Beautiful Mistake

xviii

"Hey, where did you put my backpack?" I ask loudly so Dylan can here me from the bathroom.

"Uh, try the loft." He replies, popping his head out of the hallway bathroom.

I nod and walk into the loft by the front door where all of Tessa's bags lay scattered around. My backpack rests on the wall closest to me. I take out my English notebook.

"I have to do some work too." Dylan says, and grabs his backpack off the floor, "Do me a favor and hold onto this," He puts the clean ring in my hand, "I trust you more with this than I trust myself."

"Safe and sound." I say and place the ring in my back pocket.

"So, what work do you have to do?" Dylan walks into the kitchen and I follow just to sit at the kitchen table.

"Art, English, and World History," I sigh and lean back in the creaky chair. "I can't wait till this year is over!"

"I don't, I want to stay in high school forever. I don't want to grow up, get a real job, pursue a career, do all those adult things."

"Well, I'm kind of stuck with adulthood." I say referring to the child growing inside of me. "So might as well start early, am I right?" Dylan shrugs and takes out a few textbooks.

"Depends on how you look at it really. I mean, some people don't ever want their teenage years to end because they don't want to grow up, but others, like you, are forced into adulthood and don't have that time to figure out who they really are and what they want to do with their lives."

I look up at him in surprise, "You're really one of those sensational speaker types aren't you?"

He laughs and shrugs, "I speak my mind sometimes."

I start on my essay and by the time I finish with the final draft, Tessa and Warren walk through the front door. Dylan and Warren make that broski eye contact and telepathically talk to each other.

"Wow, when Warren said deep in town, he means deep in town." Tessa says and wraps her arms around my neck. She looks over the table to see paper scattered everywhere and a bunch of materials laying around. "You guys sat here and did homework the entire time we were gone?"

"Yeah, I'm not trying to fail classes Tess," I say and take the art instructions sheet out of my folder. "War, do you have copy paper?"

"I think so," He says, giving me a look that I'm assuming is the 'give me the ring' look. "C'mon, I'll show you where it's at."

I get up from my seat and follow Warren into a garage office. I reach for the ring and take it out of my pocket.

"How could you not tell me?!" I say and release the ring into his hand.

"I wanted it to be a surprise but I lost it so I had Dylan go look for it." I shake my head and start laughing.

"You really are something, Warren." He takes a stack of paper and hands it to me, "I only need like two."

"You and I both know you need more than two pieces of paper Care." He opens the garage door and he puts the ring into his jeans pocket.

I roll my eyes and follow him back into the kitchen.

"Care, your pancakes are on the top." I nod and take the box from the plastic bag.