Secrets Don't Make Friends

Jack

"Do you think we should have bought a pie instead of cake. I feel like rich people eat pie instead of cake." My mom said as we got out of her car and began walking to Zack's front door.

"I don't think anyone is really going to be focused on dessert after the conversation we're having at dinner. And what makes you think they're rich?" I asked.

"Look at this house!" She said while gesturing to it. Zack's house was pretty big, but so was most peoples who went to my high school.

"His dad is a lawyer I think and his mom is a stay at home mom." I explained and she nodded.

Once we big made it to the door I rang the doorbell. I took a deep breath as we waited for someone to open the door. This dinner was going to be awkward and nerve-wrecking. I didn't even feel hungry and I couldn't tell if it was because of nerves or because I was bloated.

Seconds later, Zack's mom came to open the door for us. She looked stressed, but gave us a small smile anyways. She told me hi and then greeted my mom.

"Hello you must be Jack's mom?" She asked. I could tell she was kind of caught off guard with how young my mom looked.

"Yes, I'm Lily." My mom introduced herself.

"I’m Katie, it's nice to meet you." Zack's mom stuck her hand out to shake my moms and then she let us in the house. "Everyone's in the kitchen and dinner is ready." She informed us.

I chuckled as my mom looked around their house. The inside was really nice compared to ours. You could tell they had money by the way it was decorated. We walked into the kitchen, where Zack and his dad were sitting. Zack had an older sister that stayed with them but I guess she didn't want to be a part of the talk we were about to have. I couldn’t blame her.

"This is my husband, Michael." Katie told us. "And this is Jack's mom, Lily." She told him. I already had met Zack's mom and dad before when I used to come over with Alex, Rian, and Cass which made this even more awkward.

"It's nice to meet you." My mom told him.

"The pleasure is all mine." Michael said, politely.

"You two have a seat, and I'll go get your food." Katie said. She took the cake my mom brought so she could place it on the counter.

My mom and I slowly took a seat next to each other. I didn't know how this talk would even start.

"Hi Jack." Zack told me once I was sat next to him.

"Hey." I said quietly. I really didn't want to attract too much more attention to myself.

"Don't be nervous." He whispered to me, but it didn't help. I was literally shaking in my seat. Zack's dad looked intimidating. I never really talked to him, other than hellos and goodbyes.

Luckily Katie came back with our dinner soon. The quicker we ate the quicker we could leave. My mom and I thanked her as she sat the plates down in front of us.

"Lily, can I interest you in some red wine?" Katie asked my mom.

"Actually do you have any beer? I'm not really a wine person." My mom told her and I hit her leg under the table. I was not going to let her drink beer with the steak dinner they made for us. "Uhm or water would be fine." She added.

"Nonsense, we have Budlight, Shinners, and Bluemoon. Take your pick." Michael told her.

"I'll take Bluemoon." My mom said with a smile and Michael smiled back at her. He seemed too nice.

"So Lily, what do you do for a living?" Michael asked her.

"I work at a call center." She said.

"Oh interesting. You have a very nice voice. Perfect for phone calls." He complimented her. That's sounded a little weird, but he was just being nice.

"Thank you." My mom giggled.

"One Bluemoon." Katie said and sat the drink in front of my mom a little harder than necessary.

"Thanks." My mom told her.

"You look great tonight." Zack told me, while cutting his steak. I was only wearing black jeans and a nice shirt, but I thanked him anyways.

"Thank you. You look good too." I told him.

"Thanks."

"And you said you aren't married?" I heard Michael ask my mom.

"No I'm still young so I figured I could wait a little before settling down with one person." My mom told him.

"Well you’re a beautiful woman, you’ll have no problem finding someone." He said and I glanced over at my mom to see if she was catching on that he was sort of flirting with her.

Katie cleared her throat, catching everyone's attention. "How about we talk about why we invited you both over for dinner." She said. "Zack told us that you're pregnant... and he might be the father which is obviously a problem since you're both so young. Zack has plans to go off to college and I'm assuming you're going to take some time off?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am. Maybe just six months." I told her.

"Are you sure you that's long enough?" She asked.

"I thought it was." I mumbled and my mom took over.

"I think six months is perfect. I stayed out from school for six months when Jack was born and he turned out fine." My mom told her.

"Are you sure about that?" Katie mumbled under her breath, but my mom still heard her.

"What do you mean?" My mom slightly narrowed her eyes at her.

"All I'm saying is children do better when they spend a lot of bonding time with their parents. You didn't spend much with Jack, which could be the reason he is pregnant at such a young age like you were." She explained. That was really rude and hurtful, I could tell it ticked my mom off.

"Mom." Zack called her name to get her to back off.

"But you spent so much time "bonding" with your child and yet he got someone pregnant. I don't really see a difference." My mom told her and Katie glared at her.

"Zack is a good kid that made one mistake, how can you even compare him to your child??"

"And Jack made a mistake too!"

"He obviously made multiple mistakes, seeing as he doesn't even know who the father is." She scoffed and my mom stood up from her seat, ready to jump across the table. I stood up too just in case I needed to hold her back.

"Watch what you say about my son you old bitch!" My mom yelled at her and Katie gasped.

"Ladies wait, let’s just take a deep breath." Michael told them.

"Mom, it doesn't matter if I'm the father or not, I'm going to be there for Jack. We're together and nothing's going to change that." Zack said and my stomach fell. I was so stupid for not listening to my mom and grandma telling me to tell Zack that we weren't together.

"Tell him now, Jack." My mom demanded. I looked up at her begging her not to make me do it now, but the look she gave me let me know I had to.

"Actually Zack, I um...don't really like you the same way you like me." I admitted and he looked at me with the saddest expression.

"But I've done so much for you. More than Alex has ever." He complained.

"And I really appreciate that, but it doesn't change the way I feel about you. I'm so thankful to have you more as a friend than anything." I told him and he looked down. "I'm really sorry." I felt horrible for doing this right now.

"You're both despicable people! That baby wouldn't make it six seconds with you two. You'll be lucky if we allow you custody on the weekends." Katie hissed at us.

"Excuse me?" My mom said.

"If the baby is Zack's then we will fight you for full custody. There's no way I'm letting you ruin my grandchild like you've ruined your own."

"I told you to watch it when you're talking about my son. And you're batshit crazy if you think you'll actually get fully custody of this baby." My mom warned and I grabbed her arm.

"Katie, honey how about we talk this ov-" Michael tried calming her down.

"-There's nothing more to talk about! You're a lawyer and you will get us full custody of the baby." She told him. Then she turned to us. "Both of you get the hell out of my house!" She yelled.

"With pleasure!" My mom grabbed her purse and the cake we brought and we walked towards the door together. This is not how I imagined the dinner to end. I looked over at Zack but he sat at the table with his head in his hands. I was such a horrible person.

"Oh and just to let you know, your husband would fuck me in a heartbeat if I let him." My mom teased Katie from outside. Katie gritted her teeth and slammed the door behind us.

My mom and I walked to her car and quickly got in. She laid her head on the steering wheel and I couldn't help myself from laughing.

"What's so funny?" She lifted up and asked.

"You. That was so unnecessary." I laughed.

"Well he would have. He was flirting with me the whole time." She chuckled.

"Yeah he was." I said. I sighed once my mom started the car and drove us away from their house. "You don't really think they'll get full custody do you?" I asked and my mom stayed silent for a while.

"I don't know." She mumbled.

"That's very convincing." I said, sarcastically.

"I honestly don't. They can use the excuse that they have more money and more resources for the baby. And both of Zack's parents would be able to help him. Plus Zack's dad is a lawyer so he probably will get special treatment at the courthouse." She said honestly, and my eyes began to water.

"So they'll be able to take my baby that easily?!" I cried.

"No don't cry, Babe. Look I don't know if all that's true, I was just saying stuff. And all of this is only if Zack is the dad. There's still a chance that it's Alex." She said, trying to make feel better.

"Yeah that's true." I sniffled and wiped at my eyes.

"How about we get some ice cream for this cake?" She asked and I nodded. She pulled into the Neighborhood Walmart parking lot so we could go buy some.

We were home fifteen minutes later, sitting on the couch eating cake and ice cream. Eating was an easy way to cope with emotions now. If I felt sad or angry I could just eat and it would make me feel a hundred times better. My mom and I were watching Cake Wars while we ate our cake. It was pretty relaxing and we both needed that.

"Did you see Gretchen's face when I called her an 'old bitch?'" My mom randomly asked and laughed.

"Oh my god yes." I laughed along with her. "She was so rude."

"Yeah she's needs to go get a life."

"But what about Zack? Do you think I was too harsh?" I asked.

"No you were really considered. It was just bad because you waited so long to tell him the truth."

"I know, but it's done now. I'm probably going to have to walk home from now on."

"I hate that the school buses don't come to our neighborhood." She sighed. Technically I wasn't supposed to go to the high school that I go to. The one that I'm supposed to go to wasn't as nice so we used my Grandparents address to get me to go to Dulaney High School. Dulaney was a little bit closer to my house anyways, my neighborhood just missed the cut off for it.

"It's not a long walk. I can probably make it home in thirty minutes." I told her and she rolled her eyes at me.

"You're already three months pregnant. Soon it's going to feel like you're walking around with a rotisserie chicken in your stomach. Plus your feet are going to swell and you'll be more fatigued. So no I'm not letting you walk. What if I let you take the car and I take Lyft?" She said.

"No I don't want to make you take a cab. I can just stay at school until you get off. I can study in the library, join a club, or something to stay busy." I suggested.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I don't have anything important to do when I get home anyways."

"Okay, let's do that." She agreed. "That baby is already causing so much trouble for you." She joked and pointed to my stomach.

I chuckled and placed my hand on my stomach. I could feel my stomach growing a little bit more everyday as I inched closer to four months. Even though my stomach was growing, it felt more like I was gaining weight and not that I was pregnant.

"How big is the baby now?" I asked.

"Hmm I don't know, let me look it up." She pulled out her phone and googled it. "It says that at three months the baby is the size of a peanut and at four months it's the size of avocado. So your baby is somewhere between those two." She chuckled.

"Oh." I said and looked down at my stomach. I sat my cake and ice cream down and began to rub my stomach. I couldn't imagine holding my baby for nine months, just to give birth, and have to hand him or her off to Zack's family. I was beginning to stress myself out again which wasn't good for the baby. I tried taking deep breaths to relax myself, but I began crying again. Stupid hormones. My mom moved closer to me and wrapped her arms around me. She knew why I was crying again.

"I won't let them take your baby away from you, Jack. I promise." She told me and kissed me on the forehead. I nodded, but I didn’t believe her. I actually found myself hoping that Alex would be the dad now.

Notes

Zack's family might have pushed Jack closure to Alex.

Title Credit: Take Cover by ATL