Nova (41 page)

“Well I’m going to assume that Ben already told you how he knows me,” I told him.

He gave me a quirky eyebrow. “True. But maybe someone’s gonna make something up and I can crack open a big huge conspiracy.”

I laughed at his feigned seriousness, and then I lowered my voice and said, “You’re right, just don’t tell anybody that Ben is actually my brother.”

He gasped. “
Brother
?” he hissed. “Wow, that is the complete opposite of what
he
said!”

“What did he say?” I asked with narrowed eyes.

He shook his head and
dramatically
glanced around to make sure no one was listening. “Just that the two of you are actually married but can’t let anyone know about it.”

I chuckled. “Oh, did he really open up about that?” I asked.

He nodded decisively. “Yes, but I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”

“Okay,” I whispered back. “Don’t tell anyone.”

Charlie took a drink of his
soda,
so I had another bite of my food. We were the only two at the table for the moment. Ben and Andy had gone to get another pizza and more drinks, and Laurel had made a trip to the bathroo
m. Laurel was Andy’s girlfriend
and I really lik
ed her. She was very easy going
and we both had similar backgrounds. Apparently Charlie’s date was ill and had to cancel that day, which is why Ben had an extra ticket. Charlie claimed that I was his date since I got Veronica’s ticket, but Ben made it clear that I was no one’s date and warned him to keep his distance.

“It’s true, though,” Charlie finally said.

“What’s true?”

“Ben.”

“What about him?” I chuckled, unsure of what he was talking about.

“I’m not supposed to tell.”

“Tell what? Are you talking in riddles, or what?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Because I can’t tell.”

I studied him for a few seconds and shrugged my shoulders. “Okay, don’t tell. But tell me how you know Ben. You, Ben, and Andy all went to school together, right? I think that’s what he said.”

“Kind of,” he mumbled through a mouthful of food. He swallowed and added, “Ben and I were pretty good friends—not as close as him and Austin—but I was more the junkie that always got Ben into trouble.”

I studied him closely. “What do you mean?”

“I was a junkie,” he shrugged. “Ben and I were friends, but while he got caught up in the gambling world, I got hooked on heroin.
He had a hard time hanging around me because of it—which was understandable—but Ben was the one that got me clean. Beat the crap out of me one night and made me admit myself into rehab. I’d be dead by now if he hadn’t intervened.
”
I guess I was just staring at him because he smiled and said, “Oh, he didn’t exactly share that about me? Not surprising I guess. Ben’s kind of a respecter of privacy.”

I chuckled and said, “Actually I think he’s kind of nosy.”

Charlie laughed. “Oh, you mean he questions you about your life and stuff? Well that’s different. That’s just be
cause he’s a good guy like that
and he’s truly concerned about people. I meant that he keeps people’s private matters
private
.”

“Oh.”

“But he doesn’t have a problem speaking his mind, if that’s what you mean.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I replied, taking a sip of my water.

“It bothers you?”

I set my
cup
down and took a moment to thin
k about it. “No, I guess not because
I like talking to him. We’ve become friends.”

He watched me for
a few seconds and took a bite
. If I wasn’t mistaken, I could swear he had a smirk on his face. But Ben and Andy set a
nother
pizza in the middle of the table just as Andy asked, “Laurel’s still gone?”

I guess she had been gone for several minutes, but I hadn’t thought about it since I’d been talking to Charlie.

“You want me to go check on her?” I asked him.

“Uh…yeah, if you don’t mind,” he replied. “I mean she, uh, might not be feeling well…”

“Is she sick, too?”

Andy gave me a tiny smile, almost seeming embarrassed. I only glanced at Ben—who didn’t react except for a tiny raise of his eyebrow to clue me in—and I decided not to wait for an answer.

“I’ll go check on her,” I said, leaving for the bathroom.

Laurel did look ill when I spotted her at the sink. She looked like she’d just thrown up, and she took a deep breath after blotting her mouth dry with a paper towel. She saw me standing near the doorway and froze for a moment.

“You doing okay?” I asked.

She took another deep breath and nodded. “Yeah, I just… Well… I’m…”

“Yeah, you don’t have to talk about it. I can figure it out.”

She paused for a moment, seeming to think. T
hen I could tell she was crying
and she wiped away the tear that slid down her cheek.

“Do you
want
to talk about it?” I asked.

She
grabbed another paper towel and blotted around her eyes. “No, that’s okay. I mean maybe I do, but not here…”

“Yeah, I understand.”

There was silence again
and I was thankful the restroom was empty when she started to cry again.

“Andy wants to marry me,
” she said quietly. I waited for more and she added, “I don’t want to marry him.” She looked at me and said, “I mean that’s the right thing to do, right? I know he loves me, and I know that he would be a great dad, but… I just don’t feel the same way about him.”

I leaned against the counter. “At all? Do you think you might if some time passed, or maybe after the baby is born…?”

She barely shrugged. “I don’t know. Right now I just think it’s wrong to marry
him just because I’m pregnant. I mean this shouldn’t have happened in the first place, but it’s a little late for that,” she chuckled sarcastically.

I smiled
sympathetically
.

“How can
it
be a good start to a marriage if it’s done out of obligation?”

I slowly shrugged. “It’s a hard thing to determine because you don’t have that option right now. But at least Andy is taking responsibility for it. If you don’t feel right about marrying him right now, then don’t. You still have time to consider your future. And I don’t know the two of you that well, but I think Andy is willing to give you whatever it is you need. That alone says a lot about what kind of guy he is.”

“I know,” she nodded. “And he is a good guy. I just…don’t like feeling pressured.”

Just hearing her say that made my stomach sink. It was just like Austin and I, only the roles were reversed.

“Can you just tell him to give you some time to sort everything out?” I asked.

“I did, and he agreed. But I do know that it’s what he wants—marriage—and I don’t. At least not right now.”

“Okay, so—”

A woman walked into the bathroom and briefly glanced at us before she entered
a
stall. I motioned to
Laurel
and she followed me out.

“We can talk about it later if you want,” I told her.

“Okay,” she nodded. “Uh, thanks, Nova.”

“Sure, anytime.”

After quick glimpses from everyone at the table, we sat down and proceeded with our pre-concert meal. I watched Andy and Laurel out of the corner of my eye, though. Andy had put his arm arou
nd her when she sat next to him
and I could tell he asked if she was okay. I’d barely known the two of them an hour but they both seemed like good people. And Ben had kind of given me a quick rundown of personalities before we’d met up with everyone, and I
had to agree
that his friends were pretty nice.

“Everything okay in the little girls’ room?” Ben asked as we left the restaurant.

“Um, yes, conversation-wise. But I think only time will tell
for the other stuff.”

He slightly nodded as he opened the passenger’s door to his
Jeep
. “Laurel worries about what everyone else thinks instead of what’s important.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, feeling slightly defensive for her sake.

He remained at the door as I sat down in the seat. “She cares too much about the reasons behind staying with Andy. It’s
dumb
because they were going to end up together anyway.”

“You don’t know that,” I replied.

“I don’t? They’ve been together for a year, Andy even had a ring—before the whole baby thing happened—and there’s no doubt she would have said yes.”

“Well maybe proposing might have actually helped?” I retorted
sarcastically
.

He kind of scoffed and then shut my door. I watched him walk around to the driver’s seat and sit down.

“So a guy can’t be nervous about proposing to a girl?” he asked me as he turned the key. “He only had the ring for a couple of weeks. He had everything planned—h
ow he wa
s going to propose and when—and then two days before he can get it out, she tells him she’s pregnant. What’s that supposed to do to a guy? He feels like an ass if he says, ‘Well, see, I wanted to marry you anyway…’ ”

“And he didn’t say that?”

“Should he have? I mean he did eventually, but she already had it in her mind that it was for the wrong reasons. When
you’re feeling the heat, your
head isn’t thinking straight
and
you don’t exactly say the ‘right’ things. Yeah, later on he wanted to kick himself—when he didn’t tell her right away that he already had a ring and wanted to marry her.”

“You mean he told her that and she didn’t believe him?”

“Well I don’t know if she didn’t ‘believe’ him, but she was pretty skeptical. I think she was already pretty stressed out about i
t
.”

“Understandable.”

“So why are you blaming Andy? He was stressed out, too.”

“I’m not blaming anyone.”

“You seem to have your opinions set.”

“And what opinions are those?”

He sighed heavily and then slowly shook his head. “Never mind.”

“Ben, I don’t know Andy and Laurel very well. All I know is what she told me—that she didn’t want to marry him—and I think that it’s just a matter for the two of them to—”

“Wait a minute
.
She told you she doesn’t want to marry him?”

“Well…”

“At all? She doesn’t want to marry him
at all
?”

He seemed totally shocked
and I didn’t know what to say. Neither of us said anything for several seconds, but I could tell that I’d just made an even bigger mess.

“I think she’s very emotional right now, Ben. I wouldn’t take stock in what she says right now. Just give her some time to vent all of her worries.”

He drove in silence for a minute as we headed north. I was hoping the conversation was over, but after a while he said, “I kind of thought you’d be on Andy’s side for this one.”

I glanced at him as he drove
and he wasn’t hesitant to look at me
,
as well.

“Why, because Andy and I are in the same boat? We’re both pathetic fools that are in a relationship with someone that doesn’t share our same relationship goals?” He didn’t reply so I added, “Maybe Andy and I should just marry each other.”

He chuckled at that. “Nah, he’s too in love with Laurel.” I didn’t disagree but he quickly added, “Not that there’s anything wrong with you, it’s just that…”

“Yeah, yeah, sure… We all know I’ll become a spinster.”

He laughed again and shook his head as we took an exit. “Whatever. You could have any guy that you want. Except Andy because he’s taken,” he joked.

“And except Austin because he’s got more important things on his list.”

The
Jeep
wa
s silent again
but I could tell that Ben felt bad for me. I knew I was throwing myself my own little pity party, but it was hard not to.

“Austin’s clueless,” he finally
said. “If I were you I wouldn’t put up with his crap. Just saying
.
”

“And what am I supposed to do?” I asked, slightly irritated.

“All right, since you asked,” he said with contrived enthusiasm.

“Okay, so I know you have your opinions. Let’s hear ‘em.”

“Hmm, I don’t think right now is a good time.”

“Why not?”

“Uh, because I’m afraid you’ll get pissed with me and hitch a ride home.”

I smiled just slightly as I scoffed. “I doubt it,” I murmured.