Gen 2 - Chapter 6: Marriage, Babies, and a Realization

About five day later, I had still been avoiding Richie (and to be honest, debating telling my agent that there was no way that we were gonna be friends), but I'd decided to try inviting him over again. But, true to our house, before I could call someone we didn't know knocked on the door. I went to the door, and walked out to find a pretty dirty-blonde, and I greeted her. Her name was Rebecca Mullen, and evidently she just wanted to see if Lyric and Rhett Parodi really lived there. I laughed and told her that we obviously - well, it was obvious then - did live there. After that, we chatted a little, then she had to leave and I went back inside just as Rhett got home from work - he hadn't been going out to drink every night, because he was publicly disgraced for peeing himself in public, which, to his embarrassment and my giggles, he actually did (that's what he gets for drinking so much!) - and started calling Richie. "Are you calling that-"

"Yes, I am calling him." I rolled my eyes. Even though I wasn't really romantically interested in Richie, Rhett still had to try and be protective, and after I told him what Richie said to me, he didn't want me to have anything to do with the vampire. Rhett wasn't a huge fan of vampires in the first place - guess I shouldn't tell him that my new boss, Faith Swan, and one of my coworkers, Elvira Slayer, were vampires..

 But anyway, Richie agreed to visit. Except, when he did, he just got straight on our computer and ignored me. When I told him that he had to chose between my computer and me, he got up and said he had to leave. Rude! That man was so rude!

To get past his public disgrace, our agent had a brilliant idea to have Rhett dance for three hours at The Grind. He told me that he had a blast while he was there, and our stalker pap Keely Rader actually started taking pictures of him again. And Naomi was there again. I can just imagine how Keely felt! Like she hit the jackpot. Two Parodis that don't even live together at the same dance club at the same time! Rhett told me that when Naomi started dancing, he moved over to dance beside her so that they could chat for a while.

My boss was so silly. Her first day at work, she found out that she was pregnant, and so she got maternity leave. But every work day since then, she's stood outside with other people (not necessarily always the same people), and stared at the building for hours. Like she'd rather be working than on maternity leave. Evidently she'd go inside somewhere before she turned to ash, thankfully, because she came back to work after her maternity leave was over, and showed us pictures of her beautiful daughters, Rachel and Candy.

(A/N: The two outside there with Faith are two of the first TS3 sims I ever made, and the girl is the original Sean Parodi. XD Random tidbit there. Back to the story!)

I wasn't anything if I wasn't stubborn and determined!

I called up Richie again, and invited him over. Rhett was gone at Plasma 501, because he was still publicly disgraced, and our agent was determined to keep him out and about despite that so had him go get a drink at the vampire lounge. I needed to have a word with our agent, he was practically feeding Rhett's addiction!

Back home, though, Richie had finally given in and we became friends right there in our bathroom. Turns out that he hadn't wanted to give women another try, because his wife, Stella, had died ages ago but he still wasn't ready for another romance. I told him that a romance had only crossed my mind at first, but then I realized I was just initially attracted because of the fact he was a vampire; I was a sucker for danger. So we bonded a lot more after that.

It's really startling when you wake up to see your step-Dad, as a ghost, in his swimwear, floating towards your front door. "Dad!" I exclaimed, and stared at him. "You're.."

"Going swimming!" he replied, and floated right through the door. That.. that wasn't what I'd planned to say, but I dropped it, shook myself slightly, then grabbed myself a quick bowl of cereal, and got on the computer to write on my book. I write better in the middle of the night, and you know, with a ghost wandering around my house, it just seemed like the thing to do at the time.

My life is average.

Rhetty-boy was still pretty much the only one that cleaned up around the apartment, and boy DID he clean up. When he decided to clean, he went crazy on that place. Including cleaning out the fridge, and taking the trash inside to the actual apartment building. I started calling him the Garbage Ninja when I caught him practicing his martial arts moves while waiting for the elevator to take him to the garbage chute. It looked absolutely ridiculous!

When I wasn't stalking someone to try and become their friend - coughRichiecough - I really wasn't that terribly social. I was best friends with literally everyone I knew from work, and Faith and I often chatted on the phone, but I wanted real life company. One day, I had a sudden though - I hadn't thought about Dominick in ages! I wondered how he was doing. The last time I talked to him, I was a teenager and he wasn't yet. Since I was nearly a full-blown adult, I figured he must at least be a teenager, so I called him up.

"Hello?"

"Heeey, Dominick! Wow your voice has gotten deep. You must have finally grown up, huh?" I laughed.

"Lyric! Oh, wow. It's been forever, hasn't it? Yeah, I'm a young adult now."

"Cool! That works better than you being a teenager, it would just be weird for a nearly-adult woman asking a teenage boy over to her apartment."

"Yeah, you'd be called a pedophile even if it wasn't romantic. So, you're asking me to visit then? I'll be right over!"

"You don't even know where I live!"

"Sure I do, Rhett's a four star celebrity now, who DOESN'T know where you two live?" Click.

When had Rhett gotten past the three star mark? So not fair, I was born first I should get to be a four star celeb first. I waited for Dominick to show up, and when he did, I stared like I'd never stared at anyone before. My first best friend grew into a man. It took me a bit to get myself back to myself, but eventually I did and we had a nice catch-up conversation. But that was all, and I was surprised that I was okay with that.

One day, I got the strangest news I had ever heard.

Rhett was practicing his martial arts, and I was sleeping, but then got woke up by my phone ringing. Grumbling, I got out bed and looked at my caller ID, to see that it was Feliks. The last time I had heard from him, Dad was dead. He'd just emailed for that. What was so big that he had to call about it? None of my siblings ever used the phone.. I pressed talk, and held it to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hi Lyric.." He sounded like he was in shock.

"You okay, Feliks?"

"Um.. yeah. But, uh.." he paused for a long time here, and I could hear some background noise. Couldn't quite tell what it was. ".. I just got married."

"WHAT?!" I yelped in shock. Feliks was the first of us to get married?! That didn't entirely surprise me, he was the most gentlemanly, but.. he just got together with his new girlfriend, Adrianne McDuffie, a few weeks before! "That was fast!"

"Well, it kinda had to be.."

I froze. And stared with wide eyes at the wall. ".. is Adrianne pregnant, Feliks?"

".. yeah."

Now, I could have been a regular ol' over protective big sister and scold him, yell, scream, whatever. But that just isn't me. After all, Mom had Dee and Naomi before she and my biological Dad even thought about getting married, and he didn't make an honest woman of her after, unlike Feliks did. So instead, I beamed. "Oh my gosh, Feliks! Congratulations! I know you'll make a great Dad and husband! I just never though YOU would be the one to give me a niece or nephew first. Geeeeeez."

"Hey, what's that supposed to me?"

"It's supposed to mean you were so cute and shy, and I kinda figured that Dee'd be getting pregnant any time soon because of her casanova boyfriend."

"Eh, guess that's true. Well, I gotta go, Adrianne and I are gonna go on a quick honeymoon to Riverview, her hometown."

"Too cute, Feliks, too cute. I gotta go, too, have to tell Rhett he's gonna be an Uncle!"

I hung up, and then turned my head to Rhett, who was still completely absorbed in his martial arts. "Rhett! Feliks got Adrianne pregnant and now they're married."

SMACK! The training dummy got him straight in the face. I giggled.

Dad's favorite pass time, besides swimming, soon became possessing things. Evidently you become easily amused when you die? But more often then not, when I woke up or got home from a busy night out, the fridge or easel or something was floating and there was cackling echoing through the room. Rhett and I grew to ignore it, until, after I finished my Immortal Pumpkins book. I wanted to write another humor, and what better to title it than 'There's a Ghost in my Easel'? As I started writing on it, I grinned. "Thanks Dad!"

My birthday snuck up on me while I was sleeping one night. I had really honestly not been expecting it, so when I felt the tingles start, at first I thought I was dying. What? I was half asleep! When I realized what it was, I climbed out of bed and cheered, then spun into my new age. I decided to let my hair grow out. It would make me look more my age, right? Since I had no wrinkles to speak of, thank goodness.

After I was full-on adult, I stood there for a moment, because a realization had struck me. A conversation with Estiu a while back went through my head - the 'heiress' or 'heir' is the entire reason for our power to go on. If I didn't complete my life goal, or produce an heiress or heir, Estiu said that with my death, the power would die, and some big consequences of our power would be unleashed or something. I couldn't let that happen. What kind of a power was this, anyway?! I wish she'd never cast her spell on Mom; wishes being granted was great, but it sure put a lot of pressure on my poor little shoulders. And on the shoulders of one of my poor future children..

  

A few days later, it was Rhett's birthday. And as it seems to go, I had been asked to go dance at The Grind for three hours, so I was doing that at the time. At least it wasn't nearly as big of a birthday as the one I nearly missed last time! Since I completely missed it. Evidently, it took him by surprise, too, while he was fixing goopy carbonara.

Despite my realization, life went on the way it was before. I got several promotions, though. Another way life changed was that I spent more time at the library than usual, and often met interesting people there while I was reading. One of them being the recently married Honeybee Rubble.

Rhett became obsessed with cooking after his birthday, for some reason. He really would make a great house husband, if only he'd realize that he needs to get married to Katina. Or someone else, but I love Katina and want her in my family. Speaking of my family.. one day while he was fixing my favorite food, grilled cheese, Rhett got a call from Dee. The call I'd been expecting. She was pregnant, shock, shock. But, what was actually shocking was that her boyfriend didn't leave her. It was only a matter of time, though, that guy was bad news. Oh, and Feliks and Adrianne had their baby, a little boy named Micah McDuffie, and were expecting another one. Yes, Feliks had taken her last name instead of vice versa. He was totally whipped, but it was adorable. And unsurprising.

It seemed that everyone around me was having babies or getting married. Faith, my boss, had married her boyfriend Eric Knowles and was now Faith Knowles. And Tony found a girl he was interested in, too. Adrianna Dykes. Basically, just Naomi and I were the alone ones in my family.

Just to prove to me how alone I was in love, Rhett invited Katina out to dinner one night. Since he was supposed to be going out to the restaurant to promote it anyway, he figured 'why not take my not-actually girlfriend and rub it in my sister's face that she can't find a guy?' Okay, that's putting words in his mouth, but it seemed like it!

While he was out that night, I worked on achieving my goal in life. I wrote, and wrote, and when I got stressed out from writing I painted, and painted, then wrote and wrote some more. Until I got so lonely, I decided I wanted to become my co-worker, Elvira's best friend. I called her up, and she was perfectly willing to chat with me.

Even just going out to random places like the Brightmore Rhett had more of a life than if I went. He had girls squealing over him constantly, two of those being Kayleigh and her twin sister, Melantha.

Though, it was pretty hilarious when Melantha followed Rhett home, even without him asking her to. She flirted with him a little when he finally noticed that she was in our house, and then he went to bed. I was writing the entire time. After he got in bed, and fell asleep.. she turned the radio on and went outside. He then turned the radio back off, and went back to sleep. Almost as soon as he did, Melantha came back in and turned the radio on, then went back outside. It happened several times, and I finally had to get a grilled cheese sandwich and go outside in order to not roll around on the floor in a giggle fit. I had no idea what Melantha's problem was, but it was funny whatever it was. Then, finally, Rhett got tired of it and asked her to please leave, and she did so without a fuss. As she ran outside, and by me, waving goodbye, I watched her go and had a realization. I think I already knew it, since I hadn't had a true interest in a guy since Arran, but it still surprised me.

Then, I had another realization. At work. While talking to one of my coworkers. They made my heart flutter every time I saw them, and it had actually been happening since I first met them, I'd just been ignoring it as nervousness about work. It's the kind of job that made me nervous. But, when I suddenly found myself wanting to kiss them, while we were chatting, I knew I'd fallen for them. I knew I'd get the kiss no matter what, so when I got home that night, I called them up and invited them over to 'hang out'. They accepted, and when we both hung up, the nervousness truly kicked in. "Oh, what have I gotten myself into.." I moaned to myself, and Rhett over at the computer ignored me.

"Hey, Lyric, guess what? Dee had her baby. It's a boy, and his name is Jamal. She and Ayuru are still together, amazingly. And Feliks and Adrienne had their baby, she's a little girl named Jeana." Evidently he got emails from the family, too.

"Cool, I can't wait to meet my nephews and niece. Um.. Rhett?"

"Yeah, Lyric?"

"I have my own news, and I figured I better tell you before my friend from work gets here."

"Okay. What, are YOU pregnant?"

"No, dummy, I've never done that, how could I be pregnant?! Anyway, uh.. so..."

"Spit it out."

"I think I'm a lesbian."

(A/N: So yeah, there was a lot this chapter. It was getting so annoying, literally everyone else was having romances or babies, and I only mentioned the ones that Lyric knows! Lillian got herself a boyfriend - I didn't write down that one's name - and Apple married Melantha and Kayleigh's little brother, Fremont. Yuki hadn't really done much by that point, but not long after she gets married. And then there's also all the sims that I randomly put in! Anyway, Lyric really took me by surprise with her sudden wish to 'have first kiss with' one of her female co-workers. I thought about continuing the chapter to show who, but I hadn't done a cliffhanger yet.)