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Authors: Jessica Evans

BOOK: The Wide Receiver's Baby
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Chapter Twenty Three

Logan

 
Four weeks later and John nervously stood at my door, “Can we talk to you for a second?” he was  looking at the ground. I didn’t mind being disturbed, I tended to leave the door open, but if I was speaking to Alexa or one of the guys from my frat then the door would be closed, even fucking locked.
I knew what this was about, but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“Just that we were wondering...”
‘We’ tended to mean him and Steven. One thing I’d learned about my roommates was that they were as transparent as hell. It didn’t take long before Reg, just like me, became a member of his frat, and between hanging around with them and people on his course, I hardly saw him. It took him exactly three days to dump his girlfriend from home. He proudly said, ‘Why put off the inevitable?’ and encouraged me to do the same with Alexa. When I told him that it would be like me not playing ball, he told me that I was far too dramatic for him.
Maybe he was right!
I knew one thing:  it would take a miracle before I split up with her, and it certainly wouldn’t be over any of these cheerleaders. I saw that the rumors were true, they were here for only one thing and it wasn’t to cheer.
“Okay?”
John quickly sat on my bed and started to talk. I had a bad hangover. Alexa had been  supposed to arrive today. She’d sent me some shitty message yesterday saying that she couldn’t come - after I had cleaned up my room.
God, I hadn’t even cleaned it up before Mom came, but Alexa.... I’d wanted it to be special and here, she couldn’t even be bothered to call me. An email. She knew that was the lamest way to contact anyone these days. That was why there were hundreds of apps for phones or even social media, who sends emails, apart from people who work in offices? I had asked Mom if something was going on with her and she said that she was at their house and to let me know that the shit had hit the fan. But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t call me.
I was sitting at my desk trying to figure out if I should just fly down there for a weekend, now that I was back in the land of the living; it had been a rough first week. I had drunk too much and been involved in every prank under the sun just to join the damn DKE. It was my calling they said, that was until things went a little too far with the Lioness, aka Ruth Jenkins, who’d tried to kiss me to celebrate me joining the DKE.  I’d managed to pull back in time, but I knew that wouldn’t stop her from trying. She’d called me a teaser. No, I just wasn’t interested, but she didn't seem to understand that part.
“We just don’t know if this whole thing is a good arrangement?”
I’d had a feeling that this was coming, but I hadn’t thought it would be this soon.
“Can I show you something?”
I nodded my head and my followed him into his room, cringing at the idea that one of the guys had played a prank on him. I’d told them to leave him alone, but once word got out on campus about his room, everyone wanted to see if it was true.
“This!” he pointed to his room which had been covered in tits from all over the world. It was now replaced with the complete opposite, and by the look on John’s face he didn’t appreciate it one little bit.
“Ben,” I whispered under my breath. The guy was more than fascinated with the room. He’d pledged to DKE just after me, with one last task to be completed, and by looking at the room which was now filled with men’s cocks, I could see what his last task had been.
“John, man, I’m sorry I had nothing to do with this...” I couldn’t help but laugh. It was pure genius to see that the ‘Queen of the Caribbean’, that was John’s nickname for her, had been replaced by what could only be described as the King of the Caribbean. His cock was fucking huge and I wondered what rag Ben had got all these pictures from. That was when Reg stopped in and said, “Oh man! Looks like someone got pranked. Shit, what you gonna do with all those cocks?”
In a rage, John started taking them down.
“Fuck you guys. This is not funny. I’m going to report it to…” he thought about who he could talk about his little problem. I had visions of him talking to the Dean about it.
It was as if Reg read my mind, “So what you gonna say, John?”
Then he started going into fits of laughter as he continued, and the whole situation cracked me up.  John ranted, “I had tits all over my walls and now I have cocks… dicks bigger than yours or mine. I can’t sleep with that in my face! I need breasts! Big fat juicy breasts!”
We were on the floor laughing. John was in a rage muttering something about it took him months to get the right collection and that is when Steven walked in to see what all the commotion was about. “Cocks!” Then he shook his head and left the room.
John left us in his room, in fits of laughter whilst John was tearing up the cocks as if they were real. He was screaming and ranting about the fact that it would take him all night to get a new collection - or possibly a week. He took out the trash for the first time since we’d arrived, and that was when Reg stopped laughing.
“Shit, maybe we should put cocks on the wall more often. Can’t believe he took out the trash?” “God, that guy’s weird.”
I couldn’t help but ask, “Which one?”
Reg said, “You figure it out.” I looked out the window and there was Trinity, giving me the wink and waving for me to come down. As John came back into his room and started talking about being on the net all night long, I concluded that Reg must have been talking about him. Steve seriously had a dark side to him and I didn’t want to get on the wrong side of it. It was completely different to John, the guy was just weird.
 
***
 
“Hey, what you doing?” I asked Trinity as I came outside.
“Well, some of the girls are going to Bar. Just wanted to know if you wanted to come too? Or did your girlfriend come? Do you want some quiet time?”
She started to smooch and wrap her hands around her body as if she was taking the mickey out of me. Alexa coming was a big deal and I’d told everyone, including my new study partner Trinity, who I suspected had a little thing for me. Then again, Olivia often accused me of thinking that every woman had a thing for me.
That wasn’t strictly true. I’d seen the expression on Trinity’s face when I’d told her that I was taken and that alone proved to me that I was right.
She was pretty and came from Chicago too, which was probably why she liked hanging out with me. Trinity was perfect girlfriend material - apart from Alexa. She would hang out and play on the Playstation if it was raining outside and she would even go as far as to play one-on-one in basketball which was pretty unusual for a cheer.
“I may just do that. And she couldn’t make it,” the last thing I wanted to do was have a shoulder to cry on. So, she took my arm and led me to Bar. I was happy for the company. The guys at DKE were great to hang out with, but sometimes drinking like a fish 24-7 got to me a bit. Just a little bit. At least with Trinity, I could have a laugh and feel like I was hanging out with the guys.
Just that this particular girl had a killer body,  big boobs and such a small waist. I must admit that when I’d seen her practicing cheers a couple of times my dick had moved a bit. She left everything to the imagination, until she took that damn hoodie off, which seemed to be like a second skin to her.
“Seriously, Trinity, do you ever take that damn hoodie off?” I asked, as I lifted the hood and revealed her blond hair.
“Wouldn’t you like to know, Mr. Collins?”
I was going to say something, but then I bit my tongue. I knew that we were slowly but surely crossing the line. I would go out and enjoy myself at Bar but as for this friendship after tonight, it would be permanently put on hold.
 
 
 
 

Chapter Twenty Four

Alexa

 
“Mom, what are you going to do? We can’t go on like this!” I pleaded with her. It was only my first year of college and so far I had missed half my classes.
She’d met me in the canteen of the hospital. She had been working double shifts since Dad had come back.
“I know, I know.”
No, she really didn’t know. They were just words that she kept repeating whenever I brought up the subject and her bloodshot eyes should have told her that she knew that this whole shit was wrong. I’d been supposed to go and see Logan weeks ago. I’d begged Marie to keep everything quiet from her own son. Marie had just told him that I spent a couple of nights there are times, but I was thinking that that wasn’t enough. I needed to find a permanent solution, and talking to Mom was just a waste of time.
Mom was just sweeping it under the carpet. I was so damn mad now that I wanted to cry.
“You need to wake up and smell the roses. Or I, for one, am calling social services on your damn ass.”
I hated speaking to my own Mom as if she was nothing, but something had to fucking give. Dad had moved back in eight weeks ago, as if nothing was wrong. To make matters worse, Mom had agreed. Apparently his lover had got tired of people knocking on the door demanding money. So, guess what she did?
Oh, no she never threw him out. She went and told him to get half of the money from our house. This was part of what he said that he wanted in the divorce settlement and was entitled to under law, and when Mom refused, he moved back in, claiming that half the house was his and he wasn’t leaving until he got his share.
The day he moved in, I called the police, but I had no grounds or rights.  Within two days, the goons started knocking on the door demanding money again, as if they had never stopped. But this time they were different, nothing like the guys that had knocked to date. It was as if he had taken his gambling to a different level and I had started to freak out. Big time. Like I was right now, shaking my own Mom in her workplace just so that she would see sense. We had to leave, there was no two ways about it. She had to either put the house up for sale, or we needed to leave.
“What's going on here?” one of the consultants came over to talk to us and it was clear that we were making a scene. All eyes were on us as I continued to try to drum some sense into my Mom, but it was hopeless.
“Nothing, Doctor Carter. It’s just that… we… no I… my daughter,” she was shaking her head furiously, tears were rolling down her eyes and her hair was a mess. I wondered who would want to be treated by someone who obviously looked as if they needed to be in one of the beds themselves.
“My Dad is bringing mobsters to our house each and every night.”
I couldn’t believe that I didn’t know this man, yet I was standing in front of him, telling him my life story.
“She needs to move or sell the house so my dad can get his share. She won’t. Try and talk some sense into her. Because I’ve tried and look where it’s got me.”
I could hear some of the other nurses talking. Pointing. Enjoying the spectacle that I had created in the cafeteria. The problem was, I didn’t care. No, I didn’t give a shit. My brother’s life was at stake and so was mine. As I walked out of there was only one person I needed to call to see if she could help.
 
***
 
I took a few deep breaths as I stood outside on the hospital steps. There were a few people going in and out of the Emergency Room, but I didn’t care. I had nowhere to turn to and right now, she was my only hope.
“Hi, It’s Alexa,” I said as soon as she picked up the phone.
“Good, I was going to call you. Just that things have been… crazy as usual.”
“Brian and I need somewhere to stay-”
Before I even finished my sentence she said, “Good. Alexa you’ve made me so happy that you felt that you could turn to me. I thought I had said it and you understood, but I wasn’t sure.”
I cleared my throat  But tears were swelling in my eyes and all I could think about was Logan and how this would affect him. We hadn’t spoken properly for weeks. How was he going to feel, knowing that I was going to be moving into his house?
Marie said, “Pack both your things. Tonight, around eight or so, Richard and I will come with our cars and load them. You don’t have to live in fear. You know you can always turn to us. We regard you as family.”
“Thank you,” I whispered in a voice which sounded like mine, but felt like someone else’s. I was shaking as I told her that I would see her tonight and kept thanking her. She told me that I had nothing to thank her for. I was like the other daughter she’d never had, the one she lost right after she had Logan and before she had Olivia. She had said it to me so many times and hearing her say it again, gave me the reassurances that I was doing the right thing.
Not only for me, But for my brother too.
 
 
 

Chapter Twenty Five

Alexa

 
I had packed my things ready to leave, and that was when I started to feel as if I was going to be sick. Memories of the pill, and lack of taking it after Logan had left,  crossed my mind. I knew that I hadn’t had my period since he left. Also, I knew that I had been feeling slightly dizzy, but I was living in denial.
I had been so careless that, as I stared at the box, I didn’t even hear the doorbell ring. I didn’t even know that Marie was standing by my side.
“Shit!” I shouted out,  I hadn’t taken the damn thing in weeks. The packet should have been nearly empty, but instead it was full.
“What is it?” Marie asked as she put her hand on my shoulder.
“I…”
She nodded, “I can see that. But, have you...”
Before she could even finish her sentence, I filled in the gap for her.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out.” I nodded, knowing exactly what needed to be done, but doing it was a completely different thing. We were moving out of the house, and into Logan’s. He didn’t know about us moving into his family home, but to add this to the equation too... the whole situation just felt nuts.
“Look, we need to go. Let’s just take one step at a time. First thing we’ll move you out and then we can talk  about next steps. But one thing is for sure, we need to speak to Logan.”
That was what I was afraid she was going to say. I did want to do it; he had just as much of a right to help me make that decision.
“Logan.” I whispered as I slumped down on my bed. How did I fuck up so badly?
“Yes, Logan,” she had a tear in her eye and she wiped it away quickly. “Loads of girls get pregnant at your age. It’s not the end of the world.”
Those were the words that I wanted to hear. Needed to hear, but as Mom entered the room I said looking straight at her, “Come on let’s go.”
We walked past Mom as if she was a ghost, and I stuffed the pill packet in her hand. I didn’t need to tell her, she just needed to figure it out herself. Like everything else in her life.
 
***
 
To say that the Collins’ were knights in shining armor would be a complete understatement. Marie spent so much time with me, trying to figure out my options with college, which were pretty standard seeing as so many girls either attending or going to my college either had babies or were expectant mothers. They had a nursery and, if I decided to keep the baby, then I could go back to college next year and finish my degree. Everything felt so simple. It was as if the decision had been made for me from the start.
Abortion was never an option, something that hadn’t even crossed my mind. From the moment I found out, the only thing I wanted to do was find out how my life would change. I knew that it wouldn’t stop my career, but only slow it down.
“I want to tell Logan about the baby. I need him to hear it from me.” I had finally started to get things right in my mind. This was the most important decision of my life and I had to do it right.
“Okay, so you’ll call him?” Richard asked.
I shook my head.
“Come with me to see him?”
I shook my head again.
“I have counseling sessions, and it seems I have a lot of healing to do. I need to do that alone,” I held both their hands as we stood in the kitchen, and Brian and Olivia were sitting down at the dining table in the other room.
“Please respect my wishes,” I had tears in my eyes. My heart was on my sleeve and it was out there for them to either tread on it or kiss it gently.
“I’ll respect your wishes,” Marie said and Richard just nodded. I could tell he wasn’t comfortable with the idea, especially seeing as he was flying to see Logan next week. There was a game on and Logan had asked for both of us to attend. I couldn’t, not yet, not until I knew that no matter happened Logan would respect my decision and stand by me. Just like his parents had done.
Or so I hoped.

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