The Birds And The Bees (The Baby Project #1) (REWRITING)

C.1~ Nuclear War

"Why do you look so miserable? Xavier Morgan is hot!" Norah exclaimed a few hours later at lunch. I shrugged carelessly as I sipped at my soda, eyeing her cautiously. She had kicked her feet up on to the lunch table, not even giving her disgusting lunch food a second glance as she scrolled through her phone.

"He isn't that hot." I figured I better try and make conversation or she'd get suspicious. Her head perked up at my words, blue eyes darting from her bright phone screen to me across the table. She sighed, flipping her phone facedown and leaned forward, her platinum blonde bangs falling into her eyes.

"Not that hot? Bea, what planet are you from? Have you seen him?" She grabbed her phone again and typed something quickly, handing her phone to me so I could see what she'd just searched. I shrugged again once I realized it was a bunch of shirtless pictures of Xavier with some girl I'd never seen before.

"Oh, that's right. You're into all those dorky guys, right? The ones that actually care about their grades." I wanted to snap back at her, to deny everything she said. But I couldn't fight the fact that she was right. My last three boyfriends had all been fairly geeky and the last one had been the captain of the mathletes.

"So?" I finally managed to bark out, my eyes meeting hers.

"You should let me set you up with one of Gabe's friends, I guarantee you'd love it." I frowned, trying to figure out why she hadn't answered me directly.

"Those guys are disgusting, egotistical pigs. I thought you broke up with Gabe, anyway." I added the last part as an afterthought, my lips pursed as she continued to scroll through her phone without looking up to acknowledge the fact that she heard me.

Gabe and Norah had dated off and on before she left for Miami last year. I really didn't understand her logic when it came to guys and relationships. I believed in actually getting to know the guy, to go deeper than just physical attraction. But she, like most of the student body at this school, thrived on infatuation and sex, they couldn't care less about actually falling in love based on someone's personality. I suppose maybe that was just most high schooler's mentality, though, maybe I was just the odd one out.

"Okay, so maybe they aren't the best. But Xavier Morgan is really hot, you guys would be perfect for each other." She finally responded, grinning across the table at me. "You're both not crazy popular, good looking, and quiet."

"If you like him so much, why don't you go out with him?" I asked, my mind starting to drift back to my conversation with Xavier.

"Oh, sweetie. I don't go out with guys." Norah replied with a giggle. I stared at her for a few minutes before I spoke up again.

"Did you just slut shame yourself?" I questioned. She shook her head, barely hearing a word I said. I scrunched my nose up in disgust as I glared down at the half-frozen meatloaf on my plate.

"I'm only stating the truth." Norah eventually responded, "Plus Xavier isn't my type." I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes at her words.

"By your type you mean any guy that's willing to sleep with you after the first date, right?" I shot back, propping my chin up on my hand. What I had said was pretty shitty honestly. I had just slut shamed her myself. Even if she was okay doing it, I shouldn't have allowed myself to be so cruel. I had only done it to see if she was even listening to me, I hadn't even begin to imagine that her response would be what it was.

"Now," She said with a laugh, "Now you're starting to understand."

**

I trudged through the parking lot, the heavy carrier in my hand draining the last bit of energy I had left. I vaguely remember my mom saying something about them being a lot heavier then they looked, I had just never realized she hadn't been exaggerating. Right now I could barely even comprehend it, I was too busy thinking about how much faster I would be able to walk without getting tired if I had joined the track team last year instead of backing out with cold feet as I always did. I dropped my head so I could glare down at the lifelike doll inside of the carrier, the toy that could make or break my GPA.