Authors: S. Eva Necks

White is for Virgins (23 page)

“How’s Nina?” he asked, looking concerned.

“You’ll see after school,” I replied, chewing on my lower lip. I wasn’t quite sure how she was myself, but it wasn’t good.

“Right, well we
gotta go. Coach needs us,” Nick said from behind me.

I spun around to look at him. I felt guilty, completely forgetting he was even there.

“For what?” I asked curiously.

“Varsities have to help set up the Haunted House,” Fox muttered, getting up from the table just as Lily returned.

“Oh, that’s why you missed creative writing,” I nodded, and added just for fun, “And why you smell so bad.”

He put his hand to his chest in mock-hurt, “Hey,” he said. He dropped the act and smirked, “Don’t act like it’s not attractive
Em. I know you’d prefer a guy who worked his ass off on the field than one who spent his time frolicking through the flowers like Nikki over here.”

Nick looked pissed. So I stifled my laugh for his sake.

“Love you too, Fox,” Nick muttered sarcastically as he went for the exit.

Fox winked at me and waved at Lily before following his friend out of the cafeteria.

“Dude, you’re sucha pansy,” I heard him say as he caught up with Nick.

I smirked and shook my head before looking back at Lily, who was smiling at me. It wasn’t her usual innocent smile; it was kind of a wicked one… with a hint of slyness.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she shrugged in a childlike manner, as if she were hiding something.

I glared at her.

“Well,
if flirting with Fox is considered
nothing, anyway,” she said, biting her lip to smother that smile she’d been dying to rub in my face.

“I wasn’t flirting with him,” I disagreed.

“Uh-huh, yeah sure,” she nodded sarcastically.

“Believe what you want Lily, but nothing’s going on. I’m not a bottle-blonde or anything even remotely exotic, so if our conversation
was
considered flirting he’s getting desperate,” I said.

“Sure,
Em,” Lily said again, nodding profusely, “Like putting yourself down will help you believe that.”

“Shut up, Tiger Lily,” I muttered, “Let’s go, before we’re late.”

***

My heart felt like it was made of lead as I walked through the glass doors of the center.

I immediately went to Nina’s office, dropping my backpack on the way.

I walked over to her empty desk, guessing she was probably in the bathroom.

Biting my lip, I strode over behind her desk curiously.

The site on the computer screen made me gasp. I backed up, breathing heavily as Nina walked in to her office.

She looked guilty as she put two and two together.

“It’s not nice to pry,” she said, walking over to her desk.

“It’s not nice to kill an innocent human being either,” I said, referring to the abortion page on her screen. “Red Cross goes against all of this Nina.”

“Emery, it’s only an option. I doubt I could ever go through with it,” she replied, on the verge of tears as she stared at the screen and then her stomach.

“You’re failing to see how beautiful this is,” I told her gently.

She shook her head slowly and closed her eyes as she rubbed her temples.

“I can’t sleep at night, and I’m considering… abortion,” she whispered, her voice cracking as she said that horrible word, “How is that beautiful?”

“Adoption?” I offered.

“I can’t stand the thought of giving something like that away to some strangers after nine months,” she sighed.

“But you can somehow stand the thought of someone killing your child?” I said, a little too harshly.

She flinched.

“Nina I’m sorry,” I apologized “I just… you know how I feel about these things. It’s going to be ok, I know it,” I said as strongly yet as gently as I could.

“How is it going to be ok?” she asked with her voice cracking every other word, “How do you know something like that? I’m now responsible for another human being, Emery. A little person is inside of me.”

A few tears were sliding down her face now. I tried not to cry myself.

“And that little person is part of you, Nina. It probably has your cute little nose,” I smiled, and she let out a small chuckle between sobs, “and your golden caramel skin, and your thick, dark brown mane of hair – which I’m incredibly jealous of.” I laughed myself.

“And he or she is probably about as big as an orange,” I said, cupping my hands together.

Nina cracked, letting the pool of tears flood her eyes and spill down her already wet cheeks. I walked over to her, and she stood up to hug me.

I never realized how little she was. She was shaking a little as she cried, holding me tight. I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed her back.

“You were great with Holly,” I reminded her, “She clearly loves you. And I’m more than positive you’ll be the most kickass, most beautiful mother ever.”

She let out a few more chuckles, before pulling back and wiping her eyes with the palms of her hands.

“Oh God,” she sighed, “I hope my child is half the angel you are, Emery.”

Then I started crying. A few tears made their way down my own cheeks, and we both resumed our hug as we laughed and cried at the same time.

Nina finally pulled away, and we stepped back, smiling and chuckling in embarrassment as we wiped our eyes.

We silently exchanged ‘I love
you’s and I walked back to the counter.

Fox was sprawled out on the floor.

I smirked as I walked up to him.

“Hey there hot mess, how may I help you?” I murmured.

“Get me ice. A whole tub,” he groaned, sitting up. Then he grinned as we both realized what I’d just said.

“You think I’m hot!” he stated, “I totally knew it.”

“What, setting up the Haunted House took that much out of you?” I sniffed, ignoring his last statement as I took a tissue and dried my eyes and my cheeks.

My face was probably all red and blotchy. Swell.

“Yeah, each room was fixed on a separate truck. We had to all push the pieces together like an effing puzzle, and it took a while to move them across the field,” he sighed, standing.

“Wow,” I said, “Is the thing at least cool? Was it worth all that hard labor?” I asked.

“Not at all,” he replied, finally looking at me.

His uneasy gaze made me blush, which just added to the redness of my face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, stepping closer.

“Me and Nina just had a little talk,” I said softly, “You know how girls get all emotional.”

He smirked, but it was from amusement not arrogance.

“She
gonna be ok?” he asked, taking another step toward me.

I suddenly felt claustrophobic as I swallowed hard and replied, “She’s going to be fine.”

Then I spun around on my heel and headed behind the counter as he hung his head down and his hair bounced a little.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” he groaned.

“Yep,” I said, “We have to work twice as hard, twice as fast – especially if you’re still interested in tutoring sessions, Mr. Evans.”

“I’m up for it,” he said after a moment, “
Not that I have much of a choice.
”

I laughed. “Exactly. Now get ta’
steppin’ bitch,” I ordered assertively, “We got new SAT words to study.”

“Bitch?” he asked with some serious attitude and head swaying, “Excuse me?”

I smiled, “You heard me.”

“Oh, speaking of SATs,” Fox said enthusiastically, as if he’d remembered something.

He got his backpack and pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of paper.

“I am
fuckin amazing,” he said cockily as he held the paper up to my face.

I saw the paper had his name on it, followed by a few sentences in legible, slanted writing... with a large red 96 circled in the top right corner. Last week’s SAT test. He’d actually aced it?

“You mean,
I’m
fuckin amazing,” I corrected him as I looked him in the eyes and smiled broadly.

“That too,” he said, returning the smile.