“Okay.” He stepped back and then looked at the bathroom door. “We’ll get that fixed,” he promised me.
“Okay.”
I looked at Ash, and he looked back. “Brought food.” He held up three pizza boxes, and I gave a small smile.
“Thanks.”
Gray said nothing to them, only lifted the first box off the pile and opened it. His lip curled in distaste. “This is yours.” He handed it to me without making eye contact.
Curiously, I opened it and beamed. Hawaiian pizza. Ham, pineapple, cheese on pizza dough — who could hate it? “Yum!”
Jett gagged as he handed a pizza box to his brother. “This is ours,” he said as he sat on the floor easily.
Picking up a slice, I realized I was ravenous, and I took a hearty bite. I saw Gray watching me with abhorrence, and Ash gave a small laugh.
“What?” I demanded.
“It’s pineapple . . . onpizza.” Gray took the slice his brother handed him. “How could you?” he demanded of Jett.
“Ash ordered it,” Jett said to him around a mouthful of pepperoni pizza.
Looking at Ash in surprise, I swallowed my mouthful of food. “Thanks.”
He shrugged as he ate his own slice. “Thought you may need it,” he mumbled as he avoided eye contact. His glance flicked to Gray, who was still in last night’s clothes. “So, you stayed?”
Gray was many things — some good, mostly bad, and a bit diabolical . . . but what he was and always would be, is brutally honest. “I did. In her bed, before you try to skirt around it.”
Ash said nothing, just bit into his pizza as he looked away, and Jett cleared his throat. “So, we know you two have hooked up before. I don’t know the details,” he looked at Ash who shook his head slightly, “and I don’t think we need to know.”
I took a bite of pizza to disguise the fact that I had been holding my breath.
“You were pregnant, and you didn’t tell us, any of us,” Jett saidas he ate his food. I nodded. “Well, that was the first mistake.” His tone was hard as I knew it would be. “You were giving the baby up for adoption?” I nodded again, and I saw him place his hand on his brother’s knee to stop the shaking. “And you changed your mind?”
“Yes.” I closed my pizza box, my appetite now diminished. “I knew I was doing the wrong thing, and I knew no matter what it took, I would make it work.”
Jett nodded and kept on eating, passing a slice back to his brother, who I thought was eating mechanically now, so focused on me.
“And when you told them you’d changed your mind?”
“They started to call me all the time. I didn’t answer until I finally did, and they asked me to go to them and discuss it.”
“Who’s they?” Ash asked me.
“Dr. Newton,” I said as I looked at Jett and saw him nod. “He said if I didn’t meet with them, they would come to the school or my house. Or both.”
“Fuckers,” Gray bit out as he tossed his slice onto the open box in Jett’s lap.
“And you went to meet with them?” Jett encouraged me.
“Yes, but even when I got to the building, I knew it was wrong, and I was walking away when I heard someone call for me. Then I heard feet, like they were running.”
“What did you do?” Ash asked me.
“I ran.” I rubbed my nose before I picked up the pizza again. “I ran and I never saw the stairs, and I fell.”
“And you lost consciousness?” Jett pressed.
“That’s what the hospital said.” I tapped my hand off my head. “You saw the stitches.”
