“Is that right?” he mocked in a condescending tone. “I guess I need to get my eyes checked then.”
“Lucas, what are you—”
“Darlin’, the burgers are ready,” Cole announced, walking in from the back porch. “Lucas,” he groaned. “Nice of you to finally show up.”
“I didn’t get an invitation,” Lucas clarified, only looking at me.
Cole stood next to me with his hands placed in his pockets. “Since when is an invitation needed among friends,” he added.
“Cole—”
“Alexandra leaves tomorrow with me,” he interrupted.
I shut my eyes shaking my head for a few seconds. “And my parents,” I explained.
“Is that right?” Lucas drawled out, again.
“Her apartment is actually really nice, Lucas, it’s not far from mine. Maybe you can come sometime to visit. I’m sure Alex would love to show you the places I plan to show her.”
I glared at him and he innocently smiled, showing off those dimples that I usually loved but wanted to knock off his face at the moment.
“What, darlin’? I’m just being friendly. Isn’t that what you want?”
“I don’t give a fuck if you’re friendly or not, Cole, doesn’t change the fact that I don’t fucking like you.”
“Lucas!” I scolded, looking at him with wide eyes.
“Oh,” he breathed out with a cocked head and an arched eyebrow. “For Cole you give a shit, my how things have changed.”
I took a deep breath and glanced at Cole. “Can you give us a minute?”
“Of course.” He kissed the top of my head and nodded at Lucas. “Always a pleasure.”
“What’s your problem?” I asked when I heard the door shut.
He shrugged. “Nothing, Darlin’.”
“Bo, you know the phone works both ways. I haven’t heard from you all summer. You show up to my graduation and barely talk to me through dinner and then you leave the next day. You expect me to invite you to my going away party? Are you for real?”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I hope you’ve had a nice summer and everything you expected from your first…” he hesitated, much to my confusion.
“From your first day in California,” he muttered, but I knew that’s not what he meant to say.
“Where have you been? The boys said they’ve barely seen you.”
“Around.”
“Lily says—”
“Maybe it’s time you stop talking to my baby sister about me.”
“What’s your problem?” I argued. “Why are you talking to me like this?”
“I’m just saying, Alex, you’re going away to college. Big city. New experiences, some you’ve probably already experienced here.”
“Lucas, what are you implying?”
“This isn’t the time or the place.”
“Oh, now it’s not? I always have to march in line with you, don’t I? You push me aside when you want, but I’m here when you need me. I’m like your own personal play toy.”
“Better mine than his.”
I gasped.
“Fuck,” he roared. “I’m sorry.” He stepped toward me and I stepped back.
“I didn’t… I didn’t mean that.” He reached out for me, making me step back further.
“Is this why you came here, Lucas, to hurt me? You haven’t hurt me enough? I’m your own personal punching bag, too?”
“Half-Pint…”
“No!” I stopped him with my hand out in front of me. “You do not get to call me that. Just leave, Lucas. Just leave now. It’s what you do best anyways.”
Now it was his turn to step back from me. “That what you want?” he tested as if he knew I didn’t mean it and I hated him more because of it.
“Yes.”
He nodded, backing away. “Have a great time at school.”
I barely gave him a chance to finish his sentence before I turned around.
And left.
My phone rang for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last few days and just like clockwork a text followed. I deleted it without even reading it. I’d done the same thing for the last few days.
“Jesus Christ, Lucas, turn off your fucking phone if you’re not going to answer it,” Dylan barked.
I did, throwing it on the coffee table and leaning back into the couch. We were playing Halo on Xbox.
“Who the fuck keeps calling you?”
“No one important.”
“Obviously not to them, who did you fuck over?”
“No one.”
“Bullshit. That’s definitely a pissed off pussy phone call, I can smell it.”
I chuckled. “How about you get your shit together and play the fucking game.”
We played for several hours. It was easy to get sucked into the game and forget about everything else that happened around us. Dylan had his own demons he dealt with, as did I. I watched TV until late into the night, Dylan had gone to bed and Jacob was God knows where. I started to doze off watching Sports Center when there was a soft knock on the door.
I looked at the time on the DVR, it read one fifteen in the morning.
“Hold on,” I yelled out, opening the door. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I sneered, taking in Stacey.
“I’ve been trying to reach you for days, Lucas! Days!”
“Shhh… keep your voice down,” I whispered, grabbing her arm and tugging her into the apartment and then to my room. “Talk,” I ordered, closing the door behind me.
She spun to face me. “Jesus, I don’t even get a fucking hello.”
I folded my arms over my chest and leaned against the door. “Fucking is more your speed. Is that why you’re here?”
She scoffed. “Don’t flatter yourself, Lucas. I’ve been driving all day.” She reached into her purse and took out what appeared to be a stick. “This is why I’m here.”
I raised my eyebrows, shaking my head not understanding and she threw the stick at my feet. I looked down at the ground and my heart dropped when I realized what it was. There clear as day it read.
Pregnant.
“How do I know it’s mine?” I immediately argued, never taking my eyes off the small fucking stick that drastically changed my future in the blink of an eye.
“You’re the only person I haven’t used a condom with. Or do you not remember that you didn’t bother to put one on?”
“Fuck,” I breathed out.
“Exactly.”
I sat down on the edge of the bed with my elbows resting on my knees, holding my head in my hands. I suddenly had an earsplitting headache. “What are you going to do?”
“Are you asking or telling?”
“Asking.”
“I don’t know.”
As much as I didn’t want this to be happening, it was a mistake, an accident. It didn’t change the fact that she was pregnant, possibly with my child. I couldn’t ignore that. I would man up if I had to.
“I don’t believe in abortion, Stacey, and I couldn’t live knowing that my child is out there with another family when I’m perfectly able to raise it,” I stated, instantly shutting my eyes from the severity of my words. “That’s if it’s mine.”
“It’s yours.”
“Then a paternity test will prove that.”
We were quiet for God knows how long. It could have been seconds or hours, who the fuck knows.
“Did you do it on purpose?” I had to know. “Did you do this to trap me?”
“You’re the one who walked into my bar, Lucas. You’re the one who forgot to use a condom.”
“I could barely fucking walk to a cab, Stacey! I barely remember any of it.” My head throbbed and my pulse quickened.
“You know, we could do this together. We could be parents to this—”
“Don’t you dare fucking say it. Don’t you dare fucking even think it. We have never been more than what you know we are, Stacey, don’t pretend there’s more here than there truly is.”
“That’s an amazing story to tell our child one day. You think we should put it in their baby book?”
“If.” I stood up and glared at her. “If. It’s mine. I will do my part in this fucked up situation. I will be a father to my child whether I like it’s mother or not.”
“You like me enough to fuck me. You always have. That has to mean something.”
I wanted to tell her it’s because she’s a slut, she’s a whore, she spreads her legs to any guy who will look her way, it’s what she’s good at and she knows it. But I held my tongue, I resisted the urge to treat her like the conniving bitch she was. I knew there was an ulterior motive. She wasn’t nearly as fucked up as I was. She barely drank. She did this intentionally and I was the stupid fuck who fell into her trap, but if the baby was mine… then she was the mother of my child, and I couldn’t bring myself to say what I really wanted to.
It wouldn’t be right.
“How far along are you?”
“My doctor said almost seven weeks. The baby is due April 9th.”
It seemed so close but yet so far away. September just began.
“When is the next doctor’s appointment?”
“In a month.”
I nodded. “I’ll be there.”