Chapter Twelve – An Unwanted Intervention.

Someone's tray clatters onto the table beside me, and there's a scraping sound as a chair is pulled out. I look up from my phone, where I've been checking out Twitter and stalking my favourite celebrities on Instagram, and see Vera.

"Hi," I say, switching off the phone.

"Hey," she says. "What are you doing here?"

I indicate my tray. "Eating lunch? What else?"

Vera shrugs and settles into her seat with a sigh. "You're always eating with Royce. I'm just surprised to see you here, that's all."

"He's got something on," I say.

Vera rolls her eyes. "Of course he does. Silly me for thinking you might have just decided to eat lunch with your friends for once."

I bite my bitchy retort back. I'm angry, but I can't avoid the sneaking suspicion that she's right and I have been neglecting my friends a little. It's just that Royce wants my attention so often.

"Healthy lunch there," I say after a pause, eyeing the three donuts and can of Coke that Vera has on her tray.

"Shut up!" she snarls furiously. "You try growing a baby and see how you eat!"

Wow, touchy much? I raise my eyebrows and go back to my own lunch, picking through the vegetable stirfry for the things that I like. I don't look up until I hear a sniffle, and realise that Vera is crying into her donuts.

"Aww Vee, I'm sorry," I say repentantly. "I didn't mean anything by it, I was just teasing."

"Oh, it's not that!" Vera digs in her bag for a tissue and scrubs at her face. "I'm sorry I was such a bitch! I just…I can't…" She pushes her tray away and buries her face in her arms. I can see her shoulders shaking.

"Oh, don't cry!" I put my arm over her and hug her. "What's wrong?"

Vera doesn't answer immediately, continuing to shake with her sobs, although she makes no noise. I just pat her shoulder and wait for her, and eventually she sits up and wipes her face and gives me a watery smile. "I'm sorry."

"That's okay." I give her a final hug and go back to my lunch. "What's wrong though?"

"Oh, nothing really," Vera says, shoving in half a chocolate donut in one hit. She chews it thoughtfully, and then bursts out, "It's just suddenly so overwhelming!"

"In what way?"

"Everyone knows that I'm having a baby now." Vera sighs and looks down at her middle, which is sporting an obvious baby bump under her graphic t-shirt. "Which at least means I don't have to hide it and don't have to only wear the three shirts I have that conceal it! But now that everyone knows I can't pretend it's not happening anymore either."

"Isn't that good though?" I give up on my stirfry, which has gone cold, and look at Vera's donuts. "Will you rip my arm off if I break off a tiny piece of your donut?"

Laughing, Vera breaks the strawberry with sprinkles in half and hands me some. "There you go sweetie, get that in you." She eats the other half. "Of course it's good that I don't have to pretend that it's not happening, but now there are so many things I have to think about, and I can't just ignore them because this really isn't going away."

"What kind of things?" I ask curiously.

"All the medical things for one. I've got an OB now, but he was really concerned that I'd had no prenatal care and I haven't gained any weight. That's only because I threw up everything I ate for months! I'm fine." She looks down at her now empty plate and then takes a swallow of Coke. "Although donuts and Coke isn't exactly on the healthy eating plan they gave me. So I've got those appointments to fit in. Here at school the guidance department is hounding me to make some plans for what I'm going to do with regards to school once the baby comes. Am I taking time off or coming back, and do I want to enrol in the mothers and babies program they have here or what? Really, I don't know yet! And then there's everything with Mom and Dad, and Jim and I trying to figure out what we're doing…" She shakes her head, and I see that her eyes are shining with tears again.

I feel a rush of sympathy. "I'm sorry it's so hard. How are things at home?"

Vera shrugs. "It's okay. I mean, you know that telling them went better than I had thought it would. Lots of tears and some yelling, but no one said anything too awful. The problem is that the tears and reproaches aren't stopping! Dad is always telling Edie and Annie that they shouldn't follow in my footsteps and that they don't want to end up like me. Mom barely speaks to me, but cries if she looks at me. She walked in on me in the bathroom the other day so she saw how big the belly really is and that I've got pregnant person boobs now and she had to go to her room with a migraine!"

I giggle, and can't resist saying, "You do have a lot more going on in the bust area at the moment!"

"I know!" Vera's face lights up with humour as she looks down. "Finally got more than an A cup!"

"I bet Jim likes it."

Vera laughs and drops her voice. "He likes the look of them, but they're so sensitive I can't stand him to touch!" She sighs and her face goes serious. "We've started looking at places to rent. We were going to wait until closer to the due date, but I can't stand being at home with Mom and Dad now. They make me feel like I've messed up my whole life and that I'm never going to amount to anything. And if I'm really such a pathetic failure as they think, how am I supposed to raise a baby?" she finishes, half laughing through the tears.

I laugh too. "I'm sorry."

"I know. Thank you." Vera wipes her face. "Give me a minute and I'll go and get something else to eat."

Mina and Kacey join me at the table before Vera returns. Mina's eating a regular hot lunch and Kacey is drinking a diet Sprite and commenting on both the level of grossness and the amount of calories Mina and I are consuming. I just roll my eyes.

Vera comes back with a fruit cup and a package of peanut butter cookies. "Look, vitamins!" she says brightly, eating some fruit.

I giggle. "Tell me about renting a place with Jim."

Vera grins. "It's totally fun, and yet totally frustrating at the same time. I love snooping around the apartments when we're checking them out. But everything is so expensive! Believe me, what I had in mind to begin with is very different to what we're going to end up with."

"What's that?" Mina asks.

"We're down to looking at one bedroom apartments," Vera sighs. "I'd rather the baby had its own room, but it's not absolutely necessary if the apartment has enough room to put it somewhere else. If we have enough room to put a crib somewhere then we can manage with one bedroom for a couple of years, until I finish school and can work more, or Jim starts earning more."

"How did his parents take it?" I ask.

"Better than mine!" Vera says happily. "His dad gave him a thump on the head and called him an idiot, gave me a kiss on the forehead and called me a sweetheart, and then stomped down into the basement and started work on building us a crib. His mom cried about being too young to be a grandmother, but she's told everyone she knows. She works at a retirement home too, and when the old ladies heard the story they all started knitting for her grandchild, so I'm getting little woolly socks and cardigans and sweaters every time I'm at their house. I know they're doing it because they think Jim and I are young and stupid and in need of help, but hey…they're not wrong really, and the little clothes are adorable."

All of us laugh. I still can't help thinking about absurd it is to imagine Vera as a mommy, and I guess I'm not the only one who is having a hard time grasping this sudden jump into adulthood for Vera.

"I can't believe you're going to move in with him," Mina sighs. "I don't even have a date for the next school dance, and you're practically getting married."

"And Rosalie's going on romantic weekends away with Royce," Kacey says, raising her eyebrows at me. "Not bad for someone who was so determined to save themselves."

"Hardly a romantic weekend away with his parents there," I say dryly. "His mom was very clear that I had one bedroom and Royce had another!"

"Oh yeah, and you went along with that right?" Kacey snorts, laughing when she sees my blush. "How many times did you get laid over the weekend then?"

"A few," I admit, feeling the heat of embarrassment and arousal as I remember. "We talked about college too though, and he said I should think about going to New York. He wants to go to NYU, and he said I should go somewhere in the city too, so that we'll be close."

"Wow," Mina looks surprised. "But that's such a long time away."

"I know! But he was really serious about it."

"I thought you were keen to go out of state?" Vera looks at me sharply. "You've never mentioned New York, not even with Jasper being so single-minded about Columbia."

I shrug. "I know. But Royce was really keen on the idea." I play with my hair, curling lengths around my fingers. I don't know how to explain the intensity of the way he seems to feel about me. My relationship with Royce feels so much deeper and more all encompassing than anything my friends can understand. "I know it's a long time away and things change, but I'm thinking about it."

"You should think about what you want," Vera mutters irritably.

"I do think about what I want," I reply, nettled by her tone. "But is it wrong to think about what he wants too?"

"If it's at the expense of everything you want, then yes, it is wrong," Vera says.

"I'm not doing things I don't want to do. But he loves me and he wants me to be near him, so I'm taking that into consideration too."

Mina bites her lip and glances at Vera, and I have the sudden, uncomfortable feeling that they've been talking about me. "But Rosalie," she says timidly. "You've only been together about six months…don't you think you might be rushing things by looking so far to the future? Shouldn't you just have some fun for now, and wait and see what happens?"

"You're the one who didn't even want to go out with him in the first place because he's such a player," Kacey points out. "What makes you think he's not suddenly going to get bored of you and go back to his old ways?"

I look around at the three of them, hiding my hurt. "Is this an intervention or something? Make Rosalie break up with Royce day?" I make my voice sound light.

"No, not at all!" Mina pushes her lunch away. "No one thinks you should break up with him."

"But your relationship is kind of weird sometimes," Vera says flatly.

I glare at her, no longer pretending indifference to what they're saying. "In what way?"

"We're not criticising!" Mina jumps in. "But we've been talking and…"

"You've been talking behind my back," I say, folding my arms and scowling. "Always good to know. And let's be real…you ARE criticising.""

"He's obsessed with you," Vera says bluntly. "It's almost creepy the way he is about you. Like you belong to him."

"And I was joking before about you saving yourself for him, but since you've started screwing around you're out of your mind," Kacey adds. "Everyone knows about the two of you in the locker room after the game and in his car and at Damian's party and in the music room in the south wing and…"

"Oh my god!" Half mortified and half furious I slam my hands down on the table. "Like any of YOU can talk!"

"We're just trying to help," Kacey whines.

"Well, I don't need this kind of help. Royce is my boyfriend, I love him, and I don't want any of you talking shit about my relationship when you don't understand a thing about it." I storm out of the lunchroom.

I'm still fuming about it when I meet Royce after school. Vera and Mina and I have spent a math class in complete silence, something so uncharacteristic of us that Mr Dwyer even felt compelled to comment on it, and then I'd had English and ignored my usual seat beside Vera to sit beside Jasper instead. He was concerned, but as the last bell rang I jumped up and raced out, not giving him a chance to start questioning me.

Royce is late out, and I have to wait shivering by his car until he finally appears. At least he doesn't have any of his friends with him. As soon as we're in the car I crank up the heat, even before Royce reaches across the centre console and kisses me. We're nearly at my house before I start feeling thawed out, and Royce notices that I've barely spoken.

"What's eating you?" he asks. "You look mad."

"Sometimes I hate my friends!" I burst out.

Royce chuckles. "Why are they giving you a hard time?"

"Because of you," I say without thinking. "They think our relationship is weird and intense and we're too obsessive." I bite my lip, wishing I could take it back as I watch Royce's face darken with anger.

"What's it to them?" he growls. "It's none of their goddamn business."

"That's what I told them," I say quickly. "I told them that they don't understand anything."

"You don't need friends like that," Royce says. He pulls into the kerb in front of my house. "They're just a pack of bitches."

"They're not that bad," I say, as Royce and I walk along the path and I unlock the door. "I think they're just concerned that I'm moving too fast with you, but they have a really bad way of getting that across."

"I hope you don't listen to them," Royce says fiercely, "You don't need to pay attention to bullshit like that." We had to the kitchen for a snack, and Royce lifts me easily and sits me on the kitchen table, standing in between my legs and wrapping his arms around me.

I stretch my arms up around his neck, feeling my breasts pushing against his chest as I tease his lips with soft kisses. "I don't," I whisper. "I know that you love me."

"I do." Royce kisses me deeply. "I love you and I want you and that's all there is to it. I don't need any more time to know that you're mine."

His dark eyes are so intent, and his mouth is so soft that I can't turn away. I wrap my legs around him so we're crushed together, and brush my lips across his. "I'm yours. And I don't need anyone if they're going to tell me that this is wrong."