Chapter Twelve-
Even though I barely got to school on time the following Monday, as soon as I got to class Derek got up and started to walk over to me, but was interrupted by the bell.
At lunch, I saw Kayla was at Steph's table again, so I sighed, wishing I could just eat in the bathroom.
I was surprised when I felt someone catch me by the elbow and I turned to see Derek. I blinked in surprise, and since I hadn't been expecting to see him, I forgot to breeze right past him as if he didn't exist.
"Why are you touching me?" I asked, pulling my elbow out of his grasp.
"You look lost," he remarked.
I pulled myself up, rebelliously squaring my shoulders. "Well, I'm not. If you'll excuse me..."
"Is this how it's going to be from now on?" he asked me, having the nerve to look irritated at the prospect. "You won't even talk to me?"
"What do you expect, Derek?" I shot back, my eyes narrowing. "Would you like me to buy you a cigar and balloon and tell you congratulations?"
"I'm not happy about this either, Nikki."
"Well, I don't know what to tell you. I guess you should buy condoms next time you're screwing someone you don't care about."
I started to walk away, but he caught me by the elbow again. "Wait a minute."
"Why should I?" I asked.
He paused for a second, looking at me with those eyes that made the ice start to melt, so I pulled away again, forcing my eyes away from his.
"Can't we work something out?" he asked. "We can still be friends, can't we?"
"Hell no," I said.
"So, what, I just lose you altogether? I don't even get to see you now?"
"You didn't lose me, Derek, you threw me away."
With that, I turned and walked away from him, finding a seat in the far corner of the cafeteria all by myself.
The next few days weren't much better.
Initially, I had thrown myself back into school, and that was keeping me busy enough to keep me from any thoughts of Derek. But it seemed I could never be busy enough to forget him because I still noticed every single time I would feel his eyes on me, whenever he would walk by me and steal a glance at me, or worse, when he would be walking near enough to Kayla for it to look like they were together.
Kayla noticed too. It brought me a small measure of satisfaction that when she would notice Derek looking over at me, she would shoot me a dirty look and cling to him. It was pretty pathetic, honestly. Why would she want him if she had to make him be with her?
I think Kayla expected Derek to be the way he had been with her when he wanted to make me jealous, so his apparent lingering interest in me made her pretty mad. Not to mention the fact that he wasn't even discreet. It wasn't that he kept voicing his interest in me, because he didn't say anything else to me after that; it was just easy to see. It was visible in the way he looked at me, the way he would look up when I would walk into a room, or get a little more alert when he would hear my voice. Kayla could yammer on for a half hour and he would just nod with a faraway expression. All I had to do was clear my throat and he would take notice.
Boy did that piss Kayla off.
But what did she expect? He didn't want her, he was just being an idiot.
I did sink to toying with the idea of giving in and giving Derek a little bit of attention, and who knows where that might end up?
But as soon as the thought of cheating entered my mind, I would think of my mother. That was what she had done, and look how things ended up for her. Before I thought Derek was different from Mike, but since I realized he wasn't, I knew enough to know that having an affair with him would only cause me more suffering, just as it had my mother. I surely didn't see myself driving head on at Kayla, but I didn't want to experience anymore pain over him either.
I wouldn't make that mistake. My mom wanted to make Mike choose between them, but she couldn't seem to follow through. I would be stronger than that. If Derek wanted to make the wrong choice, he was just going to have to live with it. He would not have his cake and eat it too.
It was really tempting to skip lunch every day, because lunch seemed to be the worst. Maybe it was just seeing Kayla in her glory with Stephanie, giving me smug looks that seemed to say, "Look, I get first dibs on everything you want." Seeing Derek sitting at the end of his table looking sullen didn't help. For all that I wanted to hate him –told myself I did hate him—I didn't want him to be sad, and he just looked so sad. Even at a table full of people, he somehow looked lonely.
And I missed him. I despised myself for missing him, but I did. I longed to go sit by him and start talking about a book, just to get him to smile.
And I only had weak moments like that at lunch.
I started to blame low blood sugar.
It was a Friday when lunch finally turned around. I entered the cafeteria and did my quick overview to see who was already there. I didn't see Derek, and I saw Kayla up at the front of the line, so I figured I wouldn't make it to Stephanie first. I really didn't have much of an appetite, and looking at the choices didn't really make my mouth water. I decided I would just order some overcooked fries, that way I wouldn't have to be in the lunchroom for very long, and maybe I could skip out and go to the library to do homework.
Suddenly I sensed a presence behind me, so I turned around and saw Derek standing there again.
I sighed and turned back around, wondering why he had to get in line behind me.
"Hi," he said casually.
"Hi," I replied tonelessly.
"Hungry?" he asked.
I turned on my heel to face him. "Why are you making small talk with me?" I asked, not playing his little game.
He averted his gaze, looking down at his shoes briefly, then bringing his gaze back to mine. "I wondered if... I need to talk to you for a minute."
"Why?" I asked, my expression guarded.
He glanced around and said, "I don't really want to talk about it right here. Can we step outside?"
I sighed again, that time on purpose. "Derek, I'm really not in the mood right now."
"Please," he said, looking into my eyes.
Even as I cursed myself for falling into those blue eyes, I found myself nodding. "Okay, but just for a second."
I stepped out of line and followed Derek out of the cafeteria. We walked silently down the hall and out the doors, then Derek sat on the stone bench and waited for me to join him.
Since he didn't start talking immediately, I decided to prompt him. "Did you have something to say to me, Derek? I would like to eat my lunch."
He sat there for another couple seconds, so I got up to leave, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me back down beside him.
"I made a mistake, Nikki."
That was the understatement of the century.
"Actually, I've made a few mistakes," he amended, looking at me solemnly. "I miss you."
I felt my heart give an inch, but I quickly brought myself back to my senses, reminding myself what had happened last time I let my guard down with him.
Since I didn't respond, he continued. "And I don't even know how you feel about me now, if you even... want to be with me anymore, but Nikki, I still want to be with you. I know I screwed up by getting Kayla pregnant, and I wish that I wouldn't have, but I think, if you were willing, we could still work this out. I'm sure she's going to be a bitch about it, and I'm sure she's going to make it hard on me, but I don't want to make the same mistake that my dad made."
Wait a minute, was he saying what I thought he was saying?
"What exactly do you mean, Derek?" I asked him skeptically, not wanting to jump to any wrong conclusions.
"I'm not really good at this," he muttered. "I've never done it before."
"What?" I pressed a bit impatiently.
He stared at me for a second, then said, "I'm asking you, even though I don't deserve it... to take me back."
My heart faltered briefly and all I could do was stare at him. "You mean... but what about Kayla?"
"I don't give a damn about Kayla," he stated. "I'm still going to take responsibility, but like my dad said, my responsibility is to the baby, not to Kayla."
"Your dad?" I said, finally feeling completely puzzled.
Derek nodded. "We had another talk. It was very Ward Cleaver, but... he even advised me to do this. He told me not to make the same mistake he made."
I never thought I would be glad for Mike giving Derek advice about that particular situation, but in that moment, I was.
Or was I glad? Was Derek even serious? Was he able to follow through?
"But you're with Kayla, Derek," I reminded him.
He shook his head. "No. I only went back to her because I didn't know what I was doing, Nikki. I was... confused and I had no idea what I was supposed to do... I can't even explain to you the way I was feeling."
Reluctantly, I felt myself sympathizing a little bit.
"But I can't do it," he said. "If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but... I don't want to be with her, I want to be with you. I know I don't deserve you, especially not after this, and I know I'm asking you to put up with more now, because... I am going to be a father, and with Kayla being the mother it isn't going to be simple, but..."
"Did you break up with her?" I asked.
"Not officially, but I don't even know if I'm officially with her."
"Well, I'd say you're definitely with her," I told him.
He averted his gaze again. "Well, then... I guess I haven't."
"You really should have done that before you even brought this up to me," I told him. "If you're being honest with me, if you really want me back, you really want to work things out, you shouldn't make it seem like your breaking it off with Kayla is contingent upon my response. If you don't want to be with her, break up with her, but I'm not going to wait around on you to make up your—"
"Okay, I get it," he said, smiling reluctantly. "I am going to break up with her, and I do want to be with you. If you'll have me, that is."
Honestly, I wasn't sure what to say. On the one hand I was ecstatic that he wanted me back, but part of me was still miffed at being thrown away so carelessly. Then I had to acknowledge that he had just found out he was going to be a father, so it was probably understandable that he would be...
Damn, he was going to be a father. He was actually going to have a baby with Kayla, meaning she would be in his life forever, and in my life as long as mine was tied to his.
But I did miss him, and the longer I sat there next to him, the harder it was to even think of turning him away.
There was one thing I had to know before I went agreeing to anything though. "I'm going to ask you a question and I want an honest answer, no matter what you think I want to hear."
"Okay," he said, frowning slightly.
I paused for a moment, mustering the courage to ask what I wanted to ask and act accordingly when I heard his answer. I finally did ask, "Have you slept with her since you found out about the baby?"
"No," he replied instantly.
I breathed a sigh of relief, even though I didn't mean to. "Good," I said. "Just so we're clear, if you would have said yes, I would have left you sitting here on this bench and never looked back."
He nodded. "Noted."
"But you didn't," I said, my face easing into a small smile. "You're right, you made a terrible choice, but since you've obviously seen the error of your ways, I do believe there may be hope for you, Derek Noble."
"God, I've missed you," he said, wasting no time, placing a hand behind my neck and pulling me over so he could kiss me.
It felt so good just to have Derek touch me again, just to feel him close. I smiled into the kiss, wrapping my arms around his neck and snuggling up against him. "How are we going to do this, Derek?"
"I don't know," he said honestly. "But we're going to figure it out, because I have not liked being without you."
"No, I'm not really a fan either." I pulled back, realizing I might be giving him exactly the wrong message. "Now don't start thinking you're just going to be able to break up with me and I'm just going to come running back every time, either. If you cast me aside again, I'm not coming back, no matter how much we miss each other."
"I will never do that," he said.
"Yeah, well, pardon me if I don't automatically believe you," I muttered.
"I'm going to earn your trust back, Nikki," he stated.
"You can try," I said.
He slanted me a look, pulling me back in for another kiss. "Don't sound so confident in my abilities," he said sarcastically.
I shrugged. "I can't help it, Derek. You're lucky I ever decided to trust you in the first place, but things just aren't going to go back to how they were. I don't even know if I'll be able to trust you again, but even if I can, it may not come easy. All I can promise is that I'll try."
"I don't care," he said. "I'm not letting you go again. As long as you're willing to give me another chance, we're going to make this work."
"Even if Kayla tries to stop you?"
"Even then," he agreed.
"Okay," I said carefully, wondering if I was making another mistake. "And if you find out you've knocked anyone else up –which, I'm warning you, you better not—you will not dump me to go running to her rescue?"
"No. That was a mistake. I don't even know what I was thinking, I wasn’t thinking, I just... I mean, I found out I'm going to be a father. I haven’t even graduated high school yet. Just accepting that this is actually going to happen hasn't been fun. There was lots of pot involved to calm me down, but there isn't enough pot in the world to make me okay with playing house with Kayla."
I scoffed at the idea. "No, I don't think there's even enough morphine in the world for that."
He half smiled, reaching over to lightly take my hand. "I'm sorry I've put you through all this, Nikki. I never wanted to prove you right about this."
I nodded. "I'm sorry I lied to you about the whole Andy thing. Maybe if I wouldn't have lost my mind and been so childish, this whole thing never would’ve happened."
He shrugged. "We can't undo any of it, so we may as well just make the best of it." Almost as an afterthought, he added, "Oh, and will you please take your car? It's hogging up my spot in the garage."
I smiled. "I miss my car."
"It misses you, too. Take it?"
"I don't know," I said reluctantly. "I think we should take it slow this time."
"Slow?"
"Yeah. I don't think we should go jumping into anything again."
"Well... okay, but we are back together, aren't we?"
"Yeah, I think so. I guess I am allowed to take the car if we're back together," I reasoned.
"Yes, you are," he said, standing up and holding his hand out to take mine.
I put my hand in his and also stood.
"Want to sit with me at lunch?" he asked.
"That will make Kayla really mad," I warned him.
"What's she gonna do, break up with me?"
Thinking about it, I realized the whole situation was going to make Kayla mad, because she thought she won.
Oddly, I didn't feel too bad about bursting her bubble.
The transition phase was a little more awkward than either of us hoped it would be. As much as I wanted to just hold onto Derek and not let anyone take him from me again, my sense of self-preservation implored me to be cautious, take it slow—just in case.
As much as I liked Derek –and honestly, probably still loved him—I saw no reason to advertise it. As far as I was concerned, my feelings for Derek were a shameful weakness that I didn't want people to know about, least of all Derek himself. I was having a hard enough time admitting it to myself, so why bring anyone else into it?
I did sit with him at lunch that day, and for all that it embarrassed me that I took him back so easily, it was almost worth it when I saw the frozen look of shock on Kayla's face as Derek put a hand on the small of my back and leaned in to whisper in my ear before we sat down. At first she just stared, unable to blink or lift her jaw up off the table, but when she realized something was happening that wasn't in her plan, her eyes flared and she nearly knocked someone's tray in their lap in her haste to get over to us.
“Prepare for drama," I muttered to Derek.
"What?" he asked, since he hadn’t been paying attention to Kayla.
I didn't have to answer him, as Kayla stormed up to the table at exactly that moment.
"What the hell is going on here?" she demanded. "What is that whore doing sitting next to you?"
"Wow, I'm experiencing a sense of déjà vu," I murmured to Derek.
"Don't whisper to him!" Kayla shrieked.
I grimaced, covering my ear. "Okay, seriously, you need to lower your volume."
"Derek, I am your girlfriend," she stated.
He glanced up at her. "Do you have to do this right here? This is really not how I planned on having this conversation."
Her eyes were so wide it might have been comical if the circumstances were different.
"Derek!" she whined again. "I'm carrying your child!"
"I know that," he said, lowering his eyes. "We'll figure something out concerning...the baby. But we broke up for a reason, Kayla, and a baby isn't going to magically fix all that. If anything, it will just complicate things."
"So what, you don't want to have a baby now?" she asked, glaring at him. "If you would prefer, I can just go get an abortion, really clear the way for you and your whore."
Derek shot her a look. "We've already had that discussion, Kayla, you know that isn't what I want."
"Why should I give a damn what you want when you obviously don't care about me at all?"
At this point, there were several people from the surrounding tables watching the drama unfold.
And they had already discussed other options? For some reason, maybe because I hadn't been involved, I didn't realize that they had already discussed their predicament. That made me feel strangely out of the loop, and I wondered if Derek would even clue me in later. Was I supposed to be clued in? What was my role, exactly? Now there was going to be another little life brought into the whole situation? What was I getting myself into? Was Derek, Kayla and a baby more than I could handle? After all, I wasn't even graduated from high school yet, so should I really have to think about all of those things?
If you want to be with Derek you do, I answered myself.
Right. He had to complicate my life.
I decided that I would think about it later, when Kayla wasn't standing in the middle of the cafeteria, yelling at Derek and calling me a whore as she jabbed her manicured finger in my face.
My eyes narrowed and I resisted the urge to grab that nail and rip it right off.
Must be civil.
"Could you please stop jabbing your finger in my face?" I requested, looking up at her with what I hoped wasn't a hostile expression.
She narrowed her eyes at me and poked me in the chest.
I pressed my lips together so tightly that I was sure they were turning white, but when she poked me again I couldn't resist smacking her hand away.
"Don't hit me!" she said. "Derek, did you see that?"
Oh, how I longed to really hit her.
"Kayla, go sit down," he said tiredly.
She huffed one last time, telling one of us –or maybe both of us—that she wasn't done yet, then storming away.
Once she was gone I looked over at Derek, who looked back at me.
"Seriously," I said, shaking my head, "what the hell were you thinking?"
We didn't have to deal with Kayla for the rest of that day, but after school Derek had to go home and change before work, so we didn't really get a chance to talk.
I needed to think it over anyway, because I was kind of torn. I told Derek I wanted to move slowly, but I almost felt like I needed to hurry up and figure out where we were heading, because if I wanted to get into a relationship with Derek again, it wasn't something I could do halfway.
I hated to be one of those girls always needing to know "where do we stand?" but at the same time, I had the obnoxious ex-girlfriend who was pregnant with his kid to deal with. I wasn't just trying to decide if we should go to prom together, I was trying to decide if we had anything worth all the crap I was going to have to deal with.
Kayla had the power to make the next several years of my life hell if I decided to be with Derek. Did I really want to tolerate her? No. But did I want to be with Derek? Yes. So I was left trying to decide if it was all worth it.
There was also the fact that I was still a little miffed that he knocked her up in the first place. It might have been different if we wouldn't have been together prior to that, but that asshole actually slept with her after he slept with me.
My more sensible side acknowledged that if Derek and I were going to go anywhere, I was going to have to forgive him for that and move on.
And it somehow seemed easier than I expected...
That was where I always dug my heels in the ground and refused to think past that point. I couldn't seem to decide if I wanted to forgive him. What kind of woman would that make me? Would I be doing what my mother did? I didn't ever want to repeat her mistakes, and I knew she had been willing to forgive Mike just so she could have him.
Thinking about it aggravated me so much.
I liked my callous attitude toward love and men; it kept me safe. What I didn't like was having to acknowledge that I actually cared about Derek enough to question that attitude, possibly even make an exception.
I knew that was a bad idea. I wasn't supposed to make exceptions. I was supposed to stay strong, to resist. I was supposed to be stronger than my mother had been, not let a danger to my heart inside my protective walls.
And there I found myself, telling Derek it was okay if he knocked up other girls, I still wanted to be with him.
What self-respecting woman would even be willing to do something like that? A year earlier, I would have laughed –hysterically—if someone would’ve tried to tell me I would be doing that. Not me. I was smarter than that, I had my self-respect, and I was safe, always making smart, sensible choices.
What had happened to that girl?
But I knew the answer before I asked it. She lost her head, let her guard down, and fell in love.
Stupid girl.
Honestly, when I thought about all I was willing to sacrifice, I would withdraw, not even want to be around Derek. I would start to think of him as a drug of some sort. Maybe I was addicted, and that was why I was making such poor choices. Maybe if I just had time away from him my head would clear and I would be myself again.
But then he would smile at me, and I would be struck helpless by the way those blue eyes twinkled at me, by the smile lines around his mouth. Or worse, he would touch me, pull me close, and it would only take one sideways glance, one affectionate squeeze, and I realized I didn't want to pull away from him.
Maybe he was an addiction.
But maybe I didn't want to get over it.
After all, for all that I thought I had it all figured out, none of my views of what I should do as a self-respecting young woman felt nearly as good as when he would call me "hon."
Then there was Kayla. While Derek only seemed to bring me to this happy, oblivious little bubble, Kayla was always there to jerk me back to reality. Derek may have officially broken up with her, but she seemed to think it was still her job to be a royal pain in his ass. I actually caught her demanding money a couple times so she could stop and get something to eat after school. This made my blood pressure rise a little bit, but she just smiled, took his money and said affectionately, "For the baby."
It took a couple weeks before I felt that Derek and I were finally settling into our newly rearranged positions.
Even though it drove me a little crazy, Derek was still working two jobs. When I suggested that it was too much, that he shouldn't be doing so much work all the time, he told me the only way he was going to get to go to college even part-time was if he saved up enough money to pay for whatever the baby needed, and whatever books he might need for school.
"Part-time?" I asked, frowning.
He nodded. "My dad's going to help me out with school and everything, but even excluding tuition, I still have to buy books and cover normal expenses like food, gas... maybe even rent, I don't know. I don't exactly know how this is going to work now."
"I thought you were going to school full-time. You had a plan, Derek," I told him, bothered that he changed it without even telling me.
"Well, I know that Nikki, but a baby wasn't in that plan. Babies aren't free," he told me.
"I'm aware of that. That's where child support comes in, but I still don't see what this has to do with you not going to school."
"Kayla's mom doesn't even have insurance, Nikki. Kayla has no insurance. When the time comes, I have to help her pay for the hospital bill, I have to help her buy a crib and... whatever else babies need."
"But if you only go part-time it's going to take you four years just to get your associate's degree. What about transferring?" I asked.
I hadn't told him, but part of the reason I was so bothered by him changing up the plan was that I had started to make a plan. He talked to me about college so much that he made me start to think maybe I shouldn't just shrug it off, maybe I should check into it, see about what kinds of grants or scholarships I could get to help me pay for it. But the plan had been to go to school with Derek and Steph, and if Derek only went part-time, he was going to be two years behind me.
But instead of reassuring me that he was still going to go through with college, no matter what, he simply shrugged tiredly and said, "I don't know."
I let the subject drop for the moment, but I still wasn't happy.
Not only was Kayla trying to hold our relationship back, she was even holding him back in terms of his future.
Then again, I had to acknowledge that unexpected pregnancies probably often led to such sacrifices; at least he was willing to make them. It said something for his character, but I hated to admit that, because I realized it was similar to the sacrifice Mike had made. Mike's sacrifice had been greater, as he sacrificed his happiness and the woman he loved, but I condemned him for that, so how could I give Derek credit for something so similar?
When I would ask that, though, I would remind myself that I could still pat Derek on the back, because he was owning up to his mistakes, but not making me pay for it. Mike had just taken the lazy road of sacrifice, whereas Derek was pretty much killing himself to hold onto me—and pay his penance.
Thinking of it that way made my heart swell, and once I even wrapped my arms around him and just hugged him for no apparent reason, completely confusing him.
Derek was doing it the right way. He was taking complete responsibility for his actions, but he wasn't letting me go just because it would be easier.
I had to admit, I was kind of proud of him.
Even though I hated seeing him work 40 to 45 hours a week and go to school, I had to respect him for being willing to go to any lengths to right his wrongs without giving me up.
It made me happy that he wanted to hold onto me that much.
It made me feel a little lazy though.
Although I'm not sure that it was a conscious decision, seeing how Derek was handling everything and being true to his word not to hurt me again, he started to earn back my trust. When I acknowledged that we were truly, completely back together, I decided it was time that I step up to the plate a little. I did some more research on the community college we were all planning to attend, and I figured out the tuition for a full-time student—or two full-time students.
Once I had all that figured out, I told the manager at Wendy's that I'd like an extra day or two a week, and he agreed, giving me two and pushing me up to five days a week.
When February rolled around, I decided it was time to roll up my sleeves and start sharing in the baby talk. After all, if I was going to be a part of it, I had to start slowly pushing myself into the baby part of the picture.
"So, when are we getting an ultrasound picture?" I asked him one day on the way home from school. "I was thinking you could scan a copy for me."
He shrugged, turning the wheel. "I don't know."
"Well, do you have any ultrasound pictures yet? Like the first one where you can't actually see anything but a little bean?" I asked, raising one eyebrow.
"No," he replied. "I don't think she has one yet."
This caused me to frown. "What? She should have gone in for the first one by now..."
"She doesn't have insurance," he reminded me.
"Yeah, I understand that, but she will have to go to the doctor eventually, won't she?"
"Eventually, yeah, but she hasn't yet."
"Well... shouldn't you bring this up? Maybe ask her about it or something?"
"I don't know, Nikki. I don't know anything about pregnancy, just that it lasts nine months."
"How far along is she?" I asked, realizing I had never even been told the due date.
He gave me a blank look and shrugged. "I don't really know anything about it yet."
That much was obvious.
I was going to tell him it wasn't me I wanted answers for, but as the father, he should know these things. Instead, I let the topic drop for the moment.
That conversation made me realize that for all the effort Derek was exerting, Kayla wasn't keeping Derek updated at all. All he knew was that she was pregnant. He had no idea when the due date was, no ultrasound pictures, and he didn't even know how far along she was.
That was when I decided to step in. Kayla was taking advantage of Derek and he was letting her, but as far as I could see, she hadn't even produced any evidence that she was actually pregnant or that the baby was really his.
She should at least know how far along she was, so why didn't Derek?
Even though I knew it probably wasn't my best idea, I decided to try to have an actual conversation with her. In the hall one day I caught her coming out of a class, and I started walking beside her.
"Hi," I greeted.
She blinked at me. "Hi."
"So, I know we aren't best friends or anything, but since you are carrying Derek's baby, I figure we should try to get along."
"Why should I get along with you?" she replied.
"Well, because you're going to be in Derek's life because of the baby and I'm also going to be a part of Derek's life, so I think it would be in the best interest of the baby—"
"It would be in the best interest of the baby if you weren't such a homewrecking whore."
I bit my tongue, stifling the urge to tell her I hadn't wrecked a home, I had just ended a brief and meaningless relationship that had been doomed from the start anyway.
"Whether you like me or not, you're going to have to coexist with me," I stated.
"No, I plan to push your skanky ass out of the way before long," she returned.
Her blunt reply caused my eyebrows to rise. "Well, good luck with that. At any rate, I just thought I would express some interest. I was talking to Derek the other day, just asking him questions, and I realized you haven't told him much of anything."
"Why should I?" she replied, shrugging carelessly.
"Because he's the father," I offered.
"He left me," she stated simply.
"Well, I know that, but he is busting his ass right now so he can help you support a baby that you won't tell him anything about. I don't think it's that much to ask just to let him know when the due date is."
"I don't know the exact date," she stated.
"I know, but you have to have a general idea. If you don't, I found a website that can help you figure it out. If you just enter in—"
"Look, I have better things to do than talk to you," Kayla told me.
"How many weeks are you?" I asked her.
"None of your business," she said.
I rolled my eyes. "What's the big secret, Kayla? You don't think he deserves to even know the little details? I mean, it doesn't even make sense that you're so reluctant," I told her. "You're dangling your pregnancy over his head, so you'd think it would be right up your alley to shove ultrasound pictures and due dates in my face."
She stopped, turning to give me a dirty look. "Look, Nicole, at the moment my stomach is upset, probably because of the baby, and I need to get to class. I'm sure you do, too. So stop grilling me and leave me alone."
With that, she walked away.