Page 39 of F Buddy

“Scarlett, maybe you should tell them,” she finally said.

I shot my friend a betrayed and threatening look. “Not now. I’ll tell them, Olivia, but just not now.”

She tightened her lips, looking unhappy. “But when?”

“I’m going to talk to Zach… eventually. After that, I might tell them. I’ll apologize for lying when the time comes, but please don’t say anything, Olivia. I’m asking as a friend.”

I could see the reluctance on her face, but I knew she wouldn’t go around telling my secret when she didn’t have my consent, she was too good a friend for that.

Chapter 16

Zach

I fell back into my chair with a heavy sigh, grateful Abigail had gone to her own apartment and left me alone. Things between us had been painfully awkward since I’d turned her down, and I didn’t know how to act around her.

The bigger part of it was I knew she was right about my relationship with Scarlett—if it even was a relationship. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Scarlett, but she was important to me, and the last thing I wanted to do was hurt her, even though she was hurting me by still ignoring my calls.

I cursed under my breath. My strained relationship with Abigail only added to the stress of Scarlett not talking to me, not to mention work… I found myself exhausted most nights, and I was growing sick of it.

Something had to change, and soon. Which was why I took out my phone, only instead of making another attempt to speak to Scarlett, I called Chad.

I spoke with the other people in our group of friends, not just her, but I was ashamed to admit I didn’t make as much effort with everybody else. Now that Abigail and I were no longer talking, I needed someone else familiar to talk to, someone I trusted. Though it was late evening for me, it was still early in the morning for him, and I was glad when he picked up.

“Hey, Chad,” I said. “It’s been a while.”

There was a surprised noise on the other end. “It’s rare you call me, usually you just send a text, or we chat on Facebook or something.”

I smiled a little. Social media was a godsend. But the near smile died quickly as I frowned and remembered even that wasn’t enough to get Scarlett to talk to me.

“How’s everyone back home doing?” I asked, wincing a little at the small talk.

“They’re pretty okay. Sasha and Donny enjoyed their honeymoon.”

There was a hesitance to his voice that immediately had me suspicious. He knew what I was calling for, and it was making him cautious.

“What about Scarlett?” I asked deliberately. “Has anything interesting happened to her?”

There was a short silence, and then he sighed, and it sounded as heavy as mine had been. “Zach, man, I…”

“What is it?” I asked. I sat ramrod straight despite my exhausted muscles begging to relax. My free hand curled into a fist as I waited for him to speak. “If there’s something you can tell me about her, anything at all, I’d be grateful. Please.”

He sighed again, even heavier than before. “I think you’ll want to talk to her, Zach.”

“That’s just the thing, though,” I complained. “I’ve tried talking to her by every means I can. I’m practically stalking her social accounts but I’m getting absolutely nothing back from her. She doesn’t answer my calls, she doesn’t return them. It’s been fucking months, Chad. Tell me if you’ve seen her lately.”

I tightened my lips in a frown and waited for him to say something.

“I… don’t think I should be the one to say this,” he said hesitantly. I waited for him to say it, afraid he’d change his mind if I prompted him. I even held my breath. After a moment, I heard him take in a heavy breath. “Scarlett is seven months pregnant, Zach.”

The words didn’t hit home at first. I knew what the words meant, but then putting them in the same sentence with Scarlett’s name just made them sound so… foreign. When the words did register, I inhaled sharply.

Scarlett’s pregnant? It was my first clear thought. Followed quickly by, is the child mine?

But then I thought about the whole statement, not just that she was pregnant, but that she was seven months along.

“What the hell?” I muttered. “Tell me you’re kidding?”

There was a short silence on the other end, then, “I’m not. I was skeptical when I heard, but we met up as a group and I saw it for myself. She’s pregnant, man.”