Two Blue Lines (Crossing The Line #1) (12 page)

I was a fool.

She finally turned her red-rimmed eyes to me.

“I’m so—” I started to apologize.

“What happened?” she asked, her hoarse whisper barely carrying in the brisk air.

My words of apology died in my throat. What had Chloe said? Had she spun the truth to place the blame on me and make me look like an even bigger jackass? “What did she say?”

Mel swept a piece of hair from her eye. “She said you guys flirted.” She glanced down. “Kissed.”

“I did
not
flirt with her! And I stopped her right away when
she
kissed
me
,” I reassured her, hearing the urgency in my own voice. God, why hadn’t I told her the truth right away?

Her dark, tear-filled eyes caught mine again. We stared at each other for several long moments. “I believe you.”

I snapped my mouth shut, shocked. “You do?”

She nodded. “I don’t know why . . . I guess because you’ve never lied to me before and I can tell she’s got a thing for you . . .”

“It doesn’t matter. She’s dating Jonah now.”

Her eyes told me she wasn’t convinced about that. “You could’ve cheated on me that day because I was a brat and didn’t go with you, and I would’ve never known about it. But you didn’t, did you?”

I sucked in a breath. “No.”

She reached up and grabbed the lapels of her sweater, tugging it tighter around herself. “Why not?”

My eyes widened in shock. Of all the conversations I thought we’d be having about this, I never dreamed this would come up. “What?”

“You heard me. Chloe’s a cute girl. I’ve been a bitch to you and I’m about to get big and fat anyway. Why didn’t you go for it?”

Sudden anger snaked up through me. Didn’t she get it? God! I grabbed her shoulders and got right in her face. She obviously needed to hear this. Again. “Melissa Summers. You are the girl I love. Period. You have been since the day I laid eyes on you. You always will be.”

How could she not know she was my best friend? The person I thought of most . . . her laugh, the way she gets my stupid jokes, her gentle, forgiving, tender heart. The heart I’d hurt. I felt like a jerk.

Her eyes softened a bit and she tried to glance away, but I waited until she looked back at me. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about what happened with Chloe. But it shocked the shit out of me and I didn’t want to upset you since you’ve already been acting so different with the pregnancy and all. But this—” I glanced down and laid a hand on her belly. “—this just makes me love you more. I don’t care if you get bitchy or fat or whatever.” I leaned down and kissed her. “All I see is the girl I love.”

She sighed and leaned into me. “You swear?”

“I swear.”

“No matter what our parents say?” she implored, her voice getting higher, desperate, as if she was holding on to it by a thread. “No matter what happens when we get to school and kids make fun of us? No matter—”

I shushed her with another kiss. “I
said
, I swear. No. Matter. What.”

I waited until she nodded, though I wasn’t convinced that she believed me, then I led her back inside so we could try and salvage what was left of our evening—pushing aside the nagging feeling that whatever her last ‘no matter what’ was, it couldn’t have been all that bad.

Right?

July 28
th

OK, so dinner last night. It should’ve been perfect. I was finally getting to be with Reed and he was taking me to a nice restaurant. But we ran into Jonah and his date, Chloe Seymour. I saw the way she looked at Reed like he was a steak, but I ignored her. He was with me, she was with Jonah. She could look all she wanted. I had myself convinced of that . . . until she followed me to the restroom.

You know her type: pretty, blond, perfect. By all rights, I should hate her. And maybe I do. She’s got the perfect high school life. She’s popular, got a perfect body . . . she’s not pregnant.

When we were alone, the first thing she asked me was if Reed and I are really having a baby. Duh. Can’t she see my pooch?

Then, she asked if Reed “told me.” Told me what? Oh, nothing. Just that she freakin’ kissed him on that stupid fishing trip I refused to go on. I was so mad, I wanted to rip her face off. I wanted to hurl. Punch her. Scream. Shrivel up and cry.

I’ve been souped up on hormones and I’m getting big. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he cheated . . . Plus I would’ve never known.

But I know, without a doubt, that Reed is innocent. And Chloe Seymour definitely is not.

To quote my bestie, Roxanne, when I called to tell her about it, “Honey,
everyone
knows Reed has a girlfriend. You guys have been an item since eighth grade.”

Yeah, she’s right. Chloe is a lying whore.

Alien Invasion

W
e got through the rest of the summer fairly uneventfully. If you counted blistering heat, endless hours slogging through greasy popcorn and screaming children, Mel’s mood swings and weird cravings (tacos, peanut butter and bacon milkshakes, and fried pickles, just to name a few) and her dad’s continued death stares as usual summer stuff.

For expectant teen parents, anyway.

And thankfully, Mel never did toss Chloe’s kiss or our dinner disaster in my face. It was like we’d made an unspoken pact to be this imperfect pregnant us, and we used every spare moment of the summer to find our groove.

But summer was over and we were about to be thrown back into the shark tank today. High school.

My cell phone buzzed next to my ear, rousing me before my alarm clock. I glanced at the time. Four-seventeen. I groaned. Who the heck—?

I fumbled with the phone and squinted at the display. My heart rate automatically picked up when I saw Mel’s number. “Hello?” I answered, my voice coated with sleep.

“I’m sorry to wake you,” she whispered. She must’ve still been tucked into her bed, too.

I propped myself up higher on the pillows. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

I waited. I could tell by her breathy, anxious answer that she had something on her mind. I just couldn’t tell if it was good or bad. My stomach knotted into my throat. “Are you nervous? About today?” I knew the first day of school had been on her mind.

“Kinda.” She sighed. “Yeah.”

“It’ll be all right.” I rubbed a hand down my face and glanced at the clock again, wishing for that extra thirty minutes of sleep.

“I felt it, Reed,” she finally said.

My eyes snapped open and I stared at the whirring ceiling fan above me. “Felt what?”

A beat of silence. “The baby.”

Something foreign ticked inside me. How did you “feel” a baby that was so small? I guessed it was bigger than a peanut now . . . an orange maybe? I had noticed Mel’s tummy starting to grow. But I hadn’t dared to say a thing about it because she had such a thing about getting fat. Personally, I thought it was adorable.

But to feel something move inside you? Man. That had to be freakin’ weird. Like an alien invasion.

“What did it feel like?”

“I woke up this morning and my stomach felt hard as a rock. It was the freakiest thing I’ve ever felt. I pushed on it a little bit and it sort of moved down like . . . a big bubble, but it was hard! Then I felt this sort of tiny little movement. Not a kick really, but a little something. I guess it was a kick. Or maybe gas.” I heard the smile in her words. “They say sometimes when babies first move it feels like gas. I see why. Oh, Reed, I wish you were here. That’s why I called you.”

I grinned in automatic response to her contagious happiness. “I’m glad you did. That’s really cool.”

“I know. I can’t believe it’s only going to get bigger.” Her whisper held hushed awe.

“Yeah.”

“Well, that’s what I really wanted to tell you. I need to go figure out what I’m gonna wear since nothing fits me now, then get ready for school. I’ll see you later?”

“Yup. I’ll be there.”

We hung up and I stared at the ceiling, grinning like an idiot. Our little Peanut alien was moving inside Mel. I wondered how long before I could feel something.

An hour and a half later, I picked her up, and she bounded out in jeans and a loose top, her face glowing. She hopped in the car and pressed a kiss to my cheek, her sweet scent wrapping around me. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I smiled at her. “You look happy.”

“I look nervous. But I’m still pretty excited about feeling Peanut this morning. I think she knew I needed a little extra something to get me through the day.”

“She?”

She grinned. “I already told you, I have a feeling.”

I pressed my hand to her little rounded tummy, something like a mix between awe, love and serious nerves zipping through me like a swarm of bees. “You did. Doesn’t mean you’re right though.”

She shrugged and bit into a granola bar. “Doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

I let it go and drove on to school. We pulled into the hubbub of the Brazosport High School parking lot and I felt her nervous energy fill the car. I glanced her way. “It’ll be fine, Mel.”

She turned her wide, luminous eyes my way. “By now, most everyone will know.”

She didn’t have to tell me what everyone knew. We were probably fuel for the gossip mill most of the summer. “So?”

She gripped my hand and cast her eyes down. “Things won’t be the same anymore and I’m scared.”

“Me, too.”

She glanced at the school as kids began filtering in. “But you’re not the one who’s carrying around the evidence.” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “It’ll be pretty much status quo for you.”

I squeezed her hand. “No, Mel. I’ll be thinking of you and Peanut all the time. And if anyone says or does anything to make you feel . . . uncomfortable, I want you to tell me. Okay?”

She didn’t answer right away. I had to squeeze her hand again. “Okay?”

She finally relented. “Fine.”

I stretched over and kissed her. “Okay. Now let’s go or we’ll be late.”

I grabbed her hand again once we were out of the car, ignoring how she gripped me like a woman being led to the gallows, and walked her toward the school. At first, it was like any other normal day. Reed Young and Melissa Summers had been an item since middle school. It was nothing new.

But, slowly, the kids’ faces began to register awareness, their gazes sliding down to Mel’s belly. Whispers started. A couple of girls laughed and pointed.

I felt Melissa whither a little at my side. But I pulled her along, silently imploring her to ignore their pettiness. I had her. I would always have her.

I smiled into her eyes, holding her gaze as I held the door open for her.

I love you
, I mouthed as I walked my girl proudly into school.

Screw them all.

True to my word, I thought about Mel and the baby pretty much all day long. I wondered how she was faring in her classes. If she was feeling uncomfortable. If her friends were treating her differently. Because mine sure were. Of course, those were just high school friends. Not the
real
friends that you keep year round, like Jonah and Mike. No, these were the kids who you only hang with during the school year, joke with during class, sit with at lunch. Acquaintances that you use to get through the year. Who use you to keep from being a loser with no friends, just as much as you use them. Yeah,
those
people, were totally treating me like pregnancy was contagious and they didn’t know me.