Senior Year, '94. Megan B. March
Jensen invited me to dinner via a card.”
“How odd,” my friend commented. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught her examining some of her hair, which she had pinched between her thumb and index finger.
“We went to The Fiddlehead and it seemed like he’d been there before. Anyway, the whole dinner was a bit tense because the last time we saw each other was when I went to Phoenix and all that shit with his ex and her kid happened.”
“Wait, you didn’t say anything about this to me. Oh, do tell!” Krissa dropped the hair she’d been examining and was suddenly all ears.
Backing up the story to when I’d met Savannah the first time, I brought Krissa up to the present and told her all about my weekend with Jensen. She got a brief rundown of what The Fiddlehead was like and what they had to offer (because she just had to know), and then I told her that Jensen got the DNA test back and it wasn’t a perfect match.
“He’s not the father? That’s great news!” Krissa exclaimed.
I gave her a look and her excitement wilted fast.
“So who’s the father? If it wasn’t a perfect match, then he’s just related to the kid somehow, right?” She hadn’t thought the test result through.
“Emery.”
Krissa eyes widened and she got a shocked look on her face before letting out a low and bewildered, “Nooo!” She leaned in closer to hear more and I told her what Emery had told Jensen about hooking up with Savannah. Krissa didn’t understand why Jensen would feel cheated on because they were broken up at the time.
“Yeah, Kris, but there’s like some kind of bro code that you don’t fuck around with your brother’s ex. That also goes for the ex of your best friend. It’s even worse if they haven’t been broken up for very long.”
Krissa began chewing on her thumb nail.
“His parents are pretty pissed at both him and Emery for being so careless,” I continued, “and Dan and Ashlyn didn’t mess around when it came to ‘the sex talk.’ They were pretty adamant about birth control and having safe sex.”
Krissa took in all that I said and had few questions, but then I brought up Jensen’s small tryst with Fallon and that seemed to floor her even more. She wasn’t surprised Jensen got high, most everyone did at some point, but she couldn’t get over him messing around with another girl, no matter how much weed he smoked.
“It had to be the booze, Mia,” she offered.
I sort of agreed, but that wasn’t an excuse. From there I told her about the rest of my time with Jensen at The Club and then lunch at Bullwinkle’s, not leaving out the details of him flirting with Bree or treating me like one of his guy friends. “He didn’t even want me seeing him off at the airport,” I finished with a heavy sigh.
Krissa was quiet for a few minutes and then turned to look at me, saying, “It feels like just yesterday I was helping you into my window after your midnight birthday rendezvous with Jensen. Who knew it would all come to this?”
“What made you think of that?”
“I guess sleeping over reminded me of when you lived with me that summer before you broke away from your mother. Things seemed so much less complicated then.” She sighed. “We seemed so much younger then, too.”
“Yeah, we did.”
For a minute I thought about Ryan and wondered when he started drinking more than just a few beers at the occasional party. When I asked Krissa out loud, she confirmed my suspicions by saying he had been drinking for quite a few years. I guess it wasn’t college that had turned him into an alky.
“Jensen didn’t really drink much before college, did he?” she asked.
“Not really. About as much as Nate, I guess.”
“Nate a year ago, maybe,” Krissa commented, stifling a yawn.
I immediately came to attention. “You noticed, too?”
“How could you not? He smells like a brewery.”
“Aria has to know. I wonder what she thinks about it.”
“I don’t know, she’s pretty preoccupied with being pregnant. Do you think the baby is why Nate started drinking?”
I nodded. Shit, how do I skate around this question? Of course I know it is because of the baby. He had come to see me drunk off his ass after he’d found out.
Krissa rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. “Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more interesting.” She gave a dark laugh.
“Yeah,” I said, rolling onto my side.
It was quiet for a few minutes and then Krissa reached up and turned the light off, ending our conversation abruptly by telling me goodnight.
“See you in the morning,” I said, rolling over and closing my eyes. I fell asleep quickly.
The next morning, I didn’t have to wake Krissa up—the shower did that for me. She was groggy and a little grumpy, but said “that’s alright” and rolled over when I explained I had to get up a little earlier than usual because of all the snow that had accumulated during the night.
Cleaning off my car and driving in it would take some time, so I recommended she do the same. After brushing off all the snow from my truck and heating it up, I arrived at school with time to spare and walked into zero-hour ten minutes before the bell rang. Opening my accounting book, I began looking through the next chapter, thinking it might be a good idea to study the material before the teacher discussed it, and when I was deep into it someone sat down next to me. Looking up, I caught sight of Nate’s sly smile.
“Hey, how were the SATs?”
“Long.” I shut the book and leaned back in my seat, placing my hands casually behind my head and stretching my back out against the chair. “I thought you were going to take them?”
“Already did. Last spring. I got a twelve-fifty.”
I looked at him to see if he was bullshitting me, but it was obvious he was being completely serious.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked, not believing he didn’t share that news with me sooner.
“Sorry, I just forgot. I got the results over the summer and didn’t really see you much since you were spending every waking hour with your boy.”
I felt a pang of guilt for not spending more time with my good friend. He had been there for me more than anyone lately. He was with me when I’d been in the hospital, even though we’d been fighting at the time. Not to mention he was still keeping my secret although he pointedly told me I had to tell Jensen sooner rather than later. I imagined that a lot of other people in the same situation would have bailed, but not Nate. Before I could think too much about it, I reminded myself that Jensen wouldn’t have been thrilled about me spending any amount of time with Nate.
“Anyway, it’s not like I’ll be going away to college or anything,” Nate added. His eyebrows came together a bit and I figured he was thinking about having to start life in the real world now that he and Aria were going to be parents. I could tell he was a little bitter, but before I could give any kind of comment the bell rang and our teacher told us to settle down.
The hour dragged by and finally the bell rang to signal the end of class. Quickly gathering my books and materials, I headed for the door and was a bit surprised when Nate hastily rushed past me and left the room before I did. Aria wasn’t hanging around outside the classroom door like she normally did, but looking to the stairs to the left of the class, I could see her slowly coming down the stairs. For being five months along she still wasn’t really showing and part of me felt like her slow walk was a ruse to get Nate to pay attention to