Reaching over, I stilled his leg. Eyes wide, he turned to me and whispered, “I’m nervous. I’m really fucking nervous. I never get nervous. What the hell is wrong with me?”
Smiling, I told him, “You’re human. And I think it’s pretty safe to say that everybody in here is nervous on some level.”
As the pair in front of the microphone tried to lighten the mood with really bad comedy, Kellan told me, “You’re not nervous.”
I stared at Kellan for a few seconds, debating whether or not to tell him something. I’d been planning on waiting ’til all the hoopla had died down, but I knew it would absolutely take his mind off of his nerves. It was going to blow his mind. It had sure blown mine. A short movie started playing clips of the nominated bands. When I heard Kellan’s pitch-perfect voice filling the auditorium, I leaned forward and whispered my secret in his ear. His mouth dropped wide open as he stared at me in shock. Tears filled my eyes as I nodded at his unasked question.
A smile spread over Kellan’s face right as the announcers spoke in unison, “And the winner for Best New Artist is . . .” When they paused for dramatic effect, Kellan leaned forward to kiss me. “The D-Bags!”
The room erupted in cheers and applause, but I was sure Kellan hadn’t heard a word of it. Grabbing my face, he finished his descent to my lips. The other band members started standing, but Kellan was still sitting in his chair, plastering my face with light kisses. Cognizant of millions of viewers watching this on TV, I pushed him back and urged him to stand up. His face was exhilarant as he finally did. Evan and Matt clapped him on the back, urging him forward. I stood with the rest of the girls and clapped as they fumbled their way to the stage. Kellan looked back at me every five seconds, his euphoric face still in disbelief. Whether that was over winning or over my news, I wasn’t sure.
The boys climbed up the steps to the stage and exchanged polite hugs with the celebrities who’d announced them. As if on cue, Evan and Matt stepped back and let Kellan take the microphone; Griffin was subtly restrained by both men with a “supportive” hand on each one of his shoulders. Shaking his head, Kellan clutched his golden gramophone statue as he walked toward the mike
“Oh . . . wow . . . I don’t know what to say. I want to thank . . .” His voice broke and the tears in my eyes rolled down my cheeks. Bringing the back of his hand to his mouth, Kellan stopped talking. Shaking his head again, he slowly lowered his hand. “I’m sorry.” His voice warbled with barely contained emotion. “My wife just told me she’s pregnant.” He had to step back again as the moment overwhelmed him.
People started hollering. The D-Bags jumped on Kellan, congratulating him. Every head in my vicinity swiveled my direction, including my sister’s and my girlfriends’. I hadn’t told anybody about this yet. I’d really only just found out about it. Last week to be exact. And surprised wouldn’t even begin to describe my initial reaction. I was on birth control pills for one thing, so I hadn’t even been worried about getting pregnant. I just thought I was late because I was stressed, or excited. A lot of big things had been happening lately. But I just felt . . . weird. I wasn’t sick or anything, I just didn’t feel normal. I was more tired than I should be, and I alternated between not being hungry and being hungry enough to eat two loaves of bread in one sitting. I’d made an appointment with my doctor just to rule out any illnesses. She’d assured me that I wasn’t coming down with Spanish influenza, that I was pregnant.
When I matter-of-factly told the doctor that pregnancy was impossible, since I was a fastidious planner and I’d never missed a birth control pill in my life, she then informed me about a bad batch of pills that had hit the market. Apparently, the pills had been distributed in the packet incorrectly, so the dosages were wrong. Good to know. All of the mislabeled batches had been recalled, but I had apparently hit the birth control jackpot. Our baby was due in September.