Chapter Four
Author's notes: Sorry this took so long. I'm in college and had an evil english paper to deal with, along with a nasty case of writer's block. And yes, I realize that this whole story seems to revolve around Kristy but it is nearly impossible for me to develop all the characters the way they deserve. Besides, it really fits in with the books to concentrate on the BSC founder. I will try to get further chapters up quicker but I can't promise.
Feedback: Yes please. And thank you to everyone who has been giving me feedback all along. I appreciate it more than I can tell. Remember that feedback is the quickest cure for writer's block.
It had taken a little bit of work but Claudia mananged to fit everyone around her dinining room table. While she set out dinner, Alan fed Mimi. She fussed at the bottle for a few minutes but finally calmed down when she realized it was all she was going to get.
"Okay, the meat free sauce is in the blue bowl, the regular is in the green." Dawn flashed Claudia a grateful look for remembering her vegatarian status, and reached for the sauce.
"This looks great Claud. When did you learn to cook? Last time I checked you couldn't make toast without buring it."
"I had to. Alan is worse in the kitchen than I was." Claudia served herself some garlic bread and passed the basket over to Mallory. "And what kind of example would it be for Mimi if all she saw her parents eat was frozen meals? I had to learn to cook for my daughter's sake."
"This from the girl who kept candy hidden all over her room to offset all the healthy stuff her mother insisted on," Mallory joked. "You really did grow up."
"It had to happen sooner or later. We're still waiting on you."
"Funny Claud."
"Are you okay Kristy?" Stacey noticed that the former president was eating was plain pasta.
"I'm fine. Spicy stuff gives me the worst heartburn though. All I've eaten for the last month is the blandest stuff I can find. I eat one more bananna and I think I'll scream."
"Oh." Stacey turned her attention back to her own meal. She didn't want to hear about Kristy's pregnancy. She had barely kept herself from running out the door when she had seen her friends belly. Only the long explainations she would have had to make kept her where she was.
"I remember those days. I thought I was going to spit fire every time I ate for the last two months with Mimi. I lived on bread and vanilla milkshakes," Claudia added.
Sam caught the look on his wife's face and cut into the conversation before Stacey could explode. "Ladies as fascinating as this is to you, the menfolk are less amused. Can you possibly discuss all this pregnancy stuff later? Like when we don't have to squirm and pretend we didn't hear?" Jimmy, Nick, Alan and Jessi's boyfriend Derek were quick to agree.
"Stop it Alan. You read more books about babies than I did," Claudia mock scolded her husband. Their relationship was deeply rooted in friendship and she felt entirely comfortable teasing him.
"That was only because I valued my life. You had gone crazy with those hormones."
"Again with the yucky talk. Stop it, please." Sam sounded like he was teasing but he meant what he said. Stacey was really starting to steam and he didn't want her to go off at the table. He squeezed her hand and tried to communicate his feelings towards her. She got the message and squeezed back.
"Mal, how are your parents adjusting to the idea of an empty nest?" Dawn asked. "Claire is the only one left now, isn't she?"
"Yep. She got accepted to the University of Conneticut. This fall all of the Pike kids will have officially grown up. I think my parents are going to go loony when the house is finally empty. At leas they have summers. Mom said that they want all of us to come to Sea City in August, one last family vacation together. It should be a total blast from the past."
"How's Anna doing Abby?" Jessi asked. "Is she still with the Boston Symphany?"
"Third chair violin. She's in London right now. They'll be performing at Covent Garden for two months and even playing for the Queen. Then they move onto Moscow, and from there to San Fransico before coming home. I don't think I'll see her till Christmas."
"You miss her don't you?" Jessi knew what it felt like to be losing track of your siblings. "I haven't seen Becca in almost a year. She's still trying to 'find herself'. Last I heard she was a photographers assistant in New Mexico. Thank God she emails. Momma and Dad would be going nuts if she didn't. My God Kristy how much can you eat?"
Kristy's cheeks turned slightly red at Jessi's comment. She was on her third helping of pasta and salad. "I know, it's disgusting. I think one of my legs is hollow because I can't figure our where all this food is going."
"Not disgusting, completely normal. The baby absorbs everything." Claudia was quick to reassure her friend. "You're eating for two here, it's to be expected. When are you due anyway?"
"About three weeks." The baby kicked hard against her full stomach, causing her to bite back a groan. "Would you excuse me for a moment." Kristy rose as gracefully as she was able and headed upstairs towards the bathroom. She could hear the chatter behind her turning to a new topic and she prayed they'd stay with it. She didn't want to talk about the baby.
"Come on kid knock it off. I need to get throught tonight without losing it. So quit kicking me so hard." In response the baby kicked harder. Kristy sighed and dried her hands. "You're as stubborn as I am aren't you?"
She was ready to go back downstairs when she heard Mimi start to stir in her crib. Against her better judgment she went to check on the baby.
*I hearby call this meeting of the Babysitter's Club to order.*
*Any club business?*
*Dues day.*
*Who's free on saturday afternoon?*
*I have diabetes.*
*My mom is getting married.*
*This is my friend Dawn. She just moved her from California.*
*I'm moving back to New York.*
*Mimi died this morning.*
*Welcome Mallory and Jessi.*
*Sea City here we come.*
*The final meeting of the BSC. May high school bring better paying jobs.*
*You guys are my best friends in the world.*
*If we need each other for anything, we'll all come no matter what. That's what this pact is.*
A hundred thousand memories washed over Kristy when she walked into Mimi's room. Voices from the past came back with a vengence. She was 13 again, calling to order a meeting of her best friends in the world. All they had to worry about then was who could take the newest sitting job.
A sharp cry from the crib brought Kristy back to the here and now. Mimi's face was scrunched up in misery and getting redder by the minute. Kristy hurried to pick her up before she could start shrieking. The problem was a very apparent dirty diaper. A clean one soon restored the little girl to cheerfullness.
Kristy sat down in the rocker, holding the baby close. It only took a few minutes of the gentle back and forth motion to sooth Mimi back to sleep. Kristy held her for a few more minutes to be sure she was out, then hauled herself back and laid the baby back in the crib. She stood there watching her breathe, unaware of the tears sliding unbidded down her cheeks.
"Kristy?" Mary-Anne called softly from the doorway.
"I shouldn't have come. I knew I wasn't going to be able to handle it but I came anyway. I made a promise. Whatever else I am, I won't be a person who breaks a promise." She didn't turn around to face her friend. Kristy knew the tears on her face were visible and she didn't want to get into it. She kept her focus on the baby lying in the crib. "Isn't she beautiful? She looks just like Claudia."
"I know."
"How did I end up like this?" Kristy moved away from the crib and sank back into the rocker. Her back was killing her. "It use to be that I wasn't afraid of anything. I could handle whatever life threw at me. Then Watson died and my world just came crashing down. I ran from everything and everyone because I could't handle the pain. It was easier to just hide. I never wanted to feel that badly ever again. But you can't hide forever. And when I started opening back up again, I got hurt even worse than I had been before." Her hands drifted down to cradle her belly. The child within her stirred restlessly and she mindlessly massaged the sore spots were little feet could be *seen* poking her. "Watson was the only father I very really knew. He loved me and my brothers like we were his own, the same way he loved Karen and Andrew and Emily. The way I know he would have loved Serena. After Patrick (she couldn't call him Dad) left, I stopped trusting men. It wasn't consious but it was there. The only guys I could depend on were my brothers. Watson was the first guy I let in. And he died. He left me. I know it wasn't on purpose but he's still gone." Kristy was sobbing now. "What's wrong with me? Why do they all leave? Every boyfriend I had in high school did the dumping, my own father ran out when I was five, the man I loved like a father died, and now this." Kristy buried her face in her hands and sobbed even harder. Amazingly enough Mimi slept on, blissfully unaware of the drama unfolding nearby. Ever so slowly Mary-Anne crossed the room to where Kristy sat. She knelt down next to her and put an arm around her in a comforting embrace. Instinctivly Kristy melted into the hug. Her body remembered the habits of childhood, remembered that this person she *could* trust. This one wouldn't leave her the way the others had.
"I'm scared Mary-Anne. My life is crumbling around me and I don't know what to do."
"It's okay. You don't have to figure it out now. You don't have to pretend that everything is all right because it's not, and it's okay to admit that. It's okay to cry." So Kristy did.
She hadn't cried since the day they buried Watson. Ever since she had been numb, not feeling anything. She hadn't cried when she found out she was pregnant, she had stayed strong when Nathan left, she had planned for her baby's future as best she could. All the emotions of the last five years had been bottled up and now came pouring out. Kristy sobbed on the shoulder of her oldest friend, in one of the few places that still felt safe. After what seemed like an eternity the tears began to slow, and the sobs subsided.
"I'm sorry. I just came in here to check on the baby. Everything just sort of hit at once when I stepped through the door." Kristy straightened up and wiped away the last few tears. "I must look a mess."
"You look fine. And you needed to cry. It isn't healthy to lock everything up inside."
"That's the psych degree talking now isn't it?" Kristy joked weakly.
"Yeah. Somehow I think you needed to hear it." Mary-Anne helped her friend to her feet and steered her towards the bathroom. "Go wash your face and then I'll take you home."
"I want to stay. We haven't all been together for ages and I'd like to make the most of it. I owe Claudia that much." Kristy forced herself to smile. "I signed the pact along with the rest of you."
"Are you sure? I can tell them you aren't feeling well."
"I'm sure. It's time to face my demons. Running home won't help me do that, spending time with you guys will. I think it's time I stopped running."
No one commented on Kristy's disappearance or about the still obvious tear marks on her face. Dinner was over and the husbands/boyfriends/fiance had been corralled into cleaning up the kitchen. Claudia herded the rest into the living room to relax, and tried to wince at the arguing and crashing she could hear behind the kitchen door. All eight members of the BSC gathered in the Gray's living room, together for the first time since in five years. No one spoke. Kristy finally broke the silence.
"I hereby call to order this meeting of the Babysitter's Club. Any club business?"
That broke the tension. For a minute they looked at one another, then simultaneously started howling with laughter.
"It's dues day. Everybody owes me a $1000," Stacey joked. "Pay up."
"Not a chance." Abby threw a pillow at Stacey, who shrieked and threw it back at her. The fight was on. For a few minutes they were all kids again. Only a groan from Kristy put an end to the mayhem.
"What's wrong?" Mary-Anne asked.
"I think I pulled a muscle in my back." Kristy stretched her arm, trying to reach the offending spot. She had little success. "I'm so sick of being pregnant. I can't wait until I'm me again."
"You mean you don't like carrying 30 extra pounds with you at all times, with said weight sitting on your bladder? The constant back aches and swollen feet aren't fun and games?" Claudia teased. "What are we going to do with you?"
"Anything you want if it gets this kid out of me soon." Kristy racked her brain, trying to come up with a change in topic. She was too late. There was nothing Claudia liked talking about more than the trials of pregnancy.
"Do you want a girl or a boy?"
"I don't really care." Kristy figeted uncomfortably in her seat, praying Claudia would shut up.
No such luck. "Have you thought about names?"
"No, not really."
"Better get cracking then. The baby'll be here before you know it." Next to Claudia, Stacey sat with an odd expression on her face. Mary-Anne studied her carfully. She could have sworn it was anger.
"So how come you didn't tell us Kristy?" Mal asked. She had a pad of paper open and was absently making notes for her next book. Being back in Stoneybrook had released a whole host of memories that she wanted to immortalize on paper.
"I don't know. It didn't seem real. How come you waited so long to tell us about your girlfriend?" The barb was a friendly one. Kristy still remembered how scared Mallory had been when she came out in a phone conversation the year before.
"Ha ha. How come it didn't seem real? Looks real enough." She gestured to Kristy's belly and scribbled a note about having Kara be the victim of a cool prank courtesy of Margaret.
Kristy couldn't hold back any longer. "Because I'm giving it up for adoption." Her quiet delcaration floored everyone. Mallory automatically crossed out the note she had just made. The room was absolutly silent.
Stacey stood up, trembling with rage. "You make me sick. You can't take responsibilitly for your actions, is that it? Afraid you'll mess up that perfect life of yours? Coward!" She spat and headed for the door. Only the hand that clamped onto her upper arm stopped her from leaving.
Mary-Anne's eyes bore furiously into her own. "Don't you dare," She hissed at the blond. "You don't get to say something like that and storm out. Turn around and explain yourself." The tone of voice left no room for argument. Stacey turned around and sat back down, avoiding all the eyes around her.
"I'm sorry. My mouth got the better of me there. It won't happen again."
"You aren't sorry. You meant every word," Kristy said tonelessly. Her barriers were back up, even higher than before. She should never have let them down in the first place. Coward. That was the word she had been flinging at herself daily for months. She was use to it. But to hear it from a friend cut her to the quick. She stood up and headed for the door. "Claudia I'm going home. I'm sorry about all this. It was nice to see you all again. I hope the christening goes well. She's beautiful baby." Before anyone could stop her she was gone into the night.
"What's wrong with you Stacey? Why the hell would you say something like that to her?" Dawn snapped. Stacey had been getting on her nerves all night. "You've been in a mood since you got here, grow up all ready."
"I am grown up. You have no idea how much of an adult I am," Stacey shot back. "And I did mean what I said. "Adoption is the cowards way out. Can't face your responsibilities? Just abandon them! I just never thought it would be Kristy."
The group stared at her, shocked beyond comprehension at the venom spewing from her mouth. "What's wrong with you Stacey?" Claudia echoed Dawn's words. "How did you get so bitter? Do you have any idea how hard it must have been to have to make that choice? And then come here for the express purpose of Mimi's christening?"
"I suppose you do, huh?"
"No. But I can just imagine."
"Well I can too, and I say she's a cowardly whore who can't handle the consequences of her actions!" Stacey yelled.
"Shut up!" Mary-Anne's outburst momentarily silenced Stacey. "Don't you dare call her that! Do you have any idea how badly she's hurting inside? Do you? Cause I do. She was sobbing upstairs earlier. She told me the whole story." Mary-Anne's voice softened slightly. "His name was Nathan. He worked at her office, as an accountant. They dated for awhile. He told her he loved her. Did you know that was the first time a man ever told Kristy he loved her? He said he wanted to marry her. Then she got pregnant." The room was quiet now as tempers cooled and the tension abated slightly. "Nathan was class-A scum. He walked out when she told him, calling her a whore and a cheap trick. Turns out he was married with kids. The whole thing was nothing but a game to him. He said that to her face, that she was nothing to him. The first time she opened herself up since Watson died and that's what happened. Do you understand now? Do you finally get it?"
Author's notes: Sorry this took so long. I'm in college and had an evil english paper to deal with, along with a nasty case of writer's block. And yes, I realize that this whole story seems to revolve around Kristy but it is nearly impossible for me to develop all the characters the way they deserve. Besides, it really fits in with the books to concentrate on the BSC founder. I will try to get further chapters up quicker but I can't promise.
Feedback: Yes please. And thank you to everyone who has been giving me feedback all along. I appreciate it more than I can tell. Remember that feedback is the quickest cure for writer's block.
It had taken a little bit of work but Claudia mananged to fit everyone around her dinining room table. While she set out dinner, Alan fed Mimi. She fussed at the bottle for a few minutes but finally calmed down when she realized it was all she was going to get.
"Okay, the meat free sauce is in the blue bowl, the regular is in the green." Dawn flashed Claudia a grateful look for remembering her vegatarian status, and reached for the sauce.
"This looks great Claud. When did you learn to cook? Last time I checked you couldn't make toast without buring it."
"I had to. Alan is worse in the kitchen than I was." Claudia served herself some garlic bread and passed the basket over to Mallory. "And what kind of example would it be for Mimi if all she saw her parents eat was frozen meals? I had to learn to cook for my daughter's sake."
"This from the girl who kept candy hidden all over her room to offset all the healthy stuff her mother insisted on," Mallory joked. "You really did grow up."
"It had to happen sooner or later. We're still waiting on you."
"Funny Claud."
"Are you okay Kristy?" Stacey noticed that the former president was eating was plain pasta.
"I'm fine. Spicy stuff gives me the worst heartburn though. All I've eaten for the last month is the blandest stuff I can find. I eat one more bananna and I think I'll scream."
"Oh." Stacey turned her attention back to her own meal. She didn't want to hear about Kristy's pregnancy. She had barely kept herself from running out the door when she had seen her friends belly. Only the long explainations she would have had to make kept her where she was.
"I remember those days. I thought I was going to spit fire every time I ate for the last two months with Mimi. I lived on bread and vanilla milkshakes," Claudia added.
Sam caught the look on his wife's face and cut into the conversation before Stacey could explode. "Ladies as fascinating as this is to you, the menfolk are less amused. Can you possibly discuss all this pregnancy stuff later? Like when we don't have to squirm and pretend we didn't hear?" Jimmy, Nick, Alan and Jessi's boyfriend Derek were quick to agree.
"Stop it Alan. You read more books about babies than I did," Claudia mock scolded her husband. Their relationship was deeply rooted in friendship and she felt entirely comfortable teasing him.
"That was only because I valued my life. You had gone crazy with those hormones."
"Again with the yucky talk. Stop it, please." Sam sounded like he was teasing but he meant what he said. Stacey was really starting to steam and he didn't want her to go off at the table. He squeezed her hand and tried to communicate his feelings towards her. She got the message and squeezed back.
"Mal, how are your parents adjusting to the idea of an empty nest?" Dawn asked. "Claire is the only one left now, isn't she?"
"Yep. She got accepted to the University of Conneticut. This fall all of the Pike kids will have officially grown up. I think my parents are going to go loony when the house is finally empty. At leas they have summers. Mom said that they want all of us to come to Sea City in August, one last family vacation together. It should be a total blast from the past."
"How's Anna doing Abby?" Jessi asked. "Is she still with the Boston Symphany?"
"Third chair violin. She's in London right now. They'll be performing at Covent Garden for two months and even playing for the Queen. Then they move onto Moscow, and from there to San Fransico before coming home. I don't think I'll see her till Christmas."
"You miss her don't you?" Jessi knew what it felt like to be losing track of your siblings. "I haven't seen Becca in almost a year. She's still trying to 'find herself'. Last I heard she was a photographers assistant in New Mexico. Thank God she emails. Momma and Dad would be going nuts if she didn't. My God Kristy how much can you eat?"
Kristy's cheeks turned slightly red at Jessi's comment. She was on her third helping of pasta and salad. "I know, it's disgusting. I think one of my legs is hollow because I can't figure our where all this food is going."
"Not disgusting, completely normal. The baby absorbs everything." Claudia was quick to reassure her friend. "You're eating for two here, it's to be expected. When are you due anyway?"
"About three weeks." The baby kicked hard against her full stomach, causing her to bite back a groan. "Would you excuse me for a moment." Kristy rose as gracefully as she was able and headed upstairs towards the bathroom. She could hear the chatter behind her turning to a new topic and she prayed they'd stay with it. She didn't want to talk about the baby.
"Come on kid knock it off. I need to get throught tonight without losing it. So quit kicking me so hard." In response the baby kicked harder. Kristy sighed and dried her hands. "You're as stubborn as I am aren't you?"
She was ready to go back downstairs when she heard Mimi start to stir in her crib. Against her better judgment she went to check on the baby.
*I hearby call this meeting of the Babysitter's Club to order.*
*Any club business?*
*Dues day.*
*Who's free on saturday afternoon?*
*I have diabetes.*
*My mom is getting married.*
*This is my friend Dawn. She just moved her from California.*
*I'm moving back to New York.*
*Mimi died this morning.*
*Welcome Mallory and Jessi.*
*Sea City here we come.*
*The final meeting of the BSC. May high school bring better paying jobs.*
*You guys are my best friends in the world.*
*If we need each other for anything, we'll all come no matter what. That's what this pact is.*
A hundred thousand memories washed over Kristy when she walked into Mimi's room. Voices from the past came back with a vengence. She was 13 again, calling to order a meeting of her best friends in the world. All they had to worry about then was who could take the newest sitting job.
A sharp cry from the crib brought Kristy back to the here and now. Mimi's face was scrunched up in misery and getting redder by the minute. Kristy hurried to pick her up before she could start shrieking. The problem was a very apparent dirty diaper. A clean one soon restored the little girl to cheerfullness.
Kristy sat down in the rocker, holding the baby close. It only took a few minutes of the gentle back and forth motion to sooth Mimi back to sleep. Kristy held her for a few more minutes to be sure she was out, then hauled herself back and laid the baby back in the crib. She stood there watching her breathe, unaware of the tears sliding unbidded down her cheeks.
"Kristy?" Mary-Anne called softly from the doorway.
"I shouldn't have come. I knew I wasn't going to be able to handle it but I came anyway. I made a promise. Whatever else I am, I won't be a person who breaks a promise." She didn't turn around to face her friend. Kristy knew the tears on her face were visible and she didn't want to get into it. She kept her focus on the baby lying in the crib. "Isn't she beautiful? She looks just like Claudia."
"I know."
"How did I end up like this?" Kristy moved away from the crib and sank back into the rocker. Her back was killing her. "It use to be that I wasn't afraid of anything. I could handle whatever life threw at me. Then Watson died and my world just came crashing down. I ran from everything and everyone because I could't handle the pain. It was easier to just hide. I never wanted to feel that badly ever again. But you can't hide forever. And when I started opening back up again, I got hurt even worse than I had been before." Her hands drifted down to cradle her belly. The child within her stirred restlessly and she mindlessly massaged the sore spots were little feet could be *seen* poking her. "Watson was the only father I very really knew. He loved me and my brothers like we were his own, the same way he loved Karen and Andrew and Emily. The way I know he would have loved Serena. After Patrick (she couldn't call him Dad) left, I stopped trusting men. It wasn't consious but it was there. The only guys I could depend on were my brothers. Watson was the first guy I let in. And he died. He left me. I know it wasn't on purpose but he's still gone." Kristy was sobbing now. "What's wrong with me? Why do they all leave? Every boyfriend I had in high school did the dumping, my own father ran out when I was five, the man I loved like a father died, and now this." Kristy buried her face in her hands and sobbed even harder. Amazingly enough Mimi slept on, blissfully unaware of the drama unfolding nearby. Ever so slowly Mary-Anne crossed the room to where Kristy sat. She knelt down next to her and put an arm around her in a comforting embrace. Instinctivly Kristy melted into the hug. Her body remembered the habits of childhood, remembered that this person she *could* trust. This one wouldn't leave her the way the others had.
"I'm scared Mary-Anne. My life is crumbling around me and I don't know what to do."
"It's okay. You don't have to figure it out now. You don't have to pretend that everything is all right because it's not, and it's okay to admit that. It's okay to cry." So Kristy did.
She hadn't cried since the day they buried Watson. Ever since she had been numb, not feeling anything. She hadn't cried when she found out she was pregnant, she had stayed strong when Nathan left, she had planned for her baby's future as best she could. All the emotions of the last five years had been bottled up and now came pouring out. Kristy sobbed on the shoulder of her oldest friend, in one of the few places that still felt safe. After what seemed like an eternity the tears began to slow, and the sobs subsided.
"I'm sorry. I just came in here to check on the baby. Everything just sort of hit at once when I stepped through the door." Kristy straightened up and wiped away the last few tears. "I must look a mess."
"You look fine. And you needed to cry. It isn't healthy to lock everything up inside."
"That's the psych degree talking now isn't it?" Kristy joked weakly.
"Yeah. Somehow I think you needed to hear it." Mary-Anne helped her friend to her feet and steered her towards the bathroom. "Go wash your face and then I'll take you home."
"I want to stay. We haven't all been together for ages and I'd like to make the most of it. I owe Claudia that much." Kristy forced herself to smile. "I signed the pact along with the rest of you."
"Are you sure? I can tell them you aren't feeling well."
"I'm sure. It's time to face my demons. Running home won't help me do that, spending time with you guys will. I think it's time I stopped running."
No one commented on Kristy's disappearance or about the still obvious tear marks on her face. Dinner was over and the husbands/boyfriends/fiance had been corralled into cleaning up the kitchen. Claudia herded the rest into the living room to relax, and tried to wince at the arguing and crashing she could hear behind the kitchen door. All eight members of the BSC gathered in the Gray's living room, together for the first time since in five years. No one spoke. Kristy finally broke the silence.
"I hereby call to order this meeting of the Babysitter's Club. Any club business?"
That broke the tension. For a minute they looked at one another, then simultaneously started howling with laughter.
"It's dues day. Everybody owes me a $1000," Stacey joked. "Pay up."
"Not a chance." Abby threw a pillow at Stacey, who shrieked and threw it back at her. The fight was on. For a few minutes they were all kids again. Only a groan from Kristy put an end to the mayhem.
"What's wrong?" Mary-Anne asked.
"I think I pulled a muscle in my back." Kristy stretched her arm, trying to reach the offending spot. She had little success. "I'm so sick of being pregnant. I can't wait until I'm me again."
"You mean you don't like carrying 30 extra pounds with you at all times, with said weight sitting on your bladder? The constant back aches and swollen feet aren't fun and games?" Claudia teased. "What are we going to do with you?"
"Anything you want if it gets this kid out of me soon." Kristy racked her brain, trying to come up with a change in topic. She was too late. There was nothing Claudia liked talking about more than the trials of pregnancy.
"Do you want a girl or a boy?"
"I don't really care." Kristy figeted uncomfortably in her seat, praying Claudia would shut up.
No such luck. "Have you thought about names?"
"No, not really."
"Better get cracking then. The baby'll be here before you know it." Next to Claudia, Stacey sat with an odd expression on her face. Mary-Anne studied her carfully. She could have sworn it was anger.
"So how come you didn't tell us Kristy?" Mal asked. She had a pad of paper open and was absently making notes for her next book. Being back in Stoneybrook had released a whole host of memories that she wanted to immortalize on paper.
"I don't know. It didn't seem real. How come you waited so long to tell us about your girlfriend?" The barb was a friendly one. Kristy still remembered how scared Mallory had been when she came out in a phone conversation the year before.
"Ha ha. How come it didn't seem real? Looks real enough." She gestured to Kristy's belly and scribbled a note about having Kara be the victim of a cool prank courtesy of Margaret.
Kristy couldn't hold back any longer. "Because I'm giving it up for adoption." Her quiet delcaration floored everyone. Mallory automatically crossed out the note she had just made. The room was absolutly silent.
Stacey stood up, trembling with rage. "You make me sick. You can't take responsibilitly for your actions, is that it? Afraid you'll mess up that perfect life of yours? Coward!" She spat and headed for the door. Only the hand that clamped onto her upper arm stopped her from leaving.
Mary-Anne's eyes bore furiously into her own. "Don't you dare," She hissed at the blond. "You don't get to say something like that and storm out. Turn around and explain yourself." The tone of voice left no room for argument. Stacey turned around and sat back down, avoiding all the eyes around her.
"I'm sorry. My mouth got the better of me there. It won't happen again."
"You aren't sorry. You meant every word," Kristy said tonelessly. Her barriers were back up, even higher than before. She should never have let them down in the first place. Coward. That was the word she had been flinging at herself daily for months. She was use to it. But to hear it from a friend cut her to the quick. She stood up and headed for the door. "Claudia I'm going home. I'm sorry about all this. It was nice to see you all again. I hope the christening goes well. She's beautiful baby." Before anyone could stop her she was gone into the night.
"What's wrong with you Stacey? Why the hell would you say something like that to her?" Dawn snapped. Stacey had been getting on her nerves all night. "You've been in a mood since you got here, grow up all ready."
"I am grown up. You have no idea how much of an adult I am," Stacey shot back. "And I did mean what I said. "Adoption is the cowards way out. Can't face your responsibilities? Just abandon them! I just never thought it would be Kristy."
The group stared at her, shocked beyond comprehension at the venom spewing from her mouth. "What's wrong with you Stacey?" Claudia echoed Dawn's words. "How did you get so bitter? Do you have any idea how hard it must have been to have to make that choice? And then come here for the express purpose of Mimi's christening?"
"I suppose you do, huh?"
"No. But I can just imagine."
"Well I can too, and I say she's a cowardly whore who can't handle the consequences of her actions!" Stacey yelled.
"Shut up!" Mary-Anne's outburst momentarily silenced Stacey. "Don't you dare call her that! Do you have any idea how badly she's hurting inside? Do you? Cause I do. She was sobbing upstairs earlier. She told me the whole story." Mary-Anne's voice softened slightly. "His name was Nathan. He worked at her office, as an accountant. They dated for awhile. He told her he loved her. Did you know that was the first time a man ever told Kristy he loved her? He said he wanted to marry her. Then she got pregnant." The room was quiet now as tempers cooled and the tension abated slightly. "Nathan was class-A scum. He walked out when she told him, calling her a whore and a cheap trick. Turns out he was married with kids. The whole thing was nothing but a game to him. He said that to her face, that she was nothing to him. The first time she opened herself up since Watson died and that's what happened. Do you understand now? Do you finally get it?"
