Father Knows Best Part 6

I smirked. "Right. Only if that's a euphemism for sick and twisted," I said, glad that we were on the road back to being us.

After that, things seemed normalish again, but wow! I'd like to go on the record right this moment to say, fights blow. A lot. However, having gotten past our first one and airing out all our worries (well, my worries), we seemed to have moved to a new level in our relations.h.i.+p.

I felt good. Secure. Totally in the L-word with Dylan, which, of course, would remain unmentioned. For the time being, at least.

Now, if only I really could stop thinking.

Chapter Five.

By the time we entered White Peaks' city limits, the setting sun had painted pink and orange streaks across the sky, and all seemed peachy in Dylan-n-Lila Land. Thankfully. I dropped him off at his house, punctuating the trip with a super-yummy long kiss good night and promises (from me) to try and think more like a guy-in other words, not think. I did, however, decide to rethink the whole plan to break up Dad and Chloe. Maybe it wasn't necessary, and it definitely wasn't nice. I wasn't ready to start calling her Mama, but I could let them do their thing...I think.

The day had been an exhausting roller-coaster ride of emotions. Excitement and then worry and then elation about my new car. Weirdness about the parentals and then the fight with Dylan.

That had been the worst.

I was wiped, and looking forward to simply chilling in my room, checking e-mail from my friends. Just...being alone. Quiet. Free to not think.

So, imagine my surprise when I pulled into the driveway and found Meryl and Caressa, who was supposed to be in final prep mode for NYC, waiting for me on the-gak!-porch swing (not thinking about it. I might have to get one of those sage smudge sticks from Inner Power and cleanse the whole area before I could Zen out about the whole thing).

I stepped out of the car, smiling curiously at my pals. "Hey! What are you guys doing here?"

"Waiting for you," Caressa said. "Nice ride!"

"Thanks!" I twirled my hand like one of those busty, scantily clad girls on the game shows, displaying the Big Prize. "Come check it out. It's awesome."

They both stood and started toward me.

"But, seriously, Caressa, how'd you get out of the house? I thought today was parent day?"

"Special dispensation," she said, by way of explanation, which really didn't explain jack.

They both came down to inspect the car, but their enthusiasm seemed...tight. Their focus fractured. Their smiles and comments just a bit too bright and rehea.r.s.ed, if you know what I mean. Instinct told me something else was on their minds. Meryl, especially, seemed super preoccupied. I watched them examine my car, but a sense of alarm had begun to seep into my brain. I crossed my arms protectively across my abdomen.

Maybe I was a worst-case scenario thinker. Or maybe my raw emotions were too close to the surface after today, and I was reading too much into my two BFFs' uncharacteristic behavior.

Yeah, that was it.

Had to be. Right?

I made a concerted effort to relax, stretching my neck side-to-side and shaking out my hands. After clearing my throat, I asked, "Mer, how was the hike?" I tilted my head toward the front door. "You guys want to come inside for a bit after you're done drooling on my dashboard?"

"I can't stay," Meryl said. She'd been bent over peering into the pa.s.senger side at the airbags. She stood up slowly, and I studied her. Her naturally alabaster skin seemed even more pale against the red of her hair, making her freckles stand out, and her normally sparkly blue eyes looked...heavy. "Oh," she said abruptly, in total afterthought mode. "The hike was hard, but great."

Okay, now I knew I wasn't imagining things.

Something was up.

On a normal day, you could ask Meryl seventeen unrelated questions all in a row-without punctuation-and she remembered to answer every single one of them, appropriately and in order. It was one of her many special talents.

"I can't stay either," Caressa said, with a small shrug. "My freedom pa.s.s has an expiration time stamp, what with the flight tomorrow and everything."

They closed my car doors, and then we all stood there sort of staring at each other from various sides of the car. Me, in front of it. Meryl, pa.s.senger side. Caressa, driver's side. I swallowed, searching my brain for a plausible reason why (1) they'd sit here and actually wait for me, and yet (2) have nothing to say. Goose b.u.mps washed over me.

"So...you guys just dropped your plans to come by and wait for me so you could check out the new wheels?"

Please say yes.

"Yes," Caressa said, just as Meryl said, "No."

They exchanged a weird, unreadable glance.

Caressa moistened her lips with a quick, nervous flick of her tongue and cast me an apologetic look. "Actually, Meryl's right on that one."

I could feel my body bracing itself from the inside, safety gates slamming down, windows boarding up, emotions heading into the deep freeze for safekeeping. Still, I tried to keep my tone light. "Right about what?"

"About why we came over. Well, we did want to see the car," Meryl offered. "But there's something else, too."

Again with the freakin' blood pounding loudly in my ears. I'd had about enough of that for one day. I needed Excedrin. And possibly a hearing aid. I stepped around the front b.u.mper of the car to be closer to Mer, my hands in fists at my sides, and dropped all pretense of lightness. "What? Tell me what's wrong, because I know something is. Are your families okay?"

"They're fine. Everyone's fine," Caressa said, flas.h.i.+ng a quick, uncertain glance across the hood at Meryl again. I watched her take a deep breath and blow it out. "It's just-"

"Jennifer Hamilton is pregnant," Meryl blurted.

I gasped as though someone had kicked me in the gut.

Wait. Wait. Back the h.e.l.l up.

Jennifer.

h.e.l.lsp.a.w.n.

Hamilton.

Knocked.

Up?

Holy, holy, holy- "What?" I whispered.

Meryl nodded. "Pregnant."

"D-do you mean she's going to have a baby?" I asked, stupidly.

"Yep," Caressa said, on a sigh. "That kind of pregnant."

"Is there a different kind?" Meryl asked us both, totally serious.

Natch, we didn't answer.

My mind spun as I tried to wrap my brain around this unexpected bit of news. Let's review. Jennifer Hamilton is the kind of pregnant that meant she would eventually give birth. To a baby. Which simply wasn't heard of in her circle, I might add. Speaking of her circle...

I blinked, then looked from one friend to the other. "And the evil flying monkey posse?" I ventured, referring to her so-called "in crowd" of vapid, cheerleading, bleached-blond followers, all of whom despised and tortured us whenever possible and for no reason.

"Well, none of them are pregnant, if that's what you're asking," Caressa said.

"But, according to Jennifer, they've pretty much dropped her completely," Meryl added, in a strangely sad voice. "Some friends, huh?"

Something seemed off. Why was Meryl compa.s.sionate to this girl? h.e.l.lsp.a.w.n and the Evil Flying Monkey Posse had treated her-all of us-like unadulterated c.r.a.p for years, and now she was all empathetic to the Sp.a.w.n just because she was going to sp.a.w.n? We shouldn't care about Jennifer and her stupid mistake. We shouldn't care about her hateful posse. We shouldn't care about any of it. But there were issues...

A beat pa.s.sed.

"Dude, this is like a bad MFTVM."

"What?" Meryl asked, looking mystified.

Ah, yes. It bears mentioning that Meryl's family is antipop culture. They don't own television-never have, so she's often utterly clueless when it comes to stuff the rest of us take for granted. "It stands for Made-for-TV-Movie."

"Oh." She still looked confused, but I didn't feel like launching into an explanation about the differences between a big-screen movie and a Made-for-TV flick. There were more important things to discuss.

I eased out some tension and got back to the matter at hand. Of course Meryl was compa.s.sionate, despite everything. She's Meryl. The girl doesn't have an unkind bone in her body, and that's why I love her to death. "How did you-?"

"I ran into her," Meryl said quickly. "Just by chance. She was sitting on one of the benches outside Inner Power. Crying. Like, hard." Mer hiked one shoulder slowly. "I've never really seen her looking so...bereft. So I just went and asked her if everything was okay. And she told me." Meryl twisted her lips to the side.

"Why, though? Why did she tell you?"

Meryl flipped one hand listlessly. "Because I asked? I don't know. Everyone's going to find out eventually, especially since her former friends are being so evil. And I guess her parents are"-she shuddered-"well, you can imagine how they feel, I'm sure. I a.s.sume she just needed someone to talk to."

I forced a swallow past my constricted throat, and nodded. Made sense, and I was trying to rein in my inner b.i.t.c.hiness about the fact that she chose my best friend to talk to. I pictured Jennifer as a lone polar bear drifting on a glacier chunk in the Antarctic. Why wouldn't she unburden herself to the first living thing that crashed into her lonely ice floe? The first person who showed any interest in her plight? So many questions swirled around my head, but one whopping scary one stood out: How far along was she?

That's what I needed to know, but I was too afraid to ask. I mean, I didn't even know if Dylan and Jennifer had ever-ugh.

Shudder.

But, for my own peace of mind, I needed to calculate the last time they could've possibly-ugh.

Shudder.

Unless I didn't know him as well as I thought I did, and they were still-UGH!-on the sly.

Big shudder.

I needed to get a grip, remember the Dylan I knew and L-worded. I closed my eyes for a moment.

Gut check.

I waited.

No. Somewhere deep inside me, I knew with unwavering certainty that Dylan wasn't cheating on me. So, if the baby was his, the whole conception aspect had to have happened a while ago. "She's pregnant," I repeated in a zombie monotone.

"Yep," Caressa said.

My eyelids fluttered shut, and I'm not sure, but I think I swayed on my feet. "How do you say pregnant in Bosnian, Mer?" I don't know why I asked that. But I did. Avoidance, I suppose.

She swallowed. "Trudna. Or zbijen. Or-"

"Two choices are more than enough," I said. "Really."

Surreal. I knew I possessed extremities, like, say, hands and feet, but I couldn't feel any of them right then. I couldn't even feel my face. I couldn't feel anything except abject fear straight down to the soul level. It buzzed within me like a wasp's nest that had been thwacked with a broom handle until all h.e.l.l had broken loose inside my chest cavity. I mean, what was I supposed to say about this? When's the freakin' shower?

"We just wanted to tell you," Caressa said in a sad voice, as though reading my mind, "before you heard about it...some other way."

Like from Dylan.

That was the unspoken part, but it came through loud and clear, believe me.

Because if Jennifer Hamilton was preggers, logically, who could the father BE besides her ex-boyfriend, a.k.a. my current boyfriend, the one for whom I deeply felt the as-yet-undeclared L-word? At least, that's what all the gossips in White Peaks would think and spread around-Dylan and h.e.l.lsp.a.w.n: teen parents to be.

The question was, what did I think?

Caressa I can't believe I had to leave for New York City right after springing that awful news on my girl, Lila. What kind of best friend was I, leaving in her time of need? Not that I had a choice. My job at the theatre (oh, G.o.d, I just got all jittery with excitement) starts Tuesday, so I only have Sunday evening and Monday to settle in.

Not a whole lot of margin for friend crises there.

This thing with Jennifer Hamilton is a big deal, considering the ident.i.ty of her ex-boyfriend. No one said it out loud, but you could tell Lila thought the same evil thing Meryl and I had the minute she heard the news: Baby Daddy, starring Dylan Sebring. But, really, even if I had stayed, what could I do besides show my support? And I could do that from here-it's not as if I'm going to be living in some remote jungle without cell phone or e-mail access. Still, I was torn. Nothing's quite the same as being with your friends in person, you know?

But Lila wouldn't want me to cancel my plans no matter what. This is an opportunity of a lifetime for me. I decided to send her positive mental energy and get on with the summer. They'd call or e-mail me with every update and I'd call and e-mail constantly. It wouldn't even be like we were apart.

My plane landed, and once I got off and headed toward baggage claim, everything seemed to move in fast forward. I couldn't keep the grin off my face. New York time and White Peaks time? Not even on the same clock.

I was in love with the pulsating energy of this city.

My dad had instructed me to look for a uniformed driver holding up a sign with my name on it just past security, so I did. Okay, let me just say there seemed to be more uniformed drivers than people on the flight-not that they were all for the same flight. But still. I scanned and scanned until I saw my name, then I glanced up and smiled at the driver.

Holy-!

Daddy hooked his baby girl up with a stone cold hottie for a driver! I wonder if he knew. Believe me, I wasn't going to tell him. The guy looked like he'd had a choice between the NFL draft for one of the cute positions, like running back, but decided to become a chauffeur instead. Skin the color of melted chocolate, soft lips, wide shoulders, and ripped muscles.

I don't know if he knew what I looked like, but I shrank back against the wall and quickly flipped open my phone to write a text message to Lila (who made me swear I'd tell her everything good despite what was going on in her life). Meryl didn't have a cell phone, so I started with, B sure 2 tell M: JUST saw my driver & he's so hot, I don't know if I can walk over and intro myself!!!