“Hey Willow.”
I turned and Jorden pressed into me, pinning me to the wall while he bent to kiss me. I pushed him back after a few seconds, grinning up at him.
“Hey yourself.”
“Thank god it’s summer. I can’t stand that high school any longer. It’s so dull.”
I laughed and took Jorden’s offered hand, letting him lead me over to the pavilion at Dean Park and we sat down opposite Evelyn and Nick at a picnic table. Obviously, Nick had been angry at first that I’d so easily fallen for Jorden and replaced him. He got over it when I pointed out that the same applied to him and Evelyn, as they were now a happy couple. At long last, there was peace amongst the four of us and I hoped that it’d stay that way.
“So what have you been doing this summer?” I asked my sister.
Despite the fact that she lived with me, I’d rarely seen her as of late and missed her. Her days had been spent hanging out with her soul mate, either walking around Dean Park, going to the cinema or the mall. She grinned and leaned towards me so she could say in a stage whisper, “Nick.”
“Evelyn!”
I laughed as Nick blushed and she waggled her brows suggestively before looking up at her boyfriend and batting her eyelashes innocently. He rolled his eyes, but pulled her in for a kiss anyways, then buried his face in her neck and hair.
“I’m taking a guess and saying that you two have been... entertaining each other, too?”
“Actually, I can control myself, as can Jorden. Unlike some people.” I folded my arms over my chest and glanced pointedly at Nick’s hand that lay possessively on her inner thigh and kept inching upward.
“Oh, pooh. Where’s the fun in that?”
I shook my head at my sister and caught Jorden grinning at me. His arm was wound around my waist and his hand was slipping lower until his fingers slid under the waistband of my pants. At that time I gave him a look and he chuckled, taking his hand and his arm off me. My sister gave me a knowing look and I stuck my tongue out at her which then got her laughing.
"Okay, I can control myself."
"In public."
I elbowed Jorden in the stomach and heard his breath leave him for a few seconds before he inhaled deeply. Leaning down, his mouth brushed my ear as he promised to get me back later. My face heated up as his hands encircled my wrists to give me a good idea of what he meant. I shook him off and turned my attention back to the conversation that had gone momentarily quiet.
“It’s been three months. What about the baby in the vision? Neither of you are pregnant, and Evelyn said that baby looked to be at least three months old.”
Nick’s voice rang in the silence and I froze, glancing at Jorden, who was staring at Nick in horror, all traces of his earlier playfullness gone. I silently thought back, wondering if I’d missed a period and then my spine straightened. I’d missed two periods. Shooting my eyes over to Evelyn, I noticed that she was doing her own math and, judging by her face, didn’t come to the same conclusion as me. She sighed in relief and turned to look at me, her own face twisting in sympathy. I was pale and Jorden wrapped his arms around me, pulling me up against his body, one hand raking gently through my hair, to try and comfort me.
“I can’t raise a baby. I can’t even have a baby! I’m only sixteen! The vision also says that we’re going to die in less than a year! What’s the point in having a baby only to die a few months later? What’s the point in all of this?”
I was in hysterics by the end and Jorden was now stroking my back, soothing me as best he could. Nick's hand tightened on my sister's leg and she flinched but didn't move it. I gripped Jorden's shirtfront as tears filled my eyes.
"Easy, it'll be okay. I'm not going anywhere. We can get through this together."
"But it's too much to raise a baby! Jorden, I'm screwed! I can't do it. My parents will kill me. Then they'll kill you."
Evelyn shook her head and leaned forward to grab my shoulder, turning me to face her. "No they won't. I already told them about the vision and they know that one of us is going to be pregnant. They also know that they're supposed to die at the battle."
I gaped at her and my stomach twisted. My jaw clenched as I shot to my feet and ran into the woods to throw up. Jorden found me curled up against a tree that was a few feet from where I'd puked. He crouched in front of me and pulled me into his arms. I was shaking, and grabbed onto his shirt while he pressed my face into his neck. When my tears turned into hiccups, I turned my face up to look at him.
He was staring at the tree behind me and I saw the fear plain on his face. "Willow, it'll all be fine."
"I'm gonna get so fat!"
He laughed loudly, relaxing, and pulled me to my feet, wrapping an arm around my waist and leading me back to the other two. Evelyn threw her arms around me and turned us towards a bench. Her hand flew upon my stomach and her eyes closed in concentration before opening with a sigh.
"Yeah, there's a baby in there."
"I figured as much. Just my luck to get pregnant at sixteen. Maybe I can go on MTV."
"Even though that'd be funny and you'd probably become famous, that's not a wise idea. Hunter babies are more advanced than normal babies."
I stared down at my hands in my lap and took a deep breath. "I have to get home to tell Mom and then I just need some time alone to think."
We all walked back to the house and I froze outside, not wanting to face my parents and admit the truth of my pregnant state. I didn't even believe it myself, and I refused to even think about it from now on. Day by day, that's how I'd play it out.
"Willow..."
"Sorry, I'm coming." I wrapped my arms around my waist and followed everyone inside.
"Mom, Dad, can you come here?"
My parents warily walked into the living room at Evelyn's call. After one look at the way the other three were positioned around me, Mom started to cry. She shook her head and I knew that she was refusing to believe the facts- just like I was.
"Mom, please don't. She can't deal with it yet."
"My daughter is pregnant! At sixteen, barely seventeen! Of course I'm going to be crying!"
I just stared down at my feet, detaching myself from the situation and effectively blocking everyone out. A calm settled over me and I moved upstairs in a zombie-like fashion to my room. My name was called but it was so faint that I ignored it. I closed the door and sat on my bed, staring out the window. There was the familiar creak of the door being opened and my sister rushed in, standing before me. Her brow furrowed at me, but as soon as the tingling started in my brain, she dropped heavily to her knees and became as lifeless as me, staring straight ahead of her.
"Evelyn!" Nick burst into the room and shook Evelyn until she stirred, blinking up at him.
"She's withdrawn into herself."
I heard all the voices but they didn't register in my head. My gut twisted with cold but it went unnoticed until blackness surrounded me.
I pushed myself up off my stomach and onto my hands and knees, looking around. I spotted the same battle as the last vision, but noticed that everything was different this time. Nick and Jorden were fighting off monsters effortlessly and they all dropped around them. There was maybe one or two casualties in the hunter's numbers and we were quickly disposing of the monsters.
Instead of Evelyn looking at my stomach, I glanced at hers and smiled before turning back to the battle. Her stomach had a slight bulge to it and if I had to guess, I'd say that she was about five months.
Quickly, I turned and looked for the baby from last time, but found the tree hollow it'd been hidden in to be empty. I followed my subconscious up a sharp incline and to the opening of a cave. The baby was laid deep inside, and it had Jorden’s unruly brown hair, but my pale skin. I could only stare at it, at my baby. It was sleeping, buried in multiple layers of blankets to ward off the cold. There was a shuffling behind me and I turned to see myself walking up the path to the cavern, worn out from the battle.
Upon seeing the baby, the battle-worn version of me rushed forward and gathered the infant in her arms. She turned to walk out and a monster landed in the opening, blocking the exit. Words were exchanged, but unlike the last visions I'd had, I couldn't hear a thing. Suddenly, it lunged at the mother and daughter...
I struggled to hold the vision, wanting to know if I will live or not, but it ended and my eyes slowly opened. Jorden was watching and frowning at me. I realized that we were alone, but I knew Evelyn was still in my head. Sliding off of the bed, I threw myself into his arms, burying my face in his chest. Tears leaked out of my eyes in silent sobs, but he felt the wetness on his shirt, alerting him to my distress, and gently pulled me over to sit with him on the sofa bed that was situated beneath the window.
“Tell me what you saw.” He asked me when I was calmed down more than before. Or, at least enough to get words out.
“The- the battle.”
“Again?”
I nodded. “But... it was different. We won. The baby was different, looked like you, but with my eyes.”
“Our baby?”
“Yeah...”
“What is it? What aren’t you telling me?”
“After the battle... I- I went back to the cave to get the baby and a monster cornered and attacked us. I couldn’t see if- if it actually got me though because the vision ended. I could still die, as could the baby!”
His arms tightened around me. “That’s not going to happen, okay? You will not die. I refuse to let it happen.”
I just leaned into him, not saying anything because I wanted to believe him, but was scared that he could die alongside me if he did come with me. My hands drew random patterns on his chest and he shivered. I smiled, finding it amusing that I had power over a strong male like him, just by touching him. I tilted my head back, letting him see the amused gleam in my eyes and he laughed, then kissed me.
“Willow!” Evelyn ran in dragging Nick behind her and she smiled at me. “Oops, did I interrupt something?”
“No.” I said at the same time Jorden said “Yes.”
“Uh- huh... anyways, we should go shopping!”
“What? Why?”
“Well, two reasons." She held up a hand then counted off her justifications on her fingers. "First, you’ll need new clothes and supplies and stuff that we’ll be too busy to get later. You know, for the baby and yourself. And second, I really want to be a normal teenage girl for just an afternoon. Please!”
I raised an eyebrow at her and she clasped her hands in front of her, bouncing on her toes and begging me with her wide eyes. “Fine. You can be as normal as you can while shopping with a pregnant sister.”
“Yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She hugged me tightly. "And I'm going to ignore your last comment because I refuse to let you be a Debbie Downer and ruin this!"
I got up and dug through my drawers for my wallet that held over a hundred dollars. Evelyn picked something up off her desk and threw it at me. I snatched it out of the air and glared up at her when I recognized it as my wallet. Quickly, I dug through it to make sure that all my money was still there as Evelyn shrugged.
“I was being optimistic and got it out for you.”
“How did you know where it was?”
“You’re not as secretive as you’d like to believe, sister dearest.”
I grumbled and followed her out to the car, climbing into the back, not wanting to drive. Jorden climbed behind the wheel and winked at me in the rear view mirror. I scrambled into the passenger seat when Evelyn and Nick tumbled into the back seat, already making out.
“I’m not comfortable back there any longer.”
I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at the couple stretched out over the back seat. Jorden chuckled and intertwined his fingers with mine, driving one- handedly. We pulled into the mall a few minutes later, music blaring to block out the noises from the back. When Evelyn stepped out of the car fixing her clothes, I smirked at her and wagged my own eyebrows, causing a blush to creep over her cheeks and she stepped behind Nick, hiding her face from view.
“Can’t take what you can’t dish out, eh Evelyn?”
“Shut up, Willow. It’s just weird when you do that eyebrow thing. You’re usually so reserved, so it was... awkward.”
“Yeah, that’s the reason it was awkward. Let’s just go.”