He croaked to a stop and went deadpan white. Like, Dracula after a hundred year nap in a coffin kind of white.
The watching crowd wentooooohlike this was some kind of competitive sport and I’d scored a major hit. I had, actually, he was internally panicking.
Just for his insult to me, I chose to really let him have it. “You shouldn’t be doing a friends with benefits at seventeen anyway, but dude, you really should have been using protection. Better go tell her that she’s pregnant, she’s only about five weeks along, so she might not know yet.”
I expected that to make him run off, panic, something.
Not what happened. He got mad.
“Bitch, shut up!”
Skylar clapped, mockingly. “What a big word for Elmo!”
Our audience laughed; even I snickered. Damn, I loved this girl. She really took no shit from anyone.
Kenneth tried to get into her face next. “You shut up too!”
“Hey, you’re the one cheating and creating sexually transmitted dependents. If you don’t want to be called out, maybe don’t, I dunno, be an asshole to begin with?”
Becca got a finger right into his face. “And don’t think I’ll take you back. That’s like taking a shit and cramming it back inside, I ain’t stupid enough to do it.”
Damn, really got to make better friends with this girl.
Having said her piece, Becca turned and stomped off. She was crying, and I saw her best friend rush in, grab her, and haul her off to the bathroom, probably. She was in good hands, I didn’t feel the urge to immediately follow her.
Skylar abruptlymoved, I heard a meaty thunk, but fast as I snapped around, I almost didn’t clock it. Kenneth had actually gone for me?! It looked that way, he had a fist made up, and his lines were throwing off hot red anger and a need for revenge like he was manning a Fourth of July fireworks display. Skylar had intercepted him, deflected his first blow, and was now a solid defense in front of me.
“Try that again and I break the hand.” Skylar waslivid. Wow, I’d never seen her this mad except maybe the time that stupid detective had tried to kill Jon. That was the only thing that really compared, which said something. How bad had Kenneth just tried to hurt me?!
Mr. Hall apparently got alerted by someone that something had gone down as he hustled toward us, beer gut swaying. “Whoa, whoa, what’s going on here?!”
Skylar pointed at him and demanded, “Lock his ass up. He just tried to hurt Abby!”
“I’m going to need more details than that,” Mr. Hall said patiently.
To my surprise, Jeffrey stepped forward. I didn’t know him super well, but I’d tutored him some through History as a favor because he’s a super nice guy. He’s built like a mountain, too—like, I’d suspect he was related to the Havilis if I didn’t know better.
“Sir, I saw the whole thing go down. Abby told Becca Kenneth was cheating on her, so she broke up with him on the spot, and Kenneth started going for Abby. Blaming her, basically, but he did just try to hurt Abby. I think he was going to grab her hair and then punch her, that’s what it looked like.”
Oh. Yeah, that would explain why my girlfriend was planning out funeral arrangements.
Mr. Hall frowned at Kenneth. “I don’t like what I just heard.”
Kenneth, a boy who couldn’t seem to learn from his mistakes, flung a finger at me and yelled back, “She’s just some wanna be psychic! She doesn’t know shit and now she’s accusing me of cheating and knocking some bitch up, when I haven’t done anything!”
Now, that I wouldn’t let stand. Wannabe? Oh, he shouldn’t have said that. “Yeah? Let’s do some show and tell, then. Mr. Hall. You’re fifty-two, married for thirty years, four kids, native to Nashville with a brief stint overseas for four years—Europe?—and a severe caffeine addiction that is screwing with your liver and kidneys. Was any part of that inaccurate?”
Mr. Hall looked at me gob smacked, like seriously, I think his jaw had skittered off under someone’s feet. Then his eyes crinkled up, crows feet distinct, as he grinned at me. “No, Abby, that was all accurate. I did do a stint of working overseas, Ireland, in fact. Damn, you really can see everything.”
“I can.” I didn’t always understand what I saw, but I’d get there. “He really is cheating on Becca. He really did get Emily pregnant.”
“Whoa, whoa, okay, this just got even more serious.” Mr. Hall frowned at Kenneth. “You, you’re coming with me to the principal. Abby, Skylar, come with me as well, I think this needs to be a parent conference. Which Emily?”
“Hanover,” I supplied.
“I’ll call her to meet us there.”
She’d be in for the shock of her life. I didn’t think it nice to drop the news of a pregnancy on someone while there was an audience, but I also felt like cheaters got whatever was coming for them, so…no regrets to be found here, folks.
