Forced to have the Player's Kid (Book One of The Great Age Plague Series)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

 Adira's POV

I sighed, stepping out of the shower and changing back into yesterday's party clothing. What was I doing here? Even after a long night's sleep, I still felt anything but rested. In fact, my entire body was exhausted, aching from the heartbreak and confused feelings of the night before. I focused on getting ready. Quickly, I combed out my wet hair and used a spare toothbrush Keon gave me, trying to get the bad taste of last night out of my mouth. Cautiously, I stepped on the scale. Whoa. I had gained about five pounds already! Looking in the mirror, I touched the hard spot above my pelvic bone. I could not believe a little baby was growing inside me so fast. How had I already gained five pounds? I made a mental note to buy myself some baby books so I could figure out what was going on with my body. I also needed to schedule my first doctor's visit sometime soon. There was only one doctor in town left and a whole slew of pregnant teenagers, so it would take a while to make the appointment. With another forlorn sigh, I opened the door of the bathroom and made my way into the living room to find Keon sitting there writing in a small leather book. When I silently entered, he looked up, the gave me a small smile like I was a rare bird that had landed on his porch.

"Ready to go?" asked Keon softly. I nodded and followed him out the door. There I saw a ratty old pick-up truck sitting in the driveway I hadn't noticed the night before. It was powder blue with rust coating the bottom, but the windshield was sparkling clean and once I got inside, the interior smelled like a new car. Odd. I looked to Keon who shrugged.

"It's all I have," he explained "I need to take good care of it." He shut the door and turned on the car, making it come alive with a roar that only cars with broken mufflers can manage. I couldn't help but laugh. It was such a loud car for such a quiet guy. Keon blushed and bit his lip ring as he focused on backing the car up out of the drive.

Once in town, Keon opened the car door for me and led me to the area of town lined with little family-owned stores. Passing by the antique shop, Keon led me into the thrift store by holding the door open for me. I thanked him and headed to the women's section.

Keon followed me there awkwardly, looking around like he should go to the men's section. Trying to alleviate the awkwardness, I held up an amazing dress that got us both laughing.

"This would be perfect to wear around town," I said about the bright snot- green dress made entirely out of sequins with a parrot on the front. Keon chuckled and took the hanger from me.

"Wow, this thing is so heavy from the sequins," he said softly. I took my awesomely-fashionable dress from him and laughed.

"I'm so trying this on! Oh and this!" I said, grabbing a teddy-bear tweed sweater that was the color of sour milk. Now on a roll, I lurked over to the men's section and grabbed a handful of awful men's clothing, stacking the embarrassing clothing in Keon's arms. Laughing like naughty little kids, we scurried off to the dressing room, trying on our finds with glee. Throwing on the hilarious form-fitting blue "ghetto dress" (no joke, it actually said the word "Ghetto" on the front in gold) I stepped out of the dressing room to find Keon wearing burlap pants and a turtle neck with the words "Best Man" on the front. As soon as we saw each other, we cracked up with laughter. Finally, we ran out of awful clothing to find (we both agreed my best outfit was a shirt with the lyrics of "Baby Got Back" written on them) and we left the store to go to the nearest clothing store. We stopped at a little boutique called "Clover's" and I found myself a cute yet simple outfit— a long sleeve dress made of lace and some fuzzy socks with matching boots. The outfit only cost about 25 dollars when I used a coupon on my phone. At first, I didn't want to have Keon spend so much on me, but when I brought it up he turned bright red and looked at his shoes.

"But you look so pretty in it, I really don't mind," he mumbled. Seriously, who could argue with that? Feeling equally as embarrassed, I brought it up to the cash register.

Leaving the store, I couldn't remember where the truck was, so I asked Keon to lead the way. Instead of taking me to the truck, though, he took me to the restaurant where Josh and I had our first date.

"Want to eat here?" asked Keon. As he turned around, though, he saw the tears brimming in my eyes. "Adira, is something wrong?" he asked. At that point I couldn't help it and I started crying— again. Gosh, I hated crying in front of people, and now I was crying in front of the entire town. Without thought, I bounded into Keon's arms, crying into his shoulder. He hugged me and patted my hair awkwardly.

"J-Josh and I-I had our d-date here and.... Keon I'm sorry but...." I blubbered into his shoulder. Keon shushed me gently and held me closer.

"It's okay Adira, it was a stupid idea. I'll just make us a meal at my place," he said. At this, I could finally stop the onslaught of tears, so I sniffled.

"It's not stupid, I'm sorry," I said, finally starting to pull away. For a moment, I saw a flash of regret and sadness pass over Keon's eyes, like a cloud passing under the sun for a moment, but it was gone in a flash and replaced with his usual calm expression. He shook his head.

"Don't be sorry. I know it can't be easy. Besides, my mom used to say I make a mean lasagna. I'll even leave out the meat since you're a vegetarian," he said sweetly. I smiled and wiped my eyes, glad that someone cared.

****

Josh's POV

Why wasn't she answering her phone? With an angry yell, I threw my phone across the room and started to pace in a rage. Who cared if it was broken, I could buy a new one anyway with the bazillions of dollars my rich parents left me anyway. Like I needed it when all I ever seemed to do was screw around with it. Parties, cars, and now, girls. Not just a girl— girls.

Why did I think LSD would be fun? And even so, why didn't I wait until I could find Adira so she could babysit me? Stupid Crystal. I thought maybe, just maybe, she was over the whole Adira thing. Besides, her and I hadn't really had much of anything before that either! Either way, I had screwed up big time, and there was nothing I could do about it. Adira was gone, off somewhere with someone, and not only that but she was carrying my child. What if she never came back? Angrily, I stomped out the door, Adira's yappy dog barking behind me.

Getting into my Mini Cooper, I sped off down the street, going far above the speed limit but not caring. If Adira was gone for good, I didn't care if I crashed. Heck, I would drive this car over a cliff is she broke up with me. I had no one left in this world. My parents were gone. My friends were hollow. And it just seemed that every time I fell in love, it was either a false alarm or it fell apart. Why was that? Because before Adira I had only fallen in love with book characters, like Jane Eyre or Daisy, or I had fallen in love with the idea of a girl but not the real girl, like Amanda all those years ago. Still, Adira didn't know that. She hadn't stuck around long enough to know that, because once again, I fell back into my old player ways, the ways that kept me distracted long enough to not feel the darkness inside me.

Finally, I pulled my car into an empty parking lot. Locking the car behind me, I ran into town, searching for my Adira.

A/N— Sorry for the long wait everyone! Hope you enjoy the chapter. So. I'm thinking about sending this book to a real publisher. Would anyone buy this if it was in stores? The other thing is I picked baby names. For a boy, I like Ryder and for a girl, I chose Aurelia, although I am still considering Saige, idk.