Brothers & Best Friends

by Rose, Ashley

  "So, how's that baby doing?" Will asked conversationally.

  "Well, it's a baby. It isn't born yet, so I don't really know how much it can accomplish right now," she replied.

  "Mastering algebra's a little out of its reach at this point?" he asked.

  "Just a little," she answered.

  He nodded, those gray eyes fixed on Janine as she did her best to ignore him. "So you and Jess are really tying the knot," he remarked.

  "Yes, we really are," she responded, moving the chicken around with stubborn concentration.

  "Is it the whole baby thing? He feels like he has to because he knocked you up?"

  "No, it's the whole wanting to be with me thing," she replied.

  "He's so young," Will remarked.

  "Yes, whereas I am clearly ancient," she said sarcastically.

  "Well, you're even younger. I was just…making an observation. You know couples who get married so young don't stand a very good chance of making it."

  "I'm not worried," she stated evenly.

  "You have the confidence of someone in a fairly new relationship."

  Janine nodded, thinking maybe if she stopped talking to him he would go away.

  "Do you know if it's a girl or a boy yet?" Will asked, changing the subject when he saw he wasn't going to get a rise out of her.

  "Why exactly are you so interested in my pregnancy?" she replied, snapping a little.

  Will raised one eyebrow. "Someone is awfully touchy. I was just being a friend, asking questions, showing that I care."

  "Can I be honest with you?" she asked.

  "By all means," he said, nodding.

  "I don't want to be your friend. You kind of creep me out."

  Will merely chuckled, shaking his head. "I haven't always had that effect on you," he murmured.

  "You've never had any effect on me. The night I paid some attention to you, I was just trying to make my boyfriend mad. It worked, but I'm not trying to make him mad right now, I'm trying to plan our wedding."

  "Am I invited?" he asked.

  "Absolutely. Why don't you go home and wait for your invitation?"

  Ignoring her sarcasm, Will moved a little bit closer. "I can't help thinking you should give me another chance. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot, maybe we could…step again."

  "Maybe you should start paying attention to single women rather than taken ones," she responded, attempting to ignore his close proximity.

  He stepped even closer, making Janine retreat a step. "Maybe you haven't been taken for very long," he remarked a little quietly. Then his gaze dropped to her stomach. "Not six months anyway."

  For some reason, Janine felt like she had swallowed an ice cube. She did not appreciate the way Will seemed to question Jess's paternity at every turn, and she definitely didn't appreciate him being quite so close to her.

  "Look," she began a bit unsteadily, then stopped when she realized her voice wavered.

  "Hey," Karen called suddenly, her voice strangely serious.

  Will instantly retreated, his playful mannerism returning as he flashed her a smile, tipped an invisible hat to Janine and went in the living room to mingle.

  She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped a little unintentionally.

  "You okay?" Karen asked, frowning a little.

  "Yeah," Janine said, offering a forced smile. "I'm totally fine."

  "Are you sure?" Karen asked.

  "Yeah, no, I'm…Why wouldn't I be?"

  "I don't know," Karen said, watching her.

  Janine flashed what she hoped was a bright smile. "I'm great. Now you mash those potatoes, I'm going to grab the dinner rolls."

  Karen didn't seem to be convinced, but instead of persisting she just agreed and started mashing.

  ***

  Bright and early the next day, Karen roused Janine from sleep despite her protests, and hauled her out to shop for wedding supplies. Once they had a guestbook and some silk rose petals, Karen linked her arm through Janine's and said, "We have one more stop to make, and I know you're not looking forward to it, but you are pregnant, not fat, and it's a wedding must-have."

  With a grimace, Janine guessed, "A dress shop?"

  "Yes. But don't worry, we are going to find you the perfect dress."

  "I'm making you wear a bridesmaid dress with puffy sleeves," Janine stated with an exaggerated pout.

  "And a bow on the butt? I have always wanted one of those dresses."

  "It's going to have a really high neck, too," Janine added.

  "A Victorian puffy sleeved bow-butt dress—even better," Karen chirped.

  "And elbow length gloves—red ones, but the dress will be bright green. With yellow polka dots."

  "This sounds hideous; I can't wait to see it. Does Hope get a miniature version?"

  "Nope, I'm gonna dress her up like the doll that she is," Janine said, tipping her nose up in the air.

  "Oh, that's just great. I spend my whole week on your wedding plans, and Hope gets the good dress."

  "Being precious gets you everywhere in the world."

  Karen shook her head, dragging her friend in the direction of the dress shop. "Just for that I'm going to tell you the ugliest dress there flatters your bump."

  Janine grinned. "You would never do that. You love me."

  Karen rolled her eyes and smiled, opening the door for Janine. "Come on, little mama."

  Janine, Karen, and Hope spent the next hour going from big white frock to big white tent, and they finally found exactly two possibilities in their price range. Already vaguely depressed before even entering the fitting room, Janine looked absolutely gloomy when she waddled out of the fitting room in the most horrible contraption of lace and big buttons that either of them had ever seen.

  Karen unintentionally covered her mouth to try to hide her expression, but Janine already knew what it looked like.

  "I look like big white football," Janine stated brashly.

  Karen grimaced. "Oh, it's not that bad," she said half-heartedly.

  Janine's eyes widened and she gestured wildly behind her back. "Did you see the buttons the size of my mouth? The ones I couldn't even get buttoned up? If I lie down on my side on the ground, I guarantee someone will try to make a field goal with me."

  Unable to stop herself, Karen slipped and giggled just a little before she caught herself, biting her lip to fix her expression. "I'm sorry, this is not funny. Go take that dress off, I don't…quite think it's the one."

  The second dress wasn't really better, it was just different. If the year were 1989, Janine could have definitely gotten away with the extremely vintage dress, but since she was six months pregnant and about twenty-five years late, Janine walked out of the fitting room, did one spin, and walked right back in to take the ugly dress off.

  "Is there any room in your budget?" Karen asked.

  "No," Janine said miserably. "I can't afford to spend a million dollars on a dress, and—ew, what is that?" she asked, pulling out a strange white dress with red accents around the bust.

  "Horrifying," Karen responded.

  Janine released the dress, dropping her hand to her side and looking at Karen with despair. "This is a joke. All of these dresses…they're a joke. I'm huge and none of them are going to look right."

  "You are not huge, honey, you're pregnant. And we will find you a pretty dress. You're going to love it, I promise you. Maybe we should try another store. I only brought you here because the prices are cheap." Wrapping an arm around Janine's shoulder, Karen smiled. "Don't you worry about it. If all else fails, we'll just go with my plan to kidnap Vera Wang."

  ***

  As it turned out, they didn't have to kidnap Vera Wang.

  They did, however, have to spend four and a half hours in three different bridal shops before Janine, completely exasperated, peeled off what felt like the thousandth dress and left the store near tears, refusing to look at another wedding dress until she had popped out "the kid" and lost all her baby fat.
>
  Karen managed to make Janine feel better over a slice of pizza, and then she asked her to go to just one last shop, and if they didn't find the perfect dress there, they could stop shopping for the day.

  With no expectations of finding the wedding dress of her dreams, Janine relented just to appease Karen.

  She was in the shop for approximately seven minutes before she found the perfect dress—and even better, apparently the dress had been special ordered by a bride who caught her fiancé cheating and called off the wedding, so the dress was already hemmed, but it was available at a discount price.

  "Now, the bride wasn't pregnant," the lady said as she carried the dress back to the fitting room for Janine, "but she did have…a little extra weight on her. That's why she liked this dress, it's very flattering." Eyeing Janine up, the lady said, "I think this will look a lot better on you. You've got small arms, an otherwise good figure—I just think this is going to look beautiful on you."

  She was right.

  When Janine came out of the fitting room, she felt like a princess, and she beamed at Karen and Hope while the saleslady came up to arrange the dress around her.

  "Oh, why didn't I think of the empire waist?" Karen asked, smiling as Janine lifted the sheer veil-like material that covered everything under the high waist. "Turn, let me see the bump."

  Janine turned to her side, smoothing the dress over her bump and placing her hand on her belly.

  "Oh Janie, it's perfect! It's even the perfect length, isn't it?" Karen said, coming up to inspect the dress.

  "It's a little long, but if I wear heels…" Janine grinned. "I think this is it, Karen. I love it."

  "It's simple and it's elegant and it just screams Janie." She turned her gaze to the saleslady. "We'll take it."

  "Good," the lady beamed. "Did you want to get it altered? It looks a little bit long; the lady who ordered it was a little taller. For a small fee—"

  "No," Karen said firmly. "It's perfect. We will take it exactly how it is."

  "Come on, princess," Karen said. "Go get your dress off so we can pay for it and go home and get started on those wedding favors."

  Even the thought of having to do such a tedious chore as tying dozens of taffeta bows didn't make Janine's smile go away.

  "Karen," Janine said, interrupting her friend as she began to get irritated with the saleslady's pushy suggestions about what else they needed.

  "Yes?" Karen asked.

  "Thank you," Janine said sincerely.

  Any hint of irritation melted from Karen's face and she smiled back. "That's what friends are for," she said with a little wink.

  With one last beaming smile, Janine went back into the fitting room to take off her dress.

  Feeling completely at peace with the world, Janine decided that coming to the city was the best decision she had ever made, regardless of the circumstances.

  "Nothing can go wrong now," she whispered to herself again, wondering even as she did why she felt the need to keep reassuring herself.

  But she knew the answer.

  As she lowered the dress to the floor, she saw her protruding stomach in the mirror and she thought of the terrible secret that seemed to be looming over her. Jess insisted that he wanted everyone to think the baby was his, but something about the plan just worried Janine. She wished the baby really had been fathered by Jess, but she hated lying about it. It always felt as if the rug could be pulled out from under her at any time.

  She couldn't seem to silence that one bothersome voice, the one that reverberated in her mind, leaving doubts and concerns about the security of Janine's little secret…

  "Maybe you haven't been taken very long. Not six months anyway…"

  Chapter Seventeen

  Before she knew it, John arrived in the city.

  Janine was happy to see her brother, but she was still so busy with planning the wedding that she felt like she barely got to see him.

  They were all hanging out at Chad and Karen's one evening after a grueling day of work and wedding planning when John casually asked Janine, "So, when are you going back to school?"

  "John," she said, shooting him a look.

  "What?"

  "Don't start."

  "Start what? You're smarter than I am and I'm in college, so is it unreasonable of me to expect you to have a general idea of when you're—"

  "I already told you I don't have time for school right now," she said, cutting him off before he could even finish.

  "I see," he said. "So you're just going to fall into the stereotype and waste your potential because you got knocked up as a teenager." He nodded. "Good idea. I think that image of young mothers really needs to be reinforced."

  "We're not talking about this," she stated, pushing herself up off the couch and going to find Karen.

  Instead, she found Candace.

  "Janine! Aw, look at you," Candace said with a smile, putting her hand on Janine's belly.

  Janine smiled, stating, "I'm enormous."

  "You look great," Candace said.

  "You're very kind," Janine told her.

  "I'm very happy," Candace stated, eyes twinkling.

  Even though she and Candace had never been the best of friends, Janine felt that it would probably be rude not to ask why when Candace was so obviously giddy.

  "Dare I ask why?" Janine said a bit tentatively.

  Grinning wide, Candace said, "Okay, I'll tell you! Now, I know you and Karen don't really like Will all that much…"

  Of course it was about him.

  "…but I do, and I have liked him for a while, and we finally hooked up," she said, grinning happily at Janine, obviously expecting her to share the excitement. The poor girl looked about a second away from squealing, so Janine didn't want to rain on her parade.

  "Oh, wow!" Janine said, trying to muster some enthusiasm.

  "I know," Candace said with a knowing nod. "I'm very happy."

  "So…are you two dating officially now, or…?"

  "Oh…no, I wouldn't say that. But still," she said happily.

  "Wow…well, that's…great," Janine said, unable to come up with a more sincere lie.

  Rolling her eyes a little, Candace said, "I knew you wouldn't like it."

  "No," Janine said immediately, trying to appease the other girl. "It's not that at all."

  "So you're supportive?"

  Janine managed to force a nod and say, "Sure."

  "Then can I bring Will as my date?" Candace asked brightly.

  "Your…date?"

  "To the wedding, silly," said Candace. "I figured if you wouldn't mind, of course…"

  It took a bit of effort, but Janine managed to force a smile and say, "Yeah, sure. That should be fine."

  "Great," Candace said, beaming. "You know, some of us are hanging out at Will's later, probably drinking a little. I know you can't, but you and Jess could come if you wanted to. Bring Karen, Chad, and John—I'm sure Will won't mind."

  "What are we talking about?" John asked, coming up and draping an arm across Janine's shoulders.

  "Candace was just inviting us over to Will's…"

  Frowning, he asked, "Who's Will?"

  "Will Chatham," Candace told him.

  John's eyes darkened immediately and Janine saw what was unmistakably a protective gleam in John's eyes as he cut his eyes to her and said, "You talk to Chatham?"

  Shrugging and rolling her eyes, Janine said, "Don't look at me like that. I'm head over heels in love with your best friend, I'm not 'talking' to anyone but Jess. Will transferred to NYU and he happens to run in the same group of friends as Jess, so from time to time we get stuck hanging out with him."

  Shaking his head, John said, "I don't like that guy."

  Rolling her eyes, Candace said, "You're all so prejudiced against Will. He's not a bad guy. Yes, he can be arrogant at times, and he likes girls a little more than your average guy, but there's a lot more to him than that."

  "She's smitten," Janine informed John.
>
  Candace actually stomped her foot and rolled her eyes as she took a step to walk away. "If you guys want to come over, you're still welcome. I have hope that someday you will all see what I see." Then, sparing Janine an almost unintentional glance she said, "Well, not exactly what I see, but…anyway, let me know."

  John glanced over at Janine, raising his eyebrows. "I think that last part was directed at you."

  Rolling her eyes, Janine said, "That's just because one night me and Jess were fighting really bad and…Will and I may have talked a little more than usual, but Jess was being a jerk and he didn't introduce me as his girlfriend to his bubblehead blonde ex."

  Shaking his head, he said, "You shouldn't mess with Chatham, Janie. That guy's an asshole and a player. Even if you weren't my little sister I would advise you against it."

  "I don't talk to him, it was just a one-time thing…I was just trying to…get under Jess's skin."

  "Very mature," John remarked.

  Pouting a little, Janine said, "Give me a break, John. Occasionally I'm not perfect. It's not like Jess is some angelic picture of maturity."

  "Which is something you have always known about him," John pointed out.

  Shrugging, she stuck her nose in the air and said, "Neither of us is perfect, but we love each other regardless."

  "You know, I've been thinking about this…you and Jess thing, and are you sure you want to get married right away? I mean…you are young, and maybe it would be better if you just…lived together for a while first. Especially with a baby on the way—that can be a lot of added stress on a relationship."

  Shaking her head, she said, "Okay, you have stopped being helpful, brother dear. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find Jess and see if he's up to staying in tonight as opposed to his usual social calendar."

  Nodding, John's gaze wandered over to Candace and he smiled slowly. "All right. I'm gonna go talk to Candace…she's technically single, right?"

  Groaning, Janine walked away without answering him.

  Jess wasn't hard to locate, and she smiled as soon as she saw him on the couch, looking bored as Karen yammered on about something.

  "There you are," Janine said, walking over and sitting down on Jess's right side, snuggling up next to him.