Celeb Crush (44 page)

“Well…”  I shift my weight uncomfortably, pressing my back into the wall.  “That was a long time ago.  I’ve made my peace with it.”

Megan nods, absently running her fingers over the cushioned arms of the glider.  She decides to change the subject.  “So…have you talked to Lucas yet?”

My face turns to stone.  “No.”

“Sorry.  I guess you—”

“Megan,” I interrupt her on a flustered breath.  “I think I might be pregnant.”

I’ve shocked her into silence.  She gapes at me, leaning forward so abruptly that the glider rocks violently forward, almost propelling her onto the floor.

“You—what?!  Oh, my god, Andi!  Are you serious?  Did you take a test?”

I cringe back at her explosive excitement.  “Um.  No.”

“How late are you?” she asks expectantly.

“Well…”

“You haven’t been keeping track?  Well, when did you have unprotected sex?”

“Um.”  I stare down at my shoes.  “You know I don’t have regular periods.  As for the other thing…we weren’t always as careful as we should have been.”

“Are you kidding me?”  Megan sounds incredulous.  “Were you
trying
to get pregnant?”

“No!”  I meet her eyes, shocked.  “No, I was just—we both…you know…the heat of the moment.”  And we had a lot of heat, and a lot of moments.  Stupid and irresponsible, I know.

“Well…you need to take a test,” Megan says practically.  She clumsily gets to her feet.  “Fortunately, I still have a few of those left in the bathroom.  I kind of went crazy peeing on sticks in the beginning.  Come on.”

I follow her into her and Bran’s room, and on into their ensuite bathroom.  Megan pokes through the cabinet under the sink until she comes out with a rectangular pink box which she waves in my face.

“This is digital, and it will flat out tell you if you’re pregnant or not,” she tells me, handing it over.  “Just hold the uncapped part in your pee stream for, like, four seconds.”

I gingerly take the box from her.  “Okay.”

She just stands there waiting, like I’m going to perform a circus trick.  We have a mini stare-off, until finally she huffs out a sigh and scurries out of the bathroom.

I make sure to lock the door behind her before I do my business.  Fortunately I always have to pee these days, so that’s half the job done.  Trying to get the stick in the pee stream without getting any on you—not so easy.  When I’m done, I put the cap back on, and put the test on the empty box.  I resist looking at it until I’ve thoroughly washed my hands.  And then I just stand there for a couple of minutes, leaning against the counter with my arms crossed.  I’m so nervous that I’ve broken out in a cold sweat.  I take a deep shuddering breath before I force myself to look down and read the results.

The little display window clearly states “pregnant.”  I patiently wait for the “not” part to show up.  When it’s not forthcoming, I pick up the stick and shake it like a Magic Eightball.

Oh, who am I kidding. 

Holy shit, I’m pregnant.

I really have no right to be shocked; we were beyond careless.  We had never even discussed pregnancy a possibility, which I realize is downright ridiculous considering that thing with Kat—and the sheer amount of times we had sex without protection.  Used to skipping periods here and there, I still would have gone on obliviously, not even thinking that sperm met egg in me, if I hadn’t started to realize that my bras were getting way too tight, and that I hadn’t had to buy tampons in…a while.  Any other symptoms, I had chalked up to being depressed. 

I keep staring at the test, trying to let that offensive word sink in.  There’s a knock at the door, and dazed, I go to answer it.  Megan makes note of my stunned expression and grabs the test from me.  She lets out a little shriek of excitement.

“Ohmigod, you’re pregnant!  You’re going to have Lucas Greyson’s baby, you lucky—I’m so jealous!  Oh, my god!  I’m the aunt of Lucas Greyson’s kid!  Our kids are going to be months apart!  I can’t—”

“Megan,” I say thinly.  “Give me back my pee stick.”

“Sorry.”  This she chooses to whisper. 

She reluctantly hands me back my test, then thoughtfully closes the door behind her so we can talk in belated privacy.  I throw my test and the box it came in into the trash.  Only when I put my hands over my face do I realize I’m shaking.

“How do you feel?”  Megan’s now quiet voice intrudes on the white noise in my brain.  “Do you have any symptoms?”

“I don’t know.  Not really.”  I drop my hands and look at her.  “I feel like I’m starving for sleep, and sometimes I get queasy for no reason.”

“I was puking my guts out the first trimester,” Megan shares with me.  She looks me over critically.  “Your boobs are huge.”

I automatically cross my arms over my chest.  “They burn like they’re on fire.”

“Tell me about it.  So, what are you going to do?  When are you going to tell him?”

“Um…soon, I guess.”  My shoulders slump as the enormity of it suddenly hits me.  “I have no idea what I’m going to do.  I think I’m going to throw up.”

“Here—sit down.” 

Megan points me to the closed toilet seat.  I drop down heavily onto it while she perches on the ledge of the bathtub.  She dials down the inappropriate enthusiasm for my predicament and throws me an anxious look.

“There’s no way he and Kat Vandevere are together,” she blurts out.

Lightning stabs me in the chest.  “Is that what they’re saying?”

“Yeah, but…it’s definitely just a PR thing.  You can totally tell that the pictures of them together are from on set.  And…”  Megan purses her lips, toys with her delicate wedding band.  “So, I know you don’t want to talk about Lucas, or what happened to you guys—but I talked to him.  Andi, he sounded so miserable!  He’s desperate to find you.  He even—”

“You’re right; I don’t want to talk about him.”

I hunch forward, clutching my stomach.  I can’t tell if I’m going to puke, or burst into tears.  Maybe both.  Wouldn’t that surprise Megan.  My mouth is starting to feel weirdly sweaty.

“Okay, okay—sorry.”  She waves a hand in the air, as if to clear out her previous words.  “You need to go to the doctor and find out how far along you are.  And you need to start taking prenatal vitamins.  Actually, I have some I can give you.  My doctor prescribed them to me, but then I found these gummy ones instead so I never opened them.”

She gets up and roots through the medicine cabinet, pulling out a huge clear bottle of what looks to be horse pills.  She hands it to me with a flourish, but then abruptly snatches it back.  “Actually, I’ll put it in a bag for you.  The last thing you need is to be caught wandering around with them.”

“Thanks…”  I watch numbly as she grabs a plastic Price Pride bag from the cabinet and sticks the bottle in the bag before giving it to me.  I accept it like it’s a bomb.

“So…I have a really good doctor here.  If you wanted to move back, there’s plenty of space,” Megan says in a rush.  “You could have the den.  Dad doesn’t—he won’t be using it.”

I raise my head to look at her blankly.  “You want me to live here…with all of you?”

“The more the merrier, right?”  She lifts her shoulders in a quick shrug.  “It could be nice.”

I try to imagine residing in this house again, with Uncle Charlie and Talon—and Bran and Megan, and their little spawn.  And me, and my baby.

Baby.  Oh, god.  I’m going to have a baby…and I’m going to be such a shitty mother, I know it!

I have to talk to Luke to tell him that he’s going to be a father.  I have no idea how he’ll react.

“Thanks for the offer,” I tell Megan.  “I, uh, I’ll think about it.”

“Sure.”  Megan hesitates, gives me a shy smile.  “Whatever you decide, we’ll all be here for you, okay?”

I can’t help but be surprised by the sincerity in her expression.  “Thanks,” I say again.

She nods slowly, looking down at her hands again.  “Mom wanted us to stick together.  She told me that I should look out for you.”

“She did?”  My vision suddenly blurs, and I have to keep my eyes extra wide to stop them from leaking.

“Yeah.”  Megan laughs a little.  “She was so mad at me and Bran for hurting you.  She didn’t talk to us for, like, a week.”

A huge grin spreads across my face.  “Really?”

“Oh, yeah.  She worried about you, you know?  She kept hoping you’d move back home, and we’d be one big happy family again.”

“Hm.  That would be…”

“A train wreck?”  Megan giggles.  “Maybe.  But it’d be fun.  You never know until you try, right?”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.” 

My smile suddenly fades when I remember that I’ve got a little person growing inside of me.  My baby…and Luke’s.

Oh, my god—it’s going to come out of me eventually.  I’ll have to give birth, like those horrifying videos in Health class.  Then, before I’ve even recovered from that trauma, they’ll hand me this tiny slimy creature that will cry at me for the rest of my life.

I don’t think I can do this.

“It’s really overwhelming, isn’t it?” Megan says sympathetically, noticing my freak out.  “It’s okay.  Just take it one day at a time.  You have a while to get used to the idea, and figure out what you’re going to do.”

“Yeah.”  I exhale heavily.  “Yeah…I guess I do.”

“You’ll get through it.  As long as you remember one important detail.”

I give her a questioning look.  “What’s that?”

She takes my hand, squeezes it.  “You’re not alone.”

Chapter 37

“You’re the Anderson Kelly that dated Lucas Greyson, right?”

That’s not a question you want to be asked while pregnant and standing on a scale.  Fortunately, I anticipated something like this when she called my name and I looked up to see the barely contained excitement in her face.

I turn a carefully constructed rueful smile on the bright-eyed bushy-haired nurse.  “For, like, two minutes.  We went out a couple of times a while ago.  The press greatly exaggerated our relationship—we’re just friends.”

“Really?  I saw a lot of pictures of the two of you—and they looked pretty steamy to me!”

She takes note of my weight and gestures for me to step off the scale.  The wheels in my head turn as I follow her to an examination room.  I know exactly what she’s speculating, and who wouldn’t jump to that conclusion?  I sit down in a chair, barely noticing as she takes my vitals.

“Those pictures were pretty old,” I blurt out after she takes the thermometer out of my mouth.  “From months and months ago.  I think they slapped a more recent date on them to stir up drama between him and Kat.”

The nurse—her nametag claims she’s Dory—gawks at me with avid interest.  “Is it true that they’re engaged?”

I feel my smile go brittle around the edges.  “It’s possible,” I say through gritted teeth.  “They’ve been together for a while now.”

“Really?”  I can see her process this information and store it for later, when she can post it to her social media accounts.  She finally glances down at my chart, and then looks back up at me with a smile.  “Well, we tested your urine, and you’re definitely pregnant.”

“Hooray,” I say weakly.

In between taking my personal history, Nurse Dory peppers me with intimate questions about Luke.  I pretend to answer them enthusiastically so she won’t think I have something to hide.  I also make sure to bring up my fiancée, “Tulio,” underwater welder-diver and the father of my unborn child.  I think I’ve really sold it.

“I’d be so mortified if I were you—about what they’re saying?”

I give her a beady-eyed glare.  She’s supposed to be giving me some privacy while I change into the paper shirt and blanket thing for my exam.  But she’s planted herself on the doctor’s stool and watches me expectantly.

I start to lift my shirt up, but when I realize it’s not fazing Nurse Dory in the slightest, I sigh and let the material fall back over stomach.  “What are they saying?” I ask stiffly.

“Oh, that the reason Lucas broke up with you was because you were too clingy, and obsessed with his fame.”

Jessica.  Grr.  I utter a sharp laugh.  “Don’t believe everything you hear.  The truth is…”  I stare up at a poster explicitly illustrating the female reproductive system.  “The truth is we were better off as friends.  We never should have tried to be anything else.”

Even I can hear the sadness in my voice.  Nurse Dory smiles at me kindly.  She opens her mouth to say something, but suddenly jumps like someone goosed her.

“Oh, gosh, I have to get going!”  She springs to her feet.  “I’m going to be in so much trouble.  I’ll see you in a bit, Andi.  Go ahead and get undressed for the doctor.  She’ll be in here—oops—any minute.”

Thanks to Nurse Gossip, I am completely frazzled as I change at warp speed, while keeping a paranoid eye on the door.  I fall over trying to wiggle out of my jeans, smashing into to a gooseneck light attachment in the process.  It breaks off and falls to the floor.  I nudge it under the exam table with my foot.