He arched an eyebrow like he didn’t understand what I meant.
I sighed. I wanted to say Google it and you’ll understand, but I explained, because I liked talking about art. It was the one thing I understood, the one thing that was meaningful. “It’s a little girl reaching out toward a heart-shaped, red balloon, but the balloon is already floating away.”
“Do you feel like you’re floating away sometimes, Aria?”
Yes.
A lot.
All the time.
But I didn’t tell Dr. Ward that. I stayed quiet, and he never pushed me for more details.
* * *
Monday morning I walked to the bus stop and smiled seeing Simon holding four balloons that read Happy Birthday in his hand. “Happy birthday!” he shouted, handing me the balloons.
“Thanks!” I laughed.
Levi walked over to us frowning, staring at the balloons. “I didn’t know it was your birthday.” He ran his hands through his hair. “I didn’t get you anything.”
“It’s okay, really. No big deal.”
“It is a big deal!” Simon exclaimed. “Because you, my friend, are no longer sixteen. Which means you are no longer sixteen and pregnant, which means—”
I definitely knew what it meant. “I am no longer a statistic! Well, I’m still a teen pregnancy statistic, but! I’m not the MTV television show kind of statistic!”
“I think this calls for a dance,” Simon said.
“Thriller?”
“No. I think it’s hammer time.” He and I proceeded to partake in the weirdest M.C. Hammer dance right there on the sidewalk, cracking up with one another while Levi stared at us as if we were psycho, before he joined in with the dancing.
And I swear at one point, my heart swooned a little.
* * *
“Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday,” Levi said as we left calculus. He had said it at least thirty times since he found out this morning.
“You can stop feeling bad now. I can feel the love.” I snickered.
“As you should. Oh, hey. Did you hear why they never have beer at math parties?” he asked as we stood by my locker. “I guess they don’t want people to drink and derive.”
Bad math puns from an odd, Southern boy.
Birthday officially made.
Before he headed off to his next class, he handed me a folded piece of paper. I opened it and couldn’t stop the butterflies that weren’t supposed to be in my stomach.
Happy Birthday, Art!
From Soul.
There was even a terrible drawing of what was supposed to be me eating cake or something. He was as bad at drawing as I was at the drums. Luckily we balanced each other out.
“Happy Birthday,” James said from behind me, sending the butterflies in my stomach fluttering away.
“Thanks,” I muttered, closing my locker and walking away.
James hurried beside me, clearly on a mission to ruin my birthday that was just made a few minutes ago. “Listen, I didn’t want to be the one to tell you this, but I heard a rumor that Levi was messing around with Heather Randall. I just thought you should know.”
“Why do you have so much interest in Levi?” I said, rolling my eyes. I could see the jealousy that James somehow had over Levi befriending me. It was annoying to say the least.
“I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Well, aren’t you just the caring type?”
Before he could reply, Nadine came bouncing down the hallway and wrapped her arms around James’ waist. “Hey, you guys! What’s going on?”
James broke his stare from me and gave his girlfriend his smile. “Nothing, just checking in on Aria.”
Nadine smiled toward me. “He’s such a sweetheart. Speaking of sweet…what’s the deal with you and the Southern Casanova, Aria? He’s cute!”
James laughed nervously. “I doubt dating is the biggest thing on her mind right now, Na. Besides, rumor has it that he has a thing going on with Heather.”
Oh-my-gosh-I-want-to-punch-you-in-the-penis!
Instead, I gave a fake smile to Nadine. “Levi and I are just friends.”
James sighed—relieved. That annoyed me, too.
“Mhmm. I’m just saying if it were me and the baby’s father wasn’t in the picture, I wouldn’t be turned off by the attention from Levi Myers. Plus, the way he looks at you is very different than the way he looks at any other girl here.” She smiled, pulling an annoyed James off toward their next class.
Was that true, though? Did Levi look at me differently?
I looked down at my protruding belly, rubbing my palms over the bump.
It doesn’t matter.
It didn’t matter how Levi looked at me. I wasn’t allowed to think of him in any way other than a friend. In a few months, I would be having a baby and my life would be forever changed.
20 Levi
On Wednesday, Simon invited me over to his house for ‘guy time’ as he called it. When I took the shortest walk ever across the street to Simon’s house, his mom answered.
“Hi, can I help you?” She smiled.
“Hey, yeah. I’m Levi, Simon’s friend. We were going to hang out for a bit.”