baby ⇒ jeff atkins

5.

"i'll do it," he shrugs, calmly, "but no strings attached, okay?" he holds his hand out and i shake it, smiling.

"of course, no strings attached."

i let go of his hand as his team start yelling for jeff's attention. "atkins! we need you over here!" another junior, montgomery, cheers. he nods at me briefly and i slowly wave as he runs back to join his team. wow, that was easy. i expected him to protest or at least ask why he need to be my fake boyfriend. but he willingly agreed without much persuasion.

i shrug if the thought and think about wether i want to leave or not. i decide that i probably should go and prepare for tonight instead of watching jeff play baseball.

i walk around to the front of the school and i wasn't expecting to see marcel in his car. normally, since i was a freshman, i always walk home. i pretty much walk everywhere within five miles. i watch him roll down his window and wave at me, exaggerating. i roll my eyes as he calls out for me. "hey, little sister!" he yells.

i run over to him, or at least jog since i rarely do sport, to stop him from embarrassing me further. i forcefully open the car door and quickly climb inside, strapping myself in. "marcel!" i whine like a child. "what are you doing here?"

"hunting elephants," he rolls his eyes sarcastically, he looks over at me as i squint my eyes at him. "i'm here to take you home," he rolls his eyes again and i sigh.

"you've never done that before. you know i normally walk home," i shrug as he pulls out of the liberty high parking lot.

"i'm not letting you walk home while you are preggo," he chuckles. his comment was lighthearted but i could tell he was being serious.

"i'm perfectly fine walking home," i retaliate. i'm grateful that marcel cares about me this much, but i'm scared i will be treated like a charity case.

"well, prepare yourself to be picked up for the next nine months," he says as we near our house. i don't bother arguing with him any further, since he's going back to college anyway. we sit in comfortable silence for the next ten minutes, until we finally pull into our driveway.

i follow marcel up the steps as he unlocks the front door. no one else was home, as buster and mouse usually walk home too, and bunny's still in middle school, so she's always home later than the rest of us.

i throw my bag to the side and slump down on our couch, instantly turning on the tv. just as i was about to watch the screen, marcel takes the remote out of my hands and switches it off. "hey! what the hell," i whine.

marcel shakes the remote in front of my face. "don't get comfy, jackass atkins needs that dna test for some reason," he rolls his eyes at the mention of jeff's surname, "so you need to get ready," he points the remote at me before walking into the kitchen, which was connected to our living room.

"about that," i yell, causing marcel to poke his head around the corner, "jeff is actually coming with us. he'll be here at six," i tell him, a sweet smile on my face.

he comes back out from around the corner and tilts his head. "since when is that asshole coming with us?" he leans against the doorframe and crosses his arm.

"i asked him today," i admit but marcel's stern facial expression doesn't change. "we kind of need him there, marcel. how else are we going to prove that the baby's his?" i explain.