by Kieran Scott
She sat next to me and pried open the box. Her jaw dropped when she saw what was inside—a platinum watch in a diamond setting. It wasn’t too big or gaudy, because Ally didn’t like that stuff, but it was still bling. The saleswoman had called it “tastefully understated.” Which sounded like Ally to me.
“Jake! I love it!”
“You always wear a watch, every day, but I noticed you never wear one when we go somewhere fancy, so I figured you needed a fancy watch.”
“Fancy? Did you just use the word ‘fancy’ twice?” she joked. She made to get up from the couch. “I have to go tell the guys.”
I grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down again. “Do and die.”
Then I pulled her onto my lap—her silky dress made it easy to slide her right on there—and kissed her again. My hands went around her waist, and then I slowly, slowly, slowly moved them upward, holding my breath while I waited for her to stop me. But she didn’t. I hadn’t even gotten within inches of her boobs in a month, so just feeling them from over her dress was, like, the hottest thing ever right then. I thought she’d pull away, but she only deepened the kiss, pressing herself closer to me, like she wanted more.
Shit. This was the best Sunday night dinner ever.
I shifted a little, giving her a hint I wasn’t sure she would take, but she did. She straddled my legs, putting her knees on either side of my thighs, and just like that I was ready to go. I could have had sex with her through our clothes I was so ready. I was just contemplating my next move when—
Crash.
“Oh, fuck,” I said under my breath.
Ally jumped up and ran for the door. I couldn’t move, thanks to my below-the-waist situation. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my breathing. Tried to think very un-hot thoughts. I wished I had a bucket of ice.
“What are you doing here?”
I blinked. That didn’t make any sense as a response to two dozen shattered glasses. And also? Ally hadn’t said it. It was Chloe.
Clearing my throat, I got up from the couch. I adjusted myself and buttoned my jacket, hoping to cover up my situation. I stood behind Ally at the door to hide it, but then forgot all about it.
Shannen had just arrived, looking almost hooker-level slutty in a low-cut, shorter-than-short black dress. And she had Will Halloran with her.
ally
Will and Shannen stood in the double-wide doorway, her hand resting lightly on his shoulder. Chloe stood on the other side of the room in her silvery-white maternity dress, her face red with confusion. Between them, on the floor, was about two tons of shattered glass.
“Omigod! Is that my mother’s good crystal?!” Quinn cried, tears already streaming from her eyes. “What’s the matter with you guys?”
The Idiot Twins backed themselves into a corner fretfully, Todd clutching an unbroken glass.
“It’s okay. It’s not,” I told Quinn, stepping forward, being careful to avoid the destruction. “Your mom’s stuff is packed away for you. Those were the new ones my mom just bought.”
“Are you sure?” Quinn asked, her bottom lip quivering.
For the first time since I’d known her, I felt protective of her. Maybe I was becoming a big sister.
“I’m sure.” I looked around at the couple dozen frozen classmates around the room. Half the girls were wearing skimpy high heels. With all the glass, this place could turn into a bloodbath pretty quickly. “I think the party’s over in here. Quinn, you want to take everyone into the theater until dinner?”
“Okay. Yeah,” she said, sniffling.
She shot the Idiot Twins an uncharacteristically evil look before grabbing Hammond’s hand and leading everyone out, skirting the destruction. The only people who didn’t move were me, Jake, Chloe, Shannen, and Will. So I guess this was Shannen’s plan. Shove everyone in a room together and see what happened. For the past couple of weeks the whole Will situation had seemed less urgent to me—probably because Jake had been back to his old self and had barely mentioned the baby, and Chloe had gone kind of MIA. But apparently Shannen had spent that entire time coming up with and executing this scheme. I only wished that she had warned me, because about two seconds ago I had been seriously considering letting Jake get to second base—maybe even letting him round third. This was like getting shoved into a cold shower.
“Hey, Chloe,” Will said.
He slid his hands into the pockets of his gray suit. His light brown, longish hair fell low over his forehead and he looked seriously handsome in a crisp white shirt and red tie. He smiled at Chloe, but she didn’t smile back. She was too busy nervously darting her eyes around at the rest of us.
“Hey,” she said offhandedly. “What’s up?”
He took a step forward, then paused, thinking the better of getting near the glass. “I … Shannen told me you had something for me. A Christmas present or something?”
I felt Jake stiffen next to me. The blood drained out of Chloe’s face.
“Shannen? Can I talk to you for a second?” Chloe’s voice was shrill.
“Sure.” Shannen opened her arms at her sides, holding her clutch purse out. “What’s up?”
“Not here,” Chloe said through her teeth.
She carefully stepped around the outer rim of the crash zone, took Shannen’s hand, and dragged her out of the room toward the foyer. Okay. There was no way I was letting this conversation happen without me.
“I’ll be right back.”
Jake and Will were like roman statues as I chased the other two down. I found them in the hallway between the foyer and the living room. Chloe had practically pinned Shannen against a gilt-framed painting with her baby belly.
“What do you know?” she demanded as I came around the corner.
“I don’t know anything,” Shannen said innocently. “What do you know?”
“Can we just drop the whole wordplay thing?” I said, walking up to them. “We’re supposed to be friends here.”
They broke eye contact with each other. Chloe turned around, chewing on her thumbnail as she paced to the opposite wall. Shannen stood up straight and waited. Looked like I was going to have to be the one to start.
“Chloe, we know you and Will were going out last summer,” I whispered as a round of laughter sounded from the garden room, where the adults were indulging in music, cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres.
“And it’s obvious he still likes you,” Shannen said.
Chloe looked over her shoulder at us. I recognized the look in her eyes as hope. “You think so?”
“Dude. He refused to come here with me until I told him you wanted to see him. Guys don’t turn this down unless they’re jonesing for something else,” Shannen said, gesturing at her tight-ass dress.
Chloe bit her lip and looked at the floor.
“Chloe,” I said, stepping closer to her. “Is there any possible way that Will could be the father? Because if there is, you have to tell him.”
When Chloe looked up at me, her eyes were swimming. And I knew. I just knew. My heart felt like it was suspended on a tightrope, hanging on for dear life.
“Jake has been nothing but good to you,” I whispered hoarsely. “If the baby’s not his, he deserves to know too.”
Tears spilled out onto Chloe’s cheeks and she sniffled, her nose sounding completely clogged. “Do you have any idea what my parents will do to me?” she whimpered. “Do you have any idea … the guy they hired … to work on our house. The electrician’s son? Do you have any idea—?”
“Is he the father?” I demanded, my blood starting to boil. “That’s what matters, Chloe. Is Will the father?”
Chloe covered her entire face with her hands and let out a very tortured, very wet “yes.”
My mind went weightless. Not “I don’t know.” Not “maybe.” Just “yes.” She was that certain.
Then she buckled at the waist and just cried, pressing one hand against the wall to steady her off-kilter body. Shannen shot me a holy crap kind of look before put
ting her arms around Chloe and letting her sob on her shoulder. I took a couple of steps backward and sat down on the skinny bench near the top of the hall. My legs felt numb. My hands felt numb. All the blood rushed to my head and it suddenly weighed ten thousand pounds.
Jake is not the father. Jake is not the father. Jake is not the father.
“Are you sure?” Shannen asked, rubbing Chloe’s back.
Chloe nodded into her shoulder. “I didn’t know for sure at first. I thought it was Jake’s when I first told him because of the timing, but then the doctor told me … a while ago … when the baby was conceived. I was with Will then. It was, like, a month before Jake and I—”
“How could you do this?” I said quietly, my voice shaking with rage. “How could you do this to him?”
“Ally, I’m so sorry,” Chloe said, her face streaked with mascara and eyeliner. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You didn’t know what to do other than fuck up Jake’s entire life?” I whisper-shouted.
Shannen and Chloe both stared at me. I never cursed. Almost never. So they knew I was serious.
“I just … I just … I just …”
“Just what? You wanted it to be him, right?” I said, thinking of what Annie had said the night of the bonfire, of what Shannen had said when I’d told her. “You couldn’t stand the idea that some Norm knocked you up, so you just started lying your ass off.”
“Ally,” Shannen said. “You know what her parents are like.”
“And now you’re defending her?” I cried.
“No, I’m just—I’m just saying, I get what she was thinking,” Shannen said as she rubbed between Chloe’s shoulders. “And it’s not like Jake didn’t do the deed. He just as easily could have been—”
“Yeah, but he’s not.”
I turned my back on both of them and tried to catch my breath. I breathed in and out, in and out, listening to Chloe’s muted crying. Listening to the sound of my own heart.
Shannen was right about one thing. Nothing mattered more to the Applebys than being the cream of the crop, the A-number-one most revered family on the crest. Chloe would have known that just learning their daughter was pregnant was going to destroy them. It would tarnish their image, it would make them doubt who they were, and it would make everyone look at them differently. But finding out that she was pregnant by some electrician’s kid from the other side of town? Yeah, that would probably kill them.
But so what? She couldn’t screw with Jake—not to mention Will—just to save face. How could she not see how wrong that was?
“You have to tell him. You have to tell both of them,” I said. “Jake has a right to know he’s free, and Will deserves a chance to be there for you.”
“She’s right, Chloe. You’ve gotta fess up,” Shannen said, pushing some of Chloe’s hair away from her tears and back from her face.
“I’ve tried, okay?” Chloe said. “I almost told Jake a million times. And Will, he cornered me at the bonfire as soon as he heard I was pregnant and asked if it was his. I wanted to tell him the truth, but I just couldn’t. It physically wouldn’t come out of me.”
“Well, you have to make it come out,” I said firmly.
Chloe shook her head at the floor. “Everyone’s going to hate me.”
That’s what she was worried about? I wanted to scream so badly my throat hurt.
“Chloe, I swear … if you don’t tell them, I will,” I said.
“No,” Chloe responded. She took in a deep breath. “I’ll tell them. I promise.” She turned toward me and made a move to touch me, but thought better of it at the last second. Which was a good thing. Because I wasn’t sure what I would have done if she had. “Just let me do it, okay? I don’t want them hearing it from someone else.”
I glanced at Shannen. She gave me a slight nod.
“Fine,” I said with some effort.
“Promise me you won’t tell Jake,” Chloe said.
Honestly, I wanted to pound her for saying that—for thinking that she had any right to tell me what to do when it came to me and Jake. But my heart hurt just thinking about what his reaction would be. I had an awful feeling he’d be crushed. And I didn’t want to be the one to crush him. I shouldn’t have to be the one to crush him. “I promise I won’t tell Jake,” I told her flatly. “I’ll let you do it. But I swear, Chloe, if you don’t do it before New Year’s, I will.”
january
Did you guys hear? Will Halloran went to the holiday Sunday dinner.
What? I thought that was Cresties only!
Apparently not anymore. Guess who brought him?
Who?
Shannen Moore.
Oh, well she is a Norm now, I guess.
Then she shouldn’t be invited either. This is so unfair.
I cannot believe Shannen’s slumming it with a Norm.
Slumming it? Will’s totally hot.
Not as hot as Jake Graydon or Hammond Ross. Or even Connor Shale.
Granted. But if he were my boyfriend, I wouldn’t care what kind of slums he hung out in.
ally
January seventh. It was January seventh. It had been almost three weeks since Chloe had confessed. We’d been back in school for five days. My deadline had come and gone. She couldn’t use holiday break and the fact that the major players had been scattered on various vacations as an excuse anymore. She saw Jake every day. She saw Will every day. And she still hadn’t told.
Of course I hadn’t told either, but I kept telling myself it wasn’t my responsibility. I kept hoping she’d live up to her end of the bargain and do the right thing. But I kept being disappointed.
I couldn’t take it anymore. My body was filled from head to toe with white-hot, indignant fury. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day. If I didn’t do something soon, I was going to explode. Or punch Chloe in the face. Which probably wouldn’t do much for my karma—flattening a pregnant girl.
As soon as the bell rang on Friday afternoon I practically sprinted to Chloe’s locker. Jake was already on a bus to an away swim meet, so there was nothing she would be able to do right now, but she lived across the street from him. She could practically spit on his bedroom window from her own. If I had anything to say about it, today was the day Jake would be set free.
Chloe was slowly placing books inside her backpack. The moment she saw me coming she started to work a hell of a lot faster.
“Hey, Ally,” she said, closing her locker door as I arrived. “I’m just on my way to—”
“You’re telling him today,” I said through my teeth. My fingers curled into fists and I had this awful feeling that if she said anything other than “okay,” I was going to hurt her.
“I … I can’t,” she said, glancing nervously past me down the hall.
I cupped one fist with the other hand. “Yes, you can. You promised me, Chloe. You promised me you’d do it by New Year’s.”
“I know, but … we’re meeting the parents tomorrow,” Chloe said, adjusting her backpack straps over her shoulders. “The adoptive parents? They want to meet both of us. Apparently it’s important to them to talk to both the baby’s parents and—”
“Then maybe you should invite Will,” I said through my teeth.
Chloe took a deep breath, as if for patience. Was she kidding me? She was going to stand there and act as if I was making an unreasonable request? Buttoning her coat over her boat-size belly, she started to walk slowly down the center of the hall. I fell right into step with her.
“But Jake’s excited about it too,” Chloe said, averting her eyes every time someone turned to stare at her stomach. “If I tell him now … he’s going to be devastated.”
“And telling him after he meets these people will be so much better?” I said.
We reached the end of the hallway. A right turn led to the lobby. A left to the gym. Down the hall behind her I could see a bunch of guys from the basketball team messing around, downing Gatorades before hitting the w
eight room. Will was one of them, his maroon-and-gold b-ball shorts hanging low.
“Ally, this is hard enough,” Chloe said, taking an almost condescending tone. “Just let me get through this weekend, and then I promise I will tell him.”
Will glanced over at us, checking Chloe out in a longing sort of way. I blinked, and it was as if I was being cooled by a calming breeze. Just like that, my anger was washed away. Just like that, I saw everything with perfect crystal clarity. I knew what I had to do.
“Fine,” I said.
Chloe pulled back, surprised. “Fine?”
“Yes. Fine. Whatever you say,” I told her, pressing my lips into a thin line. “It’s your baby.”
“Thank you,” she said, relief crossing her face, flattening the worry lines on her brow. She started past me, headed for the lobby. “I’ll see you at Annie’s party tomorrow night!” she said brightly, like we were just two friends chatting.
“You’re going to Annie’s party?” I asked, shocked.
Annie hated Chloe. She hated all Cresties. Except Jake. But especially Chloe. What was this about? And why hadn’t Annie told me?
“I know. I was surprised too,” Chloe said, lifting her hands and shoulders. “Later.”
Then she traipsed off toward the lobby. Well, more like trudged. I suppose it’s hard to traipse when you’re carrying an extra thirty pounds or so.
Slowly I turned around to face the gym again. The guys were busy being guylike, laughing and shoving one another like they always seem to do. I took a breath, squared my shoulders, and steeled myself. My heart pounded with uncertainty, but my mind was completely made up. Chloe was clearly never going to come clean. She’d made a promise and was continually breaking it. The girl may have been pregnant, but that didn’t mean she could do whatever she wanted. That didn’t mean she could lie to everyone. I was doing the right thing.
