24. Keya

The next few days passed was me staying the hell away from Tyler’s domain, minded my own business and pretended that we don’t share the same roof.

The classes in the university has resumed two days ago, and I’m not gonna lie that the commute from Tyler’s house to campus is a total pain in the ass.

I always arrive at my early classes five minutes late and it’s quite annoying because I have never been late in my whole life. I’m a stickler on being on-time but I haven’t adjusted to my new set up at the moment.

Because aside from the long commute, I kind of love to sleep in.

Ever since I got pregnant, I always prefer to sleep more than anything else and I guess that’s also the reason why I gained a lot more weight that clearly makes my pregnancy even more obvious. I’m fourteen weeks along, things should probably get obvious by now but thank the heavens that I can still hide my baby bump a bit.

“Girl, I haven’t seen you for only two weeks and you gained weight like you’ve just quarantined yourself eating only but cheese.” Paz commented.

After two weeks of not seeing each other, my friends and I decided to reunite during lunch. Our lunch break schedule kind of coincide this semester so it’s really nice to spend it with worthy people.

“Yeah?” I said as I sip my iced tea. “Honestly, all I did the whole two weeks was staying inside my room writing my thesis, eat and sleep all throughout the day.”

“By the way, you didn’t mentioned your new place. Where are you currently living now?” Lily asked. “I haven’t heard anything from you these past two weeks, how are you Keya?”

“Gaining weight, obviously.” I replied completely trying myself not to stutter because I’m about to lie on their face. “I was able to rent a place uptown, for a cheap price.”

“Oh really? Is it quite too far from here?” Lily wonders.

“She’s been arriving late at Mr. Velasco’s class for two meetings now.” Jessy commented, we shared the same eight a. m. class so she’s one of those people who noticed me being late. “But here’s a good news, Thomas Underwood and her are paired for a class project.”

Yeah, about that. I told Jessy about me and Thomas getting paired for a final course project on Professor Donald’s class when we walked together heading here in Fenway Hall.

I know I should be thanking Jessy for changing the topic since that means I don’t have to lie any further about where I am currently living but my friend’s expressions at the moment after hearing Thomas’ name is up in the roof. Everyone is so giddy and pushy in squeezing my reaction out of it.

Well, I kind of feel a bit giddy too, who am I kidding? I have been crushing on that guy since freshmen year but guess you tend to change your love perspectives once you get knocked up by a stranger, which causes you to accept the fact that no matter what you do now, you can’t have your crush since you’re already looking like a massive whore now for getting knocked up.

“Oh please, I don’t really look forward to it.” I said answering everyone’s questions.

“Why?” Alexa said.

“Because I am now pregnant, and he is not the father.”

“Oh.” Alexa supplied which sends me to give everyone the look of ‘so-just-stop-it’. “Speaking of which, how was the father himself?”

I sighed. “Good. He’s been giving me the things that I need.”

In the past two weeks since the scolding incident happened, I have only seen him once a week when he’s giving me money to go buy some vitamins and all the necessities I needed for my pregnancy and that’s just it.

The money so far just all went through my drawer. I don’t want to spend it, to be honest. Besides, my two part-time jobs can sustain my needs and I still have extra money to send to my family in Southshields. My plans on the money that he’s giving me is for the baby, I’ll surely use it once I finally give birth but not yet now.

“Has he been checking up on you all the time?” Lily asked in complete concern.

I nodded although he is not. “But uh—he won’t be visiting me that often starting this week. According to him, he’ll be constantly on the road now for games.”

Tyler didn’t specifically told me that, Martin did. The guy is really kind, he keeps on checking up on me unlike the biological dad. He’s the one who keeps updated about Tyler doing during their games. I didn’t ask for him to do that, but I guess Martin just knows that Tyler just doesn’t care about me so Martin is trying to fill in the gaps, maybe. I don’t know but I totally appreciate it. Martin seems like a good friend, Tyler doesn’t deserve him!

“Damn, you’re now experiencing what hockey wives and girlfriends feel when their man are on the road for games.” Paz commented.

“I’m not his wife nor girlfriend.” I reminded Paz.

“There might be some possibilities.” Lily inserted.

“Nope. Never!”

“Oh come on, you were all over him.” Lily mocked.

“That was before I found out that he was a huge asshole.” I quickly answered, because that is the truth.

There’s a zero possibilities of us being a couple based on the way he treats me, and I don’t have plans on jumping from beyond the line because I realized that I don’t like the guy. Right now, the only reason why I am sticking with him is because he’s currently helping me someway, somehow with my situation but I swear once I graduate and done giving birth, I’m out!

-

After my last class of the day, Thomas and I decided to meet at the school library to work on our project. I insisted that we will do our sessions every after class since I am not living around campus anymore and I have a job from six to eight p.m... Luckily, his schedule isn’t too tight and that he obliged on letting me schedule our sessions for the said project.

“I brought some snacks.” He said plastering a huge smile when he spotted me walking towards the table where he’s at.

“You did? Snacks aren’t allowed in here.” I commented in complete surprise.

“But soft snack is. It’s just tuna sandwich.” He said as I sat on the chair across from him.

“That’s very nice of you.” I said smiling. Just wow! Who would have thought that Underwood can be this thoughtful?

“Here have some.” He said as he offers me the sandwich.

“Let’s just save that for later after we’re done.”

He nodded. “Yeah, great idea!”

And we spend the next forty-five minutes explaining to one another about what we understand in our report. It’s sometimes weird for me to think that I am now currently studying with him at the library, girls in the school who have seen us surely wants my throne right now, I can really tell.

I also can’t hide the fact that these whole thing makes me kind of feel uncomfortable, I don’t even know why. However, the thing that I noticed is that I don’t feel nervous at all. I used to be so nervous when I’m around him or just maybe on the same place as him, but now? I feel normal but then again still uncomfortable.

Guess this is what pregnancy does to you, you start to feel numb when you see your crush who’s not the father of the baby that you’re currently carrying.

“We will start to make the outlines of our project report this Friday. Same time, same place. Are you okay with that?” I said when we finally wrapped up the whole session.

He nodded. “I’ll just ask my coach to dismiss me earlier.”

“Cool.” I said snickering when he offered me the tuna sandwich again. “Thanks!”

As I removed the wrappings and accidentally inhaled the tuna’s smell I wasn’t able to stop myself from gagging. The tuna smells awful and I just immediately put it away from my face.

“Are you okay?” Thomas asks immediately but I didn’t answered and just grabbed the water in front of me. I didn’t even cared if that was his or not.

“I’m absolutely not.” I answered after chugging at the water.

“What? You don’t like tuna sandwich.”

“No. I do like it, it’s just that it smells awful.”

He chuckles. “What do you mean?”

“I forgot! I don’t eat tuna sandwich anymore.” I said sounding like a complete idiot. I mentally slapped myself for saying the most stupid alibi ever invented.

Thomas laughed. “You’re funny Keya.”

I laughed along, forcefully. Because I feel so embarrassed and still kind of sick from that smell.

“Anyway, I have to go or I’ll be late for work.”

“At Steve’s diner?”

“Yeah, how did you know I work there?” I said in surprise that he knows where I work.

“Oh I see you there all the time.” He replied. “I’ll drive you.”

“You don’t have to, it’s fine.” I responded as I adjusted my shoulder bag.

“I insist. Besides, we’re going on the same route so I’ll just drop you by.”

I smiled and nodded.

Who can pass a free ride right?