The next morning, I hopped in the shower, and then dressed in my bathing suit and put a t-shirt and shorts over top of that. Only in California could you wear this outfit in the early spring. I slid some flipflops on, and packed an extra pair of shoes and clothes and underwear also.
I drove over to Chelsea’s, and knocked on the door. She answered, she looked pretty as usual, wearing a oversized blue t-shirt that made her eyes stand out, with her long blonde hair pulled back. She smiled, “I’m so glad you came over!” she said, and hugged me.
I laughed, “me too.”
She led me to her room, which was huge and pink. “Sit your stuff down and then we’ll go swimming,” she said to me.
I did as told and followed her out to the pool, only to run back inside to throw up. She was waiting outside the door when I was done, “are you sick or something? You sure do that an awful lot,” she said observantly.
I shrugged, “it’s nothing,” I said.
She kept to herself about it, and we went back to the pool, we jumped in and swam around for a while, and then got on some floats and laid out in the sun. “Do you do this often?” she asked, “you sure are pale.”

I laughed, “I go outside all the time, but I only burn, and then I go back to being pale.”
She smiled, “I think that’s cool.”
I laughed again, “if you say so. Um, why did you invite me over, Chelsea?” I asked.
She smiled, “I think you’re a really sweet girl, and all of my friends… well, I don’t like to talk about other people, but they’re mean. All they do is talk about each other behind their backs, I don’t like it. Except for Melanie, anyways. And I know you won’t do that.”
I smiled, “you are right about that, but I’m not the only sweet person in the school.”
“I know, but I’ve known you the longest, Serenity.” She did speak the truth. We were in little tot cheerleaders when we were younger, and we took gymnastics together.
I nodded, “you’re right.”
She smiled, and we laid out there for another few hours before going inside and getting something to eat. I had a weird craving for cheese. She looked at me weird, but other than that didn’t say anything, and handed me a pack of cheese slices.
I chewed on a few, and then we went up to her room, “your room is really great,” I said to her.
She laughed, “thanks, I haven’t done anything to it since I was a little girl, I think it’s magical.”
I laughed along with her, “that’s cool.”
“Can I paint your nails?” she asked.
I nodded, and after thirty minutes my nails were sparkling indigo, and my toenails were just a normal blue. “They look great,” she said.
I would have offered to paint hers but they were already professionally done. I smiled, “thank you, Chelsea.” I looked at the time, “I really ought to go, I need to get a dress for the party tonight.”
“You’re going?” she asked, a little surprised.
I nodded, “yeah, Bentley wants me to go.”
“Aw, you’re dating him now?” she asked.
I smiled, “yeah, he’s great.”
She smiled, “I’m glad, y’all make a cute couple,” she twanged. Her country side only came out when she like something a lot. She mostly lost the accent after moving back to California five years ago, but sometimes it was still there.
“Thanks,” I said, beginning to grab my things.
“Oh, you can borrow one of my dresses,” she said, “we’re the same size, I’m sure.”
I smiled, “thank you, Chelsea, that really means a lot.”
“No problem.” she said.
She went into her humongous closet, and handed me a knee-length light blue dress, with spaghetti straps, and it came down a little low in the front, but there was like a bar of fabric across to close some of it. “Oh, it’s beautiful!” I cried.
She smiled, “I don’t wear it anymore, you should definitely wear it. And here, have these shoes to, I don’t use them.” They were a pair of blue flats.
I hugged her, “thank you so much Chelsea!” I said.
She hugged me back and then we let go, “you know you could ride with me if you want, I’ll be going at about eight thirty.”
I nodded, “okay, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course not,” she said.
So we both hopped in the shower, me in the upstairs and her in the downstairs. I showered quickly, using the curling iron she had handed me, once I dried my hair, and pulled her dress and shoes on. I stepped out to find Chelsea, sliding her shoes on, “we still have a little while,” she said, glancing at the clock, “do you want to eat before you go?”
I hesitated, “that’s probably a good idea if you’re going to be drinking,” I told her.
She smiled, “you’re right. Are you?”
“Um,” I hesitated, I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but how was I going to avoid it? I’d figure out a way, “Um, no, I don’t want to drink anymore, it turns out alcoholics run in the family, I really don’t want to turn into one,” I said.
She nodded, “I understand. But come on. I’ll make grilled cheese!”
I laughed, “alright, thanks.”
While I was sitting at the counter waiting for her to finish making the grilled cheese, my phone rang, “hello?” I said.
“Hey, Serenity, it’s me, Lil. I’m coming a week early, I’ll be in tomorrow.”
“Oh… oh.”
“Serenity? Are you okay?”
“Um, yeah, I just didn’t know it would be so soon. Gosh, I don’t know if I’m ready to tell them, Lillian.”
She understood, “I’ll be there with you for moral support, well not when you tell Bentley, because you know. But I will be there for your parents.”
I smiled sadly, “you’re the best friend I could ever ask for, Lillian.”
She laughed, “I know. My flight will come in at about eight in the morning. You want to meet at Starbucks at ten?”
“Which one?” I joked, knowing she meant the one we always used to meet at, a mile from my house.
She laughed, “well, I’ll see you then.”
“Bye, Lillian.”
Chelsea was staring at me, “was that that girl you used to hang out with all the time?”
I nodded, “yeah, she’s coming in tomorrow.”
“Why?” she asked curiously.
“She misses it here, wants to see me,” I lied smoothly.
She nodded in understanding, “makes sense.”
I laughed, and took a bite of the grilled cheese she’d made me. After we were finished, we put the plates in the dishwasher, and I grabbed my things. We left, in separate cars because I needed mine, and got to Melanie’s place at eight thirty, as planned.
“Today was fun, we should do it again sometime,” I told Chelsea.
“Definitely. You really should try out for cheerleading, Serenity, it’d be so much fun with you there!”
I smiled, “maybe my sophomore year, I don’t really want to do it this year,” I said.
She smiled, “okay, well, I’ll text you sometime tomorrow, okay?”
I nodded, and hugged her, “bye.”
I went straight to the bar, looking for Bentley, and found him already pouring drinks. He finished, handed them to some guy, and leaned over the bar to kiss me. “I missed you, babe,” he said to me.
I smiled, “I missed you too, Bentley.”
He grinned, “my break’s at nine thirty until ten thirty,” he said.
I smiled, “okay, I’ll just wait around until then.”
He laughed, “sounds fun.”
I looked around and saw a bunch of Hawaiian decorations around the outside of Melanie’s house, and even around the bar. I laughed to myself, and sat quietly, staring at Bentley as he poured and mixed drinks skillfully.
I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned around and it was Joel, “we need to talk,” he said, yelling over the music.
I looked at Bentley, oblivious to us, pouring drinks for someone, and then checked the time, it was twenty minutes until his break time, I followed him to some pool house. “What is it?”
“What the hell are you doing here with a baby?” he whispered.
“It’s not like I’m drinking, Joel. I’m just here with my boyfriend to have a good time, and again I’m asking why does it matter? You said you didn’t want anything to do with me or my baby, so why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“I don’t know,” he said, frustrated.
I stared at him, “I’m going to go. There’s no use having another conversation, okay? Go have fun with Melanie, enjoy your party.”
“Wait,” he said, “I need to tell you something.”
I looked at him, waiting, “look, Bentley doesn’t want you because he… loves you, or whatever he’s told you.”
Shock crossed my face, before I tightly controlled my expression, “what are you talking about?”
“That night, when me and you… he leaned over the bar and asked me ‘do you want to screw her as bad as I do?’ and that‘s why I nodded. I know that was wrong of me, but you already think I‘m scum, I just don‘t want someone else to hurt you.”
I stared at him, “how can I believe you, after everything you did?”
He shrugged, “I guess you can’t,” he whispered, “and by the way, you look beautiful tonight.”
“Screw you, Joel. Why would he be WITH me, if that’s all he wanted? When he could just lie to me, like you did. Bye.”
I stormed out and back to the bar, where Bentley was waiting for me, “where’d you go, babe?”
I looked at him, and doubt flitted across my mind, what if Joel was speaking the truth? He caressed my face, “Are you alright, Serenity?”
I nodded, “sorry, I was just… out of it for a minute.”
He smiled, “do you want to dance?” he asked as a slow song came on.
I smiled at him and took his hand, “okay,” I whispered, but he understood.
He led me out to where the grass was, and I leaned into him, he kissed my head, “you are so beautiful, Serenity.”
Tears flooded down my cheeks quietly, and we finished out the dance before he led me out to the pool house, where me and Joel had so recently been. He locked the doors behind us, and I wiped my tears away while he did. “Why’d you do that?” I asked him.
“I didn’t want any horny teenagers coming in here trying to get some,” he said.
I laughed loudly, “that’s great.”
He smiled and sat beside me on the bed, we were silent for a moment. “Serenity, I know I’ve already said this, but I just want to say again, how absolutely beautiful you look tonight.”
Tears started again down my face, and his eyes widened, “what did I say?” he asked frantically.
I shook my head, “Bentley, I need to know something.”
“What is it? Ask me anything!” he said, obviously trying to make me feel better.
“What did you really say to Joel that night?”
“At the party?” he asked, confused.
I nodded and waited for an answer. He took a deep breath, “does it matter?”
“You have no idea how much.”
He sighed, “I swear to you I didn’t mean it.”
“What did you say?” I asked, patience wearing thin.
“I said… ‘do you want to screw her as bad as I do.’ but I was only saying that because I saw the way he was looking at you, I just wanted to make a friend, then! And I did like you, and you were exceptionally beautiful that night, and I didn’t know I was going to fall for you!” he blurted.
I stared at him, “were you handing me all of those drinks to get me drunk so you could ‘screw me’? Is that why you did it?”
“Gosh, no! You just looked so scared I didn’t know what to do to help you! You were asking for them, not me forcing them on you!”
I shook my head slowly, “this sucks. My life truly sucks.” I glanced heavenward, “have I done something to piss you off? Is that why you’re doing this to me?” I asked, tears flooding steadily down my cheeks then.
He took my hand, “Serenity, I’m sorry. Please, just please forgive me. I didn’t know I was going to fall for you, and now, I don’t care if you make me wait until I’m eighty to have sex, all I want is you to be happy! I don’t care about anything else but you.”
He leaned over and kissed me, and then deepened the kiss quickly, kissing me everywhere he could for as long as he could. When he started to push me down on the bed, though, as much as I wish that this could be my first time, I knew it wasn’t.
I stared up at the ceiling, while he kissed me down my neck, “I’m pregnant,” I said quietly.
His jaw dropped in shock, he sat back and he stared at me for a minute, “what?” he asked, as if he hadn’t heard me right.
“You heard me, Bentley. I’m pregnant. About a month and a half along now. That’s why I throw up all the time.” we both sat up then.
“Whose?” he said, so quietly I could barely hear him.
“That, I can’t say, I keep my word.”
Then, out of nowhere, Joel walked out of the closet, “it’s mine.”