Pretend (61 page)

             
"Ok, sounds good, hope food is included somewhere in this little outing though," I replied as we both began to head towards the front door.

             
"Of course!
Oh, hang on, I left my bag in my room, I'll be two seconds," she said as she quickly leapt up the stairs.

             
"Ok," I said as I pulled my vibrating phone out of my pocket.

             
"Hello," I said as I answered the phone.

             
"Hello sweetheart," a happy and excited sounding voice answered.

             
"Mom?
I didn't recognise the number."

             
"Oh, I'm calling off
our your
Aunt May's phone with one of them calling cards," she replied.

             
"Oh ok, well it's great to hear from
you, I've really missed you."

             
"I've missed you too baby. How is everything?"

             
"It's great, I have a lot to tell you when you get back," I said
,
thinking about me and Aiden.

             
"Good I hope?"

             
"Yes mom," I replied as I let out a little giggle.

             
"Good."

             
"How's Aunt May?"

             
"Not great but we're doing all that we can to keep
her comfortable and make your g
randma happy," she replied in a sad voice.

             
"I'm proud of you all and I can't wait till you get back. I think the guys owe us a game of charades," I said as we both began laughing.

             
"Yes they do except this time we need to win. Well you take care of yourself and make sure that you're helping around the house, it was good of Susan to let you stay," she said.

             
"I will, tell everyone
that I said hi. Love you."

             
"I will. Love you too sweet
heart," she said before hanging
up.

A smile crept onto my face as I realised how good it was to hear her voice.

             
"How are they?" Crystal asked, interrupting my day dream.

             
"They're good. Aunt May seems to be slipping but I think that they are making her last days as good as possible, so all is well," I replied as I threw her a smile.

             
"Well that's good to hear. So are you ready?"

             
"Yeah, let's go," I said before turning around and walking out of the front door.

             
"Aiden still sleeping?"
I asked casually as we started walking down the road.

             
"Yeah, you know how lazy he is when he has no
where to go," she said as she slipped her phone out of her bag.

             
"Hasn't he got music school?"

             
"I think he's skipping today," she replied as she began smiling at her phone.

             
"Cameron?" I said as I began smirking at her.

             
"Yeah," she said as she giggled.

             
"Are you two still getting on ok
?"

             
"Yeah, he's different. I
like him," she replied as she smiled at me.

             
"Good, he's a nice guy,
" I said as I continued smiling at her typing away on her phone.
I became distracted when my phone vibrated again. This time it was a text.

             
So I carry you upstairs to bed, tuck you in and not even a
             
good morning kiss?
:p

             
I tried to stop myself from chuckling as I read over Aiden's
message
.

             
Well if you weren't so lazy and had been awake before I left
             
then I could have. I'll make up for it later xxx

             
I typed quickly as I knew that Crystal would only be distracted for so long. I felt the familiar buzz again and looked down at the phone in my hand.

             
Can't wait x

             
This guy made me smile so much.

             
"Sorry about that, Cam was just asking what time I was going to the party later and if he could see me before," Crystal said as she looked at me.

             
"
Awww
, what time you meeting him?" I asked.

             
"I'm not, I told him that I'm spending time with you all day," she replied as though I had just asked the craziest question ever.

             
"Crystal, you better text him back no
w and tell him you'll meet him."

             
"Huh?"

             
"He is cute, sweet and wants to spend time with you. You can see me anytime, tell him that you'll see him before the party, you can even go together," I said as I smiled at her.

             
"Are you sure?" She asked with a guilty expression on her face.

             
"Of course I'm sure, silly. We'll go to the park for a bit and just skip the mall, we can
go anytime, now get to texting."

             
"You're the best! I love you April Reinhart!"

             
"Yeah, yeah, I know," I said as we both started laughing and she typed her message to Cameron.
I loved seeing her happy like this, could I really ruin all of that by telling her about me and Aiden?

             
"So
,
we need like a major catch up, seriously," Crystal said as we finally got to the park and sat on the swings in the empty play area.

             
I liked it when it was quiet like this and no matter how old
I got the swings we
re still my favourite thing.

             
"Yeah
,
we really do," I agreed.

             
"So
,
what did Queen Bee want last night?"

             
"Queen Bee?" I asked as I began to laugh.

             
"Well
,
she likes to think she is anyway," C
rystal replied as she pulled a funny
face at the thought of Rachel.

             
"Believe it
or not, she came to apologise."

             
"What!"

             
"I
know,
crazy
,
right?"

             
"More than crazy, did s
he hit her head or something?" Crystal replied.

             
"I don't know but what she said actuall
y made a lot of sense you know."

             
"Well I
’ve
got to hear this
."

             
"S
he explained that when Kyle broke up with her that he said it had been because he was still in love with me," I said.

             
"Oh burn," Crystal replied with a smirk on her face.

             
"I guess she knows how you feel now," she added.

             
"Yeah that's what she said and the actual reason
why
she apologised. She said that she finally understood what she
had
done," I said in
a
sad tone as the memories of feeling like that came back.

             
"Yeah
,
well that's how the saying goes," Crystal said.

             
"Huh?"

             
"
What goes
around,
comes around."

             
"Oh yeah," I replied.

             
"You don't sound too happy?"

             
"Well I sort of felt sorry for her I guess and I know that it can't have been easy for someone like Rachel to apologise," I said.

             
"Yeah I suppose you're right."

             
"Well
,
I did invite her to the par
ty
on-"

             
"You what?"

             
"Oh come on Crystal
, I was trying to be nice."

             
"Yeah as always, the girl took your boyfriend, remember?"

             
"Yeah I know but she apologised and I've moved on now," I said before even registering the last part of my sentence.

             
"You have?"

             
"Yeah, I have. I'm through with Kyle now, I just want to be his friend, although I don't think
that
he's going to speak to me right now," I said, sadly.

             
"Why?"

             
I took a deep breath as I
remembere
d
that I hadn't told Crystal about the baby before and for some reason I could feel tears start to fill up in my eyes just at the thought of it.

             
"April
,
are you ok?" She asked in a worried voice.

             
"Yeah, sorry I'm just..." I said as I drifted off, trying to work out how to tell my best friend something that she should already know.

             
"April?" She said in a soft tone. I hadn't even noticed the tears that had started to roll down my cheeks until I tasted the salty taste that hit my lips.

             
"I'm sorry Crystal I wish that
I had told you before but I couldn't," I said as I tried to find the words.
It didn't matte
r how many times I would
tell this story, it would always hurt.

             
"It's ok,
don't cry," she replied in the softest voice.

             
"When Kyle b
roke up with me I was pregnant."

             
"What?" She gasped in shock.

             
"I didn't tell anyone, I wanted him to be the first to know but the day that I went to tell him I found out about Rachel and he broke up with me," I said quietly.

             
"What a jerk," she whispered.

             
"I wanted to tell you but I just couldn't find the words," I said.

             
"It's ok. So
,
what happened, I mean with the baby?"

             
"I lost it. I just started bleeding one day, I didn't know what to do and after Bob found me, him and my mom drove me to the hospital...I guess it was too late," I said as I suddenly realised that Crystal was crying.

             
"I should have been there," she whisper
ed as the tears strolled
down her cheeks.

             
"I'm sorry."

             
"You don't have to be sorry April, I should have known but in
stead I just pressured you into
getting over Kyle and I didn't even think for a minute what you were going through-"

             
"You couldn't have known Crystal, please don't do what Kyle did and blame yourself. I chose to deal with it alone, that wasn't your fault," I said as I stared at her.

             
"So
,
you
only
just told Kyle?" She said in a gentle tone.

             
"Yeah
,
he was heartbroken, I felt horrible. He hasn't been to school or anything since," I said as I thought about how bad he looked after I ran out of his house that night.