Sutton hadn't been out of bed in days since she'd found out about the baby. Occasionally getting up only to go to the bathroom and eat food (which she was doing more than usual.) Now she padded barefoot to the kitchen. She was pulling out everything she could find, cheese, yogurt, fruit, candy bars. She even made herself a bowl of cereal. She was carrying it back on a tray when she passed Laurel in the hallway, "What's with all the food?" Laurel questioned, "Are you feeding a fugitive or something? Oh God, is Ethan in trouble again?"
Sutton shook her head, "No, I'm just hungry. Now leave me alone." She pushed past Laurel and continued to her room.
Laurel spun around, "You've been acting weird lately. What's going on?" Her eyes narrowed as she looked at her sister, waiting for an answer.
Sutton looked back at her adoptive half sister, "Look this whole Sherlock mystery solver act needs to end. Ok? Congrats on finding out about the twins. But my life and what I do is none of your damn business." Then Sutton stormed off, slamming her bedroom door behind her. Laurel sighed, If Sutton wasn't talking then maybe Emma would spill. She thought.
Sutton had just crashed unto her bed, her overwhelming fatigue had seriously been taking a toll on her. All she wanted to do was sleep. As she was drifting, a soft knock on her outside door and she opened her eyes. Outside, Thayer was peeking into her room. She felt her throat close a little. She hadn't seen Thayer in over a week and she'd been deliberately avoiding his calls since she found out she was having his baby. But now he was looking at her, she couldn't ignore him. Slowly, she rose from her bed and opened the latch to the door, allowing the glass to swing in and Thayer to enter the room, "What is going on with you Sutton?" He grilled.
Sutton just padded back to her bed, not looking at him. She shook her head and sat back down on her unmade bed. Thayer plopped beside her and looked at her, "Is something wrong?"
Yes. She wanted to answer. But she didn't even look him. Instead she picked at a loose thread on her comforter. Thayer sighed, "Fine. If this is how you're going to be, I'm done." Then he stood up and headed to the door.
As he was unlatching the door, she stood up, "Wait!" She said putting out her hand. Thayer stopped and turned, "There is something I want to tell you."
Thayer's heart froze but he went back to her bed. she looked down again, beating a steady pace with her foot, she nervously avoided his gaze again. It was moments before anyone spoke, "Ok, are you going to tell me?"
"Hold on. It's important and I'm scared." Sutton said chewing on her thumb nail.
Thayer moved beside her, "What's wrong?" He put his arm around her. He could see now the tears welling up in her eyes. He pulled her into his embrace and for a moment she allowed herself to crash into his weight. Her tears poured down her cheeks and stained his shirt. He pulled her down onto the bed and rocked her, stroking her brown hair. When she finally looked up at him, she was ashamed and embarrassed for not keeping her composure like normal Sutton would have. But ever since Emma came to town, the way she handled emotional situations seemed to change. Thayer pushed her matted hair off her face, " Why are you scared, Sutton?"
Sutton drew in a breath and looked at him. She shook her head, "Every time I do anything with you bad things happen."
Thayer looked confused, "What do you mean?"
"In LA when we slept together, I did it for all the wrong reasons." She felt shame course through her.
"You said this time it wasn't like that. I thought it meant something to you." He locked his fingers with hers and stroked her hand with his thumb.
"It did!" she said, "It meant everything to me."
"But…" He urged her on.
"Nothing. I mean it has nothing to do with that. Sleeping with you meant everything to you." She paused for a moment. Hearing the words in her head but somehow unable to form the words with her mouth, "I'm pregnant, Thayer."
Emma sat at her desk, pulling up her laptop when someone knocked on her door. Laurel poked her head around the corner of Emma's door. When she saw her, Emma smiled, "Oh hey. Come in."
Laurel pushed open Emma's door and walked deeper into her room, "What are you doing?"
Emma typed something into her search engine, "Grades for finals came out today. I wanna see how I did."
Laurel nodded, noticing the smallest differences between Emma and Sutton. How she didn't pick up on it before was beyond her, "Oh, how do you think you did?"
Emma shrugged, "I don't know. I think I did well in History and Science and my English essay was a breeze. But Calc was really hard." as she said this she scrolled down finding her name amongst the list of her other senior peers, "97% Yes!" She threw her hands up in the air and drew in a sigh of relief.
Laurel smiled, "Congrats Emma. You studied hard for that and you're so smart."
"Thank you, Laurel. Anyways, I'm guessing you weren't jumping out of your skin to know my grades. What's up?"
Laurel sat on the end of her sister's perfectly made bed. Emma definitely had a knack for organization and her room always looked like something out of a PB Teen catalogue, "What's up with Sutton lately? I mean I know she's moody like 24/7, but this is different. She's been crying a lot more. Eating more. She's not pregnant is she?" No one could say that Laurel didn't figure things out, but Emma kept quiet. Laurel gasped, "Emma are you serious?"
Again Emma didn't reply. After a moment she looked up, "Why don't we go get some froyo. I really need to celebrate this good grade." She smiled and stood up.
Laurel shook her head, "Oh. My. God. I'm going to be an aunt. Wait, who's the father? Is it Thayer's? It's not Ethan's is it?"
Emma looked at Laurel, "Look it's not my place to talk about it. If Sutton wants you to know she will tell you and trust me, in time she will tell you." She grabbed her keys off the small hook beside her door and turned out her light, "Now are you coming with me?"
Laurel sighed, "Well I ain't saying no to froyo."
Thayer was silent. Nobody said anything. Sutton's heart pounded in her chest. But what was she supposed to do. After several minutes Sutton looked at him, "Thay?"
He shook his head, "No."
"I'm sorry." Sutton whispered. She bit her lip and tried slowing her racing heart.
Thayer looked up, "Ok. We will deal with this. This isn't the end of the world, right?"
Sutton looked at him, glad he was actually speaking to her, "I guess not."
"Alec is going to kill us. Both of us. And what about Rebecca? Does she know?"
Sutton shook her head, "No. Nobody but Emma knows."
Thayer looked at her, "Emma knows?"
"She found me. How was I supposed to lie to her? I needed my sister." Tears welled her eyes again. Memories of that moment flooded her mind.
"So only you, me and Emma know about this?" He confirmed. She nodded, "Ok. Then it needs to stay like that. At least until I figure things out."
"Thayer, I'm going to need to see a doctor. At the very least, Kristen is going to need to know."
"And how do you plan on telling your mom this? Hasn't she been through enough this year?" Thayer had a point. After all of the lies and the back and forth between her and Emma, how could she add more fuel to the fire by dropping a baby bomb on Kristen. But what's done is done. She thought. It's not like they planned on having a baby. It just happened.
Sutton sighed, "I don't know, but eventually she's going to figure it out. I might as well just come clean with her."
Thayer wrapped his arms around her and kissed her head, "We will get through this Sutton." Sutton nodded on his shoulder and closed her eyes, thankful that his reaction was better than what she'd anticipated.