Long: A Secret Baby Sports Romance(36)

And I felt good cheering in the crowd with Harper. The anger and rejection I felt from my parents the day before hadn’t gone away, but it had lessened, weakened, like my mother’s words didn’t have as much power over me as they did only a few hours before. Standing in that crowd rejuvenated me, made me feel strong again.

Once the game was over, we filtered out with the rest of the crowd. I figured I’d see Gibson the next day or something. When we got back to the apartment not long later, I got a nice surprise text: Gibson wanted to see me.

So I gathered my equipment, jumped on my bike, and rode out there. It didn’t take long before I was walking through the mostly deserted back hallways of the stadium until I finally found the locker room.

And Cathy, kneeling in front of Gibson.

He was clearly rejecting her. I could see that, plain as day. But it was still a shock to see Cathy kneeling in front of him, giving him those eyes, even if he was getting up and trying to get away.

That hurt. I didn’t want it to hurt, but it did. Gibson didn’t owe me anything, and he wasn’t my boyfriend, so he could do whatever he wanted. He was a big star on campus after all. Plenty of girls were probably throwing themselves at him. Just because he got me pregnant by accident didn’t meant I got to control whatever he did.

But I hated seeing that. I hated how crazy it made me feel and how angry.

So I left. He wanted me to stay, wanted to see me, but I couldn’t look at him. I just kept seeing the famous football player, the big man on campus, and not Gibson, not the guy I had been spending so much time with this last week.

I trudged back to my apartment, feeling like shit. I locked up my bike and found Harper sitting on the couch. “Back so soon?” she asked.

I sat down next to her. “I wish I could drink.”

“Why? What happened?”

“I caught him with his ex.”

“What?”

“I mean, she was throwing herself at him and he was rejecting her, but still.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah. She was on her knees in front of him. I could hear him turning her down even before I got in the room, but I still didn’t like seeing it.”

“Man. What a whore.”

I laughed. “Don’t say that.”

“Whatever. I’m just defending my friend.”

“I know, Harps. I appreciate it.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Honestly? I’m not going to do anything. I’m just going to sit here and forget about it.”

She sighed. “Oh, Avery, this sucks.”

“I know. I’m freaking pregnant and I have a huge crush on my baby daddy but I’m doing this weird study on him. Meanwhile, he keeps trying to come on to me but I’m too afraid to do anything. Oh, and my parents hate me.”

“Senior year is going great so far,” she said.

I laughed. “Yeah. It’s really awesome for me. This is not how I imagined it would go.”

“To be fair, does anyone think they’re going to get pregnant by the school super jock?”

“Probably not.”

“At least you know he likes you.”

“I don’t know. He wants me, but I don’t know if there’s anything more than that.”

“Come on, he’s letting you study him for this bio thing. The guy is into you.”

I sighed. “I guess. Can we not talk about Gibson for a little bit?”

“Sure,” she said, turning on the Real Housewives. “We can do that.”

I stared at the screen and did my best to turn off my brain, but it was impossible to shut down the constant cycle of worry and fear I was running through.



We must have watched an entire season of that show by the time I was sucked back into reality. One second I was staring at the television, and the next it was already ten at night.

“Did we just time travel?” I asked Harper as she got up and got herself some water.

“I think so. I’m pretty sure we just fell into a reality TV time vortex.”

“I suddenly have this insane urge to get a boob job.”

“That’s just the vortex affecting your brain. You must resist.”

I laughed and got up, stretching.

Suddenly, the buzzer on our door rang.

Harper raised an eyebrow. “Expecting someone?”

“Not until tomorrow.. Are you?”

“Nope.”

I walked over to the intercom. “Who is it?”

“Avery, it’s me.”

I knew that voice. Gibson.

“Hi, Gibson.”

“Mind if I come up?”

“I guess so.”

I buzzed him in. Harper gave me a look.

“What?” I asked her.

“You sure you want to see him right now?”