Johnny

"Look, I'm fine." I tried inching away from Lyle, though he kept on hovering like a fucking bumblebee.

"Saturday said otherwise."

"Nah." I scoffed. "That was nothing."

"You cried in my arms."

"Well you cry during movies." I fired back in an effort to get him off of me. "Say, a certain one about a motherless deer or a Labrador retriever."

"Who doesn't cry during those?" Lyle asked.

"Fair enough," I said, rolling my eyes. "But getting back to before, I don't need you orbiting me every second of the day."

"I know. I'm just worried."

"Don't be." I told him. "My brother may be an asshole, but you know what? Someday it'll bite him in the ass hard and I won't be there to clean up that mess."

Lyle stared deeply into my eyes as he could tell there was something wrong. I then pulled him aside and decided to officially cut the cord. I placed my hands on his shoulders and faced him square in the eyes. "Listen man, I'm so... grateful for what you did. Most people wouldn't be gentle like you or as caring, except you were different. You were there for me and I really do appreciate that, but I'm gonna need you to lay off for awhile."

"But I thought–"

"Please." I pleaded with him. At first, he was hesitant. His eyes were stony and judgmental before softening up again to the point where he crossed his arms and sighed.

"Alright." Lyle nodded understandingly. "I'll leave you be."

"Thanks."

Lyle forced a smile before looking all around only to face me again with a worried look planted right on it.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I can definitely leave you alone, but I-I don't know what to do–"

"Talk to Dominic?"

"I'm going to do that later." Lyle casually brushed off.

"What do you mean?"

"Well I figured since our meeting is this–"

"Meeting?" My eyebrows raised. "What meeting?"

"Oh, you didn't get the memo?"

With all the shit I had been dealing with, another planning meeting was the last thing on my mind. Hell, why was I even put on this committee in the first place? I can't plan crap to save my life. Not to mention, there were too many other things going on in my world to notice how important this was. Then again, I only stayed 'cause it was a boost on my overall accumulative grade and would add just enough to my resumé. Still, I hated that we had to be there.

To my surprise, nobody else seemed all that thrilled either. Dominic slouched in his chair with arms crossed, Elise was clutching on the chair with her eyes staring down at her belly, while Aria held Elise's other hand and seemed to be a wreck herself.

Lyle and I sat down on the end seats before Normack came in. "Good morning, students. How was your weekend?"

"Terrible." Elise answered first.

"Boring." Dominic followed up.

"Weird," I said.

"Troublesome." Aria nodded.

Normack then turned his attention to Lyle. "And you mister Calhoun?"

Lyle gulped before he answered. "Uh, I'm a combination of these two."

He pointed his thumbs to Aria and I.

Normack nodded as he shuffled his papers. Then he made his announcement. "Now as you can see, we will not be holding a Halloween or Autumn event this year due to the clown hysteria and political abominations."

"Oh, last year was ugly." Elise remarked. "I've never seen so many guys dressed as our president. Reminded me of Elvis fest."

"You've been to that?" I asked.

"Only once 'cause my darling father thought he could pull off yellow Elvis better than anyone else."

Wow, I nodded as she did the same. Normack cleared his throat and directed conversation back to him. "As I was saying, we must focus on the next big event: Thanksgiving."

"Are we having a big buffet in the cafeteria?" Dominic asked.

"That and if we can pass it with the board, we could do our own pilgrim fair."

"Ooh, like the Renaissance Fair?" Lyle exclaimed.

"Sort of."

Lyle grinned to a freaky degree till I nudged him. Afterwards, his smile went back to normal and the conversation continued until the discussion reached an abrupt halt.

"During the month of November, I expect all of you to come together–"

"Uh, sir?" Elise raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Roswell?"

"I might be a bit preoccupied."

"Why is that?" He asked while folding his arms.

I looked over to see Elise anxiously tugging at her belly. She tried being subtle and failed. However, the way she gently caressed it was the giveaway that let me breathless.

"I'd rather not say." Elise nodded uncomfortably. "At least not in public. I'm still figuring things out."

"Well when you're ready, please let me know."

"Thank you."

When she was finished, our eyes locked together. I almost whispered only for her to shake her head and point to the door. We'd have to talk about it outside.

After going through once again, Normack put his hands down on the desk. "Any questions?"

"When do we need to have our proposal ready?" Lyle asked.

"The second week of November."

"Isn't that kind of late?" Elise chimed in.

"Aren't you kind of late?" The crass joke slipped out before I could even stop myself.

Everyone stared at me in a mix of surprise and confusion. Though with Elise, it was pure disgust. Normack squinted, then asked. "What on earth does that mean?"

"Oh it's nothing." Aria cheerfully waved off.

"Yeah. Just a dumb joke." I nodded.

With the awkward silence settling in, Normack sighed and balled his fingers together. "Well then I guess you're all free to leave."

We left pretty fast and the second we were out in the hall, I had to ask the million dollar question. "You're pregnant?"

"Hey, not so loud!" Elise snapped in a hushed voice. Her eyes shifted both ways before she growled inside, then told me the truth. "Yes. I found out last week."

"Did anyone know about this?"

"I knew." Aria raised her hand.

"Wow." I snickered uncontrollably. "That-that is just wonderful. I mean, it's really-wow!"

"I totally saw that coming." Dominic remarked.

"No, you didn't." Lyle scoffed.

"Oh yes I did." Dominic defended himself. "She's been in the bathroom more times than I've been at my house all year."

"Okay, that's really sad."

"Yeah, I know."

Oh my god, I paced around like a tiger in a zoo before stopping, swiveling around, then pointed my finger at Elise. "Does he know."

"Who?"

"The father." I clarified while my hands trembled a bit.

Elise refrained from answering, prompting me to explain. "Look, I get that this is all new to you, but he's got a right to know."

"He's in college."

"Really?" I folded my arms and batted my right eyebrow.

Elise sighed. "Okay fine, community college, but that doesn't matter. He's still bright enough to make it big."

"Wait, you know who it is?"

"Of course, I'm not that dumb." Elise scoffed. "This doesn't need to be an episode of public paternity with that old dude."

"Love that show."

"Me too." Elise chuckled. "Except now that train wreck is gonna become my life."

"Have you reached out to him?"

"Not yet."

"Why not?"

"It's complicated." Aria cut in.

"Yeah, no shit." I remarked. "The badass Asian bookworm gets pregnant by some community college guy? Ooh, what's next? He swings both ways?"

"Actually..." Elise moaned, tilting her head to the right.

"No fucking way." I scoffed. "For real?"

"Yep." She pulled out her phone and scrolled right to his page on Facebook. "That's him."

"Damn." I shook my head.

Lyle and Dominic soon checked him out, leading Dominic to point. "Hey, I know that guy."

"Who, Frasier?"

"No, the other one he's kissing."

I squinted to see an albino-skinned boy with dark hair. "How do you know him?"

"We may have done the deed once or twice before."

"Ew, gross." Lyle cringed hard, while wrinkling his nose.

Dominic simply laughed. "Relax, it was just sex."

"That doesn't make me feel better."

"Well I can promise you, that we won't have that same relationship." Dominic looked Lyle in the eyes as he said that. "Unless you prefer–"

"Nope, I want the real deal."

"Great. I'll make that happen."

"Can we please close this chapter?" Elise demanded with her arms at her sides. "I'm tired, I'm irritated, I'm hungry, and getting really... really emotional right now."

While Elise shuddered, I leaned in closer to Aria. "Was she like this all weekend?"

"Boy, you don't know the half of it."

Aria then went over to Elise before looking back at us. "You guys should go. We need to have some girl talk."

"Alright." I nodded, then left with my boys though not before glancing back at Elise one last time. Something about this was eerily reminiscent. I knew she wasn't Sabrina by any means, yet I had this sinking feeling history would repeat itself. However... it was highly unlikely Elise would do something that cold. Actually, barely anyone would do what Sabrina had done to me yet anybody could still do it and not even bat an eye.