A Broken Promise (22 page)

              But the main reason why everyone was so obsessed – Brad spread the rumor of me being pregnant. Well, maybe it wasn’t a rumor per say, but it definitely was no one else’s business. And, as I was already able to predict, I had been called into the principal’s office at lunch. Go figure.

              “Has anyone even started their project yet?” Mr. Thomas looked around the room at the different hands raised. More than half the class had their hands up. He seemed happily surprised by that. “Okay, any questions?”

              Keiffer rose his hand. “Can I do a video?”

              “Well…I would rather you do a paper. But if the video is tasteful, then go ahead. I do expect you though to read a small snippet from your paper.”

              “Thanks,” Keiffer smiled.

              “Why are you doing a video? I thought we were going back to my house tonight to write our papers together,” I whispered over to him. He smiled back at me, obviously holding back a secret.

              “I think I might be sick that day.”

              “No!” I exclaimed. “We’ve been working all semester on this one paper. This is what brought us together. All three of us,” I touched my stomach happily. He kept smiling without saying anything.

              It was kind of a sneaky move for Principal Nelson to call both Brenda and me to his office without telling us that the other one was invited as well. We were still fuming over the fight last Saturday before prom, but today we were trying to be civil. After only a few awkward minutes of waiting, he finally let us into his office.

              “Ladies, thank you for stopping by.” Principal Nelson had us sit down as he sat across from us, his big elbows on the desk in front of him. “Do you know why I called you two in here?”

              “Because I deserve to be valedictorian?” Brenda asked sweetly.

              “Because Brenda is driving you crazy?” I retaliated. She shot me a dirty look before Principal Nelson let out a laugh.

              “You two have been going at it since the first day of school four years ago. I would have thought that by now you’d be friends. Looks like some things never change, right?” He didn’t seem upset, he just seemed to find some amusement from our behavior.

              “Anyway,” he began again. “Mostly I’m just reminding you two that graduation is in two weeks. From that day on, you’ll be adults – “

              “Principal Nelson,” I interrupted. I almost didn’t understand why I was about to do what I did, but I realized that sometimes things have to come from your heart, not your brain. “I would like to give up my title as valedictorian.” Brenda stared at me, her jaw open wide.

              “But –“ Started Principal Nelson.

              “I’m not going to college in the Fall. My grades have slipped. I’ve not been showing leadership this semester, I became pregnant, and I honestly don’t believe that I should be the face for this year’s graduating class.”

              “Life happens, Jenna…” Principal Nelson looked shocked. “You can’t blame yourself. You’ve shown great dedication to your schoolwork since a young age –“

              “I have…but so has Brenda. And, after careful thought and consideration, being valedictorian really isn’t as important as I thought it was going to be. There’s a lot of responsibility that I don’t know if I could handle right now. That’s why I think Brenda should have it.”

              It was quiet in the office for what seemed like five minutes – though it was probably only about ten seconds. Finally, Brenda spoke up. “Are you sure? I’ve been nothing but mean to you this whole time.”

              “That’s true,” I laughed. “But I could have conducted myself better too. Besides, this means more to you that it did me. And, well, no matter how mean you are…you’re still a person. You have feelings. And I’m sorry that I didn’t realize that until now.”

              “Wow, Jenna,” Principal Nelson exclaimed. “Seems like you really matured this semester.”

              “I’ve had to mature, Principal Nelson.” I smiled to myself at the thought of the semester. So much went wrong, but now so much was going right. I just had to believe that things would get better.

              By the time the end of the school day came along, I could hardly wait to get home. I sat in Keiffer’s car in the school parking lot, waiting for him to meet me so we could leave campus. However, he must have been taking his sweet time because by the time ten minutes passed, I was getting a bit annoyed.

              “Hey, Jenna.” Lacey walked up to my car. She and I had hardly talked since I broke up with Brad a week ago. It was obvious that our friendship was based on popularity. It had once been an honest-to-God friendship, and then high school happened which made it change. Once Brad and I were over, we dropped each other faster than we could say “see ya.”

              “Oh! Hey, Lacey!” I said happily. “Haven’t talked to you in a while. How have you been?”

              “Good. For the most part.” She nervously fidgeted with her jeans. “So I guess we won’t be spending much time with each other now that you’re with Keiffer.”

              I buried myself deeper into my seat. “I don’t have a problem hanging out with you. You’re still my best friend.”

              “Oh, that’s nice.” She looked down at her shoes. Waiting for her to return the compliment was like waiting for a drop of rain water in a drought. It wasn’t going to happen. “Well, I just wanted to know if I could…ya know…date Brad since you two are broken up?”

              “Excuse me?” I snapped. I had literally been broken up with him for a week and she was already making her move on him. Uh, duh! Of course I had a problem with it. “What about Alex?”

              “Well, he’s not exactly my type. I was kind of hoping this would happen. I’ve always really liked Brad…”

              “Fine,” I turned my attention away from her. I was in love with Keiffer, but that didn’t change the fact that I didn’t want my best friend dating him.

              “Thanks,” she smiled. “Because we already have a date set up.”

              “You know what, Lacey?” I turned to her, feeling the anger run through my blood. “I think it’s best that we just don’t speak. Okay? Because what kind of a person does this to their best friend?”

              “I just thought –“

              “You just thought that because I broke up with him, you could weasel your way in. Well, you did. But you lost me as a friend.”

              “I lost you as a friend months ago, Jenna.” Lacey said quietly. “And besides, we were only friends because we had the same popularity status. Now that I’m about to be Queen Bee... well, there’s nothing keeping us together.”

              “Fine.”

              “Fine,” she repeated. “I’ll see you around, I guess.” She walked away, and as she was, I made sure to look at her one last time. She and I had spent so many years together. She had known all my secrets. She had trusted me with hers. And in only thirty seconds we ended a friendship.

              “Are you okay?” Keiffer asked once he got into the car. He started the ignition, but quickly looked over at me…he needed to evaluate my emotions first. “I saw Lacey talking to you. Did you guys get into a fight?”

              “Yeah,” I said, adjusting my seatbelt. “She’s just a bitch.” He smiled but didn’t say anything. “What?” I asked. “Did I say something funny?”

              “No,” he said. “I just remember how you used to be. Lacey used to be your clone, remember? She acts just like how you use to.”

              That thought hadn’t even come to mind. “Was I really that big of a bitch?” I asked. He nodded his head. “Well, I’m glad I grew out of that.”

              We didn’t go straight home like we had planned. Instead, we headed off to the County Library to get some of our paper written. We decided to sit in a closed off room so no one could hear us as we talked. Besides, these papers were going to be personal. They would be about two strangers who met and fell in love. We wanted them to be as true and factual as possible. This was practically our bibliography that we would be giving our unborn children someday.

              Keiffer had his feet up on the table and his music player on. He wasn’t writing his paper, even though I had been slaving over mine for a few hours. Writing was easy for me. However, trying to write a three page paper on someone else is actually pretty hard. I felt myself grow annoyed as he sang to his music. I needed it quiet if I was ever going to get it done.

              “Do you mind?” I asked after taking his ear buds out. “I’m trying to write my paper.”

              “Fine, neighbor.” He kicked his feet off the table and took my notebook so he could see what I was writing. “What makes a perfect person? Is it charisma? Is it the way that they conduct themselves on a day to day basis? Or is it the way that a person takes life’s challenges and turns them in a life lesson?” He looked up at me, a smile upon his face.

              “What? Too cheesy?” I asked.

              “No, not necessarily. Just don’t forget you have to say this in front of the whole class.”

              “Oh, I haven’t,” I laughed. “I’ve been reminded about that since the beginning of the semester. Do you know what’s funny? The first day I met you, I had told Lacey that I was going to make your life a living hell when I had to read my paper out loud. Boy, have things changed.”

              “Yes…you were a mean girl,” he laughed. “I’m so glad my Jenna has changed.”

              ‘Your Jenna, huh?” I flirted.

              “Yes,” he smiled before giving me a kiss. “And I hope it’ll always stay like that.”

              “Me too,” I answered. “But for right now, we have a huge paper due in three days that I seriously need to get done. Why don’t you start on yours too?” I passed him a couple pages from my notebook.

              “I’m doing a video.”

              “Come’on, Keiffer. I thought you were joking about that. I actually thought you were being a jackass.” He always did that kind of stuff. He always had to do everything opposite than me. However, that’s what I loved about him. He was always surprising me in ways that Brad couldn’t.

              “No, I want to do a video. It’ll be fun. Besides, I’m already done.”

              “Didn’t you hear Mr. Thomas? He wants you to write a paper to go along with it.”

              “Done,” he smiled. “Besides, we have better things to do.” He stood up from the table and walked over to the closed door. I shook my head quickly.

              “No way, sir. I need to finish this. As much as I want to go make love with you – I need to do my school work,” I teased. After about a week of dating, we hadn’t even made love once. Before we could hardly keep our hands off each other. But now, after falling pregnant, we realized that our relationship was more than sex. It was actual love. We didn’t need sex to define our relationship.

              “I didn’t say we were leaving to have sex. It’s nearly eight. The sun is down…and…well, I’m hungry!” Now he was begging me. It was kind of funny to see him whine.

              “Fine, one more sentence,” I answered. Then, without warning, he grabbed my notebook and left the room. With a smile on my face, I ran after him, sliding my notebook out of his grasp. “Okay, guess we’ll do what you want to do.”

              “Thank you,” he replied.

              “Anytime,
neighbor
,” I laughed.

              We decided to grab a quick bite for dinner on the way home. Nothing too fancy. It was nice to be able to just go out without having people stare at me. With Brad, our peers would always stare at us. They’d know who we were and they’d come up for small talk. But with Keiffer, everything was much lower key. It wasn’t until after dinner did we have a chance to finally just get away from people. We walked hand-in-hand down the beach, the stars being our guide.

              “Five months ago, did you ever think that you’d be with me tonight,” Keiffer laughed.

              “No,” I admitted. “Life sure is funny like that.” I looked up at him, watching his blonde curls swirl in the night wind. “But I’m glad life’s like that. I mean, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m so completely happy, Keiffer.”

              “I’m happy too.” He took a deep breath. “When I first saw you, I’ll admit that my heart fluttered a bit,” he laughed. “And when you answered that question about existentialism, I knew that I needed to get your attention. So I decided to argue, and now it looks like my evil plan worked.”

              “That was pretty evil! I loathed you for it!” I said seriously.

              “Yes, but now look where that’s gotten us.”

              I touched my stomach. I was probably only about six weeks along so I didn’t have a baby bump or anything yet. However, it still felt so unreal. We had made an appointment for next Monday.

              “Are you ready to be a dad?” I asked.

              He didn’t answer for a while. I actually thought that maybe he hadn’t heard me, but before I could repeat my question, he finally spoke back up. “No, I’m actually not. This whole thing has scared me but I’m going to be the best dad that I can be.”