“Corinne, it’s been two months. I haven’t heard a word from Hunter,” I said, dropping my gaze. “That seems bad, right?”
Corrie nodded slowly.
“It is bad, Catherine, and I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you this. You have got to stop holding a candle for him. He’s gone sweetheart. I’m really sorry.”
“Well, he could be busy,” I say hopefully.
“He’s definitely busy,” Corrie replies. “But girlfriend, you have got to get a grip. Hunter hasn’t called you, texted you, emailed you, or otherwise reached out to you in any way since leaving Mesa. He’s not coming back, Catherine.”
I sigh, looking down at my feet. I guess I’d been hoping these past two months that Hunter would contact me, but he hasn’t. Ever since he left town, it’s been total radio silence. I thought our lovemaking was incredibly hot, but maybe he thought it was just mediocre. I thought we had a connection, but maybe I was just a roll in the hay for the handsome quarterback.
“Do you think I’ve blown this whole thing out of proportion?” I ask my best friend.
“Girl, you have definitely blown this out of proportion,” Corrie agrees. “I mean, what did you have together? A hot night where he took your v-card, right?”
I blush.
“Yeah, but it was really amazing, and he was really into it too.”
Corrie rolls her eyes.
“Catherine, you have no idea how the world works. He was probably really nice about it because that’s how you treat virgins. Everyone knows you have to be careful. You can’t just tromp on their feelings because their hearts will break into smithereens.”
I take a deep breath, my stomach hurting a bit.
“Okay, okay, so Hunter’s not coming back,” I say in defeated voice. But then I look up brightly. “Or I could call him. I mean, that is if I knew how to reach him.”
Corrie takes a loud bite of a potato chip.
“Well, you could always ask your sister for his number.”
I snort.
“Right, and what am I going to say to Angela? By the way I slept with Hunter before he left and was hoping to get in touch with him. Can I have his number? Pretty please?”
“Sure, you could do that,” Corinne says with a hint of a smile. “Or not. How is Angela by the way?” she asks as my hand dives into the bag of chips in my arms. The crunch was satisfying in more ways than one. It was as if all my frustrations were released in that single loud snap as I annihilated the snack.
“Angela’s fine,” I say moodily. “She’s still going out with that Duane guy.”
Corrie grimaces.
“The one with the greasy combover, big pot belly, and who’s also a porn star?” Corrie asks wryly.
“Yeah,” I nod. “Thank god they haven’t actually filmed anything yet, but if they ever do, our parents will freak.”
“What parents wouldn’t?” Corrie asks. “Videotape is forever.”
“I know,” I say glumly.
Corrie then sighs.
“Listen, you have to cheer up, Catherine. I know that it’s hard to get over your first, but Hunter’s gone, your sister is insane, and you’ll meet a new guy. It’s the circle of life,” Corinne says as she snags the bag of chips from my hand and takes one for herself.
“But I’m stressed,” I confess, stealing the bag back. “And I keep thinking about him.”
“I can see that. Have you tried going for therapy?”
I shake my head. Corrie shoots me a meaningful look.
“Well, maybe you should. If you’d stop obsessing over Hunter, then maybe you could actually move on with your life.”
“Corinne, I can’t. He’s all I think about.”
My friend just shakes her head.
“This is really not healthy. Maybe…” Corinne paused for a moment, contemplating her words. “Maybe it’s time to let him go. You know like do a cleanse or something. Sure, you guys had one amazing night together. But that was two months ago, and he hasn’t tried to contact you since.”
I look down at the chip in my hand dejectedly.
“I know I can’t hold on to the past. I get it. I do,” I say, scrunching my eyebrows. “But I can’t shake this feeling like we’re supposed to be together. Is there such thing as fate?”
“Oh honey, you’ve got it bad,” Corinne says, patting my shoulder. “But sometimes our brains take us in circles, and what we want isn’t healthy. Take these chips for example.”
“Please don’t talk to me about how I should stop eating junk food,” I say. “I already get enough of that from my sister.” Corrie ignores me and begins to expound on the theory of emotional eating. Her voice drones on and on as I tune her out.
I sigh again. I know that I’m eating my emotions. But it feels good to eat. In slow motion, I watch as Corinne lifts a chip up to her face and leans in. Her mouth opens super-wide and her teeth chomp down on it with a loud crackle. Suddenly, my stomach heaves.
I lift a finger up and cock my head as if I’m hearing something strange. The rumble in my stomach grows louder and suddenly, I leap up and run to the bathroom before puking my guts out in the first stall.
“Hey, are you okay?” Corinne asks as she follows me in alarm. Her voice bounces off the walls, making my head pound.
“Peachy,” I answer before another vicious hurl of vomit erupts from my mouth.
“Oh girl, you got it bad,” Corinne says with big eyes. “Was it something you ate? Or something I said?”
I stand there, bent over with my hands on my knees. I’m panting a bit and my face feels strangely hot.
“No,” I say, gritting my teeth. Then, I lift my head out of the toilet and flush it. “I’ve just not been feeling very well.”
“You’re making yourself sick with worry. Your Hunter obsession isn’t good for you, especially since it’s making you throw up.”
“But I can’t let him go,” I say, rising to my feet. Suddenly exhausted, I make my way to the bathroom sink. Cool water pours out of the spout. I dip my hands in and splash my face, trying to ease the burning in my cheeks. My friend looks at me with sympathy in her eyes.
“You can’t keep doing this to yourself,” Corrie says, rubbing my back. “There are only two reasons a person throws up like that. One, you’ve worked yourself up so much that it’s stressing you out. Or two, you’re knocked up.”
That made me jerk up with surprise.
“I’m not pregnant,” I said, grabbing a handful of paper towels to dry my face.
“You sure about that? You told me you guys didn’t use protection when you were together. Is there a possibility that you could be?”
No. No way in hell was I pregnant. Hunter and I only slept together once. That’s not enough to get me knocked up, is it?
I stare at a crack in the wall as I counted the days on my fingers. Shock and panic stabbed me as I started over, counting more carefully this time. Slowly, I looked to Corinne and shook my head.
“It’s not possible.”
“From the look in your eyes, I’d say it is.”
“But it was only that one time,” I countered, spinning around on my heels. I couldn’t stand to look at myself. Swallowing hard I stared at the bathroom stall door. There was no way I could be pregnant. I can’t allow it. But the truth is that we didn’t use protection because our lovemaking was so sudden and beautiful.
“I’d get a test done if I were you, just to be on the safe side,” Corinne says. Her voice sounded so far away, like she was in an underground hole calling to me.
“And then what?” I ask, glancing to her for hope.
“One step at a time,” she says reasonably. “Get a test first and then figure out what to do. Like I said, there are other reasons for you to be losing your lunch. You could very well be stressed. It’s not uncommon for people to drop a ton of weight during finals. Or gain a bunch of weight. Who knows? But I wouldn’t rule out pregnancy, especially since you didn’t use protection.”
I merely gr
it my teeth upon hearing her words. Shit! How did I get myself into this position? But the reason is all too clear. Everything starts and ends with Hunter Brody.
“Listen,” my friend says kindly. “I have to get to class. Are you going to be okay, Catherine?”
“I’ll be fine,” I say, trying not to sound too broken down. She bobs her head and flashes a sympathetic smile at me. I lean my weight against the sink as I watch her walk out of the bathroom.
In the silence of the tiled room, I glance down. My stomach looks the same way it always does. I wonder if I could be carrying a child inside. Pulling in a deep breath, I held it until my lungs burned.
Take the test, and then you’ll know.
My head bobs a bit as I push off the sink. With my mind made up, I passed the door to my classroom and kept going until I reached the edge of campus. The stifling Arizona heat didn’t help as I walked quickly towards the nearest drugstore.
With a trembling hand, I reached for the glass door and pushed it open. Air conditioning hit me in an arctic breeze. And it felt like no matter which way I looked, there were eyes on me, as if judging me for why I was here. It didn’t take long for me to find the little box on the shelf. My fingers twitched as I carried it to the counter.
Thank god for self-checkout.
There was no way I would be able to buy the test if I had to stand in line with a teenage clerk gawking at me. I’d much rather come back at midnight, or better yet, order on-line.
Now my only goal was to take the test someplace private where my sister would never find out. God forbid Angela find the package in the trash and ask me about it. No. I had to be smart about this.
I raced out of the store. My eyes darted around, searching for a secret place until it landed on a red brick building before me. My heart drummed in my ears as I raced up the steps of the library. It was the one place where I didn’t feel out of sorts. The one place I knew my sister would never find out.
Slipping past rows of desks, I made my way to the bathroom and darted for the first vacant stall. The brown bag crinkled and crackled as I pulled the box out. Sucking in a deep breath, I braced myself.
You can do this, Catherine.
With trembling hands, I peed on the stick and then waited in the toilet stall, watching with uncertain eyes. Panic, fear, and indecision plagued me as I tapped my foot on the floor, waiting for little blue lines appear. On the one hand, I should be hoping for a negative test. But on the other, a pregnancy would be a keepsake of the earth-shattering experience I shared with Hunter. That day was the best day of my life, bar none, and tears came to my eyes once more just at the memory.
Suddenly, the results begin to come in, and my pulse accelerates. My eyes bulge as my heart soars and then drops. There on the stick were the results as plain as day.
A huge lump formed in my throat as tears swelled in my eyes. Two straight blue lines filled the viewing area, and reality hit me: I’m pregnant! My mind drifted to Hunter even as a sad smile tugged at the corner of my lips. Unexpectedly, a little piece of him was here with me. It was a small piece, but worth keeping no matter what. Slowly, my hands went down to rub over my soft belly. There, in the library bathroom stall, I said my first words to my baby: “You may have come into this world by chance, but I’ll love you always.”
9
Hunter
Eighteen months later.
“Hey Hunter, what brings you back?”
I turned on my heels and flashed a smile.
“Avery, my man, what’s going on? Long time no see,” I said shaking Avery’s hand as he pulled me into a man hug.
“What’s going on? The Jets kick you out or something?” Avery asked as we walked down the street. Glancing around the small downtown, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of nostalgia looking around at my old stomping grounds. Mesa appeared the same, and yet it was different too. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Maybe it was the sparkle of the sidewalks, or the slightly different décor in many of the shops. I shook my head and grinned at my friend.
“You wish,” I said as a group of girls passed by giggling. Stopping in my tracks, I followed them with my eyes. The furthest girl on the right looked so familiar that it almost broke my heart. Her round face and lush body threw me for a loop.
But it wasn’t Catherine, and I shook myself out of my reverie.
“So, why are you back?” Avery asked, clapping my shoulder. Shaking my head, I glanced at him wryly.
“Believe or not, I’m the commencement speaker this year.”
My friend starts hooting and hollering with mirth.
“Are you fucking serious? You? Hunter Brody? But you never even graduated!”
I waggle my eyebrows.
“Yeah, I know. But I guess being in the NFL elevates you to the appropriate level.”
“Tell me about it,” Avery said, chuckling. “You bounced out of here so fast no one knew what happened until it came out in the news. Please tell me you’ve got one of those cheerleaders on your arm every night.”
My eyes drop because I’m not interested in skinny cheerleaders in the least. Instead, my heart belongs to a girl I left here, and I’m hoping to meet up with her while I’m here. I’ve been unable to get Catherine out of my head for over a year now, and my heart lurches when I think of the curvy girl. What if she doesn’t want to see me? What if she’s dating someone else now?
My heart starts pounding, but I force myself to calm down. Anything can happen in eighteen months. Maybe Catherine is dating someone else, and I have to be happy for her. After all, I basically left town without a trace. I got called by the Jets the night after Catherine and I made love, and I had to get on a plane within a few hours. A guy had been injured, and I needed to fill in for him immediately.
As a result, I left Mesa behind and haven’t been back for eighteen months. Instead, movers were hired to pack up my stuff and ship it to me, and I’ve been living in New York ever since. But still, I’ve been thinking a lot about Catherine Lauder. What has she been up to? The night we shared was magical, and I want to re-kindle that connection if possible.
Avery’s voice interrupts my thoughts.
“Come on, tell me what the girls are like in New York. You’re a pro football player. There must be dames on your arm all the time,” he snickered. There was no denying the fact he wanted all the details of being a football star. Truth be told, I wanted it too at one point, but now, all of that was past me. I wasn’t interested in the celebrity life. I just wanted to be with one particular girl.
“Let me tell you this much: the girls in New York can be fake. From their hair extensions down to the plastic surgery they get on their feet. You can’t take them at face value.”
Avery gawks.
“Really? Plastic surgery on their feet?”
I shrug.
“A lot of them wear high heels non-stop and it contorts their soles, sometimes permanently. Their feet are disgusting and shriveled, so they get plastic surgery to fix it up.”
“Holy shit,” breathes Avery.
“Yeah.”
But then my friend brightens.
“Well, isn’t that their appeal though? If they’re willing to get plastic surgery on their feet, then they must be willing to get it everywhere,” Avery hints. I just shake my head and pull in a deep breath.
“Yeah, some guys like that, but not me. I don’t want a woman’s breasts to be flotation devices. I like them natural.” A pang nudged my heart as I wondered what Catherine was up to these days. Did she even remember me?
But then Avery guffaws again.
“I’m sorry to tell you, but your ex-girlfriend was never natural. Neither then or now.”
I stare at him.
“Why, what has Angela done?”
Avery gets a weird look on his face.
“Word on the street is that Angela met some guy who wants to prime her for a career in porn. He fed her a sweet bag of lies, and Angela’s gotten a lot of work done in preparation. You know: ti
ts, thighs, nose job, the works. I haven’t seen it, but I hear it looks really bad.”
I shake my head.
“She had her boobs done when we were together, but it didn’t go further than that.”
Avery lets out a whistle.
“From what I hear, she’s barely recognizable now. In a bad way.”
I just shake my head.
“Shit.”
He nods, but then I change the subject.
“Why don’t you come out and visit me out in New York one of these days? I can introduce you to the ladies, and you can see what I’m talking about. Prepare to see a lot of silicone.”
“Really? You’d let me crash at your place?” Avery asks, straightening up like a squirrel.
“Sure thing, why not? It could be fun right?” I ask, dipping my head. “For now though, I need to head over to commencement. It’ll look bad if I’m late for graduation.”
“Oh right, the ceremony,” Avery laughs. “See you around then, buddy.”
He strolls off as I stand at the edge of campus and look up at the clock tower’s spire. I grow nostalgic for a moment. I enjoyed my time at Mesa, but it feels like lightyears ago. Now, I’m a pro football player, and I’ll never enter these grounds as a student again. Suddenly, a voice startles me.
“Mr. Brody.”
I turned to find the dean walking towards me with a huge smile on his face. He extends his hand.
“Welcome back to campus! It’s been a while,” he says. I nod as I take his hand and shake it.
“You’re right, it has.”
“Are you ready? I am sure your time is limited, what with your busy schedule,” he says as he escorts me down an open walkway. There are buildings on each side, and I discreetly look into the ground-floor windows. I must be crazy. I’m secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of Catherine in one of these. But that’s insane because I’m not going to randomly run into her here.
“I’m ready,” I say as the dean stops at a set of large grey doors. He shoots me a sunny smile and then straightens his tie while buttoning the first button of his suit jacket.
My Sister’s Boyfriend: A Forbidden Romance Page 6
