tysm for the reviews, they're so nice to read :) enjoy
Huey had been waiting all day for a chance to run into Melina. Usually, he saw her around all day, so she must have been taking extreme measures to avoid him completely. It's not like she didn't know his schedule. The only problem was, he didn't know hers. He had even gone as far as to text her and for the first time, she didn't reply.
So when he saw her across the hall during passing time, he shoved past a few people to get to her, catching her from behind and pulling her into a classroom before she could react. The few students who were already in the classroom stared at them. He lowered his voice, "We need to talk."
Melina snatched her arm out of his hand, "Leave me alone."
She walked back out of the hall and tried to get away from Huey but he followed after her quickly. Huey was annoyed, she spent all night texting him, trying to talk to him. Now she wanted to act funny?
"Melina, we need to talk."
"Maybe I'm not tryna talk to you?" She snapped, flipping him off as she kept walking.
"Stop playing. Give me like five minutes? Damn," Huey sucked his teeth, finally catching up to her and grabbing her arm again.
"Okay," Melina grabbed Huey's hand and pulled him into the stairwell, "talk."
"You hit Jazmine."
"I know I did. She threw coffee on me and ran like a pussy," Melina snickered to herself.
"Whatever is going on between me and you has nothing to do with Jazmine. Don't put your hands on her again." Huey didn't even know why he had to be having this conversation. He had told Melina from the start that they weren't together. So even if Jazmine did have anything to do with anything, it didn't concern Melina.
"Are you a fucking idiot?" Melina snapped, tossing her hair behind her shoulder and looking at her nails nonchalantly.
"Excuse me?"
"You think Jazmine didn't have anything to do with it? You're an idiot," she paused, "Only two people I can think of that would tell you who also viewed my story in Cindy and Jazmine. And after you ditched me at the party for her, I know it was Jazmine who told you. I bet you left to go fuck her."
"The hell? She's my best friend, no I didn't fuck her. Who I'm fucking isn't your business anyways. I don't care who told me, don't hit Jazmine again."
"Oh, you're not fucking her but you're fucking some other girl? Or girls? What if I told you I was pregnant?" Melina laughed. All Huey could think was that she was crazy as all hell.
"What?" Huey muttered, getting closer so he could hear her correctly.
"Yeah, you heard me Huey. I'm pregnant. My period is two weeks late."
"Stop fucking around Melina, that's not funny." Huey could feel his heart beating in his stomach. He'd only heard those words in two separate instances before, and to his luck, they were both just late periods.
"I can show you. We can go buy a test after school. I'll take it with you." She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.
"You play too fucking much Melina," Huey barked at her.
"Shows how much you care about me. If you had even bothered to read my messages last night you would've knew already."
Huey just nodded, trying not to blow up in her face. It took two to make a baby. It wasn't her fault. But that didn't make the situation any better, either. He took a deep breath, thought about saying something but decided against it and headed downstairs. He heard her leave the stairwell. He pulled his phone out his pocket and texted the group chat with the guys.
Riley and Caesar both replied almost immediately saying they'd leave class in a few minutes. Hiro said he had a test, so he wouldn't be able to leave. Huey just tried to calm down, his heart beating a mile a minute. He hadn't told them anything, just that they needed to meet up and it was important. They would meet in the parking lot by his and Riley's car. Of course, Huey was the first one there, pacing back and forth in front of the car like a maniac. The few people who were around were staring at him, wondering what he was on.
It felt like hours before he finally saw Riley walking up to the car, "What happened? You heard about that fight between Jaz and Melina this morning?"
Huey rolled his eyes, nodding, "It wasn't a fight but yeah."
"That bitch is crazy, I don't know why you fucking with her. If I wasn't a nigga I would've two pieced her ass." Riley sucked his teeth, taking his backpack off and putting it on the roof of the car. "Goddamn it's hot. What happened though?"
"Yeah, what's going on?" Caesar said as he walked up to the Freeman brothers.
Huey's heart was still racing a mile a minute. He felt like he was going to pass out. "Melina told me she's pregnant."
Riley sucked his teeth again, "That bitch is lying."
"I mean… did you wrap it up?" Caesar asked.
Huey shrugged, "Sometimes?"
"She on birth control?" Riley chimed in.
"She doesn't take it regularly," Huey winced at the realization. He was an idiot.
"Bro, what? She's probably not lying," Caesar mumbled as he tied his hair up.
Riley started snickering, "Granddad is gonna whoop that ass. It's been years. I can't wait to see this shit go down."
Huey sighed, sitting down on the curb and putting his head in his hands. He would be off to university in a matter of months. What was he going to do with a baby? With a babymama? Melina was pretty but the way she was rolling, she didn't have much going for her right now. She seemed like the type to be bitter, too. He'd have to spend the rest of his life dealing with her and her bitterness. He would have to text her, take her up on the offer to see her take the test and see the results.
Then after that, he'd have to come up with something. Maybe she'd get an abortion, he couldn't imagine her of all people going through with a pregnancy.
While Huey was having a crisis, Riley and Caesar stared down at him. Riley could relate to his brother, he'd have a pregnancy scare or two. He learned quickly that most of the time, the girl's period just came late and she was overreacting. Caesar couldn't relate though, not that having a kid was something he wanted at the time, he didn't have sex with anyone he couldn't see himself having a kid with.
"Maybe you'll stop raw dogging these hoes, Huey," Riley continued to cackle, buckling over in laughter.
"It's not funny Riley," Huey groaned.
"It kinda is," Caesar chuckled, "I would've thought Riley would have a kid before you."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever…" Huey sighed, "Anyways, I talked to Jazmine. About this weekend and shit."
Caesar stiffened up a little bit. His weekend with Jazmine was really nice, he had actually texted her until he fell asleep. When he saw her earlier today, after lunch, they had hugged for a bit. All she said was that she was having a rough day but he concluded that it had to do with the whole fiasco from this morning. He never thought about the possibility that it had something to do with Huey.
"And? What went down," Riley leaned against the hood of the car.
"I just said that I cared about her but didn't want a relationship, basically." Huey shrugged. He had already said they wouldn't end up together so he couldn't waste the time entertaining another idea.
Riley just shrugged, he could only say but so much to Huey. He spoke up because he cared about his brother, and he cared about Jazmine, but he could only do but so much. His eyes wandered over to Caesar, who was quieter than usual. He could guess that Caesar was going to really make a move on Jazmine now. Huey put up an act but he knew that if Caesar and Jazmine did become a thing, it'd be a huge problem.
"Wanna just dip?" Caesar asked, ready to get out of the sun.
"Yeah," Huey nodded, "You coming Riley?"
"Like you had to ask if I would skip. Hell yeah I'm coming."
Huey managed to take his mind off of Melina for the next few hours, thanks to Riley, Caesar and eventually Hiro. They were all sitting in front of the TV at the Freeman's house playing the game. They were originally supposed to go over to Jazmine's and hang out at the pool but it had randomly started storming, so those plans were canceled. Of course, they invited Jazmine and Cindy to come over with them but they both said no.
Slowly, but surely, time ticked by. Hiro left for work, Caesar left so he could get started on his work. Riley had eventually turned off the game and went upstairs to his room. Before he knew it, Huey was stuck in his own mind.
He was graduating in just a few weeks. He'd be starting college in just a few months. How was he going to work, be a student, and be a dad all at the same time? Could someone even know if they were pregnant after two weeks? Was she lying to him, to keep him around? His mind was just running and running and running and before he could stop himself, he was texting Jazmine asking if they could meet up at the hill. Once he realized what he was doing, he had already sent the message. He was going to say nevermind but she texted back immediately, saying she'd be there in five minutes. With that, he stood up, put on his shoes and started making his way up to the hill.
It had been so long since he had come up here alone, nevermind with Jazmine. He thought back on the days when they used to sit at the base of the tree. He smirked to himself, he used to be so mean to Jazmine. He remembered the time when he went back to Chicago for Moe Jackson's funeral and told Jazmine that Cairo was his best friend. He was such an asshole as a kid, still, she stuck around. Huey sighed as he leaned back against the tree.
Soon enough, Jazmine was walking up the hill.
"It's raining! Why don't you have an umbrella?" Jazmine laughed as soon as she was close enough. She still felt awkward about what happened earlier today, but she cared enough to put it behind her and leave it there.
"It's not that bad under the tree," Huey shrugged.
"Don't complain when you get sick," Jazmine smiled, standing next to him and covering the both of their heads with the umbrella, "so, what's up?"
Huey took a deep, shaky breath, "Melina's saying she's pregnant."
That knocked the breath out of Jazmine's lungs, "Oh. Oh no. Is she… lying?"
"She said she wasn't. She said she'd take a test in front of me but I got pissed and walked away. She's been ignoring me all day long."
"Don't you know better than to get yourself in a situation like this?" Jazmine scolded him, immediately stepping into mom-friend mode. "You're how old and you don't know how to use protection? All the forms of birth control and you failed to use the most common one? What did you expect to happen?"
"It might not be mine though or she might just be lying completely," Huey muttered. He should've expected that he'd be scolded, of all things.
"Regardless of all that, you know better. You made your bed, now lay in it," Jazmine huffed at him. Her junior and senior project had been all about comprehensive sex education and STIs, so it was safe to say that she was a little passionate about the subject, "what you really need to do is go get checked out, make sure you don't have anything."
"I don't," Huey looked at her incredulously.
"Not everything has symptoms, take care of yourself. It's important. Get her to take the test so you can know if she's lying or not. Maybe she'll have an abortion, who knows? It's still early. I don't know if she's against it not… but it's a possibility."
Huey rubbed his temples. He hadn't even bothered to think about any diseases. He really was an idiot. "I'm scared Jaz," he felt his face turn red and his voice crack. The stress of the day was finally getting to him and he was finally grasping the gravity of it all.
Jazmine turned to face him. She felt bad for him, even if the blame was partially on him. He was going to be a full-time student, a History major, no less. How was he going to balance all of that if he was going to be a dad? She dropped her umbrella, letting it fall on the ground, and hugged Huey. It took a second, but Huey shifted to face her completely and hugged her back as tight as he could without hurting her. He wasn't going to cry, even though he felt like it.
Jazmine rubbed his back slowly, "It'll work itself out, don't worry."
All Huey could do was nod his head.