(Un)Fortunate

Chapter 26

"This is really good ice cream," Jen says, taking a giant spoonful of her ice cream tub.

"I know right, I have never even heard of it," I say, rummaging through the bags I got when I went to the grocery store.

"I think this is my new favorite flavor," She says matter of factly.

"Good to know," I chuckle.

I leaf through the candy I got. Then I see the glossy side of the paper staring back at me and shove the bag off to the side a little to quickly. It catches her eye and she stares at me, her eyes shrinking.

"What's in the bag?"

"Uh. Nothing."

"You paused, gimme that!" She says, jumping over me to reach the bag. Before we even know it, we are full out wrestling for the bag.

"Stop it!" I squeal.

"I will stop when you let me see the bag!" Jen says, pulling my hair.

You might be surprised to hear we actually do this a lot.

"Fine," I say, releasing the bag into her talons.

"Thank you," She says as if we hadn't just wrestled over it.

She peers in and her eyes widen.

Oh crap.

"Why do you have a copy of Juicy Pear Gossip in the bag?" She scolds, pulling it out further.

"And WHY does it have your name and Caleb's name across the front cover?" Jen says.

I smile sheepishly as she reads the headline, "Who really is responsible for Caleb Morgan's condition?"

"I, uh. Don't know how that got in there," I say, obviously lying through my teeth.

"What are you thinking?" She says, tossing it in front of me.

"I just wanted to see what the newspapers thought about it," I say, looking at the glossy cover and feeling a load of guilt pile on like a dump truck just dumped a load of rocks on me. It weighs down my soul.

"Come here," She says, pulling me into a bear hug.

"I'm sorry, I should not have gotten it. I was just feeling really curious, and yeah," I say, letting go.

"It's okay, but you better hope Vanessa doesn't catch you," She chuckles. "Or Brandon either."

"I'll hide it in my underwear drawer," I say, fiddling with the front cover.

We both laugh for awhile on the funniest place to hide it and in the end, we agreed that the silliest place would be where I keep my smelly Uggs.

"So, you wanna read it?" Jen says, flipping open the front cover.

"Are you serious? After giving me that whole spiel, you want to read it?"

"Yeah, why not?" She shrugs.

"Okay fine," I sigh, joining her.

After reading about all the new gossip, which half isn't even true. I know because I know half of them. We finally came to the section about the crash. I try to swallow the lump in my throat the size of an elephant, but it won't budge.

"I can't, you do it," I say, looking away.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, now do it before I change my mind," I say, continuing to swallow the lump that keeps regurgitating itself.

"Oh my gods," Jen says, and her voice drops low.