When six-thirty came around, Kith was already in the only skirt that still fit. Silently, she thanked whoever responsible for elastic waistbands. Searching through her stash of clothes, she grabbed a red tank top. Layering a black cardigan over it, she stared at herself in the mirror. Unsatisfied with the way her stomach stuck out, she stood at a different angle. She still looked enormous. I'm so big, she thought. And it was only month five. There were still four months to go. Was it possible to get any bigger? That was a stupid question; she knew she would get bigger. The idea that a skirt with an elastic waistband wouldn't even fit in four months was depressing. Holding back tears, she turned away from the mirror. "You dressed?" Cameron called through the door.
"Yeah," she said dejectedly.
The knob turned and he poked his head in just to make sure. Satisfied that it was safe, he walked into the center of the room and dropped his backpack on the floor. Already in jeans, he pulled open one of his drawers to look for a shirt. Removing his frat sweatshirt, he threw it on the floor and moved over to his closet. Kith unconsciously took note of his muscles. Silently debating, he grabbed a white and blue plaid shirt off the hanger and thrust his arms through the sleeves. "You ready?" he asked while racing up the lines of white buttons. Stalking quickly over to his dresser, he grabbed a can of body spray, dosed himself with it, and then reached for his brush.
"I want to do my hair," she said sadly while holding her straightener. Nice hair might improve her spirits.
"Then do it," he stared at her while brushing his own hair. When he noticed she wasn't moving, he stopped. "What?"
Shaking her head, she set it back down on the bed.
"What? Are you tired?" Tossing his brush down, he straightened his collar. She hated admitting it. Her day wasn't anything out of the ordinary. She'd gotten a good night's rest, she'd eaten properly, and she'd done her homework. Despite not doing anything spectacular or particularly taxing, she felt exceptionally heavy. Every minimal action took twice as much force and energy as it had previously. It was sad. "I got it. I'll do your hair."
"It's okay," she shook her head. She would just be the unattractive one at the table.
"No," he argued and seized control of the straightener. "You want your hair done. I'll do it." Standing opposite him, Kith gazed skeptically. She highly doubted that Cameron had any idea how to do anyone's hair besides his own. Styling his hair didn't even take effort. Half the time it was covered with a hat. Raising his eyebrows, he made his most enticing face. "Come on. Trust me. I've seen girls straighten their hair on TV."
"I just want to curl it a bit," she said plainly.
"Okay," he shrugged like it was simple. "I can do that."
"Cameron, no," sighing, she looked around for her purse. "Let's just go."
"Give me some credit," he made a face. "Just let me try. I promise I won't ruin your hair." Widening his eyes, he gave the impression that he was about to start crying if she didn't agree.
"Fine," rolling her eyes, she followed him to the bathroom.
Laughing a little, Cameron plugged it into one of the middle outlets between two sinks. Turning it on, he turned around to face her. "Alright," biting his lip, he studied her face and occasionally made 'mm-hm' sounds. Kith attempted to read his thoughts, but found it impossible. "Okay, so... how do I do this?"
"You just take a section of hair"-she demonstrated-"and run the straightener down. As you're going down, twist it, and then let go once you're at the end."
"Twist your hair or the straightener?"
"The straightener."
"Alright," he repeated. "That doesn't sound hard at all."
"It should be ready," she pointed to it. "It heats up really fast."
"Okay," he said excitedly. Standing beside her, he raised his hands, and then dropped them slightly. Bringing them back up again, he stopped before actually touching her head. "Can I touch your hair?"
"Yes," she said slowly.
"You have that thing about people not touching you," he explained. "I didn't know...." Hesitantly, he rested a hand on her hair and then gathered an enormous section.
"Too big," she said instantly.
"Now?" he dropped some of the hair.
"A little more," she answered.
Sighing, he lost a little enthusiasm and gathered more hair. "Now?"
"Yeah."
Picking up the flat iron, he clamped it onto the middle of her hair. "Cameron!"
"What?" he jumped.
"You have to start at the top," she pointed. "What are you doing?"
"Oh," he said simply.
"My hair's gonna look so bad," she panicked aloud. She'd known it was a terrible idea from the get-go.
"No, no," he silenced her while restarting. "All the other girls are gonna look at you and be like 'goddamn, who did her hair?'. They'll be impressed." He started twisting a little late, so the curl was lackluster and barely there. Pressing his lips together, he worked to suppress a laugh. "Okay, next section. I got it next section."
The next section, as anticipated, wasn't that much better.
"Next one," he promised.
His third attempt was actually much better than the first two. Afterwards, he got the flat iron stuck in her hair momentarily, an incident that got them both laughing. By the time he proclaimed his masterpiece complete, Kith had nearly been burned four times and the final product was the antonym of impressive. But it had been fun, more fun than initially expected.
"It's after seven," she motioned for him to hurry up. "They're probably downstairs waiting."
"You're the one who wanted to curl your hair," he thundered down the steps. "I was helping you."
"You insisted on curling my hair," she fired back.
"Yeah," he said over his shoulder at the base of the stairs. She wasn't as fast as him and he knew it. "And I did a good job. Admit it."
"I will never tell such an egregious lie," at the bottom, she leaned against the wall momentarily.
"Ay!" Cameron shouted into the lounge. "If you're in there, Ty, let's go. Kith needs to sit down."
Ty and his girlfriend, Lucy, appeared; Ty with a smirk on his face and Lucy with a smile on hers. Like Cameron, Ty had thrown on a nice, button-down shirt and some jeans. Lucy had opted for a tight blue dress with shoulder pads. Her thin legs were clad in black stockings with flowers, and she finished off her look with black, ankle boots. Black hair spilled over her shoulders as if she'd just gotten out of bed; it was perfect chaos. Kith even liked Lucy's red headband. It was thick, thicker than any headband Kith usually wore, and a huge black flower was jutting out from the side of it. It wasn't Kith's style, but Lucy made it work.
"Hi, Kith!" Lucy greeted her warmly with a huge smile and nearly closed eyes. They'd met each other only once before, and Kith had liked her from the get-go. She knew instantly that Lucy didn't have the capacity to be mean. She was all smiles and happiness. When they were first introduced, Lucy looked right at her face, not her stomach. That's how Kith knew.
"Hi," Kith smiled back. Lucy's purple eyeliner was obvious; she'd brought it out past the curves of her eyes
"You're bigger than the last time I saw you!" Lucy exclaimed, hugging her tightly. Releasing her grasp, she held Kith at arm's length as if they were childhood friends. "And you look so cute and pregnant! I can't wait!"
"Yes you can," Ty said quickly.
"I just meant that she looks so cute," Lucy elbowed him. "Tell her how cute she looks right now."
"You look cute, Kith," Ty echoed.
It was also quite clear from their first encounter that Lucy was considered 'weird'. Kith based that off how she dressed and how she talked. Regardless of what she was saying, or what time of day it was, Lucy sounded incredibly high. She wasn't high though, just happy because of pretty much everything. The first and last time they were together, Lucy had gone into a long story about how she'd gone to the store and they'd had her favorite candy on sale. "And your boobs are huge!" Her smile increased ten-fold as she dropped her hands from Kith's shoulders. "I'm sure Cameron loves those!"
"Okay, let's leave," Cameron intervened before Lucy could say anything else.
Inside Cameron's truck, Ty took the front passenger seat. Lucy slid into the backseat with Kith and immediately started talking about a painting for her art class. Her story lasted the entire fifteen minute drive across campus. Kith nodded at all the right parts, or the ones she assumed were the right parts, but didn't say anything. Lucy's voice was oddly comforting. No girl had spoken to her so kindly in... she couldn't even remember. She didn't want to interrupt Lucy either because she seemed really into her story. Plus, there was nothing going on in her life worth sharing, except the baby. And she didn't want to talk about him.
"So I think I just might paint this one with my feet," Lucy concluded before hopping out the back. Holding the door open for Kith, she twirled in a little circle, and then smiled widely at her.
At the table, they ran their eyes over the menu. Kith noticed that the restaurant wasn't as nice as the one Cameron had taken her to back home. It was well-designed, but far less spectacular. She heard a child crying off in the distance. Immediately she frowned, knowing that would be her in just a few months.
"What's wrong?" Cameron questioned, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Nothing," she said quickly, ducking her head back behind her menu.
"Remember, you can't have fish," he answered.
"I know, Cameron," she said shortly, tucking hair behind her ear. Before returning the inked print, she caught Lucy smiling at them.
Kith silently thanked the universe when their food finally showed up. Her stomach had been rumbling and she felt like she was on the verge of passing out. Even though she hadn't exactly wanted to come, it was much, much nicer than eating in Cameron's room, or even the kitchen of the frat house. Picking up her fork, she dug deep into salad with sliced chicken strips on top. Everyone maintained their general silence during the first few minutes after the food's arrival. Kith listened to forks gliding over porcelain plates, chewing, crunching, and some slurping from Lucy's direction.
"So how'd you get pregnant?" Lucy wiped her mouth off with her napkin and took a sip from her soda.
"Luce," Ty glared at her.
"I mean they have to have a story," she defended herself. "Everyone has a how-I-got-pregnant story."
"You don't," he countered.
"Well, duh," she rolled her eyes. "Haven't been pregnant, babe."
"That's not something you ask people," Ty sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"No, it's okay," Cameron rushed to Lucy's defense to make things less awkward. Kith looked at him, alarmed. No, it wasn't okay. He couldn't tell them. He was the only one who knew, besides Austin, of course. There was no story; there was an event. A tragic, painful event she never wanted anyone else to know about. "She's actually the first person to ask."
"Of course she is," Ty muttered, slicing into his steak. Lucy's smile brightened tenfold and she set her silverware down in anticipation. Lucy was notorious for saying things most people just thought, so her question wasn't that shocking. Its sudden appearance at the table was.
"So..." Cameron cleared his throat and pressed his lips together, visibly thinking. "Well. It's a great story. I just have to think of how I want to start it." Grabbing his drink, he drank deeply while Kith stared at him, fork frozen in the air. What did he plan on telling them? Setting his glass down, he cleared his throat again.
"There isn't really a story," Kith interrupted before he could open his mouth. "I think, I mean... it's quite obvious how I got pregnant."
"No, there's a story," he waved aside her excuse. Even Ty showed some interest. Wiping the corners of his mouth off, he tossed his fork down and waited. Planting her hands in her lap, Kith fought to keep them from sweating pools all over the white tablecloth. "Okay, so, what is it now? January? Alright, um, obviously this was back before school started, for me. Like, a few weeks before. So Kith had been hanging around my house a lot 'cause she's known my younger brother since elementary school or something. She was around all the time and it was kinda annoying at first. But then... I don't know. Something happened one day and I just, I kinda wanted to hang out with her, without Austin around. So one day, she was leaving and I asked her if she wanted to go to dinner with me."
"Aww!" Lucy exclaimed, planting her elbows on the table. "That's so cute!"
"Yeah, I know," Cameron agreed, proud of himself. "We planned to go the next day, okay? So the next evening comes around and I go to pick her up. I have on some jeans, a nice shirt, and a blazer. I look good, you know? I ring the doorbell, talk a little with her parents and stuff-they loved me before, you know, this-and then Kith comes downstairs. And it's like....I'm gonna sound like a bitch, but my heart stops. She looked so good." He turned to her. "You remember what you were wearing?"
"Uh...," faltering, she stared dumbly back at him. This story was far longer than any she'd expected. He couldn't just incorporate her in his lie without briefing her beforehand.
"I remember," snapping his fingers, he turned back to Ty and Lucy. "I don't know how she doesn't. She had on this super-tight, black dress. It didn't have sleeves or straps or whatever the hell they're called, and she had her hair done. If you can picture it, it was back when she didn't have this." Smirking he pointed at her stomach. Lucy laughed a little and smiled. "Okay, so Kith looks insanely pretty. We go, get in my car, eat at this restaurant she didn't really want to go to, but ended up loving. By the time we're done eating and talking, it's, like, ten at night. I don't want to take her back yet, and she kinda agrees, so we both decided to go to the beach.
"I'm in my nice clothes, she's still in her dress, should be fun, right?" He continues, smiling at the imaginary memory. "We get there, and as expected, not too many people are around. It's late and most of the tourists are gone. So we walk for a while, still talking about stuff. I'm great with conversation, in case you were wondering. We come to this one spot and we can see the boardwalk. The moon's hitting the water just right, there are no annoying seagulls, and the waves just sound perfect. She stops and sits down because she's tired of walking. So I sink down into the sand too, right next to her; then she puts her head on my shoulder, and I can smell how good she smells. And it's getting to me. And we were basically all alone. And... I don't know. I knew I didn't have any condoms and I told her, and she seemed like she didn't want to, just because of that. Kith, always smart. But I convinced her, because I'm good at that, too. I convinced her and here we are. It's my fault. She looked so good and I just wanted her so badly."
"Aww!" Lucy commented again, crushing her napkin between her hands. "That's so romantic and cute and-oh my gosh!"
"Congratulations, Kith," Ty said simply. "You got pregnant by one of the dumbest guys in our frat."
"Shut up!" Cameron glared at him. Ty shook his head and returned to his dinner. Kith just stared at him. Where had such an elaborate story come from? Especially in such a short amount of time. Their eyes locked; smiling at her, he raised his almost empty glass in her direction.
Cam should act.
TEASER: "Can I ask you something? Brother to brother?"