Believing Lies (37 page)

“If he wants me back sooo much, why haven’t I heard from him?” She didn’t reply, so I answered for her. “It’s because he really doesn’t care that much at all. He told me he wouldn’t give up, and he did.”
Crap. Please tell me the wetness on my cheeks isn’t tears
.

“Oh honey.” She pulled my head down onto her lap and ran her fingers through my hair. “I know for a fact that he hasn’t given up. I just think he’s working some of his own issues out first. Be patient.”

“I don’t want to talk about Adam anymore. It’s a lost cause.” My own words caused my chest to constrict painfully.

“So you’re just going to sit around and watch romance movies instead?” Her snarky undertone didn’t go unnoticed.

“Yep. It’s as close as I’m going to get to anything even remotely romantic for God knows how long. I’m kind of off the dating market now. Who’s going to want to date a pregnant girl?”

She stopped playing with my hair. “Um, let me see . . . Adam!”

I sat up and lightly poked her shoulder. “Mention his name one more time and I’ll go to bed.”

“Fine,” she huffed. “How was your Thanksgiving?”

I rolled my eyes. “Tiresome. Mother and Dad kept riding me about what happened with Adam and got irritated when I wouldn’t give them any details.” I paused, wondering if I should tell her about the next part. “They want me to move home.”

“Fuck no!” she screeched.

“As much as I don’t want to, it might be a good idea.”

“Are you insane?”

“My mother can help me with the baby. It’s not like I can stay here after the baby’s born.”

“Why not? Of course you can.”

I gave her a half-smile. “That’s sweet, but you don’t need a newborn around. You’ll be finishing up school. Not to mention, there are only two rooms.”

“We’ll get a bigger place.”

“No. Either I’ll get my own place or move home. I think moving home may be the best option, at least for a while.” She looked as if she was about to blow a gasket. “How about this? I’ll stay living here until closer to my due date.”

Her previously scrunched up face relaxed. “You better.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I walked out of my final class of the semester feeling heavy hearted. On one hand, I was sure I did excellent on all of my exams because I’d spent the past few weeks studying like a mad woman. On the other hand, knowing that I wouldn’t be on campus again until the following fall was a hard pill to swallow. I was so deep in thought that I didn’t notice Adam leaning against my car until I was only a few feet away. He was staring at the ground with his hands tucked in his pockets, shivering. It was freezing out, and by how red his ears and cheeks were, he’d been there for a while. I saw him before he saw me, but as soon as his eyes found mine, I was a goner. So many weeks of not seeing him had allowed me to build a brick wall around my shredded heart, and all it took was the sight of him to start knocking it down.

He straightened up as I approached him and gave me a hesitant smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You look good, Princess.”

I couldn’t help but give him a small smile in return. “Thanks. What do you want, Adam?”

“I wanted to see you,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Now you have, so I’m going to go home if that’s all you wanted,” I told him with a hint of snark.

“No, that’s not all. How have you been?” he asked, his voice timid.

“Are we really going to stand here and have small talk?”

“This isn’t going as I expected,” he said, mostly to himself.

“Gee, Adam. How did you expect it to go?” I brought out my bitchy tone as a natural defense.

He threw up his arms. “I don’t know, Princess. Not like this.” He took a breath. “Can we please go somewhere to talk? Hell, can we even just sit in your car with the heat on?”

“Don’t call me that, and no. There’s nothing to talk about. The pregnancy is going fine and that’s all we need to talk about going forward. I’ll keep you informed of anything regarding the baby.”

“Thank you for that. But I really need to talk about us.”

“There’s no
us
. In fact, there never was. You made that quite clear.”

“There was and always will be. You just need to realize it.” I pursed my lips as he knocked another hole in my wall. “I gave you time. I can’t stay away any longer. I miss you so much it physically hurts.”

“You are so full of it. If it hurts you so much, you wouldn’t have waited over month and a half to even contact me. That’s not missing me, that’s avoiding me.”

“I thought time was what you wanted. I thought maybe if you missed me as much as I missed you, then we could fix this.”

“Is that what you want to hear? That I miss you?” I asked, my voice shaking. I made my face expressionless. “Don’t hold your breath.”

I went to the driver’s side door, got in, and started the engine. He didn’t try to stop me, and I was surprised at how much that disappointed me. I pulled out of the parking lot and said to my empty car, “I miss you, Adam.”

***

When I got home, I told Sophie about seeing Adam after school. She didn’t seem shocked, which made me suspicious of her possible involvement. I wanted to go have a nice night and celebrate the end of exams, so I didn’t delve into it much deeper. I hadn’t done anything social since Halloween. A girls’ night on the town sounded like a perfect way to get out of my post-Adam funk.

After several weeks of not really caring about how I looked, it felt really nice to get dressed up again. I put on a black baby doll dress over some gray leggings. The empire waist hid my small bump so nicely that I didn’t even appear pregnant. I tugged on a pair of high healed black boots, which came up to my knees. I went for a messy, wavy hair look and layered on multiple black and silver bracelets. Looking in the mirror, I concluded that this was the best I had looked since the breakup happened. No more nights alone watching chick flicks. It was time to get back out and enjoy life again.

Courtney let out a low whistle as I walked into the living room. Cassie was sitting next to her on the couch and gave me a huge smile. Over the past few weeks, I’d spent quite a bit of time studying and hanging out with them, and Cassie had actually grown on me quite a bit. Her voice still grated on my nerves at times, and I wished she used the word “like” less frequently, but overall I found there was a lot more to her than I originally gave her credit for.

Courtney and Cassie both looked amazing, each in her own way. Courtney was rocking tight jeans and a sheer white shirt with a giant skull on it over a black bra. Cassie was wearing a peach colored skater skirt, a low-cut, brown shirt, and matching brown heels. Sophie walked toward us, carrying her silver stilettos, which matched the silver accents on her little black dress.

The Green Light was absolutely packed when we got there. It looked as if we weren’t the only ones celebrating the end of exams. There were no open tables in sight, so we had to stand near the bar. Ready to get the night started, I told the girls that I would treat them to their first drinks. After flagging down a bartender, I ordered three appletinis for them and a cranberry juice for myself.

I simply stood there, kind of zoning out, until Sophie said, “Loosen up, poopsicle. I finally got you to go out again, so let’s have some fun.”

I laughed and agreed. For the next hour, we mostly just talked to each other, ignoring those around us. We talked about our plans for Christmas, which was only a couple days away, and about my ultrasound, which was tomorrow.

“I really, really, really hope it’s a girl,” Courtney chirped. “I found a pink bib the other day that read: As pretty as my mommy. You know I had to buy it. I couldn’t help myself.”

I smiled at the compliment. “If it’s a boy, he’ll be as handsome as his daddy,” I said absently.

“Did you just say something nice about Adam?” Sophie asked incredulously.

“I guess I did.” She looked as surprised as I felt. I needed to recover from my slip. “But really, it’s not as if his looks can be denied.”

“Looks aren’t everything,” Courtney pointed out saucily. She was still holding a major grudge against Adam. Unlike Sophie, she hadn’t become a turncoat.

Sophie had a mischievous glint in her eyes. Over the years, I’d come to recognize that slight twinkle, and it usually meant trouble.

“You’re right, Courtney, looks aren’t everything. But damn, do they help.” She nodded her head to something over my shoulder. I turned in that direction and noticed the nod wasn’t to something, but rather someone. Adam had just walked through the door, flanked by Conner, Zach, and Drake.

When Courtney saw my eyes widen, she followed my gaze, and hers narrowed to slits. The friends with benefits status with Zach fizzled out last week when she wanted to up the ante to something more serious. Unfortunately, he told her that he didn’t want to be “tied down” quite yet.

“Come on, Sienna. I have to go to the bathroom.” Courtney grabbed my hand and pulled me away with her. I could hear Sophie telling us to stop being chickens. I was going to kick her ass if she kept up her meddling.

Courtney pulled me into the ladies room and leaned heavily against the wall.

“Ew, Court. You may not want to rub up against that too much,” I said, my face scrunched up. “It looks as if it hasn’t been washed in a while.”

She immediately stepped forward. “How are you not mad right now? We’ve been set up. Girls’ night, my ass. This has Sophie written all over it.”

“Yep. No use in letting it spoil our night though,” I said, more to convince myself than to convince her. “I think it’s time to dance. You with me?” I waggled my eyebrows.

Her lips pulled up into a slick smile. “Absolutely.”

We walked straight to the dance floor and began to dance as sexily as possible. After two songs, we were joined by Cassie.

“I thought I’d, like, lost you two,” she spoke loudly over the music as she swayed her hips to the beat.

“You found us now,” Courtney replied as loudly.

Cassie laughed. “Sure did! I saw the stupefied looks on Adam’s and Zach’s faces, and then saw why.” She pointed toward the corner of the bar, and I saw the guys standing with Sophie. “You two look, like, super-hot out here!”

My eyes met Adam’s from across the room. He really did look a little stupefied, but also ticked off.
What gives?

“Cassie, will you go ask Sophie to join us?”

“No can do, Sienna. She said that you would have to come get her. She said to, like, call you a chicken shit if you didn’t.”

“Fine. I’ll play her game.”

I left Cassie and Courtney on the floor to do their thing and sauntered toward my traitorous cousin with a huge, fake smile plastered on my face.

“Hi, boys. How’s it going?” I said to Conner and Drake, using my sweetest voice possible. Then I turned to Adam and Zach, and with no infliction at all, said, “What a coincidence running into you tonight.”

“No coincidence,” Adam admitted freely.

“No shit,” I responded dryly. I bit my lip to keep myself from saying anything else.

Adam quirked his eyebrow, and I watched him slightly lick his lower lip as he stared at mine. Heat shot through me, and I had to swallow the lump in my throat.
Wow, is it getting hot in here?

“Come on, Sophie. Time to dance.” I grabbed her hand and tugged. “You owe me,” I added coolly. She at least had the courtesy to look a little guilty before following me to the dance floor.

“How could you?” Courtney and I asked Sophie at the exact same time.
Jinx
.

“I only meant for Conner to bring Adam. Zach wasn’t in the plan,” she explained to Courtney. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. He can see what he’s missing out on.” Courtney wiggled her butt and slapped it. Sophie laughed and started to dance with her and Cassie.

My irritation was rising. “Hey!” I yelled at Sophie, causing her to stop dancing and face me. “Aren’t you even going to try to pretend to be sorry about getting Adam here?”

She tapped her finger on her chin. “Hmmm. Nope. Not sorry,” she answered cheekily. “You love him. He loves you. Now will you please forgive his sexy ass and go back to being happy?” She started to dance again.

“I am happy!” I yelled, my face furrowed in anger.

She stopped dead in her tracks and put her pointer finger right in my face. “Bullshit.”

I bit her finger, and we both started to laugh at my reaction. “We look like idiots just standing still on a dance floor, so let’s dance.” Neither of us possessed the ability to ever truly get mad at the other. Curse or blessing? I wasn’t sure.

We danced until all four of us were sweaty and thirsty. For about an hour, I let my friends and the music distract me in the best way possible. When my body could physically take no more, I went with Courtney to the bar. We ordered drinks for the girls and a water for me and carried them back to the table the boys had procured in our absence. Adam immediately stood up and gave me his stool. I was really tired out, so I didn’t even try to act as if I didn’t appreciate the gesture, and thanked him.

He stood right next to me, and every slight move he made and every word from his mouth sent shivers down my spine. My body itched to touch him, to feel him. It was torturous being so close to him, and it was slowly driving me crazy. We both joined in the conversations of the table, and I did my best to appear unaffected by his presence. I was laughing at a joke Drake told when I felt a hand at the base of my spine. Such a slight touch, but it sent electricity shooting through me like a lightning bolt. Just the feel of his fingers, through fabric no less, and my entire being was jolted. My butterflies were brought back to life, fluttering everywhere. I was unable to move a muscle, completely paralyzed. Adam began to rub tiny circles across my lower back, the whole time continuing to laugh and talk with our friends. When I finally regained basic motor skills, I lifted my bottle and gulped down the last of my water.

“I need another water,” I announced to no one in particular and hopped off my stool, effectively breaking the contact. “Be right back,” I squeaked. Yes, I actually squeaked the words.

I walked briskly to the bar and impatiently waited for a bartender, drumming my fingers on the counter. After several minutes, I almost gave up. Then a blonde bartender with hot pink lipstick came right to me, smiling ear-to-ear. The tingle I felt when a body came up flush to mine clued me in that it wasn’t me she had come to wait on. I rolled my eyes.