Page 51 of The Promposal

Birds were singing, bees were buzzing ... and the girl in the stall next to me was sobbing her eyes out.

I finished my business, flushed the toilet, and then knocked on the divider. “Hey, are you okay in there?”

The other girl made a combination groan/sob, and then I heard an all too familiar voice saying, “You havegotto be kidding me!”

I opened my stall door at the same time as Mercedes Bentley opened hers. We glared at each other in the mirror, and she looked absolutely terrible. Her eyes were swollen and red with streaks of mascara running down her face.

I wondered what could be bad enough to make the devil herself cry?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

What was up with me, Mercedes, and bathrooms? It was kind of becoming our thing. Not that I wanted us to have a thing. And we most definitely had already déjàed this vu.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked her as I went over to wash my hands. “Did you find out that being an evil skank is not a valid life choice?”

She threw something plastic into the sink next to me. “Even better. I just found out that I’m pregnant.”

I looked at the pee stick in the sink next to mine, stunned. “How? What? How?”

“Excellent and insightful questions.” Mercedes went to an empty sink and washed her hands as well.

“How did this happen?” I asked, not able to tear my gaze away from the pregnancy test that said Mercedes was most definitely with child. “I mean I know how it happens.” Not from personal experience or anything, but I had the general gist of it. “Is Scott the father?”

I seriously hoped Mercedes had cheated on her gross boyfriend. Because Scott was such a tool that he should have “Craftsman” tattooed on his forehead. Just to warn off other girls.

“Of course he’s the father.” She dried her hands off, threw away the paper towel, and leaned against a wall. “Although we just broke up for the millionth time.”

Right before prom? I felt a little sad for her until I remembered that she couldn’t have gone to the dance, even if she’d wanted to. And why had Scott gone through the effort to do a big promposal when she couldn’t go and he was just going to break up with her? I asked the only question I could. “Why?”

“Religious differences. He wanted me to worship him, and I wasn’t interested.” I realized that her sarcasm was an attempt at holding back tears. Tears that she now shed as she slid down the wall to sit on the floor. “What am I going to do? How am I going to tell my parents?”

Was Mercedes having a momentary lapse in evil? She seemed almost human. I reminded myself that this was the same girl who had just ruined our prom by blackmailing Mindi. Who had sold off our dresses so that we couldn’t have them. Broken up with Trent from Ella’s phone.

And I was actually feeling bad for her.

Part of me wanted to rip into her and tell her off. The other part held back, unable to do so while she cried in a heap on the bathroom floor.

I mean, what else could I do to her that would even be worse?

In comparison, I had everything in front of me. Jake. UCSC. A summer internship at a manga company. Prom. A supposedly awesome incoming promposal from Jake. All my dreams were about to come true.

And she ... didn’t have those things. Mostly because of her own choices, but still.

She’d tried her best to sabotage our happiness, but the one person who was hurt the most was Mercedes.

No matter what she might decide to do about her pregnancy or her baby, right now she was terrified. And not even I was enough of a jerk to kick her while she was down.

“I’m sorry.” And I was.

“Is that some kind of sarcastic comment?”

“No. I am trying to be nice here. But you don’t make it very easy.”

“Oh please. You think you’re so innocent in all this. But you’re just as mean to me as I am to you. You talk about me behind my back all the time, don’t you?”

Yeah, it was called manners. “You started it.”

“And you participated. You’ve given just as good as you got.” She rubbed her nose on her sleeve, and I stepped into a stall to grab her some toilet paper. Which I thought was very big of me. I handed it to her, and she actually took it, without a single snide remark.

---