Chapter 4

The doctor took us each individually into the room with the baby. She started with Tess and ended with me.

When I was led into the guilt-trip room, I look up at her and said, "I think it's pretty much impossible for me to have had this kid."

She nods. "I'm doubting it was you, but we still have to keep in mind the possibility that maybe, just maybe, you dropped the kid off there for your girlfriend, possibly."

"And why would I do that?" I ask.

The doctor shakes her head. "I don't know. Look, I know it wasn't you, this is a waste of time." She turns to a nurse. "Get the other ones back in here."

Within moments, the four girls return.

"Girls, I will keep you here all night. Someone has to confess," the doctor says.

She intently stares all of them down.

Finally, they crack.

Peggy sighs. "Ella…"

We all turn to Ella.

And it was no surprise, too. She was wearing a very baggy hoodie, which I hear is good for hiding unwanted pregnant bellies. She looks up at the doctor, tears forming in her eyes. "It was me," she says softly.

The doctor softens up when she starts crying, and goes over to hug her. "Thank you for telling the truth," she whispers.

Then a police officer comes and escorts Ella out.

Tess, Peggy, and Mitchie all look extremely spooked and relieved.

That. Was. Intense.

X X X

When I go home, I'm still a bit shaken up. That was way beyond scary, getting interrogated like that. You do not want to be in my position.

I toss my backpack on the ground, saying, "I'm home!"

Jason comes downstairs with a bowl of pasta, putting it by the sink. "Hey, how was your day at school?"

"Uh… Not so pleasant." I say.

"Why?" Jason asks, nodding his head towards the stairs. We talk as we go up the stairs.

"Well, for starters, I didn't even go to school."

"Why?"

"Because," I say, heading into my room and sitting on my bed, "crazy things happened before school."

Jason sits on the bed with me. "Like what? Did you get mugged?"

I shake my head. "Worse."

He looks confused. "What's worse than that?"

"I found a baby in a trashcan."

Jason flinches. "Is it… okay?"

"Yeah it lived… but I don't think Ella's going to."

"Who's Ella?"

"Some girl at my school. She was the one who had the kid. She fessed up."

"Oh, wow. That's harsh."

"Yeah I was interrogated and everything," I say, pulling off my shoes and tossing them on the floor by my dresser.

Jason thinks for a second. "That name sounds so familiar. Ella… where have I heard that before?"

I shrug. Then I look out my door and see Shane standing there by the door, attempting to eaves drop. Only he's not very good at it, because I see some of his hair. "Shane?"

Shane peeks in. "What are you guys talking about."

"Do you know someone named Ella?" I ask.

He nods. "I've met her before."

"Well she just got busted."

His jaw drops. "What? Why?"

Why does he care so much? "Because she threw her newborn baby in a dumpster."

Shane stares at me in disbelief. "What's gonna happen to her?"

"I'm guessing she'll go to jail or something."

He stands there for a second and then quickly heads off back into his room.

Jason turns to me. "Okay, well, I was thinking of ordering pizza. What kind do you want?"

"Cheese," I tell him, grabbing my laptop. "I think I'm gonna write some stuff." Yeah, I'm a writer. Jealous?

Jason smiles. "Okay, I'll tell you when the pizza's here."

"Thanks," I say, typing in my password to my computer.

He leaves my room and I law down on my bed with my laptop perched up on my knees. I open up a Word document and stare at it for a second. I then log onto Facebook when I can't think of anything to write.

I look at the news feed and of course it's all about Ella and the baby. But some people are saying things that aren't true. I have twenty-six new notifications, all wall posts – people want to know what happened.

I go to my profile and only respond to my best friend, Caitlyn.

She wanted to know if I wanted to hang out tonight.

I wrote, "Hey Caitlyn. If you want to come over for dinner tonight, we're having pizza."

A few seconds later, she writes back, "Sure. I'll be over in about ten minutes."

Luckily, she lives a few streets down from me, so hang out often.

She's just about the only person I trust in this world. Well, besides Jason and Shane. But they're my brothers; I have to trust them.

I have trust issues.

I stalk some people's Facebook profiles for a while and then when the doorbell rings, I slam my laptop closed and run downstairs. When I open the door, I see Caitlyn standing there with the pizza man.

"I brought the pizza guy," she says, a hint of amusement in her voice. She walks inside.

"Come in," I say to the pizza man. "It's snowing out." I turn around and call Jason's name.

Jason comes to the door and hands the man some money in exchange for the two pizzas. I take the pizzas into the kitchen with Jason and Caitlyn following. When I set it down on the table, Caitlyn and Jason snatch up some slices.

"Hey, Shane, do you want some pizza?" I call upstairs.

I hear a door open and Shane comes down with his hair dyed a darker black, his nails painted black, and heavy black eye makeup on. I gawk at him. "That's a good look for you."

Shane growls and me and I jump back a bit. He walks into the kitchen and I hear Caitlyn gasp, so I go in there.

Caitlyn looks petrified. "Uh, Shane, why do you look so scary?"

He leers at her, staring her down. Caitlyn stares her down as well. Then Shane grabs a box of pizza and goes upstairs.

Caitlyn looks over at me. "That was just about the weirdest thing that's ever happened in the history of the world."

I nod. "He's pretty… different now."

"Why?"

"We don't know."

"Yeah, it's pretty weird," Jason adds through a mouthful of pizza.

Caitlyn grabs a Sprite from our fridge and opens. "That's so weird," she says, taking a sip of the drink. "Last time I was here, he was, well, normal."

I sit down at the table. "He's weird." I grab another slice.

We dit there in an awkward silence for a moment, then Caitlyn pulls something out of her purse. "On the bright side, I got the new Britney CD!"

I snatch it out of her hands. "No way! You got 'Circus?'"

She nods. "Where's your CD player?"

"I'll do it," Jason says, taking the CD away from me. He puts it in our kick-ass stereo system, and Britney starts blaring in our living room.

"Hey want to go outside and play?" Caitlyn asks.

I raise my eyebrows. "Play?"

She hits me on the arm. "You know what I mean."

I laugh. "Sure. Ok. Let's go play."

"Trampoline!" Caitlyn screeches, jumping up and down.

"Calm yourself," I say, opening the door. We both go outside and go over to the trampoline. Because our stereo is so cool, we can hear the music playing outside.

When we were jumping, I kept falling over.

"You suck," Caitlyn says and stops jumping when I fall over again.

"Sorry," I say not so apologetically, standing back up.

"Let's go so something else," she says, getting off the trampoline.

I get off as well and see Caitlyn attempting to pogo stick. She kept falling over.

"No, no, no," I say, taking the pogo stick away from her. "Let me show you how to do it."

She rolls her eyes.

I count as I jump, and once I get to thirty-three bounces, I turn into a show off. "Look," I say, closing my eyes. "No eyes!"

"Nate!" Caitlyn exclaims. "Look out for the-"

Only too bad for me, she didn't warn me in time and I take one more jump, only I don't jump on land – I fall in the pool.

When I hit the water, I freeze up. Falling into a pool in the middle of winter in Canada is not one of my best moves I've ever made. I swim up to the surface and cough up some cold water.

I feel like I was in the Titanic.

I get out of the pool as quickly as I can and once I get out, I stand there shivering until Caitlyn gets me a warm, dry towel. I take off all of my jackets and wrap the towel around myself, my teeth chattering.

"Good job," she says.

I'm too cold to come back with a witty remark, so I just waddle inside.

Jason, who was on the couch watching TV, looks over at me and gasps. "Nate Gray, what did you get yourself into this time?" He hops off the couch and comes over to me. "Good Lord, Nate!"

"Cold," I manage to say through tightly clenched teeth.

"Come on," Jason says, putting his hand on my shoulder, "let's go get you warmed up."

He takes me into the master bathroom and starts to fill up the bathtub with hot water and bubble bath. Jason helps me take off my socks – which was a bitch, mind you – and Caitlyn and him look away while I take my pants off, but then turn back around once I am safely covered under a pile of bubbles.

"So what'd you do?" Jason asked.

"Fell into the pool," I reply, swooshing the water around a bit.

"Well I can see that," he says, "but did you fall in?"

I let out a huff of laughter. "I pogo sticked in."

"Nate, how many times have I told you not to use that old thing? You know what happened last year!" Jason scolds.

"Yeah, well that's only cause you're a klutz!"

Last year, Jason decided to pogo stick off the diving board, only he jumped a bit too much and missed the pool and splattered all over the patio.

Let's just say, he wasn't able to move for a while after that.

I look over at Caitlyn who has been awkwardly quiet for a bit and wave to her, saying, "Hey, girl, hey!"

She laughs. "Listen, as much fun as it is watching you sit her in the nuddy pants, my mom wants me home by dark." Caitlyn stands up. "Now you listen here, mister. No more falling into frozen pools, okay?"

I giver her a thumbs up. "I plan not to."

She flashes me a smile. "See you later. Oh, and by the way, you look like my poodle when we used to give him baths."

"Thanks," I say, blushing a bit.

Right as we're sure she's left, Jason turns to me smiling.

"You blushed," he says.

I shake my head. "No I didn't."

"Yes you did! You're in love!"

"No I'm not."

"Don't deny it, Nate. It's cute. I like it."

"Shut up," I say and splash Jason.

Jason laughs. "It's cute." He looks up thoughtfully at the sky. "I remember my first crush…"

"Who?" I ask.

He turns to me. "Hilary Duff."