We walk around for a while, everyone talking and laughing. After about 20 minutes of that, we see Stacia again. Except... she's with this random guy, and they're making out by the railing. Mike scoffs as he passes her.
"Watch out, the whore might give you herpes!" he yells. Neither of them says anything, but Stacia's eyes stare daggers at him, and he just flips her off.
"You can walk home, bitch." he says.
I pull Vic closer and whisper to him, "So, you still want me to be best friends with her?" He chuckles and lightly hits me in the shoulder.
"Stop it, I didn't know all of this would happen!" I grin and shove him gently with my shoulder. We walk for a minute or two before Mike groans and sits on a bench, catching his head with his hands. Everyone stops, and Vic is the first to go sit next to him.
Then Jaime goes and sits on his other side. They hug him from both sides so he's kind of stuck, and he can't help but laugh a little. Tony and Maya smile, and Avery and I step away for a second. She tells Tony that we'll go back to a place a while back that had really cool beaded jewelry. As we walk down the boardwalk, Avery looks like she has something on her mind.
"Jai..." She looks at me with a panicked expression on her face.
"What??"
"I think I'm pregnant!" she whispers, looking around to see if anyone heard her. I try to speak, to say something, anything. But I can't. "Well, say something! Jai, seriously, you're scaring me." she says.
"I... have you told Jaime?" I ask finally. She looks at the ground.
"About that..."
"What do you mean?!?
"If I'm pregnant, it's not Jaime's baby..." she explains. I can feel my jaw drop as my eyes widen in shock. "Jaime and I haven't even had sex yet-"
"WHO'S BABY IS IT?!" I interrupt. She looks at the ground again, tears filling her eyes.
"Tony and I-"
"WHAT?! Tony?! FUCKING TONY?! Avery, this will kill Jaime!" I interrupt again.
"No, because he won't find out! Hopefully I'm not even pregnant, okay?" she says.
"How many times have you and Tony... ya know...?" I ask.
"Just once, like a week a go. I'm four days late, and I'm really scared." Avery answers, looking massively embarrassed.
"Well I'm glad it's only once I guess... How'd it even happen?"
She sighs and runs her hand through her hair. "We were hanging out 'cause you and Vic were gone, and everyone else was asleep. And we wanted to drink, so we went to a bar and I guess we got really drunk and we went to this motel and... Jesus, Jai. I'm such an idiot. I love Jaime. Not Tony, and now I've fucked everything up."
"It's okay, I have the keys to Vic's rental. Let's go get a test and we can do it at a gas station. We can tell everyone we just wanted to get some slurpees."
"Okay..." Avery sighs.
"It's okay. You're not pregnant, c'mon." I reassure her, putting one arm around her shoulder as we walk to the car.
"Jai! It's negative!" She's screaming through the gas station bathroom stall. I laugh to myself and start screaming with her.
"FUCK YEAH!" She runs out and high fives me. After we've both calmed down a bit, we get slurpees and head back out to the car.
"You cannot let this happen again. I'm serious. We got lucky this time, of course I'm not telling Jaime, but dude. Watch your drinking." I warn her.
"I know... I'm sorry. I thought I was over the whole alcoholic thing. It won't happen again, Jai." she promises.
"Let's go back to the guys." I say, starting the car.
"Okay." She smiles at me, and we drive back to the boardwalk. Once we catch up to the guys, they're obviously curious as to where we'd been.
"We just went for some slurpees." I explain, and Avery looks at the ground.
"We should've all gone together!" Maya says.
"Next time we can, Maya." Avery answers, looking back up. Maya smiles cutely. She's such a sweet little girl. Vic steps up next to me and naturally I loop my arm around his. He leans into me as we all start walking again.
"So what's the real reason you two left?" he asks. I turn my head to see him staring knowingly at me.
"I don't know what you're talking about-"
"Oh come on, Jai. I know you, now tell me the real reason." he interrupts me.
"It's not a big deal, it doesn't matter." I reply.
"You can just tell me later." he says.
"I-"
"Shhhh..."
"Oh shut up." I smile. He chuckles and kisses my cheek.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vic and I are laying in his bunk, whispering while the others sleep. I'm tracing little circles on the back of his hand as it rests on my stomach.
"So what's the real reason you and Avery left the boardwalk today?" Vic asks. I exhale.
"It's not really my place to tell you, I really shouldn't." I reply. He looks at me with disappointed brown eyes. Fuck. "Stop." I say.
He starts working it even more with the puppy eyes and pouting lips.
"Stop what?" he asks.
"Seriously-"
"Jai..." Vic complains.
"I CAN'T TELL YOU VIC STOP IT!" I whisper yell, now really frustrated. He sighs and looks away.
"No." That's all he says. He just looks at me for a few seconds before kissing me lightly and laying down, closing his eyes. It's not long before Vic's fingers find mine and he grips my hand.
"I'm sorry." he whispers.
"What for?"
"For wanting to know everything all the time. I just get scared sometimes." he explains.
"Scared of what?"
"Losing you."
I'm shocked, honestly. If anything, it should be me who's afraid of losing Vic. Definitely not the other way around.
"That's crazy and you know it." I say.
"No, you'll be going to college in a month and I'll just be here-"
"JUST here? You're fucking famous, Vic." I cut him off.
"You'll meet so many new people at Columbia and we have no way of knowing if you just might outgrow me..."
I don't know why, but this frustrates me way too much.
"Is that what you think when we're together, 'hey better not get too close she'll just leave anyways'?" I ask.
"I don't even want to think that. But yeah, I get worried sometimes." Vic answers.
"Why??"
"Because, Jai! Have you ever met yourself?? You're probably the funniest, sweetest, loveliest, most creative, interesting, captivating, complicated, and frustrating...and real, and... you're so beautiful, Jai. It won't be long before someone else finds that out and then I'm gone." Vic explains, making me blush.
"Vic... I-"
"No, don't defend yourself, it's okay. Let's not talk about this, please. I really don't like thinking about it." he sighs.
We lay in silence until he eventually falls asleep. He's so warm, and he fits so perfectly next to me. I'm so used to sleeping next to him and spending every second with him. How will I survive at college?
Trying to push it out of my mind, I close my eyes and drift into a shaky sleep.
