Page 123 of Taking Sides

“I know. Not the healthiest options, but I was craving sweet and salty.”

“Jenny ate weird stuff together like that too when she first found out she was pregnant.”

“Pregnant?” I laugh, staring over at a sheepish-looking Landon. “I’m not . . . This isn’t . . .”

He shrugs and backs away as the first students for my next period walk into the classroom.

“Later, Coach.” Landon gives me a small salute before he heads out.

My face is hot as I sit tall and smile at the new students filing in and taking their seats. “Good afternoon,” I greet them with a tight voice.

Then I think back to my last period, trying to calculate if I missed one. The last couple months have been a blur, but I’m pretty sure I’ve had one recently. I pull up the calendar app on my phone and scroll back. It’s been longer than I thought. Maybe I had one since then and forgot to input it into my calendar.

I drop the phone and cover my mouth with both hands. Fear shoots through me, but I shake my head. No. It can’t be. I’m on birth control and we’ve used condoms most of the time. There is no way I’m pregnant.

I pick up my phone again and walk over to the far corner of the room. There has to be another explanation. I’m absolutely certain I’m not pregnant. Except . . . is it possible? My body is hot all over as the line rings in my ear.

When the call goes to voicemail, I barely recognize my voice as I leave a message. “Hey. It’s me. Call me back.” I take a breath. “Please? I need you.”

“What am I looking for?” Victor holds up a pregnancy test in each hand and studies them carefully.

“It’ll say pregnant or not pregnant and the other one will have one or two lines.”

He grunts.

“We’re supposed to wait two minutes.” I take them from him, careful not to look too closely, and set them on the coffee table. I’m not ready to know yet. I set a timer on my phone for two minutes and let out a shaky breath.

“I cannot believe you let that pretty boy knock you up,” he says like I did this intentionally and only to piss him off.

“Can you help distract me right now? Please? Talk about anything else. Like where you went when you left here Sunday morning.”

Victor was waiting at my house when I got home from practice, but so far, he hasn’t said anything about where he’s been or how he got here so quickly.

“I checked into a hotel to sleep for the day.”

“And didn’t leave when you woke up Monday morning?”

“I was tired,” he says a little too defensively.

Interesting. I would have expected him to get as far from Moonshot as possible and as quickly as he could.

We fall back into silence, and my leg bounces nervously.

He clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “What in the hell do you see in that guy?”

“Still not talking about it,” I mutter.

“Fine. Fine.” He sighs. “The house looks nice.”

Real surprise makes my mind go blank for a second. “Wow. A compliment.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I still hate it, but it suits you.”

“Small and cute?” I grin at him.

His tone is dry and quiet. “Something like that.”

“Most of it was Mom’s doing. I’ve just been finishing up projects she started.”