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Danika: I’m sorry I lied about where I was, but I needed time to figure everything out.
Danika: Please. Please. Tell me you’re okay?
Danika: I’m trying to be understanding, Logan but you’ve got to give me something.
Danika: Don’t push me away, Logan. I need you.
I shut my phone off again, not wanting to see anymore.
School starts again on Monday. I’m dreading it. I’m not ready to face Danika. Piper calls me a coward, and I’ll accept that title but I’m a coward who’s hurting. Everyday there’s new articles about kids coming forward about Dr. Shaffer. There are more families than we’d originally thought and Dad has agreed to help every one of them pro-bono—turns out he does have a heart—and the one person I’m dying to talk to is the person I’m pissed off with.
So, not only do I not trust my girlfriend, I can’t talk to my best friend because they are the same person.
I’m sitting on the floor, guitar in hand, picking at the strings when my door flies open. Piper storms into my room, stopping only briefly to find me with her gaze, then starts throwing the books on my desk at me. Her aim is shit, but eventually one knocks me in the head.
I set my guitar on the ground and raise my arms defensively. “What the hell, Piper?”
She stops throwing things and stomps over to me, hands on her hips. “No. You what the hell, Logan. How could you?”
I stand, forcing Piper to look up at me. Like Cooper I’m a head taller than she is, and I’ll use every inch of my height to regain dominance in this conversation. “You’ve got to be more specific there, Piper. I’ve done a lot of shit in my life.”
“Danika!” Piper yells. “She’s scared and pregnant and you’re avoiding her.” She slaps me across the face.
I lick my lip and step around her tiny body, closing the door. This isn’t a conversation I want anyone hearing. Especially my mother. She’ll throw a fit and probably kick me out of the house. However, if Cooper hypothetically knocked Piper up, I’m pretty sure mom would be throwing a party. I get that she hates my dad, and I get that I remind her of him, but it’s just not fucking fair.
“Have you told anyone?”
Piper rears back, bunching her eyebrows together. “Of course not.”
“Good. Keep i
t that way. It’s probably not even mine.”
She slaps me again, earning a frustrated grunt. I’m about tired of her hitting me. “You’re a dick. That girl is so in love with you, she’d cut off her left tit before cheating.”
“Then why hide it from me?” I boom, my emotions getting the best of me. I haven’t talked to anyone about what’s happening. It feels good to get some of it off my chest. “She’s like eight weeks pregnant.”
“You’re a fucking idiot.” Piper crosses her arms. She grunts and stares at me like I’m stupid. “You do realize she’s like at the most three weeks pregnant. Right?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Piper pulls her phone out of her boobs and starts tapping away at the screen. “Doctors track that kind of stuff based on her last period, which sounds like it was right around Thanksgiving. Meaning she missed hers at the end of December and took a test.”
“That’s confusing.”
“Tell me about it. I spent a solid hour Googling that shit to explain it right because you won’t call her back.” Piper shoves her phone in my face, the screen open to some pregnancy mumbo-jumbo.
I skim over it, feeling like a jerk for assuming Danika would cheat on me but still a little salty. “Whatever. She still lied and kept it from me.”
“Really, Logan? You’re mad because Danika sat on the test results for a week while she decided whether or not to keep her baby? She’s eighteen, with her whole life ahead of her. That’s a huge decision! I’d need more than a week to figure out what I would do if I was in her shoes.”
“It’s not her decision to make alone.” I hand Piper her phone back, pissed off for a whole new reason. Danika has already decided what she’s doing with her child. Our child. She should have told me as soon as she found out she was pregnant and let me shoulder some of that burden.
“Have you given her much of an option? The abortion window is small. I’m not saying that’s what she chose, but if that's what she wanted to talk about, you guys are about out of time.”
I run my hand through my hair. The pit of my stomach dropping to my feet. I really need a drink but refuse to turn into my father. Although, by the way I’ve been acting, it seems like I’m halfway to walking in his shoes. Maybe Mom does have a reason to hate me after all. “Shit. I’ve been a dick. Haven’t I?”
Piper nods, a triumphant smirk on her face. This girl hardly ever smiles, especially since her incident. Even if the smirk is to rub my nose in her win, I’m glad to see it. “A massive dick.” She bends down and grabs my phone from its new home on the floor beside my dresser. “Call your girlfriend. She shouldn’t have to do this alone.”
