Chapter 43: Blue.

Chapter 43: Blue.

"So, what college are you going to?" Gwen asks me as she cuts into her steak.

"Bradford." My father answers on my behalf.

"Oh, really? Sierra is going there too. Maybe you guys can sign up for the same sorority." She tells me. I just flash her a fake smile as I eat a fork full of my fettuccine pasta.

"I really appreciate you coming, Valarie. I mean, we are going to be family soon." Gwen says reaching out to touch my hand, I put my hand on my lap.

"Family?" I scoff.

"You're a home wrecker. You could have created your own family with your whore for a daughter, but instead, you had to sleep with your boss and ruin his wife's life." I say, slamming my fist on the table.

"Valarie, what has come over you?" My father asks with a heavy tone.

People are now staring at us, as expected.

"You cheated, Dad. Hasn't that occurred to you yet? You ruined mom, and she's too oblivious to see what you've done to her. You think you can eat your cake and have it, huh?" I ask him.

"Well, you can't. You're going to have to choose between Gwen and me. You can't have both." I tell him, grabbing my purse as I head out of the restaurant.

Damn, that felt good.

If my father thinks I'm just going to sit and look pretty for the family portrait with Gwen and Sierra, he has another thing coming. He has to make a choice and a quick one too.

***

"Valarie Nicole Stone I am going to kill you." My mother says, barging into my room.

"What do you want, mother?" I whine, sitting upright on my bed.

"You ruined the plan." She tells me and I stare at her in confusion.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" I ask her.

"I wasn't honest with you, Vee." She says as she walks towards the bed and takes a seat beside me. "

"Your father and I came up with a plan. He was going to sleep with his secretary to get Stone Construction capital for its next project." She tells me and I stare at her in confusion.

"How does Dad sleeping with his secretary get us more money?" I ask her, folding my arms.

"Gwen is the daughter of a retired business mogul and your father was supposed to date her and get close to her father." She reveals.

"So, all this drama is for some deal that you guys want to seal?" I ask her and she nods.

"Unbelievable." I say, standing up.

"You guys are the worst. You had me worked up over nothing. What are you going to do now?" I ask her.

"Well, since you ruined the plan we're going to have to raise capital the old-fashioned way. By getting more building jobs." She says as she stands up and dusts her shirt.

Why didn't they just do that in the first place, why go to such extremes?

"What about the deal with the McCains?" I ask her.

"What about it?" My mother asks me with a frown on her face.

"You can always go back to that." I tell her.

"Your father would never do that. They play dirty, that's why it didn't work the first time. Look, don't bother yourself with this, just start packing for college because you leave in two weeks." She tells me before she leaves my room.

My parents are so crazy, the heights they would go to seal a deal is mind-blowing.

***

"It's the one on the left." Hannah says through the phone.

"I don't see anything, H. Why couldn't you just come and get it yourself?" I ask her as I start checking her drawers.

"How do you want me to explain the pregnancy test to my mother? Just get it please and meet me back here." She whines through the phone.

"Fine." I tell her as I hang up.

Hannah is at Adam's house right now and she sent me to get the pregnancy test she bought two weeks ago but was too scared to use it, from her room.

I check under her bed and I see the blue box, I stretch my hand and I pull it out. I put the box in my purse as I turn towards the door where I see Mrs. Granite staring at me.

"Did you lose something?" She asks me, a concerned look washing over her face.

"Um yeah, my bracelet." I lie.

"Well, it must be here somewhere." She says as she walks inside the room.

She opens up the top drawer and starts checking for my "missing" bracelet.

A picture falls on the floor as she hurriedly checks the drawer.

I bend down and pick it and I see Zachary and Hannah laughing at something. His arm is around her and she's leaning into him.

What the hell?

Did Hannah date...no she couldn't have.

She wouldn't do that to me.

Would she?

"Valarie." Mrs. Granite says, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Mmm." I say, staring at her.

"Is this it." She asks me.

"Uh...yeah. Thanks for helping me find it. I gotta go now." I tell her as I collect the bracelet out of her hand and rush out of the room.

Minutes later, Andrè is pulling up at Adam's house and I get out of the car. I walk into the living room and I see Hannah silently panicking.

"I'm here." I announce.

"Thank goodness. She's almost bit all of her fingernails off." Adam says as he lets out a sigh of relief.

"Here you go." I say as I hand Hannah the test.

"I'll be back in five." Hannah tells us and she goes to take the test.

"What happens if it's positive?" I ask Adam.

"It can't be." He replies, pulling his brown hair.

"But what if it is?" I question again.

"Then...then....I don't know. We'll figure something out." He stutters.

"I've been meaning to ask you something." I tell him.

"Go ahead. I have five minutes to spare." He tells me.

"What happened while I was away?" I ask him.

"Away? Like when you went to Ravenswood?" He asks me.

"Yeah." I reply.

"Well, things were pretty normal. Tenth grade was good, the eleventh grade was better and then you came back." He says, sending me a smile.

"Did anything weird happen?" I ask again.

"Anything weird like?" He asks me.

"Just weird." I reply.

"Just hit the nail on the head, Vee." He tells me.

Fine.

"Did Zachary and Hannah date?" I ask him and he stares at me like I'm crazy.

"Why would you think that? She's your best friend. She'd never do such a thing." He tells me.

"It's just that...I saw this picture back at her place and it just gave me a weird vibe." I tell him.

"Well, nothing happened. I was there the whole time and there was never any indication that they were messing around or together." He assures me.

"If you say so." I shrug.

"Three more minutes." Adam says as he taps his feet.

"It's going to be fine. Whatever the stick reads, we'll get through it." I tell him.

Hannah finally comes out of the bathroom and she sets the stick on the table.

"One more minute then we'll know." She announces.

"In one minute your life will change." I tell her and she sends a nasty glare my way. "Or not." I add.

"Thirty seconds now." Adam tells us and Hannah starts panicking.

"Relax. It's going to be fine." I tell her.

The timer starts beeping and we all stare at each other.

"I can't look." Hannah says, backing out.

"Me neither." Adam says, raising his hand in fake surrender.

"It's going to be fi..." I grab the stick from the table and my words are cut short by the eight letter word that is written on the stick.

I gulp.

"You're going to be a mother, H." I say, waving the stick in my hand.

"This can't be happening." Hannah says as she sits on the sofa.

"Are you sure?" Adam says, he walks over to me and collects the stick from my hand. "Yup, something's definitely cooking in that oven." He tells her.

"When are you going to tell Chad?" I ask her.

"There's no telling Chad'" She says and I stare at her..

"What do you mean?" I ask, waiting for her answer.

"I-it's not his." She reveals.

"What!!!" I say, freaking out.