"baby, please don't cry"
Candice "Candy Cane" Marshall hasn't seen or talked to any of her friends in a long time. Dallas and Johnny are gone and she's terrified to face the fact that Steve and Sodapop may have met their fates in Vietnam. But when t...
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"You're pregnant, aren't you?"
My heart hammered away in my chest. If I said no, Two-Bit would catch my lie straight away-- yeah, I'm just that bad at lying. And if I said yes, he'd start jumping up and down and hollering and he'd have everyone's attention.
I heaved a big sigh and I looked him straight in the eyes. "Two, I'm gonna tell ya, but you can't make a scene, okay?" He gave me a confused look, but he nodded. "Yes, I'm pregnant, but Sodapop and I wanted to keep it a secret until I got to my second trimester."
Two looked crossed between wanting to jump up and down and just continue to stand there with that bewildered look on his face.
"W-why?" I darted my eyes around, trying to look at anything but Keith Mathews. "Candice, doll, what happened?"
"It's hard to talk about... I've only told a few people. Soda knows. And Hannah knows. And my dad knew, but..."
"Do Greg and Claire know?"
"They sort of know the gist of it, but not all the gruesome details."
"Are you okay with telling me?"
"To tell you the truth, no. But it's not you at all, Two, okay? It's just painful to think about, let alone talk about, you know?"
"I can respect that."
"So, I can kind of give you an idea, but I don't wanna go into it all. Basically what happened... The man I was with before Sodapop... He and I were expecting a baby. Then, something happened and the doctors all told me the same thing. 'You'll never get pregnant again and if you do, you won't carry the child to full term.'
"So when we-- Soda and I-- found out I was pregnant, we decided to keep it quiet so we wouldn't get anyone's hopes up just to disappoint if I were to..." I trailed off, afraid to meet Two-Bit's gaze.
"Ah, shit, Candy. Doll, I'm so sorry." Two-Bit pulled me into him. Two-Bit was probably the best hugger I'd ever met. He had these huge bear arms and could wrap himself clear around you. It was comforting. To those that didn't know Two, they'd think he's just this dumb goofball that can't take anything seriously. But when it came to his friends and family, Two-Bit was always there, prepared to fight for you. Thinking about this made me feel bad I had spent eight years not going around the Curtises. Then I thought about how if Two-Bit knew how badly Andy had hurt me, he probably would have killed him. And as much as I didn't love or even like Andrew, I didn't want him to be hurt.
"It's okay, Two. Thanks to Soda, I've healed and I'm ready to go on this journey again. I just hope it works out. And, I promise, the day I enter my second trimester, I'm telling everyone."
Two smiled brightly at me. "I'll practice acting surprised."
He gave a mock look of surprise, followed by an overly dramatic gasp. "Oh, glory!" He even clapped his hand over his mouth for added dramatic effect.
