Where I Belong

Chapter Sixteen


Mia

“See, it’s a good thing I stocked up like I did yesterday,” I say, carrying over two bags of chips and the box of cookies that Nolan and I had made a dent in yesterday. Girls’ night can’t exist without some sort of junk food. I drop them onto the coffee table and settle in next to Tessa, turning my body toward her. She isn’t crying anymore but she looks emotionally drained. I tuck my legs underneath me and place my hand on her knee. “What happened with Luke?”

She sniffs, leaning her head so it rests on the back of the couch. Her eyes are puffy and bloodshot and her nose is bright red. I’ve never seen Tessa cry before. Not even when we were younger. She was always the stronger one out of the two of us.

“I didn’t know where Luke stood on the whole kid thing. We’ve never talked about it and I didn’t want to just drop the baby bomb in his lap without being somewhat prepared for his reaction.” She reaches up and wipes a tear from her face. “I was anticipating him saying that he’d want to wait a few years to start a family and then I’d say something like instead of waiting a few years, how do you feel about waiting a few months? But he didn’t say that.” She looks down into her lap and begins picking at her nail polish.

“What did he say?”

“He said he didn’t know if he wanted kids. He said that every time he saw Ben and Nolan together, he never once thought that was something he’d want someday.” She lifts her head and looks at me. “I got so angry. I pushed him away from me and started screaming at him. I told him I was tired of whatever the hell it was we were doing together and that I didn’t want to see him anymore.” She starts crying again and I grab her hand before she continues. “I don’t even know if he was fully committed to me. He could’ve been f*cking every girl in Ruxton for all I know, and then the thought of him getting all those girls pregnant pissed me off even more. I was yelling and crying. I don’t even know if I was making any sense. He tried to calm me down but I couldn’t even look at him. I told him never to call me again and I left.”

I grab a tissue out of the box and hand it to her. “So you didn’t tell him you might be pregnant?” Even if she and Luke weren’t together anymore, I still thought he should know about it.

She chuckles softly which completely throws me off. Ending things with the father of your unborn child doesn’t seem humorous to me. “The timing of this whole thing couldn’t have been more f*cked up. After I got home, I went to the bathroom and low and behold, there was my stupid period. That bitch really took her sweet ass time making an appearance.” She shakes her head and drops it to the side, leaning it against the couch. “I keep thinking that if I would’ve just waited a day, that whole conversation wouldn’t have happened and we’d still be screwing around. But I’m glad I didn’t wait. I want a family someday. I want to get married and have kids and I wouldn’t get that with him. I’d just be wasting my time.” Her words are certain but she seems saddened by the loss of whatever it was that she and Luke shared. I tighten my grip on her hand.

“I’m really sorry things didn’t work out. With Luke and the baby. I know you were excited about being a mom.”

She shrugs. “It’s probably for the best. I see what my brother has to go through raising a baby with somebody he isn’t with. And I’m sure Luke would’ve ended things once I told him that I was keeping it.” She grabs a few cookies and rests back on the arm of the couch. “I am going to miss the sex though. My God.”

I chuckle and grab a bag of chips. “That good?” She eyes me up humorously. “Well there’s always Reed. Have you two ever gotten together?” I really had no idea if the two of them had ever hooked up. Reed was a good looking guy, and Tessa was, well, she was Tessa.

She holds her hand up to stop me, grimacing. “Gross. That would be like sleeping with Ben. And he’s got a lot of baggage. Didn’t he tell you about his last girlfriend?” I shake my head and dive into my chip bag, preparing myself for some gossip. “It’s really f*cked up. He started dating this girl senior year, Molly Mcafferty, and they were like crazy in love. Everyone thought that they’d end up married with a shit load of babies someday.” She gets up off the couch and walks to the fridge, returning with two beers and handing me one before reclaiming her seat. “But that obviously didn’t happen.” Tessa takes a sip of her beer and licks her lips. “Molly went to college in Virginia and Reed stayed here, getting on at his dad’s company. He was determined to make it work though and stayed completely faithful to her. I mean, he acted like they were married already. He wouldn’t even look at other girls. He wrote her letters all the time and would take road trips every weekend to go see her, but she never came back here to see him. Not even during holidays. And after a while, she stopped calling him all together.” I have an idea where this story is going and I almost don’t want to hear anymore. Reed is a sweet guy and doesn’t deserve what I fear Tessa is about to tell me. She continues with a heavy sigh. “I voiced my opinion on their seemingly one-sided relationship and he got all pissed at me. I told him that if he was so certain that she wasn’t two timing him, that he should go see her during the week when she wasn’t expecting him.”

“Did he?”

“Yup. He walked right in on her banging some dude in her dorm room.”

I have the sudden urge to go find Reed and hug him and beat the shit out of this Molly chick. I despise cheaters. My mom’s last boyfriend was one. “Oh God. Poor Reed. Has he dated anybody since her?”

She digs into her bag of chips, popping a few in her mouth before answering. “I wouldn’t classify hooking up with random chicks as dating. He’s like the king of one-night stands around here.”

I chuckle softly. It could’ve been Reed that night at the bar, buying me purple drinks and telling me he’d lose his mind if he didn’t get inside me soon. That thought is quickly pushed out of my head. I don’t want to imagine giving myself to anyone but Ben. I belong to him.

“He’s just afraid of falling for some chick and then getting crushed again,” she continues. “But he’s never admitted that to me. He acts as if Molly didn’t completely wreck him, but he didn’t see what I saw. That boy was destroyed.” We both chew up our mouthfuls, placing our chip bags on the coffee table when we are finish.

I am picking at the label on my beer bottle when I feel a pair of eyes on me. I look up and meet her beaming smile. “What?”

“You got naked in front of him last night, didn’t you?”

There’s the Tessa I know and love. I chuckle and shake my head. “No. I sent him a text that was meant for you.” I pull my phone out of my pocket and show it to her.

She arches her brow, reading over the text several times. “Damn. Well, that’s definitely one way to go about getting him out of the friend zone. How did he react to this?”

“How do you think he reacted to it?” I ask playfully. I scoot over next to her so that we can rest our heads against each other’s. Our legs are stretched out in front of us, our feet propped up on the edge of the coffee table. “You were right.”