The Scandal

9. Meeting

A/N: y do i write so fast

and note: i really can't include much about her telling all her friends and stuff bc honestly it's already gonna be so fleshed out that adding allll her best friends, it would be way too much, so i'm just kinda mentioning them more lowkey cause i feel like i can't ignore it so. if you thought it was weird that's why

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I finally told Natalie the night after I told Leo. We talked on the phone for two hours, and we both cried. She didn't say anything wrong, didn't judge me or even make me feel bad about not telling her sooner. She understood everything about the situation, and that was why I called her my best friend.

I felt better for the whole day Saturday. What a miracle.

Then Sunday came, and my Mom told me Leo and his parents were coming over to 'discuss the situation', like she couldn't refer to it as it was. Like she had to use fancy words to hide the reality.

"Mom, no! That's gonna be so weird! Why can't you just invite his parents? By themselves? Why does Leo have to come?" I whined.

She was curling her hair in front of the bathroom mirror, while I annoyed her from the doorway. Dad and her and Cade were going to church and I was staying home, just as I had been the past couple Sundays.

I couldn't go there anymore.

I knew they'd talk to me about it eventually, but everything was too new and too awkward right then.

Mom sighed. "Do you realize he's the father of your—"

"Ahh!" I yelled, interrupting her quickly, because I did not want her to finish that sentence the way I knew she would. I'd grown tired of the word 'baby'. "Yes! I do! But we're fifteen! It's not like this is up to us! We can't make this big of a decision."

(That was a stupid thing to say, I realized just as it came out.)

My Mom turned to me so quickly her hair flew. She raised her eyebrows.

"Olivia! You already did make the decision! Now you have to handle it!" she pointed out sternly.

"I don't know how. Neither does he."

"Well, too late." She shrugged, then turned back to the mirror.

I rolled my eyes and left her room, going back to mine.

She said that, but in the end I knew she'd be telling me what to do, because what I wanted to do was not have it at all, and she'd never allow that. So no, it didn't matter what Leo and I wanted, and she knew better than anyone else that we could never deal with it on our own. I wished she'd just be honest.

Leo and I met eyes as soon as I got to the end of the stairs and my feet hit the flat wooden floor.

Standing to the side of the staircase, he looked so lost by his Mom. It reminded me of a little kid, shying away from a crowd by hiding behind his parents.

Mom and Dad were on my other side, looking at his family with an obvious and incredible discomfort. They'd already greeted each other before I'd gotten down there, and I had taken my time.

I heard my Mom take a deep breath. "Well," she said, "Come on into the living room, I guess."

They all started to follow my mother, except Leo and me. I stayed behind them, and Leo did too, I guess just because I was and he didn't want to be with them all alone.