Dear Emmett

Chapter Two - [Playground Troubles.]

The rest of the day seemed to go by in a hazy blur.

I found myself unable to pay attention to anything, too wrapped up in my impending motherhood to really care about eleventh grade Algebra. It was Tuesday, and we only had a week and a half of school left anyway. No teacher was dumb enough to give out real homework.

Katie was keeping a close eye on me, discreetly taking the attention away from the strange way I was acting. I made a mental note to thank her later. I didn't want to be around people. I needed to be by myself...To think.

I needed to figure out what to do.

“Charlotte! Hello. You paying attention or what?”

The interruption of my thoughts happened in the last part of my sixth period study hall. I was sitting in the back of the classroom as usual, next to my friend Taylor. We weren't close. Taylor was totally the Queen Bee wanna be type, but she always tried too hard. But she'd never done anything wrong to me, and we had a lot of mutual friends, so I put up with her.

“No, sorry,” I muttered.

“Next Friday, annual beginning of summer party at Piper Dixon's house. You're going, right?”

No, I'm not going. I don't want to go.

“Yeah, probably,” I lied, doing my best to give her a convincing smile. She bought it easily, too shallow to really care about anybody other than herself.

“You remember last year? We got pretty drunk. That was fun.”

I nodded, not really paying attention anymore. That night had been wild. I'd had a lot of Malibu and orange juice, and ended up making out with Marcus Abraham, captain of the football team and grade A douche bag. We hadn't slept together, and he didn't talk to me after, at least for a little while. That had been just fine by me – I hadn't wanted to talk to him.

I wasn't going to go to the party. Not only did I not want to, but I couldn't drink anyway. Some part of me felt like I should be disappointed that I'd miss the biggest party of the year, but I found myself unable to care. I had bigger things to worry about.

The second the bell rang, I grabbed my bag and darted out of the classroom. I was relieved that the school day was finally over. I could escape to my room, where I could think about this with out nine hundred other students crowded in the same building with me.

I stopped by Katie's locker, telling her I was heading home. Before she knew I was pregnant, we'd had plans to hang out after school. But right now, I just needed to be alone. She understood that, and she told me to text her if I needed anything.

Glad I had managed to escape with out having to really talk to anyone, I reached for my car door handle.

But I didn't quite make it.

A hand reached out, shutting the door before I could get in. I closed my eyes, doing my best not to groan in frustration. I knew exactly who it was.

“Charlotte.”

I turned to face him, resisting a scowl.

“Hello, Marcus.”

Ever since the party last year, Marcus had been chasing me. Trying to get me to play his little cat and mouse game, and I wasn't interested. He didn't do it all the time, just every once in a while. He'd try to lure me in with those charming blue eyes and cocky smile.

It didn't work.

I was nothing but a conquest to him, and I knew that. The second I would actually sleep with him like he wanted me to, he'd drop me on my ass so fast it would make my head spin. I'd seen it before, and I wasn't fooled.