CHAPTER SIX

Cat adjusted to school pretty well. It was a few weeks into her return to Hollywood Arts and she was getting used to the slander and whispering right in front of her face. She still got stared at by some students. Actually, most of the students because she'd started wearing maternity clothes and her baby bump showed more—due to the clothes and because she'd grown a little. Nonna also got a lot better and was in good shape so she was returned to Elderly Acres.

Throughout this time, she and Robbie made up, but she felt like he was still nervous around her and she couldn't figure out why.

"Hey, Cat!" a bouncy blonde girl said walking up to her.

Cat stopped in her tracks. "Uh… hi."

"How are you?"

"I'm… good."

"Good. You know, there's this group my sister runs—it's specifically aimed toward troubled teens and she talks to all kinds of kids; abused, neglected, their parents hit them—"

Cat put her hand up to stop her and she smirked. "You do realize that every single one of those this is just plain out abuse, right? They're just different terminologies."

"I did know that, but I wasn't sure if you did or not because I know you're kinda flaky sometimes."

Cat stared at her and sighed. "I grew up."

"I can tell," the girl said, reaching out to touch Cat's stomach, only to get her hand slapped in the process. "Ow!"

"Don't touch me," Cat said. "Listen, I appreciate the offer for 'help' but I'm not a troubled teen. I'm a pregnant teen, and it's not as uncommon as it seems. I don't need a support group, so tell your sister to take her offer and shove it up her ass—I'm not a fucking charity case, I'm a human god damn being," she snapped before walking past the blonde.

"Sounds like someone's getting bitchy," Jade said as she started walking beside Cat.

"Yeah well when you get confused for a troubled teen just because you're pregnant and get called stupid all in one minute you become a bitch."

"And you're cursing? Where has my innocent little Cat gone?"

"My brother took her when he planted his devil spawn."

Jade's face went from amused to almost heartbroken. "That baby is not going to be like Max. At all. Not whatsoever."

"You don't know that. My parents didn't know my brother would turn out so fucked up either, look what happened to him. He's not even in prison like he should be—he's in a fucking insane asylum and he gets off free. Dad's in prison—mom's in a safe house, but what does Max 'I Fuck My Sister For Fun' get? Fucking nothing."

"It'll get him in the end. Eventually."

"Eventually's not good enough for me. I want him hung. Or fried. Or tortured and beat—everything he did to me, he should have done to him ten times worse."

"Not that I don't agree with you on that, but that's not likely to happen, kiddo…"

"Cat," Robbie said, walking towards the girls.

"I'll see you at lunch," Jade said before walking the opposite direction.

Cat stopped where she was and looked at Robbie as he walked up to her.

"Hey," Robbie said.

"Hi."

"How are you feeling? The baby?"

"We're both fine."

"Can we talk?"

Cat nodded and immediately followed Robbie to Sikowitz's classroom, which was the nearest empty room. She bit her lip and sat on the stage next to him, looking at him for a few seconds before looking down at her hands in her lap.

Robbie took a deep breath. "Cat… I know this hasn't been easy for you…"

"What pregnancy is easy for a sixteen-year-old?"

"I know… I just…"

"What is it, Robbie? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just want you to know something."

"What?"

"I don't care whose baby this is," Robbie said, resting his hand on her belly. "You're my best and only girl and I'm going to be there for the baby. No matter what."

Cat looked at him for a few seconds. "You mean…"

"I'm gonna help you, Cat. I'm not going to let you do this on your own. We're a team. We're bringing another player onto the team in just a few months and I want you to know that I'll never leave. I'll be there for you and for him or her."

Cat's eyes filled with tears listening to his words. "You really are something else, Robbie…"

"I hope that's a good thing."

She nodded. "It is… I know I have the gang on my side, but… You're the one that I want to matter…"

Robbie took something out of his pocket and looked at it for a few seconds. Cat's eyes widened, watching his fingers hold the object carefully.

The curly haired teen turned his body towards her a little more and took her hand in his, slipping a small appropriately sized ring on her finger. "You don't have to say yes. You can think on it. But… I'd really love it if someday… you'd be my forever."

Cat blinked, tears falling down her cheeks as she stared at the ring before looking at him. "I… I would love that…"

"Yeah?"

She nodded, sniffling. "I would really, really love that… there's nothing else that would make me happier than to be your wife one day."

"So then…" Robbie asked, raising his eyebrows.

Cat nodded again. "Yes. I'll marry you."

Robbie placed his hand on her cheeks, kissing her gently. Cat wrapped her arms around his neck as their lips moved together. Neither of them heard the door open.

"Woah, what's going on in here?" Tori asked, causing them to break apart.

"Someone's making babies," Jade said.

"Can't make what's already there," Andre said. "Hey Little Red, how you feeling?" he asked.

"Okay, I guess," Cat said.

"Just okay?" Beck asked.

"No, more than okay, but…"

"We're getting married," Robbie blurted out, making Tori and Jade spit out their drinks.

"What?" Tori asked.

"To that?" Jade looked at Cat, pointing to Robbie.

"Well, not right away," Cat said. "Later, you know."

"Well, that's great," Tori said.

"Yeah, it's pretty snazzy," Andre said.

"I hope you two think this out," Jade said. "I know—you said not right now, but I mean, even an engagement is pretty big for teenagers."

"We know that," Cat said. "There's nothing to worry about, Jade."

"We'll take it slow," Robbie said.

"Really?" Jade asked. "Because you sure didn't take it slow with your engagement. You two weren't even dating two minutes ago and now you're getting married?"

"We've known each other for twelve years, Jade," Cat said.

"So what? This is the dumbest thing you've ever done besides getting pre—" the raven haired girl stopped herself, but Cat stood up from the stage with an angry expression.

"Since getting pregnant, is that what you were going to say?" Cat snapped. "Trust me, if it had been up to me, I wouldn't be pregnant! And if I had gotten pregnant, it would have been by Robbie, not my fucked up brother!" she shouted. "You support me with everything, but every time it comes to Robbie, you shoot everything down! I love Robbie more than anything and I don't give a shit what you think about him—you don't have to come to our wedding, but we're getting married eventually and if you're not going to be supportive of Robbie, then I don't want you to be supportive of me," she said before pushing herself past the group to leave the room.


Tori sighed, looking at Cat for a few seconds. "Cat, you can't just stop talking to Jade altogether."

"I can. I did," Cat said walking into Tori's kitchen.

"But it's wrong. You've been friends since you were in preschool."

Cat took a cup from a cupboard. "And she's been rude to Robbie since we were in preschool. I'm tired of it," she said filling it with water.

"Can't you just explain that to her?"

"I've told her several times I didn't like it when she talked bad about Robbie—she doesn't give a shit, so why should I?"

"Hey, watch that mouth," Trina said as she walked downstairs with a toddler on her hip.

Cat looked over at her and gasped. "Oh my god, no way—when?"

"Like, a month ago."

"Why didn't you tell me? Oh my god, she's the spitting image of you."

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know," Trina said, handing the little girl to Tori.

"I was wondering why there were sipper cups in the cabinet," Cat said sipping her water and walking back over to the couch, setting her cup on the table. "Hi, my name's Cat," she said to the little girl.

The toddler stared at her, not saying a word.

"Lacey," Tori said.

"Huh?" Cat asked.

"Her name's Lacey."

"Lacey. I like it. You have a pretty name, Lacey," Cat said.

Lacey buried her face into Tori's hair and Cat smiled.

"She's so little—how old is she?"

"Two."

"Gosh, I can't even with how cute she is. I can't wait for my baby to see if he or she will look like me."

"It will," Tori said. "You'll have the cutest baby in the world. She'll definitely have your good looks."

"Good looks," Cat said rolling her eyes. "Before I got pregnant I was chubby and nothing ever fit."

"You looked fine. You were healthy—and technically before you got pregnant, you were skin and bones. I don't ever wanna see you that tiny again. I thought the wind would just carry you off somewhere."

Cat sighed and leaned back against the couch, resting her hand on her growing stomach. "I just hope this doesn't compromise the wedding."

"It won't. You have years before you guys get married. Besides, our parents didn't get married until Trina and I were six."

"Who's getting married?" Trina asked, walking over to the couch and handing a sipper cup to Lacey.

"Cat and Robbie."

"What? When did this happen?"

"This morning," Cat said. "He said he'd always be there for me and for the baby and that he's going to help raise her and treat her like she's his… he won me over."

"You didn't even tell anybody that you loved him like that, what changed all of a sudden?"

"Nothing, really. I'd just never told anybody except him. I mean, before I got taken away from my parents we were kinda friends with benefits and we knew we liked each other and for me, I just… fell in love really fast. I guess he did too."

"Friends with benefits?" Tori asked. "Uh… are you sure the baby can't be Robbie's?"

"I'm positive."

"Using protection doesn't always prevent a pregnancy, Cat."

"Truth," Trina said.

"We never had sex," Cat said. "We fooled around. Never had sex. Our clothes never came off. I wasn't ready to give him my virginity."

"Well, technically—" Tori started.

"I know. But I wanted to be the one to give it away. It would have been my first time having sex. Being raped doesn't count."

"You're right, it doesn't," Trina said. "You'll give it to him when you're ready. It may have been stolen from you, but it's still your right to give it to who you want."

Tori stared at Trina. "When the hell did you start making sense when you talk?"

"I always make sense."

"No you don't," Tori and Cat said in unison.

Suddenly, someone's phone started ringing. The three teenagers each checked their phones and Cat sighed.

"It's Jade…" Cat said.

"Answer it," Tori said. "You can't stay mad at her."

"I can. I'm pissed at her. I support her and Beck; why can she support me and Robbie?"

"Maybe it's hard for her because now she has to share her best friend," Trina said.

"She's always with Beck, I don't complain about that."

"I don't even wanna know what those two do together," Tori said, shuddering.

"Jade's a virgin," Cat said as her phone started ringing again.

"Answer it."

Cat sighed and accepted the call before holding her phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Cat, I need you to come to the hospital," Jade said, panicked.

Cat stood up. "What's wrong? What's going on?"

"It's Tyler—he had a seizure and Mom's in the room with him and I have Joanie and I'm freaking out, please come up," her voice cracked.

"Okay, I'm on my way—I'll be there soon," she said, hanging up and grabbing her car keys.


Cat walked into the waiting room as quickly as possible—which was pretty quick for someone that was six months pregnant. She looked around for a few seconds before seeing Joanie sitting in a chair next to Jade, who had her legs pulled up in her chair and her head rested on her knees.

The redhead made her way over to the girls and sat next to Jade, immediately pulling her into a hug.

Jade didn't even have to question who it was. She smelled a mixture of cinnamon, cotton candy and marshmallow—which was some weird concoction she and Cat discovered themselves by experimenting with things in the seventh grade.

The black haired girl wrapped her arms around her best friend and cried to her heart's content. Sob after sob racked her body, and she even heard and felt the redhead crying with her.

Cat was so close to the West family she considered Joanie and Tyler her brother and sister—whenever something happened with one of them Jade or Grace called her to let her know what was going on. She was only 10 years old when Joanie was born so she wasn't at the hospital, but when Tyler was born, she got to witness his birth with Jade and she couldn't be happier that she got to be part of something so beautiful. Jade's father missed all four of the West children's births. Jade also has an older brother who, aside from Cat, was Jade's only real best friend.

Jade and her brother Travis were three years apart and they were the best of friends growing up. Travis even looked after Cat and she thought of him as a brother—more of a brother than Max ever was.

Cat and Jade pulled away from their embrace, but Jade still had tears streaming down her face. The redhead wiped her friend's tears away with her thumbs and tucked her black hair behind her ears.

"He's gonna be okay," Cat said as her voice cracked. "He's a strong little boy, he'll be just fine."

"You don't know that," Jade said with a sob.

"I do know that. We need to stay calm until Mom tells us what's going on—if not for ourselves and each other, at least for Joanie. We don't want to scare her."

"I'm scared, he's my baby boy, I'd never forgive myself if something happened to him."

"This is not your fault, Jade… Seizures happen, he's going to be okay. You have to stay calm and hope for the best."

"What if the best isn't the best? What if it's terrible?"

Cat pulled Jade in for another hug, running her hand through her best friend's black hair. They stayed in their embrace until Grace walked over to them.

"What's going on? Is he okay?" Jade asked.

"They say he's fine," Grace said. "Apparently febrile seizures in infants is common."

"How do we keep them from happening?"

"There's medication. They aren't going to put him on anything yet, though. They say most kids outgrow them by five years, so they're going to release him and if he has another seizure then they'll put him on the meds."

"So he has to suffer another seizure because they won't make him better right now?"

"He's not suffering, honey. It didn't hurt him."

"Didn't hurt him? He was screaming the whole ride over here and the whole time I was holding him while they got him a room."

"He was scared, sweetheart. They're doctors; they know what they're talking about. I know you're scared but he's going to be fine. He can go home today, they're just going to check his stats and update his records," she said before looking at Cat. "Hi sweetheart, how are you feeling?" she asked hugging her.

"Good," Cat said.

"How's the little one?"

"Okay, I guess. Really active. I think I'm carrying a kangaroo."

Grace laughed and looked over at Joanie. "How long's she been asleep?" she asked.

"About an hour or so," Jade said.

"Alright. How about you girls take her out to the car and wait for me and Tyler? They said it would only be a few minutes, I just came out to tell you what was going on," she said, handing her car keys to Jade.

"Okay…"

Cat watched as Grace left down the hall and she stayed silent as she followed Jade out of the hospital, who was carrying Joanie. She couldn't help but worry about her own baby. The kid wasn't even born yet and she was terrified that something terrible would happen to him or her. She couldn't even say she was excited about the baby's arrival because she was so scared that he or she would be screwed up from the incestuous conception. Her OBGYN told her that there was nothing physically wrong with the baby that she could see, but that didn't help Cat calm down any. She was more worried about mental issues that her brother had.