Page 27 of Until Waverly

I snorted, spitting out more blood and wincing at the pull of my bottom lip. “Yeah, I think I deserve to be dickish after everything. What the fuck is going on, Cobi? Or are you going to ask me a million questions about Waverly, then not tell me a damn thing either?” He was close to Mack and the other Broken Eagles. I didn’t give a shit.

“I’ll answer all of your questions,” Macey said, panting for breath. “I promise. Mack told you, I thought? Obviously, not.”

“Listen to her, Jackson,” Cobi said, patting my back. “Also, stop running into Mack and Hunter’s fists. It’s not a good look.” He tilted his head. “Or learn to fight back.”

“Fuck off,” I grumbled. “I can fight. They used my anger against me is all. They won’t be so lucky again.”

Cobi chuckled. “Yeah, been there too, kid.” He glanced at Macey. “You got him?”

No one had me. What the fuck? I felt like I was in some alternative universe where everyone had answers, and I was supposed to figure out what was going on by people’s expressions and half-assed conversations.

“Yeah,” Macey said, wrapping her arm around my middle.

Having her there didn’t feel right. Not that I’d shove her away, but she wasn’t Waverly. She didn’t mold to my body like her sister did. She didn’t smell like my Waverly—or well, not my Waverly, obviously. Wished she was though.

“Come on, Jackson. I have so much to tell you.”

“I don’t want to answer your questions, Macey.” I sighed.

“Already got your responses. You didn’t know. My sister hasn’t contacted you. You haven’t talked to her in over a year.” She glanced up at me, squinting as the setting sun glinted in her eyes. “About right?”

I nodded, feeling the dump of the adrenaline rush along with being knocked silly by my brother and Mack. I just wanted to go home and sleep everything off. Try again tomorrow. Maybe then everyone would reply to my questions instead of giving me sideways looks of pity or downcast gazes.

“Here, let’s talk here.” Macey exhaled, taking my hand in hers. We weren’t far from where I’d started with Mack Sr. and Sarah Jane. The group of people had grown, leaving only a little patch of grass and shrubs. Was she hoping I wouldn’t make a scene like I had with my sister and Mack?

“Sure.” I braced myself, waiting to hear what she had to say while also feeling like I was missing something important.

“How long after you and Waverly met did she stop talking to you fully?” Macey’s blue-gray eyes were filled with compassion. She didn’t have that accusatory look on her face, like Mack and Ireland had in the beginning.

“Six or eight weeks? I guess.” I didn’t know for sure. Only I stopped trying to get her to talk to me after the three-month mark. “I thought she was busy with school. Our relationship would be hard in the beginning, I knew this, but I was all in, Macey. I love—loved her very much.”

Macey nodded, her bottom lip trembling. “I thought so. Fuck, Jackson. I’m so sorry.”

Here we go again.I rubbed the back of my head, trying to shove down the anger and irritation creeping back in. “I wish you would explain what you’re sorry about.”

Macey ran her tongue along her bottom lip before glancing over her shoulder at her parents, who looked on at us with concerned expressions. “Jackson, there’s no other way of saying this. Waverly didn’t just leave you. She abandoned all of us, too. She stayed up here and never came home.”

Well, no shit, I knew that. I’d been to all the family functions hoping to just catch Waverly for a second to ask what happened, but she’d never showed up. Sarah Jane always used the excuse of school being hard for Waverly, and I’d accepted the answer. “Okay… Spell it out for me, Macey. What am I missing? Why is everyone jumping down my throat, then looking at me like I’m some pitiful fool?”

She took my hand. “Jackson, Waverly was pregnant when she stopped coming home.” She winced, flinching as if I was about to lose my shit on her.

“Wait—” Did she say Waverlywaspregnant? “Are you telling me she had a miscarriage, and no one knew?”

Macey shook her head. “No, Jackson.” She exhaled. “Four months ago, Waverly delivered a seven-pound, six-ounce baby girl.”

The air left me in a whoosh. My stomach clenched, and I ran for the bushes. Bile rose in my throat, and seconds later, I was puking. My stomach heaved with such force I choked, then more vomit left me straining while I stood there. A sob of rage and sadness fell from me as someone came up behind me, bracing me as I continued to puke. A baby? She was pregnant? Had I interfered with a relationship I had no idea she’d been in that night? Was that why she’d ghosted me? My mind swam as the buzzing returned to my ears.

“I’ve got you.” Hunter’s gruff tone did nothing to support me. Someone beside him was rubbing my back. My vision had gone dark as I stood there swaying. “Let it out, bro.”

I dry heaved once more, then puked again. This time, only bile came up. “A baby?”

“Here, get him to the curb,” Mack Sr. said, his voice filled with authority and concern. “Sarah Jane, Jackson needs a fresh bottle of water. See if you can find a nurse outside too.”

“I don’t want it,” I said, gagging again.

“We didn’t know,” Hunter murmured, holding me up. “None of us did. Neither did her father until today.”

Nothing they said made sense as I tried to breathe and recover from upchucking my guts. “Is it mine?” My words were slurred as I spit out the remnants of vomit still in my mouth.

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