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She wanted me to come over so we could talk. Despite my common sense screaming at me not to go, to just make a clean break and not risk being pulled back into the same old bullshit, I felt myself relenting. Despite all of that, all those good points and arguments, I decided it was worth it to at least hear her out. The baby started kicking in agreement.
It might have taken her a while to start moving around in there, but once she did, she had barely stopped. She was a force to be reckoned with, and apparently, she wanted me to see what Kristen had to say.
In a world were few things are certain, it can be nice to know that there are some things that don't change. Kristen's address being one of them. It had been exactly the same since she had left home at 16, driven away by the same circumstances that had driven Logan into the darkness.
Her dad had been nice and kept giving her an allowance until she was able to get a job to support herself. Which, fortunately for her, happened before her dad lost all his money, getting cut out of the family business and any of the family money, similar to the way Kristen had.
I thought about all of this on the drive over to her building.
“Don't Look Back In Anger” was playing through the speakers; it was one of the songs I'd found that calmed the baby. But maybe that was just because it calmed me.
I had actually been considering Gallagher as a possible name, as an homage to my Irish roots, but then I found out she was a girl. Then I heard the name Brigitte and changed my mind. My daughter was going to Brigitte Freyja Evans. No one was going to mess with her on the playground.
I ran the buzzer and waited, part of me still wanting to run, the fact that this was now physically difficult being one of the main reasons I didn't. The door buzzed and I went in out of the chill.
“Hey,” Kristen said.
“Hey,” I agreed.
We hugged awkwardly, Kristen trying to mind my baby bump, not realizing it was fine to touch it. It wasn’t as fragile as most people who had never been pregnant seemed to assume. I knew that due to bumping into the massage table.
“Please, sit down,” Kristen said, gesturing to the couch.
I went over and sat down, bracing onto the arm to support myself on the way down so I didn't land too hard. Kristen sat in a chair near the couch. This was when Logan came in from the kitchen, sipping something bright green from a tumbler.
“What the hell?” I demanded, doing my best to get up in order to storm out dramatically.
Fuck.
Of course, just when I had decided to trust her, Kristen had to go and betray me like this. What was with her incessant urge to set me up with her brother long after I had said no? It was the opposite of how high school had been.
“You're looking well,” Logan said, looking at my baby bump as he sat down on the couch beside me.
He seemed really happy about the baby, which took me by surprise.
“Please,” Kristen said, on the verge of tears, “I want you to hear me out. Both of you.”
The “both of you” certainly got my attention and I sat back down, for no other reason than to see how it played out. Logan raised an eyebrow, looking intrigued by that part as well. But he soon turned back to me as if he had more pressing things on his mind.
“It's mine, isn't it?” Logan asked.
“Logan, please,” Kristen said, raising a hand, “I have something to tell you. Both of you.
I lied. Back in high school, I was so desperate to keep you apart that I lied. Logan, Kora really wanted you. Kora, Logan loved you. He told me as much. Said he would never need another girl if he had you. Which we can agree is saying something, considering his reputation.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” I agreed.
I was still letting it all sink in.
I guess it explained a lot.
At the same time, I wasn’t too incredibly surprised to hear it. It seemed to go with the rest of the story as I had always known it, having lived it.
She had thought he was bad for me. And bad for our friendship, because he was taking me away from her, all to maybe break my heart, which she understandably thought could happen, ruining things for our friendship and my heart. Of course she had lied.
“Anyway, that's it. I was a lying bitch and the cause of all this trouble all this time,” Kristen said, as if thinking we hadn’t heard her.
“I need a moment to think about this,” I said.
