Chapter 5
Presley
"Pregnant." He says the word, and I can see the tears filling his eyes. Which in turn makes my stomach flutter, which then makes me blame the baby. "I can't." He gets choked up, and the smile on his face is from ear to ear. "We're having a baby." My heart is pounding so hard I think it's literally going to come out of my chest. "We're having a baby." He leans in and kisses my lips softly. The nerves die down just a bit. My hand moves up on its own as I cup his cheek.
"I don't know about the we part," I say, pushing away from him and getting up. "But I am definitely with child."
"How do you know for sure?" he asks as I stand here in front of him. The shades are all closed as if I'm mourning a death.
"Well, this morning I went into work and I was fine, and then this groom came in and he smelled as if he was sixteen and just got a hold of his father's aftershave." I close my eyes and grimace at the thought. "Made me lose my breakfast." He just stares at me, and his look is just filled with so much feeling that my chest fills with something that I don't want to think about because as soon as it fills, I get this overwhelming sense of sadness. "Then I googled about the cream cheese being bad, and well, it said pregnancy, so I laughed because..."
"Because we always use protection." He sits on the couch with the pregnancy test in his hands.
"Right, but then I went on my period app." I start to pace in front of him, and all he does is sit on the couch all cool, calm, and collected. "And it was like four days ago."
"You should have called me." He gets up now. "I would have…"
"Helped me how? Pee on the stick?" I point at the stick.
"I don't know. Hold your hand," he says. "Support you."
"Besides, I was in the state of denial for a good hour after." I shake my head. My head is spinning a million miles a minute. I think I'm about to hyperventilate, but I block it all off. "It's fine." I look at him. "I'm pregnant, and I go from here."
He walks over to me now, putting the stick in his pocket. His hands come up to hold my face. "Gorgeous," he says softly, "relax."
"I am relaxed," I reply, even though I'm the opposite of relaxed. I'm to the point that I'm freaking the fuck out, but even more so because I thought he would be freaking out with me. "You’re a lot more relaxed than I thought you would be."
"What does that mean?" he asks, and I just look at him.
"It means that we went from exchanging orgasms to now me being pregnant," I say, and I have to move away from his touch because if I don't, I'm afraid that he's going to see exactly what I'm feeling and I'm never going to let that happen. I just can't.
"We shared a lot more than orgasms, gorgeous." His lips find mine, and the beating in my chest slows down. "And we are going to be sharing a lot more from now on."
"I don't even know what else there is to share with you." I laugh. "I mean, you've already taken my virginity, and now you've planted a baby in me." He throws his head back and laughs, and I can't help but lean in and kiss his neck. "I have to tell my sisters."
"Okay," he says. "What time are they coming over?"
I push him away from me. "You are not going to be here when they come here."
"Why not?" he asks, shocked as he puts his hands on his hips.
"Because," I say, walking over to the kitchen to grab an apple juice, which I never drink, "I'm going to tell them."
"Okay," he says. "But I'm telling your brother."
I laugh. "You really think that is a good idea?"
He shrugs his shoulders. "It's not a surprise that I'm into you."
"Oh, you are in me all right." I grab the glass and wink at him. "You left a couple of things in me as we speak."
I grab the phone on the counter that I went into the car and got after the initial shock. "Oh, you have a phone," he says. "Funny, I kept calling.”
“I was in shock.” I roll my eyes. “I had five tests staring back at me telling me that I’m a plus-one.”
I pull up the text thread.
Me: Hey, so this is an SOS Emergency sister meeting.
I put the phone down, and my hands shake. "This should be fun."
Clarabella: Oh, now she answers after hours.
Shelby: This better not be to discuss Taylor Swift.
Me: Trust me when I say this is an emergency.
Clarabella: Prove it.
Shelby: Why would you ask her to prove it?
Me: Code Purple.
Shelby: Shit, on my way.
Clarabella: I'm there in four minutes.
I put the phone down. "Okay, you have to go," I urge, walking to him and grabbing his hand.
"It's going to take them longer than five seconds to get here." He laughs, and when I look at him, my vagina tenses a little bit. I didn't notice that he's wearing his dress pants, and the sleeves of his button-down shirt are rolled up to his elbows. His silver Rolex on his wrist makes him sexy as hell.
"They are going to get here in record time. I just threw down a code purple,” I tell him, knowing he won’t understand, and I also know that I don't have time to sit down and explain it to him. I need him to get his ass out of this house. "I'll call you later." I kiss his lips and push him out the door.
"Promises, promises." He shakes his head and walks down the stairs. "Stop staring at my ass."
"It's right in my line of sight," I tell him as he looks over his shoulder, and I hold out my hand, showing him that it's right in front of my eyes.
"I can come back and hide in your room until after, and you can touch it," he says once he gets to his car, looking at me.
"Touching it got us into this mess." I point at my stomach. "We should have done a little less touching."
He shakes his head. "Would not recommend that at all. Now that it's too late, we can do it all the time."
"We already do it all the time," I retort. "Now get out of here." I shoo him away, and I walk back inside to grab a glass of apple juice. The sweetness makes my mouth alive. I'm pouring myself another glass when I hear a car door shut. "Here we go, little one," I say, putting my hand on my stomach.
The front door opens and then shuts back with a slam. "What in the world?" I hear Shelby say as she walks in slowly. Almost like she is afraid to walk in, she finally makes it to the kitchen. "Why is it so dark in here?" she asks while she looks around. "Why are you sitting in the dark?"
I don't have a chance to answer her because I hear the shriek of brakes, and then the sound of a car door shutting. "Presley!” Clarabella yells my name, running up the steps. "This better be fucking good," she says, walking in and slamming the door. "Hello," she says, not moving from the front door. "Is anyone here?"
"There are three cars outside,” Shelby says, turning on the light and then looking over at me. "Oh my God, who died?"
"Someone better have died,” Clarabella says, coming into the kitchen wearing a bathrobe.
"Oh my God," I say. "Are you naked under there?"
"Yes." She nods her head. "We were…"
"If you tell me that you were in the middle of having sex," Shelby scolds, "I'm going to…"
"Who answers in the middle of having sex?" Clarabella says. "It was the pre-game."
"Oh my God." Shelby closes her eyes. "I can't get the picture out of my head."
"Well, this is going to go a lot better than I thought it was going to go," I say, and they look at me.
"You called code purple," Shelby reminds me. "It better be life or death." When we were in college, and we would go out, the code word was purple bear. If we texted your purple bear in, it meant we needed backup.
"I did," I say, my heart speeding up a bit. "Well, there is no way to say this… so."
"Are you dying?" Clarabella interrupts me, her eyes filling with tears. "Is that why you are sitting in the dark?"
"Can you shut the hell up?” Shelby says. "She isn't dying. She's glowing." She looks at me. "I mean, not at the moment." She does a weird face. "You look like shit, and like you’re about to die, but this morning, you glowed."
"I'm pregnant." I come right out and say it. "Like ripping off the Band-Aid," I say, pouring myself another glass of apple juice and taking it like a shot.
"I'm sorry,” Clarabella says, holding her robe together on top. "What did you just say?"
"You are not!" Shelby shrieks. "You can't be."
I walk over to the living room to grab the four tests that I have, turning to see Shelby walk over to the kitchen counter and pick up my cup and smell inside of it. "Don't touch it," Clarabella hisses over to her.
"I'm pregnant," I repeat. "Not filled with germs."
"I need a drink,” Shelby states, walking over to the cabinet on top of the fridge, knowing that is where I keep the booze. We all keep it above the fridge like it's a secret. "Do you want one?"
"I don't know,” Clarabella says. "I don't want to touch anything."
"You can't catch pregnancy," Shelby tells her.
"Forget that you know how people get pregnant… sex," Clarabella informs her, and Shelby gasps out.
"Shocking, really, is that how it happens?” Shelby mocks, grabbing the bottle and just taking a shot. "I thought the stork flies over and brings it to you."
"They probably had sex right there." Clarabella points at her. "You are in the same spot your niece and or nephew were planted into her."
Shelby looks down at the counter and then looks over at me. "Did you do it here?"
"Oh my God," I say, walking into the kitchen and tossing one of the tests to Shelby and one to Clarabella.
"This is,” Shelby says, grabbing the stick and looking down at it. "Mine says pregnant."
"So does mine,” Clarabella confirms to her.
"That's because I'm pregnant!" I shout. "Can we just for once focus?"
"I'm trying to focus,” Clarabella says. "Who is the father?"
I fold my arms over my chest and huff out, "It's Bennett."
"Holy shit," they both say at the same time.
"We are not shocked in the least," they both say together. "Are you shocked?"
"Well, yeah," I say, throwing my hands up.
"Where does it go wrong?" Clarabella asks me while Shelby hits her shoulder. "What? I'm
asking her if she was using protection."
"Obviously, she uses protection." Shelby rolls her eyes. "You did use it, right?"
"We did each time," I tell them.
"And how many times are we talking?" Clarabella asks me while Shelby groans out and slaps the counter. "What? These are questions people ask."
"What people?" I ask them. "Who?"
"I don't know; it's not like we have a playbook on how to act when your sister tells you they are pregnant,” Clarabella says.
"Did you tell Bennett?" Shelby asks me.
"Oh, good question,” Clarabella sings out. "Does he know? What did he say?"
"I just told him," I confirm to both of them.
"Well, then, why isn't he here?" Clarabella says. "Oh my God, is he hiding upstairs?" She pulls the top of her robe tighter.
"He is not here," I share, walking and grabbing the apple juice instead of the scotch.
"Why isn't he here?" Clarabella now asks, her tone tight when she cocks her hip to the side and folds her arms over her chest.
"Why does he need to be here?" I throw up my hands, ignoring the way that my stomach gets tight and my chest suddenly burns. "It's my body."
"It is," Shelby says softly. "And you get to decide what you do with your body." She shares a look with Clarabella.
"Okay, before we make rash decisions." Clarabella holds up her hands. "Can we not talk about it?" She walks over to me. "I already love it." Putting her hand on my stomach.
"It," Shelby hisses.
"Okay, one"—I hold up my finger—"I'm having the baby; there was never a question about it." I put my hand on Clarabella's. "But I'm doing this alone."
"That motherfucker," Shelby hisses out.
"Oh, he's happy. He kept saying, we are having a baby." I shake my head, ignoring all the screaming going on in my brain. "But the reality of it is, I'm having the baby." I grab the glass, bringing it to my mouth. "And it's going to be fine."