alone wasn’t something I wanted, and I didn’t think Krissa wanted to go home, either. She looked more than ready to stay just where she was, and said her phone was probably ringing off the hook with Ryan at the other end. “I don’t want to deal with him right now,” she told me.
More than just glad she wanted to stay, I took hold of the phone and tossed it her way, saying to call her parents and that I had clothes she could borrow for the following day. “I can wake you up when I leave for zero-hour.”
“Sounds fab.” Krissa took the phone and dialed her home, talked to her dad, and then hung up. Their conversation lasted all of thirty seconds. “Ryan called twice,” Krissa shared as she put the phone back in its cradle. “Can we go to bed now?” She seemed a little agitated.
“Sure. I probably have an extra toothbrush, too.”
Krissa followed me back to my bedroom where I pointed to the closet and told her to put on whatever pajamas she found. We were both about the same size and I had a few outfits to choose from. When I came out from the bathroom after washing my face and brushing my teeth, a plaid-dressed Krissa went in and did the same.
After we both climbed into bed, I felt the need to confess to my best friend. “Jensen came to town on Saturday,” I divulged, pulling the blankets up to my neck.
Krissa turned toward me, propping her head up on her right hand. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“I don’t know, I guess because it was a weird visit. You seemed to be pretty upset about Ryan and I didn’t want to put this on you.” I stared up at the ceiling.
“That’s what friends are for, to talk about our guy problems.”
I wondered just how much I should tell her, and then I decided I was already in it and I should probably just continue to share how shitty my weekend had been. “After I got home from the SATs, I found those roses on the counter. Jensen invited me to dinner via a card.”
“How odd,” my friend commented. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught her examining some of her hair, which she had pinched between her thumb and index finger.
“We went to The Fiddlehead and it seemed like he’d been there before. Anyway, the whole dinner was a bit tense because the last time we saw each other was when I went to Phoenix and all that shit with his ex and her kid happened.”
“Wait, you didn’t say anything about this to me. Oh, do tell!” Krissa dropped the hair she’d been examining and was suddenly all ears.
Backing up the story to when I’d met Savannah the first time, I brought Krissa up to the present and told her all about my weekend with Jensen. She got a brief rundown of what The Fiddlehead was like and what they had to offer (because she just had to know), and then I told her that Jensen got the DNA test back and it wasn’t a perfect match.
“He’s not the father? That’s great news!” Krissa exclaimed.
I gave her a look and her excitement wilted fast.
“So who’s the father? If it wasn’t a perfect match, then he’s just related to the kid somehow, right?” She hadn’t thought the test result through.
“Emery.”
Krissa eyes widened and she got a shocked look on her face before letting out a low and bewildered, “Nooo!” She leaned in closer to hear more and I told her what Emery had told Jensen about hooking up with Savannah. Krissa didn’t understand why Jensen would feel cheated on because they were broken up at the time.
“Yeah, Kris, but there’s like some kind of bro code that you don’t fuck around with your brother’s ex. That also goes for the ex of your best friend. It’s even worse if they haven’t been broken up for very long.”
Krissa began chewing on her thumb nail.
“His parents are pretty pissed at both him and Emery for being so careless,” I continued, “and Dan and Ashlyn didn’t mess around when it came to ‘the sex talk.’ They were pretty adamant about birth control and having safe sex.”
Krissa took in all that I said and had few questions, but then I brought up Jensen’s small tryst with Fallon and that seemed to floor her even more. She wasn’t surprised Jensen got high, most everyone did at some point, but she couldn’t get over him messing around with another girl, no matter how much weed he smoked.
“It had to be the booze, Mia,” she offered.
I sort of agreed, but that wasn’t an excuse. From there I told her about the rest of my time with Jensen at The Club and then lunch at Bullwinkle’s, not leaving out the details of him flirting with Bree or treating me like one of his guy friends. “He didn’t even want me seeing him off at the airport,” I finished with a heavy sigh.
Krissa was quiet for a few minutes and then turned to look at me, saying, “It feels like just yesterday I was helping you into my window after your midnight birthday rendezvous with Jensen. Who knew it would all come to this?”
“What made you think of that?”
“I guess sleeping over reminded me of when you lived with me that summer before you broke away from your mother. Things seemed so much less complicated then.” She sighed. “We seemed so much younger then, too.”
“Yeah, we did.”
For a minute I thought about Ryan and wondered when he started drinking more than just a few beers at the occasional party. When I asked Krissa out loud, she confirmed my suspicions by saying he had been drinking for quite a few years. I guess it wasn’t college that had turned him into an alky.
“Jensen didn’t really drink much before college, did he?” she asked.
“Not really. About as much as Nate, I guess.”
“Nate a year ago, maybe,” Krissa commented, stifling a yawn.
I immediately came to attention. “You noticed, too?”
“How could you not? He smells like a brewery.”
“Aria has to know. I wonder what she thinks about it.”
“I don’t know, she’s pretty preoccupied with being pregnant. Do you think the baby is why Nate started drinking?”
I nodded. Shit, how do I skate around this question? Of course I know it is because of the baby. He had come to see me drunk off his ass after he’d found out.
Krissa rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. “Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more interesting.” She gave a dark laugh.
“Yeah,” I said, rolling onto my side.
It was quiet for a few minutes and then Krissa reached up and turned the light off, ending our conversation abruptly by telling me goodnight.
“See you in the morning,” I said, rolling over and closing my eyes. I fell asleep quickly.
The next morning, I didn’t have to wake Krissa up—the shower did that
