Say When - Micalea Smeltzer Page 0,96
in her eyes. Finally, she says, “You don’t have to tiptoe around me, okay? I’m sorry I freaked out before. I was already upset over Jake and seeing Hayden here, connecting the dots, it was too much too soon, and I was hurt that you hadn’t confided in me but also mad at myself because I understood why you hadn’t.” She rubs her lips together, flattening the blankets around us. “All that matters is that you’re happy. And I think you should know that I’m not coming back to school in the fall.”
“What?” I sit up straight, staring at her in shock. Between the two of us Molly has always been the brainiac, but I remember our conversation from months ago when she hinted that maybe college wasn’t for her.
“I’m going to need to get a job and support myself and the baby. Get a place of my own.” She sighs, heavily her body trembling, and I know she’s holding back tears. “Everything is going to change.”
I reach for her hand, giving her a tiny smile. “Molls, it was changing anyway. Maybe it didn’t change in the ways either of us expected, but it was never going to be the same and stay so simple.”
“You’re right.”
“Why don’t you go shower and change,” I coax, slipping out of her bed and giving her hand a tug. “And I’ll ask Hayden to pick up breakfast and come over?”
“Okay. I want chocolate chip pancakes with bananas on top,” she instructs, heading for her attached bathroom.
“You got it.”
If you had told me a week ago, I would be sitting between Molly and Hayden watching Golden Girls and gorging myself on pancakes I would’ve said you were lying. But here we are, and surprisingly it’s pretty easy. I can tell Molly isn’t entirely comfortable, she keeps watching him skeptically and accidentally calling him professor, but she’s trying and so is he.
“You guys watch this a lot?” He remarks, kicking his feet up on the coffee table.
“It’s a classic.” Molly drizzles even more syrup on her pancakes. “I mean, surely you’ve heard it, you are a film professor and I know film and television are different, but I mean, come on.”
“Molly rambles when she’s nervous,” I tell him.
“I do not, take that back.”
I laugh. “I’ll do no such thing. You’ll just have to accept the truth.”
She bumps my shoulder with hers. “Rude, don’t make fun of the pregnant woman.”
“Pregnant?” Hayden’s wide eyes meet mine.
“You didn’t tell him?” Molly asks from my other side.
I shrug. “It wasn’t mine to tell.”
Leaning around me, she says to him, “Yes, there’s a bun in the oven. Apparently, condoms can break and I’m lazy with my birth control so here we are.”
“Wow,” he lets loose a sigh, “I don’t know whether I’m supposed to say congratulations or not.”
“Eh, congratulations is okay, I suppose.” Molly gives a small shrug, her gaze focused on her pancakes. “A baby should be celebrated, even if this wasn’t planned. I don’t want my kid coming into the world already surrounded by negative energy.”
“Speaking of negative energy—”
She cuts me off, already knowing what I’m going to ask. “No, I haven’t heard from my mom. My dad did call me and tell me she’ll come around, but I’m not holding my breath.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is. What about your parents?”
“Nothing.” Hayden gives me a sad look at my answer, his brows drawn together. I grab his hand, lacing our fingers together and holding on. “I’m okay, though. This is my life and I’m following my heart. It chooses you.” I look into his eyes, seeing some of the tension leave him.
He raises our joined hands, kissing my knuckles. In the quiet between us, I know in my heart everything will be okay.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Spring break comes quickly, but it hardly feels like spring with the chilly March weather. The air is colder than it has been all winter. Most years, I’d be traveling down south with my family to spend the break on a beach in Florida. Not this year. My parents aren’t going, according to Atlas, not that I would know myself since they haven’t spoken to me in the weeks since my confession. I worried they might try to get Hayden fired, but so far nothing has happened. More than likely they’re stewing in silence, figuring out what they’re going to say to me.
Molly, however, is spending the break with her parents as they discuss and figure out the best steps to take moving forward. I