Chapter Forty-Six
I just got reviewed by Ravens 23, who wrote 'Backfired'. This is one of my favourites stories so it's kind of like being reviewed by a celebrity. Thanks!
A skipped month. A late night ice cream spree. A nausea to hang over me the entire day.
It was enough to make any girl worry. Especially one who had recently been deflowered by her boyfriend.
It had been going so well… Too well. Apparently we couldn't go together for more than a week without me getting freaked about commitment. Or without me getting pregnant.
But the test in the garbage in the bathroom? Was someone else in the same condition that I was? Was it one of my sisters? Maybe I didn't know Jenny as well as I'd previously thought I had. Maybe Lauren had faked exhaustion to get a secret past from those who loved her best. Maybe Mom and Daddy still weren't great with the whole protection thing.
I ran to my computer and found the calendar on it. Quickly I calculated-The Night had been August 29th-just about two weeks before I should have menstruated, even though I didn't. Figures.
I crept down two flights of stairs to peer through the banister to Daddy's study, just off the entrance hall. It was a soothing ritual, one that I practiced whenever my own life got out of control.
Mom was sitting on Daddy's lap while he sat on his leather desk chair. They were always taking. They never, ever ran out of things to talk about. I wanted a marriage like theirs. Or like Nathan and Haley's. Minus the abandonment thing.
"Isn't it crazy, how Nathan and Haley are still together?" asked Mom, as if she'd read my thoughts.
"A little. None of us though they would be, right?" he said.
"Even though we all wanted it for them. Of course. Remember on our wedding night?" she asked.
"How she was your bridesmaid, and she was supposed to be paying attention to you but she and Nathan couldn't keep their eyes off each other?" he asked.
"Yeah. It was so good for them. Remember how we all got to Tric and she performed and then Nathan helped her down and they just kissed, like the past year hadn't happened," she said.
"I still think Sawyer was conceived that night," said Daddy, laughing.
"No, surprisingly. Um, the night the three of us went out and Brooke and I got hammered, and I got the tattoo? The day after that, Haley forgot a pill," explained Mom.
"Wow. Better than us, we were just too caught up in the moment to think of it," he said. She laughed and kissed him. I really hoped they weren't talking about what I thought they were talking about.
I walked down the wide, polished elegant staircase to face Mom and Daddy. They were still kissing in the chair, but they broke off guiltily when I appeared.
"I'm going out," I told them. Mom sat up on Daddy's lap and smoothed out her dark brown curls.
"Where?" she asked.
"Danielle Bennett's," I said, saying the first name of one of my friends that came to mind.
"Okay. See you later," said Daddy.
I didn't go to Danielle's house, I went to the pharmacy and pulled three different pregnancy tests off the shelf, hurriedly paying for them, avoiding the eye of the cashier and hiding my left hand from view.
On my drive home, I noticed every baby, toddler and small child on the way home. I noticed parents looking frazzled, mothers weighed down my two or more children.
Was I really pregnant?
The three positive tests in front of me seemed like fairly good evidence.
Like mother like daughter. In fact, like father like daughter, like father and mother like son. There had been a three generation curse of young mothers and young marriages in both families, the Scotts and the Jagielskis. With a Scott and a Jagielski in one relationship, it was bound to happen. Destined to happen. Fated to happen.
I put way, way too much faith in fate. I spent too much time looking for it. Waiting for it to come for me.
I wanted to scream, to panic completely, but I couldn't. As busy Mom and Daddy were downstairs, they'd hear me if I was loud enough. And they'd pry out of me what was wrong. What would Daddy do to me? He didn't regret my birth, or even Jenny's. But the fact that he'd gotten two different girls pregnant as teenagers had always made him paranoid. He'd been watching the three of us closely, beginning when we'd respectively reached junior high and in turn become completely boy crazy. Some of us more so than others.
My computer made the chime of an incoming email. Jenny, most likely. I couldn't deal with a cheery email account of her brand new perfect college life with her fake ID and brand new hotties.
"Cal?" said a voice, coming hesitantly to the door. I turned my face and flipped my hair around like a shampoo model.
"BJ," I said gratefully, rushing into the arms he held out to me.
"I missed that," he said, kissing my hair.
"How could you have possibly missed BJ?" I asked, looking up at him. A tear trickled down my cheek and he gently wiped it away.
"What's wrong babe?" he asked.
"Promise you won't get mad?" I asked.
"Uh, no," he said, looking scared.
"Sawyer!"
"Yeah, I promise. What's up?" he asked, looking amiable.
"I'm pregnant," I announced.
"How do you know?" he asked, trying to remain composed in spite of his whitened face. I took his hand and dragged him to the bathroom, picking up one of the positive tests and showing it to him.
"That's how," I clarified.
"You should have done the tests with me, you didn't have to do that alone. Uh, sometimes you should take more than one," he suggested. With my other hand, I picked up the other two and showed him.
"Okay. Wow. We should have been more careful," he said.
"Great idea, hot shot. We'll work on that," I said bitterly.
"Callie."
"And we were careful! It was just one time!" I complained.
"Callie!"
"WHAT?" I burst out. He looked shocked, but put his hand on the small of my back and steered me toward the bedroom. As he ushered me in and came in behind me, he met my eyes before closing the door and locking it.
"Are you going to kill me?" I asked. He shook his head.
"Sit down." I walked nervously to the bed and sat. He stuck one hand inside of his pocket and hesitated for a second before he pulled it out, his fist closed. He knelt in front of me.
"Oh, god," I said, gasping as I realized in an instant what he was about to do. He pulled out his hand and opened it, deftly flicking a small velvet blue box open with his thumbnail.
Revealing a diamond ring of many karats. A square princess cut diamond on a solid gold band. A ring used for one purpose, and one person only.
"Sawyer, don't," I whispered. He continued on as though he hadn't heard me. He took my hand in his. My left hand in his right.
"Callie Jagielski, I love you. Will you marry me?"
