Jenny

Eleven.

Jenny wouldn't admit it to me, but I knew she was pregnant. I had to admit, though, she was doing a good job of hiding from it. But I had a plan to prove I was right. I just wish she would tell me so I didn't have to go through with it.

In a way, I was angry at her. Not because she's pregnant with the cheating boy who beat her up in a parking lot, but because she couldn't trust me to know she had a living human being growing inside of her. I was like a brother to her. She should know that I would support her through it all, no strings attached. I love her, dammit, and a baby isn't going to change that, even if it was the child of a two-timing idiot. I was determined to prove it to her.

When I finally heard of the party tonight at Bill Hensel's, I knew my plan was coming together. I called Jenny and told her that I was in the party mood for the first time ever and that I was picking her up to take her to it. She sounded confused, but complied.

"Rowie, seriously, since when are you the one dragging me to a party?" We were getting close to the house and my cautionary senses kicked in on instinct.

"Since I decided you need some reality for the first time in weeks. You've been holed up in the house all week and it's not like you to miss a party four Friday nights in a row. We need to get you back to your old self."

Jenny grinned, and I pulled to the side of the street by the house, where there were hordes of people milling around. Jenny, wearing her favorite red party dress, couldn't resist the sight of a party and nearly dragged me behind her through the grass to get inside.

Electronic music blasted around the room, and Jenny, along with almost everyone else in the room, was dancing. Her arms swayed by her side as she blended into the crowd. I followed her as she was sucked into the mob of drunken students, not seeming to care that their dancing was causing their drinks to spill over onto each other. I had just about had it as a stray solo cup sloshed beer on my shoes. "Hey, Jen." I screamed at her over the music. Her eyes snapped open to attention, having come out of her daze. "You want to get a drink or something?" Not only was I dying to commence the plan, but I was looking for any excuse to prevent taking a beer bath with a crowd of ravenous and hormonal teenagers.

Jenny's face blanked out as she thought of what to say. She ceased dancing for a moment. "Uh, yeah. Yeah sure." She led the way to the kitchen of the house, which was being used as both a smoking and a drinking area. She paused then, waiting to see what was going to happen.

I, on the other hand, having thought about the plan strategy for numerous hours, proceeded to grab a solo cup. I felt as if I were doing something wrong in the way I poured beer from the keg. I pushed down the awkward feeling and filled a second cup.

Jenny stood stiff as a board as I placed one in her pale fingers. She had a loose grip on it and stared at the liquid inside for a long time.

I gulped as well and took a drink, my first drink, of the beer. I cringed at the taste, but the shockwave that went throughout my body compelled me to take another sip. "It's great, Jenny." Is that how you're supposed to describe beer? 'Great?' "You going to drink yours?"

Jenny gulped again and put the cup to her lips, but she froze there and never tilted it back to let the liquid wash down her throat and go straight to the baby. Instead, she looked up at me and knitted her eyebrows together as she thought. I jumped nearly two feet into the air as she suddenly threw the solo and its contents to the ground. Beer sloshed everywhere onto the floor and the sound of the plastic on linoleum caused a few heads to turn in our direction. Jenny was furious. "Is this some sick joke? You knew I would be vulnerable to this, Rowie. What were you trying to prove? That I lied?" People were starting to stare as she yelled at me. I stood there, frozen, as I took the unexpected heat of her unexpected anger.

She didn't wait for me to answer. Instead, she stormed away from me. I naturally ran after her, but naturally, struggled to keep up. The music and the party faded in the distance as she headed to my car. But as I thought she was going to let me drive her home, she walked past the car. "Jenny!" I yelled, causing her to stop and turn with a vicious scowl on her face.

"So what? Congratulations. You've proved that I'm pregnant. Yay for you. What are you going to do now? Huh?"

"Jenny, you left me no choice. You didn't trust me. Hell, you lied to me as if I was never going to find out. What are you going to do know? Huh? You didn't drink the alcohol which means you're thinking about keeping it."

"It's a baby. Not an it. And since when is that any of your business?"

I groaned. "It's always been my business. You're my best friend and it's my job to look out for you."

Jenny yelled louder. "Well, you obviously didn't do a very good job of that because 'kapow,' wow, look, I have a baby growing inside of me."

"But it's not my fault you let him take advantage of you like that."

Jenny looked and sounded exasperated. "You know what, Rowald Roads?" I cringed as she spoke my full name. "We can sit here and argue about it until nine months has passed and I have this baby on some stranger's lawn, but the point is it happened. It's over. What are you going to do about it? What now?"

I stepped forward and told her what I wanted her to know from the very beginning. "Now I'm going to help you get through it. You're going to be a mother, hell, and you can't do it alone. I'm going to be here for you."

My heartfelt moment turned into a less heartfelt moment as Jenny spat at me with acidity dripping from her tone. "What would you know about being a mother?"

"I know you probably shouldn't be walking home alone at night with drunks around you on the loose. Let me drive you home, Jenny."

Jenny was about to speak when she suddenly clutched her stomach in pain. She doubled over, and to my horror, heaved up what little she had in her stomach. I didn't know why and I was suddenly scared she had been drinking sometime before I had picked her up. I was scared, and for the first time, I was scared for both Jenny and her baby.

Jenny groaned and wiped her mouth. She stood up again and sighed like it happens all the time. She caught my horrified expression and rolled her eyes. "It's called morning sickness, stupid."

I went even more into a panick. Sickness? She had a disease? She caught a disease this morning too? Is it going to affect the baby? My heart was pounding and I couldn't seem to move. "B—but it's not even morning. Did you go to a doctor for that?"

Jenny laughed before returning to her scowl. "I'm throwing up because I'm pregnant. Look it up later and just take me home." I quickly complied.

When I pulled open the door for her, I couldn't help but stare for a moment at her skinny waist. In only a few months, her belly would be swollen to maximum capacity. There is something living inside of her at this moment, and I caught myself thinking, the girl I love has another man's baby growing inside her. I had never in my life been more conflicted in such a moment as this.