“What?” Dennis glances up from his phone, looking at Aaron.
“Stacy is obviously pregnant.”
“You are such an asshole,” Aaron snaps.
“How did you know?” Stacy’s expression is shocked, but she doesn’t deny it.
“You haven’t touched your drink. Your face is glowing, and your tits are about two size bigger.”
“Asshole,” Aaron snaps again. “Stop looking at my fiancée’s tits.”
“I’m not fucking blind.” I shrug.
“You’re pregnant?” Abbey asks Stacy.
“Yes,” Stacy says, smiling. “Going to have to push the wedding back.”
“Congratulations,” Nicolas’s girlfriend says. She seems genuine about her reaction, but her high pitch voice makes me want to stab myself in the ears.
“Wow. Aaron is going to be a father.” Dennis laughs. “That’s some crazy shit.”
“We can’t take a whole fucking year off,” I say. “Six months is bad enough, but a whole year? We run the risk of losing fans and falling out of favor.”
I can feel Wes’s glare without even looking at him. He is not happy that I outed the news. Probably less happy about my reaction. Mentioning that six months was bad enough will probably cause Abbey to spiral with guilt as well.
I just turned a pleasant night into a bad one.
“I’m sure that won’t happen,” Abbey says softly. I glance at her and her eyes are staring up at Wes. “You guys are too great to lose any favor.”
“What happens when the baby is born? Are you going to bring it along? The road is no place for a child. Or do you plan on leaving Stacy alone for weeks at a time to raise it alone?”
“Dude,” Nicolas snaps. “Can you just take a second and be happy for them?”
“I’m so fucking happy they are happy. Fucking bouncing off the walls with glee because they are a happy fucking couple with a baby on the way, but what about me?” I down the last bit of my drink. “You all barely talk to me these days. Ignore my texts.Don’t take my calls. I haven’t seen any of you for weeks. We take a whole year off and I won’t even know you guys when we go back on tour.”
“Shit, dude,” Aaron says. “It’s nothing personal. We just have our own lives.”
I watch as the faces around me drop as the words leave his mouth.
“Yeah. I got that much.” I nod, pushing myself from the table. “Great to know I’m not a part of them.” I push myself to my feet.
I make my way outside, desperate to be as far away from my so-called band mates as possible. Here I thought we were like family, but they just confirmed that they don’t feel the same.
“Ben,” Wes calls after me. “Shit. Wait up.”
If he hadn’t saved my life a few dozen times, I’d continue on my way. But I can’t ignore him even if I wanted to, so I freeze.
“Ben,” he repeats my name, catching up to me. “He didn’t mean it like that. You know that. You just reacted poorly to his good news, and it made him mad.”
“Yeah. Okay.” I glance over at Wes. “Doesn’t make it any less true.”
“I get it. We’ve all been a little wrapped up in our own worlds. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” I pull out my pack of cigarettes. Wes doesn’t owe me an apology. He has been the only person outside of my parents who ever truly cared about me. The only one of them that gets a pass. “It’s life. It happens. I’m happy you are all happy.” I nod, lighting my cigarette.
“Do you ever think about getting a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend. You know I don’t judge.” His face tugs up in a smile.
Wes always has a way at disarming me. I hate it. The guy makes it impossible for me to stay angry.
