Rhys mentally willed himself not to look down as he balanced precariously on the roof of his house. Slowly and carefully, he crawled along, gripping the shingles tightly, until he reached the malfunctioning weather system. Truth be told, he couldn't care less about the weather, but it was something of a hobby for others in his family and as the eldest son, he had been nominated to climb up and find out what was wrong with it. The sun blazed above him, making him that much more sweaty and miserable, but he didn't have much of a choice. Grumbling to himself about the misfortune of being saddled with the responsibility, he inched closer until it was finally within reach.
Upon examining it, he found that the weather station was infested with lizards. Cursing his bad luck even further, he swatted the reptilian pests away until he was sure they were gone, all while trying to maintain his safety. He nearly toppled off the roof when he heard someone calling his name, but he managed to stay upright.
"Rhys!"
Even from his position high above her, Rhys could tell that his girlfriend Maia, who was usually the picture of poise and serenity, was excited about something as she frantically waved at him to further alert him of her presence. "I'll be right down!" he yelled back. Scooting back in the direction from which he'd come, he returned to the ladder propped up against the side of the house and descended back onto solid ground.
Maia was literally bouncing up and down in the driveway in anticipation of greeting her boyfriend. "Hey, what's going on?" he asked her after kissing her on the cheek. She clasped her hands over her mouth and shook her head. "Is something wrong?"
She furtively looked around to make sure no one was within earshot. "...I can't say it!" she whispered before covering her mouth again.
Rhys was running low on patience due to the lizards and the heat and he wasn't feeling up for the silly games that teenaged girls sometimes played, but he knew he had to try to coax it out of her, whatever "it" was. "Did something happen when you were at the mall this morning?"
She nodded, her pale blue hair bobbing up and down furiously. Rhys attempted to narrow it down further. "Okay...um...did you lose your phone again?"
Maia's eyes grew wide and she quickly checked inside her purse before breathing a sigh of relief. "I can never remember where I put that damn thing," she mumbled. "No, that's not it."
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and tried to decide on his best course of action for getting to the point as quickly as possible. "Is there a problem with one of your friends?"
"Oh, I'll just tell you!" she burst out. Thank goodness, Rhys thought. "So we had just gotten to the mall and I really wanted to go try on these shoes, but the first store didn't have them in my size, but then I remembered that I saw similar ones in a different store, but it was all the way on the other side of the mall! So we were walking over there and then I stepped in some gum, which was really gross, and we had to stop at the food court so I could scrape it off and..."
The young man patiently listened to the tale of Maia's shopping trip, which had seemingly taken them through every single store in the entire complex, and hoped that she wouldn't quiz him for details at the end. He tried to nod and make non-committal noises in all the right spots as he pondered which items were going to actually be relevant to whatever had gotten her so worked up when she'd arrived. Part of him wondered if there was an actual point to her ramblings and if it would be something he would care about, but he let her continue on uninterrupted.
"...and I thought the belt was, like, really pretty, it had all these seashells on it, but then they told me that I'd look silly, like I'd just come from the beach or something, so I put it back and decided to think about it some more. Anyway, we left that store, and that's when we saw them!"
"'Them'?"
"A group of girls from another school, I've seen them around at baseball games and stuff. My friend was wearing her boyfriend's varsity jacket and they saw us and waved us over and oh my god, you'll never believe what they told us!" Maia had started to bounce again, as if her body was physically unable to contain the words much longer.
"What?"
"I don't know if I should tell you, this is big. Really big. Huge!"
"What is it?"
"It is just gossip and rumors, after all, but they seemed pretty sure, and it would be really mean if they were saying these things and they weren't true and..."
"Maia! Just tell me already!"
His outburst seemed to stun her just slightly. She blinked several times and frowned, but made a quick recovery before he could make his request yet again. "Lena's pregnant!" she exclaimed.
Rhys' jaw nearly hit the graveled blacktop of his driveway. "Le...she...what?" he sputtered.
"I know, isn't that just crazy?" Though Maia bore no ill feelings towards her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend, there was still a hint of a satisfied gleam in her eyes in regards to the other girl's unfortunate predicament.
"But...who?" Rhys was still having difficulty stringing together coherent sentences.
"Apparently she's been seeing some guy in their town. The name didn't sound familiar, I don't remember." She couldn't help but giggle slightly. "It's going to be all over school by Monday morning. I mean, I've only told you, I don't want to be a gossip...but everybody's going to know!"
Even though he had plans with Maia for the rest of the day, the news about Lena lingered in the back of Rhys' mind. Though he had been the one to break things off with her in order to pursue Maia, she had been so upset, he hadn't expected her to start dating someone else so quickly. And not only had she already moved on, she had apparently grown to know this new suitor quite intimately, if the rumors were to be believed.
After a rather sleepless night, he still couldn't shake the thoughts of his former girlfriend. They hadn't spoken since their break-up, but he knew he needed to talk to her himself and find out what was going on. Preferring to hold this sensitive conversation face-to-face (and not wanting to run the risk of her ignoring his calls when his name popped up on her phone), he set out on foot for her house.
The petite brunette was sitting on her front porch reading a book when she heard the curious teenager approach. Her eyes narrowed as she looked him over and they stared at each other in awkward silence for several moments. "Hi," he finally said, opting for simplicity.
"Can I help you?" she curtly asked.
"I...uh..." He scratched his head. "I just wanted to see how you were."
"How nice of you to care." Lena marked her place in her novel before setting it aside and crossing her arms across her chest, raising an irritated eyebrow at her visitor.
"Aw, Lena, you know I'll always care about you. We - "
"Oh, please, don't even start in with that bullshit. You got bored with me and unceremoniously dumped me out of nowhere to go chase after that blue-haired skank and now you've heard some rumors and you came by to see if you could learn anything for yourself. It's so nice to see that you haven't become any less of an asshole in the months since we broke up."
Rhys couldn't come up with much of a response, as nothing in her brief tirade had been untrue. She had seen right through him and there was no use in trying to convince her that his motives were pure. With few choices available to him, he opted for blunt honesty. "So is it true?"
Her seething glare never wavered. "Is that really any of your damn business?"
He tried to think of a good answer. "Well, we were together for a really long time. You know who I'm dating now. I don't get to know anything about you and your 'mystery man'?"
"No, you don't. You lost the right to know anything about me when you cast me aside like yesterday's trash." She smirked at him. "Though I have to admit, it is a little entertaining that you came all the way out here when you found out that I wasn't holed up in my bedroom, pining away for our lost love. There are other men in the world, Rhys, and a lot of them are willing to treat me a hell of a lot better than you ever did."
Rhys was starting to wonder why he'd made the trip out if she was just going to berate him, but he was determined not to leave uninformed. Though she'd previously cut him off, he tried to appeal to her sentimental side and remind her of their history together. "Come on, Lena. We've known each other for our entire lives. I know I fucked up and I'm sorry, but I really do want you to be happy. If you really love this new guy, I'm happy for you, even if..." He gulped, as the next words were difficult to get out. "...you're having his baby."
"It's more than a little late, but I accept your apology." Her expression softened slightly, but not much as she kept her cold brown eyes fixed on him. "I know there's no use in trying to hide it much longer, so I may as well tell you: yes, I'm pregnant. Satisfied?"
Rhys didn't really know what he was feeling, but hearing the words come from her didn't give him the closure he'd been seeking. "Um...I guess." He shifted his weight and looked everywhere but at her. "So...uh...how'd that happen anyway?"
Lena rolled her eyes. "The usual way? Or did you cut health class the day they went over the mechanics of it?"
"You know what I meant."
She shrugged. "Accidents happen. We thought we were being careful, but nothing's one hundred percent effective, you know."
"I know." He was still fidgeting, as it wasn't the most comfortable conversation a teenaged boy could be having with his ex-girlfriend, but there was still so much he wanted to know. "What are you going to do with it?"
"We're keeping the baby. It's not the most ideal situation, of course, but everyone's been really supportive and we'll work it out somehow."
"Well, good luck with all of that."
"I'll be just fine. Not that you expressed much of an interest before now, but you don't have to worry about me." He started to say something, but Lena put up a hand to stop him. "You and Maia will go off to college in the fall, you'll start the next part of your lives in a whole new place, and I'm sure you won't even give me a second thought after we graduate in a few months." She crossed her arms again. "Anything else? Or are we done?"
Rhys nodded a silent farewell and descended the steps. He hadn't traveled more than several yards before he turned around and returned to Lena's porch. "There is something else."
"What?"
He looked down at his feet, unable to meet her inquisitive stare. "When we were together, all that time...you never wanted to...you know..."
"What?" His eyes flicked up to hers and he blushed slightly. She let out an exasperated sigh. "Are you talking about sex? You can say it, we're not kids anymore."
He stared at her for a moment longer, trying to find the least embarrassing way to ask his question, but he had a feeling that nothing was ever going to sound especially eloquent. "Why him and not me?"
He'd half-expected her to laugh at him, but she just returned his curious gaze as she considered the question. "I don't know. Lots of reasons."
"It just seems like you moved on awfully quickly. What's so special about him anyway?"
The snort of laughter he'd been expecting finally came. "It's almost reassuring to know that you'll never change, Rhys."
"Hey! I've been open and honest with you this whole time! Just tell me and I'll leave and I'll never speak to you again if that's what you really want."
Lena thought carefully before she spoke again. "I loved you so much when we were dating and there was a time when I thought I'd do just about anything for you, anything to keep you with me. But deep down, I think I knew that you were always far more important to me than I was to you and even though I was devastated when you dumped me, I'm glad we broke up before I did anything I would have regretted."
"And this new guy?"
"We love each other, that much should be obvious; it's not like I went out and slept with the whole football team after we broke up," she spat out. "If I had to pick one thing, though, I guess I would have to say that I trust him more than I ever trusted you. I trust him not to go out and do something stupid in a fit of testosterone-induced rage, I trust him not to leave me behind for the next pretty girl who walks by, and even though he's not perfect, I trust in our future together. You could never give me any of that."
Rhys still couldn't argue with anything she was saying, as much as he didn't like hearing the truth. The new information didn't make him feel much better, but he knew that their conversation had reached its conclusion. He said good-bye to Lena once more and left, this time making it to the end of her street and beyond. She was right in her assessment that the two of them would soon no longer have a place in each other's lives, as they would shortly be going their separate ways; he felt a little sad when thinking about losing the connection to someone who had been important to him for a long period of time, but as he contemplated their exchanges during his walk home, he realized that growing apart was sometimes just another part of growing up.
