Page 58 of His Vivacious Angel
“I didn’t.” It’s all I can think about—us as a family. How is it that she could forget? A distant knock sounds from my bedroom door, abruptly ending our conversation, and Autumn and I both snap upright. Easing the closet door open a crack, I ask loudly, “Yeah?”
Shayla raises her voice to be heard when she says, “Mom called. They’re allowing visitors now, and the kids are donewith their poster. We’re ready to head out, so whatever y’all are doing…hurry up.”
“We’re not doing anything,” I say, my voice pitched high.
“Sure, I definitely believe that totally obvious lie,” she says with a laugh.
“We’ll, uh, be right there.” My legs jitter when I stand, and I flip on the closet light. My stomach bottoms out when I look between Autumn’s still trembling thighs. “Angel…you’re bleeding.” I don’t want to look down. I don’t. I don’t. But I have to. And when I do, I see the tiny streak of red on my cock, and I stagger, lightheaded. “Did I hurt you?”
“I don’t think so,” she says, eyeing me. “I feel fine.”
“Then why…”No! No!
Autumn’s face pales when she peers between her legs. It’s not much, what’s there, but if I didn’t hurt her, then that blood means she’s started her period. Autumn’s teeth begin to chatter, and she hugs herself. Pulling her knees up, pressing them together, she crosses her arms around her legs and shivers as if she’s cold.
“Can you, um, get my sister?” she asks, dropping her chin.
I yank a thick sweater off a hanger and help her into it. “Your sister?”
“Please,” she says, her eyes welling with tears. “Please, please, can you go get her?”
Confused why she would need her sister, but respecting her request, I rush to pull on my clothes. I’m not expecting Shayla to still be waiting outside my door, so I shriek the tiniest bit when I whip it open. “Autumn said?—”
“Shayla!” Autumn yells, her voice breaking.
Shayla’s face transforms instantly, her smile flattening when she pushes past me and into the closet. When I follow, Autumn looks up over Shayla’s head. Her expression crumples, and she drops her face into her hands.
Kneeling in front of Autumn, Shayla turns and quietly tells me, “Give us a minute, will you?”
Though I don’t want to, with heavy feet, I exit the bedroom, press my back against the wall, and slowly slide down to sit on the floor. Autumn started her period. She’s not pregnant. And our “deal” to let me fulfill any of her “wild oats” experiences—which I only suggested because I was trying to buy time to figure out how to get the angel towantto be with me—is over before it really even got a chance to start. What am I going to do now?
I snap my head to the side when Josephine finds me in the hallway, and she grabs my hand, tugging me up. “Come look what we made! It’s awesome!”
Wiping away an errant tear, I plaster on a fake smile and follow her into the kitchen.
Chapter Nineteen
Autumn
“So you were hoping you were pregnant?” Shayla asks, sitting cross-legged beside me with her right arm around my back, my head resting on her shoulder.
“No,” I say quietly, my eyes as raw as my emotions. “At least, I didn’t think so until I got my period. Now all I want to do is cry.” It’s as if I’m swallowing glass when I tell her, “I found a box of Bailey’s pregnancy tests in her bathroom yesterday. I wanted to take one after the party, but then Dad—” I have to clap a hand over my mouth as I think of my father’s ashen face.
Shayla strokes my cheek and kisses the top of my head, her shoulders starting to shake as she begins crying.
Every part of me aches when I tell her, “I was so scared, and you had James. Bailey had Isaiah. And then Forest came with me, and I thought, ‘This feels right. Natural.’ Even though it was stupid. But now… It’s for the best that I got my period.”
Shayla tries to finger-comb the tangles out of my hair. “Why do you think that?”
“Forest explicitly told me he’s not sure if he wants more kids, especially now that he has Sebby and Benny.”
Shayla’s jaw drops, and she leans away. “Yet he still had sex with you without protection multiple times?”
“Essentially, yeah,” I say with a shrug, since I’m just as guilty of not taking proper precautions.
“That bastard. I’m going to tell James to kick his ass.”
I try to imagine the two nerds duking it out, but I just can’t picture it. “I knew better than to start anything with him, but I…” I sigh and shrug as if I’m not withering inside. “I started falling for him, hard, even though I didn’t want to. I’m not saying I want to have a million kids like you, but I want to experience it at least once. I always have. I thought that if I did end up getting pregnant, he’d maybe, I don’t know, come around and be happy. I even started thinking up baby names and nicknames that would go with Josephine, Sebastian, and Benjamin.”
