Iflopped onto my bed. The sketchbook that was lying on it bounced off and landed with a thud on the floor. I hadn’t expected today to go like it had, seeing Drew to now needing to find a way to tell him I was carrying his child.
It was one thing to keep it to myself when he was nowhere in sight, but now that he was here and talking about staying here and being with him, he had to know.
I dug my phone out of my back pocket, dialing Celeste. The only people who knew about my pregnancy were my parents and the doctor who ran the test for me. I had been too scared to tell Celeste and Monica about it because they would know exactly who the father was and I didn’t need them accidentally saying something.
I thought if I had kept it all to myself, I could do it without anyone else, but now I was seeing that having someone to talk to about it would be beneficial. I needed to tell Drew, but if I told the girls first, maybe they could help me with how I could tell him.
After the third ring, she finally picked up.
“Hey, stranger.” I had just talked to her this morning, but it had felt like ages, especially with everything that had happened today.
“Hey.” I rolled on my side, grabbing for a pillow and shoving it under my head, then another to shove between my legs.
“How did it go at the house?”
“Good. Paperwork is signed and it’s all mine.”
“When do you move in?”
“Just need to get my things packed and go furniture shopping, then I’ll be ready to move everything in.”
“Is that Tabs?” I could hear Monica in the background of Celeste's phone and I was grateful that they were both together, because that meant I didn’t have to make this phone call twice.
“I’ve got you on speaker phone.”
“Hey, Tabs!”
I pulled the phone away from my ear as Monica shouted into the phone.
“Hey, Monica.”
“You don’t sound good. Are you okay? Are you eating? I know when you get down or there is change you stop eating. You need to eat.”
“Monica!” Celeste scolded her for me.
“I’m doing okay, I promise. Just something happened today that I wasn’t expecting.”
I curled myself more into a fetal position, resting the phone on the bed beside me.
“Talk to us.” Celeste got her mom voice out, trying to coax me to tell them what was going on. Out of all of us, she was the most levelheaded when it came to working through troubles.
“Drew showed up in town today.”
“Who?” Monica asked.
“Drew. Like as in Drew from Myrtle Beach who you haven’t seen or talked to in three month since you just up and left us there?” The tone in Celeste’s voice told me just how much she was displeased with this news.
She was livid when I came home without them, but when I told her why, she calmed down and then banned me from seeing any other men. She hated seeing me with a broken heart, even though I had done it to myself. Monica, on the other hand, was happy it was a one-night stand and high fived me when we got back and bought me a shot of tequila.
“Yes, that Drew.”
“Why is he here? Didn’t you say you guys had no way of getting in contact with each other?”
“I thought so, but apparently he has a friend in politics who looked into me and found out who I am. He’s been keeping tabs on me. Through social media and news articles.”
“Awww, that’s sweet!”
“No it’s not, Monica,” Celeste scolded her again and wished I could see their interaction on the other side of the phone because I knew it would give me the laugh I so desperately needed right now. “Listen. That’s creepy. Why was he looking into you? Why is he here, Tabitha?”
