Not that I was really worried about it. I wasn't planning on coming out the top of my class; it would be fine if I skated the bottom as long as I had enough cred-its to graduate. I had an account in my name with some funds, so I could always figure out what to do after graduation, even if I left home like my sister did, wheth-er or not I went to college. Still, it couldn't hurt actually to study. I wasn't in the mood for anything else, anyway.Chanel was quiet for a while, but she didn't leave yet, so I knew she wasn't done. I did my best to ignore her, but I was already distracted, and her sitting right there staring at me wasn't helping. Then, she sighed."Why are you being like this? Just what did that girl do to you that you're ignoring all of your friends?"I didn't speak up and tell her what I thought about them. I only had a few friends, as for everyone else, they were people I hung out with regularly when I didn't have anything better to do, and I didn't want to go home.
Hayley led the way into her house, and I followed dejectedly. She paused after closing the door, listening, before she turned to me with a nod."Okay, no one's home. Go up to my room, and I'll follow you with drinks."She headed for the kitchen, and I made my way up the stairs. I'd come to her place often enough since we became friends that I was pretty familiar with her house. In her room, I tossed off my shoes and sat on the bed, leaning back against the headboard. I stared at my lap, playing with my fingers, only looking up when Hayley entered the room."Here," she said. She held out a can of soda to me, then sat across from me, keeping the other one to herself. "Sorry I don't have a lot of snacks in the house. How are you feeling?"I sighed, listlessly pulling the tab on the soda can, then taking a sip."Not very well," I admitted. "You already know my life is a total mess.""Did something happen?"I arched an eyebrow. "You mean, besides the inci-dent that happened at
"His parents are still married, though, right?" Hay-ley asked."They are, but there's talk of divorce now, and his mom isn't at home anymore. Now that I know, Mom isn't keeping anything from me at all. She keeps saying she's going to marry him when his divorce comes through, even though Evan hates her. Well, he hates both of us, now."Mom, for being a whore, and me for being the whore's daughter. It left a bad taste in my mouth every time I thought of it, but I couldn't wash away the words so easily, and I couldn't even refute them because it was true that she was dating a man she knew was married, and it had been going on for a while."I'm not going to console you just because he hates you, you know."I looked up at Hayley and found her pouting at me."Why wouldn't you? Your friend came to you for comfort. Hayley, you're my only friend."She huffed. "It's nice of you to remember that, but was I in your mind all that time you got to spend with Evan, huh? You've been ignorin
I hurried back to school. When school let out, I'd gone with Hayley straight to her place because it was close to the school, so going back took me about fifteen minutes. I followed his directions in the text and went to the football field, one of the few places in the school I'd never stepped foot in during my years in high school.Evan had practice, and he wanted to meet right af-ter. Time had already passed so I shouldn't have to wait long, though I didn't know how long practice was sup-posed to last, to begin with.I could see them practicing long before I got close. Besides the team and the cheerleaders, a few students were sitting in the stands watching the practice. I headed over and took one of the lower seats, apart from every-one else. I frowned over at the field, looking through the running bodies and trying to figure out which one was Evan. I did find him, but only because I glimpsed his name on the back of his jersey.My eyes followed him as he moved around the field
I wanted to say yes so, I could walk right into my room and go to sleep, pretend that I never saw them to-gether. My stomach and larger appetite gave me away, though, my stomach let out a growl as the scent of the food hit my nose. I didn't eat much at lunch because I was so preoccupied, and Hayley only gave me a soda, so I was really hungry."You can come and join us," Mom said. "Sit on the chair there."I didn't want to join the awkward atmosphere since I knew my presence was what made it awkward for all of us. Still, I closed the door behind me and went to sit in the only other chair in the room as Mom and Carl settled themselves on the couch."Go ahead and serve yourself, take as much as you'd like. We're almost done."I nodded and did as she said. I wondered if I could excuse myself to my room, anyway, because they were being silent and sent stares at each other like they wanted to get back to whatever they were talking about. Only, they didn't want to be impolite and send
Mom and I walked into the diner and found an empty table for two."I didn't think we'd get time for it right now?" I admitted.Mom smiled at me. "Things have been hard for both of us recently. I think we both need this."I wasn't going to argue, even though she didn't know just how hard things were going to get yet. The scent in the diner had my mouth watering, and I hadn't realized I'd been craving pie before we walked in here.A waitress stopped by our table and took our or-der. It was the same thing we always got when we came out, a slice of pie. Mom's jobs didn't pay a lot of money, and we couldn't afford to eat out with all the bills, but Mom could at least splurge to get us both a mug of hot chocolate and apple pie once every month. We'd turned it into something we did for fun as a family of two. I wasn't feeling it this month, but I wouldn't say no to ap-ple pie."You look like you haven't eaten in ages," Mom laughed, watching me dig into my pie.I shot her a smile,
Mom watched her go, then just sighed and turned to me with a smile."Let's go home, honey. If you're still hungry, we can eat the leftovers from yesterday."I watched Mom as we continued walking, but she didn't look bothered by the small run-in at all, even though Tracey was completely horrible to her."Wow, Mom," I murmured.She turned to me. "What is it?""That didn't bother you at all, that she said those things to you?"Mom chuckled and took my hand. "Of course, it bothers me, Anita, I'm just not letting it get to me. Be-sides, we're all like that because of things that happened in high school."My jaw dropped. "High school? Wouldn't that have been around twenty years ago? You all went to the same school?"She hummed in agreement. "It's been two decades, wow. Sometimes, I still think about it and can't believe so much time has passed already. We were all together, even your dad. It was the same school that you go to now.""So? What happened?"She smiled wistfull
School had let out, and for the first time in a long while, since I was in middle school probably, I headed straight home right after.I'd just arrived when I got a message. My phone was in my pocket, and I felt it vibrate as I got out of the car. I paused with the door open and pulled the phone out to see who was texting me. The name that came up on my screen surprised me.Hayley?I frowned and tried to think of who Hayley was. It took me a minute, but I did remember, and I straightened my back out, opening the text to read it."Hey, Evan. Are you free?" "This is weird," I muttered, frowning at my phone. I sent a quick text back."What's up?""Can you come to my place?"Her reply was just as quick and left me shocked for a second time.Why would Hayley be texting me at all? I didn't remember when I even gave her my number, though she could just as easily have gotten it from someone else. I'd seen her in parties before, so I vaguely knew her. Now, though, I also knew
Our lips met, again and again, as we stripped each other down to the skin, then Evan pushed me to lay back again, using his thigh between mine to spread my legs wider so he could settle his body on top of mine. I whimpered, feeling his cock against my sex, the urgency starting to creep up on me.He didn't seem to feel it. After leaving one last kiss on my lips, he slid down, hands and mouth follow-ing a trail down my body from the neck. He paused at my chest, and I moaned and squirmed beneath him as he rained kisses all over my breasts, then sucked on one nip-ple, then the other. His hands didn't stop, one of them slid between my thighs, and I yelped when I felt his fin-gers on my clit, rubbing gently, a little too lightly."Evan," I gasped. My hands reached for his hair, twining my fingers in the strands and tugging so he would look up. His lips had moved to my stomach, and as much as I would have loved to have him go down on me, I wanted something else from him right then. "I wan
The hall was still not filled as more people came in. I caught sight of Mom and raised my hand for a quick wave. Hayley, who I still kept in touch with even though she'd moved a little far for college, would have been there but she'd promised to meet up for drinks for some girl time when she came back to town in another week or so. Carl and Evan sat beside Mom, and Evan was carry-ing our daughter in his arms. He was looking for me as well, and I thought he saw me, because suddenly he had on this blinding smile, and I grinned back, losing the nervousness as I started to feel excited.I'm graduating from college today!The ceremony seemed to take forever. There were so many speeches before the main event even started, and I could see a lot of the people around me yawning, a few discreetly using their phones. We were placed close to the front.It seemed to take forever before I finally walked across the stage, and then we were all free to mingle with our families. It was long past l
I stood in my bedroom staring at my door. I was ready to leave, had been for the past five minutes, but I couldn't bring myself to open that door and leave just yet.Somehow, four years had passed already, and I was graduating with a university degree. I was so nerv-ous that I was sweating, and I hadn't even put on the robe yet. I would be putting it on once I got to the school.Time to get moving everyone is waiting.I took a deep breath, and with that thought, reached for the door and pulled it open.Evan and I had our place, but today, I was at Mom and his dad's house so they could help with looking after Sandra since I'd be busy today. It was a big day for all of us and now that Evan had graduated from USC, we would have more time together as a family. Mom was still happy for me, and she wanted to make a big deal out of it because she was proud of me."Anita, are you ready?" I heard Mom call through the door."Yeah, Mom! Is Sandra with you?" I called back, my heart a ne
"How are you feeling?" Evan asked worriedly.I smiled. "I'm doing just fine. Both of us are okay.""You should be close now, though, right?""Really close," I agreed, looking down and rubbing a hand over my stomach.After a few hospital visits, I managed to get an es-timate of when the baby would be coming out, and it was any day now. I looked back up at the computer screen to find Evan watching me intently. He was at school now but came down every weekend and whenev-er he could. When he couldn't be around, he made sure to send me a Skype call every day."When will you be going to the hospital?"I hummed. "If nothing happens in a couple days, Mom said we'd have me admitted early."There was some noise in the background, and he looked away before turning back to me with a sigh."I need to go for now, but I'll call you tonight be-fore you go to sleep, okay?"I nodded, smiling happily. Before we could say our goodbyes and cut the call, though, I felt something strange, a
Since I'd taken a lot of my stuff when I went to stay with Grandma, I still had to go back. Mom and Carl headed for their honeymoon, and Evan went with me back to Minnesota.Evan made plans for someone to head back in my car, then drove me to Grandma's in his own car. It was easier having someone with me, so I didn't complain.Grandma wanted us to stay for a few days, but Evan didn't bring a change of clothes, so we couldn't stay for that long. He bought a few outfits just, so he could change out of the clothes he'd worn during the long two day drive. We stayed in different rooms, and she kept a close eye on us, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."Let's leave tomorrow morning," Evan said as he helped me pack my stuff up and move them to the car. "I talked to your grandmother already, and she said it was okay.""You talked to her?" I said, alarmed. "When? I thought she left early."When I brought him home, Grandma would have figured out that he was my new stepbr
I had a feeling Evan would have kept me locked in the hotel room all day, if we didn't get a call from his dad that they hadn't left yet and were waiting to see the two of us first. I felt guilty as we showered and got dressed. Evan knew now, but there were still both our parents to tell. I talked myself into postponing it, because they were about to leave for their honeymoon.When I brought it up to Evan, though, he shook his head immediately."No," he said. "Absolutely no way. Putting this off isn't helping anybody. We're telling them today."I gaped at his back as he hurried out, and I fol-lowed quickly. He waited outside until I closed the door, then he took my hand and led me to the elevator."We're going to tell them," he continued. "I plan to go to college, it's important to me, but I'll look for a place close by because I want to be in both your lives. If our parents don't understand our decisions, then I'll talk to them, but we have to tell them before they leave."H
The first thing I was aware of was how warm I felt. Next, was the soft body in my arms. I blinked my eyes open and stared at Anita's face just a few inches from mine.We'd fallen asleep with the lights still on, but I could tell it was daytime already. A part of me wondered what the hell I was doing. She was holding me just as tight, and I could feel the press of her stomach against mine. She was pregnant, and she'd kept it from me for six months. She approached me at that party, knowing who I was, but I couldn't blame her for that, because I was the one to initiate it, and I didn't think about contraception when I chose to fuck a stranger in someone else's closet.She had lied to me, kept things from me, but right then, all I could feel was relieved that she was there with me, because I'd missed her so badly. I pulled one arm from around her to brush her hair away from her chest, freezing when she flinched a little."Mm."I watched as her eyes fluttered, her body squirming
I looked around. Quite a few people had already left, so while the partying wasn't entirely over yet, it was winding down. Dad and my new stepmom hadn't left yet, but they were happily lost in each other. No one would miss us if we left now."Come with me."I took her hand in mine and pulled her behind me as I headed for the hotel. "Wait, Evan!" She yelped, trying to fight against my hold. "Where are we going? They'll get worried if we just disappear-""They're busy," I cut in. "Just stop fighting me, Anita. You should have come to me on your own, like hell I'm going to let you just run away."She struggled a minute longer, before resigning to go along with me. We stopped by the reception desk, so I could get us a room."I-I already h-have one..." Anita said quietly."I'll take care of it in the morning."I got us the room using my credit card, then I led her upstairs. She must have meant the room her mom was using, or it was one her mom booked for her, and I didn't wa
My heart was pounding because he caught me by surprise. The little courage I'd tried to talk myself into deflated just like that, and I stared at him like a deer in the headlights, wishing I could just run away."You were talking about me, right? What do you have to tell me? I can let you speak first.""Evan..."His eyebrows arched. "Would you rather I go first? Because I've got plenty to say to you and a lot to ask. Starting with why you disappeared on me without saying anything to me first."Evan went silent, clearly waiting for me to start. I fidgeted, twisting my fingers together, my heart beating so loud I could hear it, and I wondered if he could, too.He's already here, and there's not much time, so just say it.It was getting dark, and I hadn't checked if she'd already left, but Mom was supposed to head out with Carl, so they could catch their flight. I'd be going back to the hotel room soon, and Evan would probably head home."I'm pregnant," I blurted.The mome