“Is that why… Is that why you’ve been throwing up?”
Her shoulders slump and when they shake, I get my confirmation.
Gosh, I’ve been such an idiot.
We all have been.
Callie has been throwing up in the mornings, but she’d be okay all day. Isn’t that like, the most obvious sign?
Leaning forward, I push back her soft blonde hair and urge her to look at me. “God, Callie. I’m so sorry. I’m…” My eyes fill up with tears too. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
She whips her eyes up, all red-rimmed and angry. “Because I’m such an idiot, Salem. I’m the biggest idiot in the world. He broke my heart, okay? That asshole broke my heart and I promised myself that I’d never ever fall for him again. And he comes back into town and I do the exact thing I told myself I wouldn’t. And now I’m pregnant. With that… villain’s baby and…”
I rub her back in circles. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay. We’ll figure things out. We’ll –”
“There’s nothing to figure out. Don’t you see? It’s not as if I can keep it a secret. People are gonna know and they’ll expel me from St. Mary’s and God, my brother is gonna be so mad at me.” She covers her face, crying, and my tears start spilling too.
“Does he… Does Reed know?”
She shakes her head before lifting it, her watery eyes filled with determination, with a look that says she’s a girl betrayed in love. “No, and I’m not going to tell him either.”
“But shouldn’t he know? I mean, he… he’s the dad.”
“Fuck him, okay? Fuck him. He lied to me all those years ago. I thought he loved me but he didn’t. I was the only one in love, and apparently I still am because look at me, spreading my legsfor him like a stupid slut. But that’s it. That’s all he’s taking from me. I’mnotgiving him my baby.”
“But Callie, I think you should really –”
My words die out when I hear a commotion outside.
Much like the one I heard last night when I entered the dorm building and found my love story exposed to everyone at the school.
But this one is much more violent.
This commotion has crashing sounds and thundering footsteps and a growly voice. “Where is she? Where the fuck is she?”
His voice.
It reaches me through the corridor and the glass windows of my room and raises itself above the beep, beep, beep of the machines and the thump, thump, thump of my heart.
It not only reaches me, it wraps itself around me like a pair of arms – his sleek, muscular arms – warming me up, making me realize that I was cold before.
But he’s here and all cold is gone.
I can even see him through my window.
He’s looking around, frantic, running his fingers through his sun-struck hair, his jaw unshaven and messy, the chain around his neck shining like always.
A second later, he finds me.
His eyes land on me and his whole body shudders. It’s a visible spasm that rolls through his muscles. That I can feel in my own stomach.
We stare at each other through the space and I feel like he knows everything.
I feel like hefeelswhat I’m feeling.
All the grief and all the sadness at losing those letters and I just want him to put those strong arms of his around me and hug me.
“Apparently, he didn’t leave,” Callie murmurs from beside me and the moment breaks.
