Mellenda took a deep breath and then let it out. She had turned to walk away when Leslie reached out and squeezed her ass even harder than Brendan had the night before. The night before now felt like it had been a year ago, but Mellenda responded to Leslie the way she had to Brendan. She turned, and slapped the girl across the face as hard as she could.
Leslie looked stunned for a minute. Then she said “You little bitch. I’m gonna kick the shit out of you.”
“Bring it on Leslie.”
“Enough,” Armand’s voice said. “I must admit that I rather enjoyed your verbal sparring, but this has gone too far. Mellenda, go take your shower. Leslie go back to your room.”
“But Armand, she hit me.”
“And you deserved it. Most of your classmates would have beaten you bloody at least five minutes ago. Mellenda has class and restraint. More than I can say for you. Go Leslie.”
“But Armand.”
“No buts Leslie. Get out of my sight before I change my mind about our arrangement, no matter how good your blow jobs are. And take a shower. You do smell today.”
Leslie gave him a dark look, but walked away. Mellenda turned to head to the shower room. Armand said “Mellenda?”
“Yes?”
“You should have punched her. Her nose could use some improvement. You aren’t really pregnant are you? I will find out if you are, and there will be no way we’ll be able to let you finish out the year, with your other transgressions.”
“I’m not pregnant. You don’t have to worry about me getting pregnant before I leave here either. I’m done with men. And don’t bother to say what you’re thinking, because I might have to slap you too.”
Armand chuckled. “Birth control isn’t always effective. The only ways to prevent pregnancy completely are abstinence or homosexual relationships. And abstinence is no fun. I do rather enjoy watching two women together though.”
Mellenda rolled her eyes. “That’s original, coming from a man.”
“If you ever change your mind about my offer, you know where my office is. We may still be able to save your scholarship. I’ll give you a hell of a recommendation if you’re as good in bed as I think you are.”
“Dream on Armand.”
“I don’t think you’d want to hear about the dreams I’ve had about you, though I did find them to be quite enjoyable myself.”
Mellenda shook her head at him and walked down the hall to the shower room. The shower was empty, and she took a long shower, wanting to clear her head. It didn’t work. She was still full of pain over her break up with Jude. She thought that that bothered her more than all of the bullshit with stupid Crestview. Though if you would have told her she’d be more concerned about Jude Ashland than her future a few months ago, she would have laughed her ass off.
Leslie wasn’t in the halls after she had dried off and dressed and she was glad. She was sure that if she ran into Leslie again that day, she’d probably punch her in the face. She took a nap and when she woke up, she cried some more. She felt pathetic but she couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.
Chapter 13
Time passed slowly. Mellenda studied hard, though most of her classes were so easy that she thought she could do the work in her sleep. She tried not to think about anything. She looked into other options for college at first, but the idea of going to the community college depressed her so much that she thought she’d rather not go to school at all.
Leslie shoved it in everyone’s face that she was going to be valedictorian but nobody seemed to give a shit. Mellenda thought that was pretty funny. But she didn’t find humor in much of anything else in her life. When classes ended for the seniors, she was thrilled. If she had somewhere in town she could have stayed until graduation, she would have.
It was three days before graduation. Mellenda knew that Jude had graduated the weekend before. She had almost gone because she still missed him like crazy, but she was tired of being cheated on. She had heard gossip that he wasn’t seeing anyone and that this was the first time since he’d been fourteen that he wasn’t chasing after one girl or another. But she wasn’t sure whether she believed it, or what it really meant to her even if it was true.
She sometimes wondered whether it would have been better if what he had done with Shayla had been left unsaid. If it had only happened once and was nothing more than oral sex, she thought that she could have been okay without knowing as long as it didn’t happen again. Then she called herself a fool for thinking such a thing, and went back to trying to figure out what she was going to do with her life.
She did know that Jude had started another job in addition to his paper route, because she had walked past the Chinese restaurant where they had eaten together on their first not date and he’d been working there. She had immediately turned around and walked away and had skipped dinner that night altogether because it had hurt so much to see him.
She didn’t hang out in town much anymore and she avoided the part of town where he lived like the plague. She had seen his mother in the grocery store one weekend with his adorable little sisters. The girls had called out a hello to her but Mrs. Ashland had given her a sad smile and pulled her daughters off in another direction.
Mellenda sat up in bed and stretched. She was glad that she was done with high school and couldn’t wait to leave Crestview Academy. She was still unsure of where she was going to school, or if she was going to college at all anymore, but she didn’t want the memories of Brentwood. She had had such high hopes of where her relationship with Jude would eventually go, and now she was alone and directionless. She wasn’t looking forward to going home to her parents’ house, but knew she didn’t have much choice. She hoped to get at least a part time job.
Mellenda got out of bed and headed to the restroom. She was halfway there when she felt a sudden urge to vomit. She rushed to the bathroom and emptied the contents of her stomach, wondering what kind of bug she had caught this time. As she flushed the toilet, she realized that she’d missed her period.
“Shit.”
She wanted to bang her head on the bathroom floor. The last time she’d had sex with Jude and she’d ended up pregnant she thought. Well, at least there was no danger of getting kicked out of Crestview anymore. But she wondered how in the hell she was going to tell Jude and how she was going to get a ride somewhere to buy a pregnancy test that not everyone in town would know about five minutes after she’d completed her purchase.
She used the toilet and washed her hands and face and brushed her teeth. She looked at herself in the mirror and wondered what kind of a mother she’d make, what kind of a father Jude would make. She was keeping the baby. No more abortions for me Mellenda thought. And no matter how much it hurt to see Jude, to think of him with someone else, the child was his just as much as it was hers. There was no way she was going to take that away from him.
She brushed her hair and got dressed, wondering if the bus system would take her somewhere to make what now felt like the most important purchase of her life. She didn’t think so, but she wanted to make sure, so she went to the school library and looked up a map of the bus routes online. None of them took her anywhere close to where she wanted to go. She cursed the fact that Brentwood wasn’t a small town but wasn’t a big town by any means either. She supposed the residents were lucky that there was a bus system at all.
As she walked back to her room, she wondered if she wanted to spend money on a cab to make a purchase that would end up costing much less than the fare probably would. She sighed as she opened the door to her room, and suddenly felt herself missing Molli, just a little. Molli would know where to get a pregnancy test without everyone knowing about it she thought. But then again, she added to herself, Molli would probably have told her to steal one.
Mellenda lay back on her bed and looked at the ceiling. She would have preferred it if her sister was still around too. She wouldn’t mind being an aunt and figured that it would have given her some practice on being a mothe
r. She realized she was terrified and felt tears prick her eyes.
After a few minutes, she decided to kill two birds with one stone and swallow her pride and ask Jude for a ride to buy the test. Then they could stop somewhere so she could take it and they’d both know if they were going to be parents.
She dialed his number and almost hung up after the second ring. Her courage was failing fast.
He answered on the fourth ring and said “Just a sec Mellenda. Please don’t hang up.” Then he called out to someone in the background “Chaz, I’m taking my first break now okay? Yeah, I know I just got here but I don’t care. I have to take this. It’s really important. This phone call could change my life.”
Mellenda let herself smile a little.
Jude came back to the line. “Are you still there?”
“Yes. Jude I need to ask you a favor.”
“Anything for you. I’ve never stopped thinking about you. I have these really vivid dreams about you. They’re kinda dirty sometimes, but I can almost feel you in my arms after I wake up. I’m sorry that I’m such an asshole. There hasn’t been another girl since you broke up with me. I don’t know if there ever will be. But I’m sorry, what can I do for you?”
“Can you give me a ride? When you get off of work or whatever?”
“Sure. Where do you need to go?”
“It’s kind of hard to explain. I need to go out of town but not all the way to Upton. I’ll pay for gas.”
“It’s not such a big deal anymore. I got a car. It’s kind of a family car, but it’s way better on gas than the truck was so you don’t need to worry about gas money. Is it too much to ask if I can take you out to dinner too?”
“Can I answer that question when you get here? What time do you get off?”
“Four o’clock. Why do you need to go out of town? Do you need something you can’t find in Brentwood? Not that I mind of course, since that means I’ll get to spend more time with you. I’ll shut up about stuff like that for now. I’ll see you around four thirty if that works for you. It’s a tan four door car. Newer than the truck but still pretty old. You wanna meet in back of the shack or out front on the road?”
“The road probably makes more sense. I’ll explain the rest to you on the way okay? Thank you Jude.”
“Thank you for thinking of me. Do you still think of me too?”
“I do, but I don’t know where my future is going right now. I have a feeling that things may get a lot more complicated as soon as tonight. We can talk about all of this when we meet.”
“Okay. Not even a little hint?”
Mellenda laughed. “Not even a little hint.”
“Damn. Now I’m gonna be wondering all day.”
“I’d rather have you wondering than thinking about what I’m going to be thinking about all day.”
“Oh. Is it not good? If it’s really important I can call my mom and ask her to give you a ride. She’d have to bring the kids of course, but they’ve got the minivan so there’s still room for you. Of course I’d miss seeing you then, but I’ll do it if you need me to.”
“It is important. It actually could be a really good thing, but you don’t need to call your mom. It will hold for another few hours.” Maybe a lot longer, she added to herself in her head.
“If you’re sure. I miss the sound of your voice. It’s been really good talking to you, but I have to get back to work. The boss’s husband is glaring daggers at me through the window.”
“Okay. I’ll see you soon.”
“Not soon enough. Bye Mellenda.”
“Bye Jude.”
The day seemed to drag and fly by at the same time. Mellenda spent a lot of time looking at herself in the mirror, wondering what she’d look like when she was further along in her pregnancy. She knew she was pregnant, just needed the confirmation the test would bring for herself and Jude.
She’d known she was pregnant the first time too, but where that had brought a feeling of total fear and misery, this time she had a feeling of expectation. She wasn’t sure where things would go between her and Jude. But she was positive that their baby would be beautiful and wonderful, a true gift to both them and the whole world.
Mellenda was feeling rather sentimental by the time she headed out to meet Jude. She got out to the road at around four fifteen but he was already there waiting for her. He put out his cigarette under his foot and gave her a wide grin.
“Hello beautiful. I think you’re even more beautiful than the last time I saw you.”
Mellenda rolled her eyes and gave him a good natured smile. “Hi Jude. You’re still smoking?”
He opened the passenger side door of the car for her. “Why shouldn’t I be? Well, I know why I shouldn’t be, but is there something I should know Mellenda? Did you have a premonition that I was going to get lung cancer? My mom tried that on my dad but it didn’t work because she was obviously lying.”
Mellenda laughed. “You’re still a really big dork Jude.”
Jude smiled. “You know it baby.”
He went around to the drivers’ side and got behind the wheel. “So where are we going? Any place in particular? Besides away from Brentwood?”
“Isn’t there a little town thirty minutes away or so? I can’t remember what it’s called, but they’d have a grocery store or a discount store there wouldn’t they? I’m sure they would.”
Jude gave her a look before he pulled back out onto the road. “No offense sweetheart, because you made my day by calling me, but there are both in Brentwood.”
“I need to buy something. I don’t want to be seen buying it in Brentwood. It’s not that I’m ashamed to buy it, but I don’t want it spread around town that I bought it. It’s my business. Well, and your business. It involves you. It could really involve you if you wanted it to.”
“Anything that involves you and me sounds good to me. I’ve really missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too. Can’t you guess what I need to buy?”
“Um, I know I am kind of a dork sometimes and I’m not the smartest guy around, but no. Is it that obvious?”
Mellenda laughed. “I need to buy a pregnancy test Jude.”
“Oh. Shit. I guess that does involve me. The morning after prom huh?”
“Yeah. So how do you feel about this whole thing? I plan on keeping the baby if there is one, and I’m pretty sure that there is. Adoption is not an option, and abortion is definitely not an option. I already had one abortion and while I think that in some ways, it was probably for the best, there were other options and the other people involved should have known the truth at the time and been allowed to make their own decisions. I want very much for you to be a part of the baby’s life.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “I’d very much like for you to be a part of my life again too, but we need to talk about some things first.”
“Okay.”
“Will you please tell me how you feel about the baby first?”
“We knew what we were doing when we had sex without protection. It might not be easy, but we’ll make it. Together or apart, the kid’s gonna have two parents that love him or her very much. Are you still going to the university in the fall? I think they have family housing. I mean if you still wanted to be with me like that.”
Mellenda sighed. “I need to talk to you about that too, but can we talk about us? That seems a lot more important right now.”
Jude smiled. “Okay.”
“Will you promise to be completely honest with me Jude? Please.”
“Of course. What do you want to know?”
“Well, about what you did with Shayla, it was just once right?”
“It was actually more than once but it was on the same day. And it was before we were actually going out. We’d done stuff together, but you hadn’t actually asked me to take you out on a real date yet, or asked to be my girlfriend anyway, since we didn’t actually go out much. I would have asked you out way before then, but I was afraid you’d say no, even after we
did what we did.”
Mellenda smiled. She knew the day he was thinking of. “That was a nice day. All alone in the house and in your bedroom. Why didn’t you tell me that it was before we were actually going out?”
“Because we were sort of going out even if you didn’t want to think of it like that. I’ve done stuff with girls like that when I wasn’t going out with them before, but you’re different. You’ve always been different to me. And you didn’t give me a chance. You said you had to go and hung up on me. I was gonna call you back, but I didn’t want to upset you even more than I already had. I still love you Mellenda. I never stopped. I didn’t want to force the issue with you and lose you forever.”
“I’ve had some pretty rough times in the past six weeks Jude. I almost showed up at your graduation but wasn’t sure if you’d want me to be there.”
“I would have loved to have you there, but it wasn’t a big deal. We had a small party. Dad let me get drunk with him after everybody left. He promised Mom that he’d really try to quit drinking. He’s been sober for a few days now, so everyone is really proud of him. Of course he’s been smoking a lot of weed with Mom but it’s safer than alcohol actually. They only do it after we’re all in bed and most of the time they smoke out in the shed. Dad’s started smoking cigarettes outside all the time too. I guess I gotta quit myself with a baby on the way. We’re having a baby Mellenda. Isn’t that crazy?”
Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set Page 184