Julie
Julie was standing in the middle of the room that would be her baby's room. There was a door adjoining hers and this one, hence why they had been picked. Right now the room was bare, but then she was only two, three months into her pregnancy, so it wasn't exactly an issue right now.
"Julie!" Her mother called. "The neighbours are here!"
Julie took a breath, turned, and headed into the lounge room.
"Hi Julie!" Isabel said cheerfully.
"Hi Izzy."
Isabel, Max and their parents had come over for dinner.
"What took you so long?" Julie's mother asked her.
"I was in..." she gave the Evanses a nervous look. "I was in the nursery."
"Hmph. There's nothing in there yet."
"I know. I was just thinking."
"Nursery?" Isabel repeated. "Are you expecting Mrs Williams?"
"Me? Goodness no! It's Julie who's going to be the mother."
Mrs Williams' last sentance made it unmistakably clear that she was not impressed with the situation. Julie looked away from Isabel. Great. Why'd it have to come out so soon?
"Really? When are you due?" Isabel asked.
"August."
"Enough," Mr Williams said, cutting in. "Dinner is ready."
When Julie was told earlier that the Evanses would be coming over for dinner, she was rather happy about it. Now she was feeling anxious and wished it could all be over.
Julie
It didn't take long for conversation to pick up again, and there seemed to be a unspoken conscensus not to talk about Julie's pregnancy. After a while she relaxed.
When dinner was over, the adults headed to the living room while the kids were all left to fend for themselves. Frank immediately took it upon himself to drag Max to his room and show him his cool rock collection, and Dana decided she wanted Isabel to play with her. Julie took advantage of this to sneak away to her room, hoping for some quiet. Goodness knew her parents were in the habit lately of informing her of all the stuff she would have to put up with when the baby was born, and she'd better get used to it and yadda, yadda, yadda. Ugh. Why did she have to put up with it now when she would have to put up with it (and undoubtably 'I told you so's) later?
Julie sighed. Not for the first time, she considered putting the baby up for adoption, but dismissed the idea. She had always wanted to be a mother (although not this soon) and couldn't bear the idea of her child being brought up by stranger. She wanted a hand in her child's upbringing.
There was nothing else for it. First chance she got, she was going to move out. There couldn't be anything worse than living with unsupportive parents.
Max
Before long Max lossed himself from Frank's grip and decided to check on Julie. Knocking on her partially open door her peeked his head in.
"You up for some company? You seemed like you could use a friend about now."
Julie
Julie looked up at Max, smiled and sighed.
"Come in," she said. "Have a seat."
She gestured to a chair in the room and then grinned.
"What did you think of Frank's rock collection?"
Max
"It was. . . interesting. Very pretty," max answered. And with the ice broken, they chattered away.