Teenage Pregnancy 42

Pushing through the doors of the fire escape I paused looking for Jamie. When I spotted her by the bleachers I smiled and made my way over. I stood over her and when she noticed I had not yet sat she looked up.

“What?” she asked her mouth full of food.

“Tristan invited us to eat lunch with them at the back of the school under the huge tree. You wanna go?” I asked hoping she would say yes.

He paused for a moment then shrugged as she began putting away her stuff. I smiled and stooped to help her put her stuff back into her bag. Taking her bag, I grabbed her arms and helped her up.

“How far along are you?” I asked turning to look at her as we began to walk to the back of the school.

“Almost three months, why?” she asked turning to face me as we walked.

“I was just wondering why you can’t tell that you’re pregnant,” I shrugged

“Most women start swelling around four or five months, but I’m still flat for three months, the doctor said that’s common too. Some people don’t even start until really late in their pregnancy. I’m just happy that I can keep it a secret for a little longer,” she informed me

I knew she had to leave school after a certain time, I’m not sure when but I know that it’s coming soon, it was dangerous to stay in a school’s environment when you’re pregnant so they gave her a limit to how long she could stay during her pregnancy.

Nodding to myself and trying to mentally calculate how much more time she had before she left, I almost didn’t notice we had turned the corner and as he said, Tristan was sitting under the huge oak tree along with Dakota and Ajay.

“Hey guys,” Tristan called as we neared them.

I smiled in response as Jamie waved and went directly over to Dakota where she sat very closely beside him. Tristan was seated not to far from them and patted the ground next to him beckoning me over to sit next to him. I walked over and plopped down next to him seeing nothing wrong with it.

Ajay was standing, leaning against the tree with a distant expression on his face with a lit cigarette hanging lazily from the side of his mouth. He didn’t seem to notice that Jamie and I had joined them and if he did he ignored it.

Shrugging I turned to Tristan and asked him how his science project was coming along. If I remembered correctly he was partnered off with Casey Lamarck and Casey wasn’t one of those that cared much for his grades. I was willing to think that Tristan had a case on his hand trying to get Casey to pull his weight with the project.

“It’s going better than I first expected it to,” he said with a small smirk playing on his lips.

I cocked my head to the side implying my confusion, “What are you talking about?”

“Let’s just say that Casey and I have reached an understanding about the project,” he told me the smirk widening into a mischievous grin.

“What did you do to him?” I asked appalled at the possibilities

Looking at my horror stricken face he lifted his hands up and waved them while shaking his head, “No, no. I didn’t do anything bad to the kid I just threatened to rearrange his face if he thought that he would leave me to do the whole thing on my own,” he told me as if that would quell my worries.

“And how is that not doing any thing bad?” I inquired.

“It’s better than actually knocking him out isn’t it?”

I sighed knowing I couldn’t win. I glanced up and my gaze landed on a distant Ajay. His face was turned away from the group and his expression was void of much emotion as he stared blankly ahead of him at nothing in particular. He released a heavy sigh and a tendril of steam curled from his lips, not from the cigarette but from his natural body heat meeting the chilly November air.

Tristan’s voice brought me back to paying attention to our conversation, “Where’s your lunch?” he asked noticing I didn’t have any food with me.

“I had a really big breakfast this morning, so I’m not all that hungry,” I said shrugging feeling slightly bad for blatantly lying to him; truth is I hadn’t eaten anything this morning.

He looked at me disbelievingly and his smirk turned into a small frown, “Are you anorexic Brooklynn?” he asked abruptly

That threw me off guard it was so bluntly stated, well he had asked but he looked so adamant that it could have been a confident statement. Besides, why did everyone automatically jump to the conclusion that I had an eating disorder when it came to me and my phobia? I’m not even skinny! I’m not fat either, but I wouldn’t consider myself skinny. I was just right.

“No,” I firmly stated having just enough self control to keep myself from rolling my eyes.

Seeing his look of disbelief I add, “If I feel hungry later on today then I’ll eat something.”

He paused before he nodded his head deciding to leave the matter as it was.