Born This Way

Chapter 4.

“Jill, out of the car.” I commanded my 13 year old sister Jillian. “Ok fine.” She grouched. She hated school on days when she had a bad morning. I had the job of dropping my siblings off this week. My mom COULD, but she’s home with my nine month old baby brother, Liam. And I mean hey, I can drive, why not just drop them off right? So I do. The tricky part is, Jillian is in middle school, which is a totally different campus from my high school. And THEN, there's Lilia who’s in preschool, once again a different campus. Luckily my 15 year old brother Mike goes to my high school too. Usually Skylar, my older sister who’s 20 takes Lilia since her preschool is right next to her collage, and I take Jillian since its only a couple miles away from my high school, but she’s away on a missions trip this week. So being on time to school isn’t gonna happen.

“Love you” I yelled to Jillian before she slammed the door and walked up to her school, dragging her backpack on the ground. ‘whatever’ I thought to myself and pulled out of the school.

“Aria, why is Jillian so unhappy today?” Lilia asked.

“Maybe she’s pregnant.” Mike said flashing ME a look. “Very funny Mike. She’s 13.”

“And I'm 15, Lilia’s 4 and you’re..”

“MIKE” I cut him off. “Sweetie, she just had a rough morning that’s all.” I told Lilia. “Much like your brother.” I said glaring at Mike. Lilia leaned over in her car seat to see Mike’s face.

“Why aren’t you happy Mike?” She asked. Mike acted all touch and upset most the time, but he had a soft stop for all of his siblings. “Are you still sick?” she asked him. Mike just had one of those 24 hour flu things.

“I'm fine, Lil.” he said as we pulled into Lilia’s preschool.

Mike got out of the front seat and helped Lilia out of her car seat and held her hand as they walked up to the building. I sat in the car, exhausted. And it was only 7:30. How the heck was I gonna make it through the whole day? I got out my cell phone and called Ezra.

“Hello miss mommy” He said when he answered. I sat up straight.

“Wha, what?"

“You're taking the kids to school this morning right? Like a little mommy!” he joked.

“Oh, got it. Yeah Mike just walked Lilia in so I wanted to call and say good morning, since I may not see you much at school today.” I said leaning back and closing my eyes.

“Aria.. is there any news on-”

“No.” I said not letting him finish. “None at all.”

“Aria…” he started. “You have to stop this, or I will.”

“No Ezra you won't. He’s gone. It was just a summer thing you know that. Toby’s gone and we don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

“But Aria you could be pregnant, you know that and I know that and if you are Toby needs to be punished for blackmailing you into,”

“Ezra drop it. It's over. I gotta go Mikes back.” I hung up on Ezra and threw my phone into my backpack. It's true, I wanted it to stop. But with the secrets Jenna and Toby - Jenna’s brother - have over us, I couldn’t risk telling anyone what he was doing to me. Anyone but Ezra. But that’s because Toby left for collage in another state right before I met Ezra. So it wasn’t like I was cheating on Ezra. But Ezra was right. What will happen when he comes back next summer? Will I have to get into bed with him yet again? Probably, unless I tell someone. But for now I'm not. Mike got back into the car. He stopped and sat very still for a second.

"What are you doing dork?"

He replies by picking up the drug store bag that laid on the floor. “What’s this?”

I snatched it out of his hands. “Butter, for baking brownies tonight. Thought I'd surprise you guys.” Mike took the bag out of my hands, and I let him knowing he‘d find out sooner or later.

He pulls a pregnancy test from the bag and gives me a look that looks way too much like my mothers. “Yeah, this is butter.”

“Mike, you can't say anything to mom and dad. Or to ANYONE. Not even to Jessica.” Jessica is Mike’s girlfriend.

“What are you planning to do about this?” He asked, louder than I would have liked.

“I'm just gonna hope Ezra and YOU keep your mouths shut about it. And focus on passing my tests today."

"The pregnancy test. You need to pass that one too."

"Yeah... that one too."

Just for the sake of keeping it all straight - 

Skylar - 20

Aria - 17

Mike - 15

Jillian - 13

Lilia - 4ish

Liam - 9months