Abandoned

Chapter 28: Couldn't Let You Go

"Well, you just fail by five marks. It's no big deal." James shrugged, taking a sip of his root beer. I glared at him and slapped his left arm hard without giving him any warning. Because of that, he accidentally spit his root beer and it landed on top of our homework. He furrowed his eyebrows and swore softly. I just smiled as if nothing happened and it doesn't involve me.

"You really gonna pay for this, Melissa Evans." He warned me with his deep solemn voice. I just swallowed a gulp and didn't dare to interrupt him again.

James took a nearby rug from the laundry basket and started cleaning up the mess on the table. Doesn't want to disturb him, I continued to solve the word problems for Math homework. But then, the doorbell for the front door started to ring.

My head quickly turned back, towards the door. I then looked James. He put his finger on his lips, asking me to not make any noise. I just obeyed him and nodded. He got up, leaving the rag on top of the table and quickly get the door as he doesn't want someone outside to wait.

He opened the door and his face changed. His mouth slightly opened. His hands also started to become clammy. His expression is just priceless. He's really shocked but I don't know what caused him to be like that. As I was about to get up and approached him, his face changed... Again. This time it was from shocked to happy? God, is this dude okay?

He then exclaimed, "Mom! Dad! Gosh, you're back!" He went out and I think he gave them a bear hug. I heard someone giggled outside. That sounded familiar. Yup, it's totally his parents. So without further ado, I went towards the door to greet James' parents.

"Good evening, Mr and Mrs. Miller." I formally greeted them. All of them looked at me, breaking the embrace they shared. I smiled and gave them a wave. James' mom looked much more elated when she sees me. She rushed to me and gave me a hug. A very tight hug. I laughed and hugged her back, but also carefully due to my baby bump getting bigger. Gosh, I looked fat.

"Oh my gosh, Mel baby! It's so nice to see you again." She said full of excitement. I just giggled shyly and replied her, "Nice to see you too."

I let go of the hug and steadied my breathing. I invited them all inside. James was the last to enter the apartment. James purposely put his arm around my shoulder and dragged me, forcing me to walk. I glared at him and of course, he doesn't care. I heaved a sigh and just let him do whatever he wanted to do.

"So, James... How's the trip to Los Angeles?" His dad asked. James let go of me and gently guided me to a comfortable one-seated chair. He then sat on the armchair and faced his parents.

"Well, it was fun and also a little bit awkward." He trailed off on the word, awkward. But why awkward?

"Why 'awkward'?" His dad asked.

"Urm, Megan is partnered with Melissa's best friend, Olivia. She always follow us around and it's kinda awkward because when we wanted to talk, we just couldn't due to the break up. But luckily, Melissa is with me the whole time." He explained. On the last sentence, he looked at me with his flirty grey eyes. He even smirked at me. I shamelessly smiled at him and then looked down.

"That's really sweet. Thank you Melissa for being with him. Anyways, this curious me. Are you two, like you know, together again?" Mrs Miller suddenly asked that question, makes me startled and loss of words. James just put his hand on my shoulder and mouthed, "I handle this."

"Mom, we're not together..." He trailed off. But I saw him mouthing something. I couldn't hear him properly. I just shrugged and listened to the rest of his explanation which obviously includes him and the pregnancy.

"Well, uh... She..." He stuttered. Yup if I'm in his scenario, I obviously gonna staggered too.

"Because she's married and has a child?" His dad answered. My eyes suddenly wide-opened. I looked at him, disbelief. How does he know that? I looked at James' reaction. It's the same as mine. What? How? Huh?