Cami stared blankly at her calculus test. The test looked as if it had been written in a foreign language and she didn’t know any of it. She wanted to focus but she just couldn’t seem to do so. All she could think about was River and that girl. Questions flooded her mind. Did he ever love me? Does he really love her? How long have they been dating? Is she the reason why we aren’t together anymore? Although she was sure that she already knew, she didn’t think she wanted to know the answer to that last question.
She glanced at the clock. She only had five minutes left to finish the test! She set her pencil onto the scantron. She knew that most of her answers would be wrong but she was hoping that marking all C’s would help. By the time she had bubbled in her last answer, the bell had rung.
As she made her way out of class, she could feel everyone’s eyes on her in the hallway. She hadn’t told anyone that she was pregnant except for Marissa so she didn’t know what all of the giggling and whispering was about. Her mind suddenly was flooded with the events that occurred last night. This was probably about the argument she’d had with River. It was the only other possibility because she knew that Marissa wouldn’t tell anyone.
As she walked farther down the hallway, she saw Marissa and waved. She walked towards Cami and asked, “Why is it that I’m always the last person to find out any juicy news around here?”
“I don’t know,” Cami replied. She knew where Marissa was going with this, and she really didn’t want to talk about him right now.
“You know that everyone around here knows what happened, right?”
“Knows what?” Cami asked, trying to pretend as if she didn’t know anything when clearly she did.
“Knows what happened last night at the grocery store.”
Cami sighed and looked at the ceiling.
Marissa put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay. Things will get better.”
“Don’t do that.”
Marissa gave her a weird look. “Do what?”
“Try to shield me from the truth. Things are not going to get better. It’s only going to get worse. A lot worse,” Cami protested.
“By worse do you mean telling your mom the truth?” she inquired. There’s that question again.
“I don’t know.”
“Cami, what do you know?”
“I just found out that River’s fiancée is pregnant by him.”
Marissa chuckled. “That’s not his baby. That girl was messing around with someone else before she even started dating him.”
How did she find out about this and why hadn’t she told me? “Why didn’t you tell me?” she finally asked.
“I just found out this morning,” Marissa answered.
“So what are you saying?”
Marissa rolled her eyes as if the answer was obvious. “River’s not the father of that baby and he knows that.”
“Then why is he with her?”
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know, Marissa. If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking you.”
“What kind of girl is she?”
“A pretty girl.”
“Cami, any girl can be pretty. Beauty comes in different shapes, sizes, and colors. What’s unattractive to you may be attractive to someone else.”
“Your point?”
“Did you not hear what I just said?”
“Just come on out and tell me.”
Without saying a word, Marissa laced Cami’s fingers with hers and led her outside near the old oak tree. When they were freshmen, they would sit underneath the tree and eat lunch. Those were some of the best days of Cami’s life. Now it seems like an old memory that’s slowly fading away.
“Cami,” she began, “that baby isn’t River’s baby. He knows that but doesn’t care. The only thing that he cares about is her money but she doesn’t know that.” Cami couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He’s engaged to her because of her money? Maybe that’s why he dumped me. Maybe he started seeing her while we were still dating and after he found out how much she was worth, he dumped me.
“So, he’s with her because of what she can give him, but he left me because I couldn’t give him anything?” Cami asked. She could feel hot tears come to her eyes once again.
“Cami, don’t do that to yourself. It’s not your fault. Some guys are just jerks and River’s one of those guys,” Marissa said, as she wrapped her arms around her.
She was right. River was a jerk. He was one of those guys, Cami thought. “How did you find this out?”
“River told his friends and one of them told someone else who told me,” Marissa casually answered. “But my source told me that when he found out that he wasn’t the father, he was mad as hell. He’s still supposed to be going through with the wedding so he can have access to her cash.”
Cami snorted. “Taking her money is his way of getting revenge?”
Marissa patted her on the back. “You should be glad that you got rid of him. You don’t deserve someone like that.”
A tear rolled down Cami’s cheek. “Don’t you mean that he should be glad that he got rid of me?”
Later that day as Cami made her way to her bedroom, all she could think about was River. New fears invaded her mind. What if he didn’t want to have anything to do with their unborn child because of Adriana? What if she made him choose between her and his baby with Cami? He would choose to see his baby even if Adriana didn’t want him to, right? She shook her head at those thoughts. Although she was aware that they could all be strong possibilities, she shouldn’t be thinking about such negative things. She had enough to worry about as it is.
She heard a knock on her door. “Come in,” she said. Her mother came inside and sat on her bed. She noticed that her mother didn’t look too happy but decided not to ask any questions about it. She had a sinking feeling that she was in trouble. “How was school today?” Diane asked, with her hand resting underneath her chin. That definitely wasn’t a good sign.
“Fine,” Cami lied.
“Really?”
This time she didn’t make eye contact with her mother. “Yeah.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Diane said in a harsh tone.
Oh, no! What does Mom know? It can’t be that I’m pregnant. She would be too upset. It’s probably about that stupid argument—at least I hope that’s what it’s about.
“Your teachers have been calling me. Apparently, your grades have dropped.”
She couldn’t look at her mother. She knew that her grades had dropped and she knew why. She couldn’t seem to focus on anything anymore. She couldn’t go two seconds without being distracted. Her mind was constantly racing, and she was always thinking about how she had ruined her life. She thought about River and how he deserted her. She was constantly thinking about the baby every second, minute, and hour of the day. The one thing that she didn’t want to think about was telling her mother that she was pregnant. As the days came and went, she knew that the day was getting closer to her delivering the baby which meant that she would have to tell her mother sooner rather than later.
“Cami...Cami...Cami!” her mother shouted.
“What?” she asked startled.
“Why are your grades so low?”
“I…I don’t know,” she lied once again.
“You do know. Don’t tell me that you don’t know because you do know. If you don’t tell me what you do know, I’m going to tell you what I know and it’s going to get ugly.”
Wow. She’s serious. Maybe I should just tell her now before she kills me.
Cami sighed. “Well, Mom. I…”
“Mom, telephone!” Kaci called out.
She let out a sigh of relief. She had never been so happy to hear her little sister’s voice.
“This conversation isn’t over,” her mother said over her shoulder before exiting her room.