Page 34 of Riot Reunion
“Don’t say it like that. It’s the obvious way out of this situation. Aren’t you pro-choice? Presley’s too smart to—”
“Of course I am fucking pro-choice! The fuck is the matter with you?” I hiss. “Presley can make whatever decision she wants.I’llbe the one fucking supporting her, though. I’ll be the one holding her hand, no matter what. Did—” Hot, acidic bile scorches the back of my throat. “Did you tell her not to talk this through with me? Did you tell her to just get the situation taken care of before I could fucking stop her?”
Robert’s eyes fall closed. He wears the look of a weary man, sick of trying to talk sense to a moron. “You’re barely out of school. Neither of you are old enough to make these kinds of decisi—”
I end the call.
My ears hum, a high-pitched ringing blocking out the chatter and bustle of the busy bar.
Holy fuckingwhat?
Am I…?
No.
Did thatseriouslyjust happen?
Robert Witton has been in Chase’s ear for the past two weeks, whispering poison to her? He tried to convince her not to tell me she was pregnant? What…what the actualfuck? Whodoesthat?
“That didn’t sound like a fun conversation.” The bartender with the bubblegum pink hair has returned; she stands opposite me, unscrewing the cap off of a bottle of Johnny Walker. She attempts to pour me a refill, but I cover the glass with my hand. “Sure about that, boss? If I were you, I’d be drinking myself blind tonight.”
“It’s rude to listen in on people’s private conversations.”
She chuckles, shaking her head. “If you’re having a conversation on speaker phone in a bar, it ain’t private.”
“Just close me out. I need to get the fuck out of here.”
She shrugs. “Fair enough,Evil Overlord,”she says, jerking her chin toward my hoody. “I’ll grab your check. For what it’s worth, you look pretty fucking mean, but I can tell you’ve got a good heart. You'd better talk to that girl before her daddy convinces her that youareevil, though. Otherwise, she’s gonna do exactly what he tells her to, and you will never see her again. Trust me.” She raises her eyebrows. “I have personal experience with the kind of fathers who only ‘want what’s best.’”
12
WREN
“I can’t believeyou didn’t tell me!” Elodie stomps around the hotel room, pretending to be pissed at me; she’s been doing this ever since I got back from the café. “He made her a ring! He asked herdad? Do you hate me, Wren Jacobi? Is that it? You must hate me to not tell me he was going to propose.”
She’s adorable when she’s like this. A tiny, feral kitten throwing a temper tantrum. “I assure you, I do not hate you. Far from it.” Suppressing a smile, I sweep my finger over the artist’s pad resting on my knees. The charcoal I’ve put on the paper smudges, making a broad, sweeping blur of the pensive face I’ve drawn. Some people would consider the portrait ruined, but it’s perfect in my eyes. I can still see Elodie’s intelligent, crystalline eyes gazing back at me from the page. Her hair looks wind-whipped and wild. Her high cheekbones and gently upturned nose are still visible through the grain of the charcoal. Her parted lips beg to be kissed. She looks like Catherine, out on the moors, searching for her Heathcliff.
“This is huge, Wren. Earth-shatteringlyhuge. This is not the kind of secret you keep from your girlfriend.”
“This isexactlythe kind of secret you keep from your girlfriend.”
“How can you say that?”
“Does this information affect your life directly? Does not knowing that Pax told us he wanted to propose to Presley at the start of summer mean that you’reunsafein any way?”
She props her hands on her hips.Pouting, for fuck’s sake. “No.”
“Did not knowing that information directly cause pain and suffering in your life?”
“No. But it caused pain and suffering forPres,” she argues. “If she’d known how serious he was about her, she might not have kept this whole pregnancy thing a secret.”
“That might be the case.” I shrug a shoulder. “Butyouknowing wouldn’t have helped that situation.”
“It—it might! I could have—I could have told—”
Glancing up, I laugh, shaking my head. “You would have told Presley that Pax was going to propose? Seriously? And you don’t think that would have ruined the whole thing for her a little? It wasPax’splace to tell her that. This is precisely why I didn’t say anything.”
“Urgh!” Elodie grabs a pillow from the bed and hurls it at me. I duck out of the way, and the pillow harmlessly thumps against the wall behind me. Elodie sighs, sagging down on the edge of the bed. “All right. Fine. You were right not to tell me. I one hundred percent wouldn’t have been able to keep it a secret. I would have let it slip accidentally. ItisPax’s place to share that with Pres.”
