too far gone, and the only thing I heard before I was completely pulled into the dreamland was the sound of his voice calling my first name.

Not Taylors, not Hannah Taylors. Just Hannah.