“I think it’s a bad idea,” he says. He won’t look at either of us. Something very interesting on the ceiling has his attention. I think it’s a speck of lint. He’s so not intimidating when he does that.
“Who cares what you think?” Alissa says, the venom in her voice hard to miss.
I laugh without humor. “Whoa, pregnancy hormones … have any of those, maybe?” I’m hoping if I point out the obvious, she’ll see the error of her ways and stay home with her nose in another book.
She puts her second arm through her backpack straps. “Say what you want. I’m going, and you can’t stop me.”
“Wanna bet?” I say, walking towards the door. I really, really don’t like being strong-armed by a pregnant girl wearing argyle socks.
The three of us are nearly all the way out and the apartment is almost closed up again when her voice comes through the crack in the door. “I’ll tell! I’m calling Teagan now!”
“Goddammit!” I growl in a very loud whisper, shutting the door not quite all the way. “She’s going to fucking blow this before we can even get it started.” I give Mick the angry eyebrow. “This is your fault.”
“My fault? How is this my fault?”
“You’re the one who’s been all nicey-nice to her. She probably likes you.” I hate that a spark of jealousy flames to life over that little observation. He’s not mine. I don’t have any claim on his fine ass because my life sucks massive donkey dong at the moment.
He snorts. “Bullshit. And you’ve been nice to her too. I saw you putting her feet up yesterday and making her tea.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t rub those swollen feet, now did I? Unlike some people…”
Colin jerks his head back to us at that bit of news. “Dude, you rubbed her feet? What’s wrong with you? You like her? She’s fucking pregnant.”
Mick is disgusted with both of us. “No, I don’t like her. Not like that. But she’s pregnant and she has sore feet. Besides … she doesn’t have a contagious disease, Colin.”
Colin’s chest puffs out. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means. You avoid her like she has the plague or something. Why are you being such a dick about her, anyway?”
I put my hands out and place one over Mick’s face and one over Colin’s, smooshing their noses in. “Shush. Stop talking. I’m about to have a bitch attack and you two are likely to get seriously injured.” I sigh out heavily and let my hands slide off their chins. “Listen … wait out here. I’m going to go in there and talk to her woman-to-woman and explain to her very calmly and rationally how it’s not appropriate or helpful for her to come. Then we can leave, just the three of us.”
Mick laughs once. “Yeah. Okay. Let us know how that works out for ya.”
I ignore his mockery and go back into the apartment. I’m strong. I’m powerful. I can handle this pregnant chick with her shirt buttoned up to her neck and her pony tail pulled so tight she looks Chinese. Pfft. Walk in the park, bitches.
Alissa throws her phone up to her ear and says, “Oh, hello, Teagan? Hi, this is Alissa.”
“Get that stick out of your butt, Alissa. I know she’s not on the phone.” I drop into the armchair across from the couch. She’s standing in front of it, the coffee table between us.
She lowers her phone and puts it into her backpack. “I’m going with you guys,” she says in a softer tone as she lowers herself down into the cushions behind her legs.
“I need you to not go with us,” I say, also trying to go a little softer than I feel right now. Honestly, I just want to body slam her like I do with my younger siblings sometimes when they don’t listen, but her pregnancy makes that kind of difficult. I’ve never viewed being pregnant as having a superpower, but I’m starting to come around to that way of thinking.
“Please?” she says, “You don’t understand.” And then the tears come.
I thought I could hold out.
I thought I could stand up to whatever argument she had up her sleeve.
I thought I could be a badass mofo and put this tubby, swollen-ankled twat monster in her place.
I was wrong.
All her crap comes pouring out in a mess of tears and mucus goo and I don’t even want to know what else.
“I have nothing and no one!” she wails. “I’m powerless and penniless and completely without a compass in my life! There’s only one person in the entire world who cares about me right now and you’re going to help her and I need to do that too! I need to matter! I need to know I’m worth something … that I count! What kind of mother sits down on the sidelines while her hero is being dragged through the mud?! I can’t be that kind of mother! I have to do the right things and make up for this … this …” She can’t finish. There’s too much goo. Too much emotion.