Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Me: I love U
Roe: I love you too
Roe: I’m going to stay at Jade’s tonight
My pulse ticked up a little. The plan had been for Jade to bring her back.
Me: You OK?
Roe: Yeah. Fine. I’ll see you at school tomorrow. <3
Shit. She was being short. And putting heart emojis in her texts. She was pregnant. God, I had knocked her up. And she wouldn’t even tell me.
Me: You know. No matter what. I won’t leave you.
Roe: I know. Are you okay?
Aside from the crippling anxiety coursing through me.
Me: Yeah
Me: Just miss you
Roe: Miss you too.
I tossed the phone onto the bed, then turned out the light. The noise of the TV downstairs crept underneath my bedroom door. Every once and a while, Hendrix shouted, “cocksucker” while I tried to find sleep, but I couldn’t. I wanted her to tell me shit, not hide stuff from me. Monroe was the most stubborn person I had ever known. Wouldn’t ask for help, would hitchhike before she would call for a lift. I didn’t know why I took it personally; it was just how she handled things. But something like this—the potential fuck up to all her future plans… A kid… Just shit.
38
Monroe
I sat in the hallway of Jade’s parent’s house, my back pressed to the bathroom door. I glanced at the timer on my phone screen.
“Two minutes is up, Jade.” Silence greeted me, and I pushed to my feet. “We’re gonna be late for school. Just look at the damn thing already.”
She tugged the door open, and her tear-filled gaze met mine.
“Are you…?”
She shook her head, then shouldered past me and down the stairs. I didn’t know what to do, so I just followed her out to her car.
We listened to the radio the entire drive to school, and Jade never said a word. I was admittedly shit with situations like this. I wasn’t sure if the tears meant she was knocked up, or if the head shake meant she wasn’t. But if she wasn’t, why would she be crying? She definitely was, and I felt horrible for her, but in Dayton, it was pretty common.
“Look, if you are, it’s fine,” I said. “You have options.”
We turned into the school, speeding through the parking lot and right past Wolf’s truck, the guys on the tailgate, smoking weed. She pulled into a spot a few spaces down.
“I mean, do you know whose it is?” Shit. That made her sound like I thought she was a whore. “Not like that—”
Jade was out of her car and halfway across the lot before I had closed the door. She didn’t even lock her car.
Jesus, I was bad at this. I jogged after her. “Jade?”
“I’ve gotta talk to Mr. Weaver about a C he gave me.” She hurried up the steps and through the doors, leaving me in the middle of the lot.
On a groan, I started toward Wolf’s truck. Zepp’s gaze met mine, a steady stream of smoke drifting through his lips. The second I stopped beside the lowered tailgate, Wolf and Bellamy got up and walked off without a word.
“Uh, do I smell bad or something?”
Zepp tossed the roach to the ground, his lips pressing into a hard line before he hopped off the truck and took me into his arms. “You okay?” The heavy thud of his heartbeat was audible through his shirt.
Aside from Jade… “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“So.” He stepped back, ducking his chin to look at me. “Are you?”
“Am I what?”
A few seconds passed. A group of students passed behind us laughing, and Zepp eyed them until they disappeared across the lot. He exhaled a hard breath, his uncertain stare meeting mine. “Pregnant?”
My eyes popped wide. “No! Why would you—Oh, shit.”
“You’re not?” Relief washed across his face.
“No.” Though now I thought about it, we probably weren’t as careful as we should have been. I grabbed his arm, glancing over my shoulder before I moved closer. “How did you know, though?”
“So, you thought you were, but you didn’t tell me. Roe, why would you—”
“It wasn’t mine,” I said, raising a brow and waiting for him to put two and two together. “Does Wolf know?”
The lightbulb went off over his head. “Fuck.” He swiped a hand through his hair. “Fuuuck.”
“Don’t say anything.”
“I’m not saying shit.” He snagged me by my waist and headed toward the school. “Wolf would shit himself.”
“So that’s why you look so tired. You spent all of last night thinking I was knocked up?”
“Yeah.”
I actually felt bad for him, but I was curious. “Did you have a plan?” I fought a smile. “Change your identity and move out of state?”
“So far from the plan.” He hopped over the curb, then grabbed the door and held it open for me. “I had just asked Wolf if he’d be my best man when you two pulled up.”