Food, Cats, and Being Lazy

Seventeen

My parents were going to lose their minds. Paige was supposed to go off to college and make the family proud. I was the one who was supposed to be the screw-up. Of course, no one expected me to get pregnant because I was sixteen and had never had a boyfriend, let alone sex. As far as they knew, I'd never been kissed. But I was still the black sheep. The family disappointment. Not perfect Paige.

What bothered me the most about this situation, though, is that Vincent said he didn't love her anymore. That was going to cause even more problems. If they chose to keep it, my parents would want them to get married. They'd hate Vincent for the rest of his life. And I didn't think he was really the kind of person who'd marry someone he didn't love just because a baby was coming into the picture.

When I got home, I wanted to see if I could tell on my own. Paige didn't look any different. She didn't say anything to anyone. She just hung out in her room like usual. So I really wanted to know when she would tell our parents, if it was even true. But I was pretty sure Vincent wouldn't have lied about something like that.

Whenever he came over, the two of them would hide out in Paige's room. I could hear them arguing through the wall, but he never talked to me. Now that I thought about it, I don't think he was actually ignoring me at all. He was just upset. And she was still pretending everything was fine. Then she'd come home and cry in her room. I wanted to go to her, but I didn't know what to say. And I promised Vincent I wouldn't say anything.

What he did still bothered me, though. I wondered if maybe he really did like me. If the kiss had been something he actually wanted to do. Maybe he still wanted to do it. But now, he was stuck with Paige. I figured that was probably unlikely. Paige was beautiful. And she was pregnant. No one would pick me over her.

It was a Sunday when she finally broke the news to my parents. My mom made dinner, and it was gross. Then she forced us to sit around the table like a family. She did this every once in a while, wanting (on rare occasions) to know what our lives were like between the holidays.

I never thought Paige was all that smart. Book smart maybe. Like she got decent grades, but I never would have called her a genius. So why she chose this exact night to tell everyone beats the hell out of me.

"So, how was everyone's week?" my mom asked as she scooped her awful potato salad from the bowl. We all shrugged and muttered things like "S'okay" and "Uh-dunno." My mom tried to hold back her irritation, but she wasn't very good at it. "Phillip, tell me about school."

"I made honor roll again. But I don't have the letter yet," he replied. She beamed.

"Oh, that's wonderful news, honey. I'm so proud of you. Piper, what about you?" I'd never been on the honor roll. Not once. Not even for a moment. I shrugged.

"I'm failing math. Is that close?" I asked. She sighed.

"No, that's not close." She rubbed her forehead and turned to Paige, but she looked at her plate and did a nervous tapping with her feet. It was very un-Paige-like.

"I um—nothing," she said before my mom could even ask. My mom's perfect eyebrows furrowed. Paige was usually the first to gush about everything exciting in her life. It was the whole reason my mom asked us before her. So that me and Phillip at least had the chance to talk before she took control of the conversation, and they talked about her incredible life for the rest of dinner. Actually, Phillip and I both kind of depended on Paige's chatty nature to save us from having to talk.

"Is there something wrong, honey?" my mom asked.

"I'm fine!" Paige snapped like my mom was pushing her. She slammed her fork against the table and made the candlesticks tremble. Everyone looked at her with their mouths half-open. "Everything is just fine." Then she stood up and left the dining room. I could hear her thump all the way back up the stairs. We were all silent for a moment.

"Girls," my dad muttered.

"Hey," I replied. But he just sent me a wink.

My mom turned on me. In her perfect world, sisters were supposed to tell each other everything. But that wasn't the case with Paige and me. I did know this time. But I wasn't supposed to.

"Do you have any idea what's going on with her?" she asked me.

"How would I know? She never talks to me," I told her. She sighed and shook her head.

"Okay then."

When we finished dinner, we were just leaving the table when Paige came back down the stairs. Her eyes were red with tears, and she was still sniffling. She stood in the archway that separated the dining room from the living room.

"Can I talk to you guys?" she asked. My mom nodded.

"Of course, honey."

"In the living room, please?"

Then she turned and went to sit on the couch. I wondered if I should take Phillip upstairs, but no one said anything about us being there. So Phillip and I shared concerned looks while carrying our dishes to the kitchen. My parents let us do the clean-up and went to sit with her. She leaned on her elbows and sniffled.

"What do you want to talk about?" my mom asked timidly. Paige wiped her eyes.

"I didn't know how to tell you guys," she said. "But I just—I can't keep it to myself anymore."

I could already feel the mood in the room shift. Phillip seemed to be the only one who didn't notice what was coming. He dutifully went into the kitchen, and I found that my legs were frozen. My dad's face was getting redder. My mom was nervously twisting her diamond necklace, just waiting for the bomb to drop. And they were probably both praying she wasn't about to say exactly what she was about to say.

"What's going on?" my mom squeaked out.

"I'm—I'm pregnant."

The room went completely still. Even Phillip stopped in the doorway, unable to take another step further. He was still a kid, but he knew damn well what that word meant. And I suddenly decided I'd rather be anywhere else in the world.

I can honestly say I'd never actually seen my dad angry. Not even when we were kids, and we smoked a bunch of cigarettes and then puked in my neighbor's flower box. He never looked this mad. My mom seemed to just—deflate. She sank into the couch cushions and didn't say a word. It was the only time in history she didn't have anything to say.

My dad slowly got to his feet. There was a vein in his forehead that was bulging, and his face had managed to get even redder. Paige didn't look at him. She kept her eyes on the floor and wiped new tears away.

"Piper, Phillip. Go to your rooms," he said calmly. Neither of us moved. We didn't know what to do. Then he turned on us. "Now!" he yelled. So we immediately dumped all the dishes on the closest surfaces and dashed toward the stairs. Phillip was slow, so I grabbed his hand and yanked him up after me.

I was pretty sure he was just glad to get out of there. As soon as we reached the top floor, he went to his room, and I heard his X-Box connect. I wanted to stay and at least offer Paige an ally. But I didn't want to get in trouble.

I just hid in my room until they were done with her. In all my life, I'd never heard my dad yell. I didn't even know what it sounded like. And now I could hear his voice reverberating through the whole house. I couldn't hear everything he was saying. But I definitely heard him call Paige stupid. And call Vincent stupid. Then he called himself stupid for allowing them to be stupid. It was one of those words my mom refused to let us use growing up. So it sounded so vulgar and mean.

It was late before she finally made it back to her room. She was crying again. But not as loudly. I knew I had to do something. I couldn't admit that I'd kissed her boyfriend or that I already knew she was pregnant. But I could do something. I did love her. Even if I didn't necessarily like her.

So I climbed out of my bed and went to her room. I could still hear my parents talking downstairs. I was pretty sure my mom was crying. I knocked gently on Paige's door, but she didn't answer. Not even to yell at me to leave her alone. So I pushed it open and found her lying in her bed with her back to me. She was sobbing into a pillow. I climbed in beside her and wrapped my arm around her. I expected her to turn me away or yell at me. But she didn't. She just grasped my hand and cried harder.

"Everything's going to be okay," I promised her. "I'm with you." She just sobbed in response.