It had been about a week now since the doctor told me about Zacky, and told me that I was pregnant. I was starting to lose hope on him waking up, but I still never left his side besides at night when I went home to shower, eat, and sleep, then I was back by his hospital bed the next morning, holding on to him, never wanting him to leave me. I hadn’t been getting enough sleep, though, so as tired as I was, I lay my head on my arms, and closed my eyes. All I needed was a little nap, and then there was slight movement from under my face, but it wasn’t my movement. It was one of Zacky’s fingers. I shot up, and watched his hand. Was he about to wake up? Was this it? Even if he wasn’t about to wake up now, I had hope, at least.

His hand stopped moving, and I frowned before I watched his arms stretch above his head, and then he groaned in pain, and a huge smile spread across my face, and then his eyes slowly fluttered open. I could feel tears of joy welling up in my eyes, and I stood right by his bed, and his eyes landed on my face, and he smiled slightly before a look of confusion took over his face.

“I’m alive?” He asked, carefully sitting himself up, “I thought that crash was going to kill me, I swear I saw the light,” he sounded disgruntled, and I sat on the side of the bed, wrapping my arms around him, and rested my head on the nape of his neck, “and I thought you fucking hated me.”

“I was stupid. That fight was stupid. I almost lost you,” I pulled away and looked at him in the eye, “and I realized just how much I’m in love with you and what my life would be like if I did lose you.” I said, tears falling freely down my face. He brought his hand up to wipe the tears away.

“Hey, I started that stupid fight. I was stupid enough to make that Becca comment, I’m sorry. I love you so, so much,” he said, holding me to him. I was so overcome with joy, that I couldn’t even stand it. It was stupid for somebody to be this happy, but I just couldn’t help it.

“Mr. Baker, it’s good to see that you’re awake,” Dr. Litner came in, and I stood up, “I’ll have the nurse come in and take your vitals,” he said, and then he turned to me, “Good to see you, Ms. Vaughn. Have you broken the amazing news to him, yet,” he asked me, and I slowly shook my head.

“What news?” Zacky asked, looking at me with confusion.

“I’ll tell you when we get home,” I said, and he nodded, with a smile, probably happy that I was actually telling him something for once, “I’m going to go make a quick call, love you,” I said, kissing him on the cheek before heading to the waiting room down the hall. I took out my phone, and looked for Payden’s number in my recent calls, and called her. She picked up on the 2nd ring, telling me I hadn’t interrupted anything.

“Yeah,” she asked in a chirpy voice.

“He’s awake,” I smiled happily, happy to say those words. He’s awake, he’s awake, he’s awake.

“HE IS? Meet me in the front of the hospital, I’m on my way,” she said excitedly, and I heard talking in the background, before she talked again, “give me fifteen minutes,” she said, before the line went dead. I walked to the elevator, and to the ground floor, and walked to the front doors, where I sat on the steps, waiting for her to get here so I could go back upstairs and jump into Zacky’s arms.

I sat and played Swordigo on my phone until I saw two pairs of feet stop in front of me, and I looked up to see Payden and Brian with anxious looks on their faces. I turned the game off, and pocketed my phone as I stood up, and Payden gave me a tight hug. We were best friends, but hugging was something that never really went on between us. The foundation that our friendship is set on is the fact that we’re both mentally unstable, evil geniuses, and are alike in so many horrible, horrible ways.

“Alright, where is the fucker,” Brian asked, already by the front doors, so I led them up a few floors and to the room Zacky was in. We walked into his room, and Payden greeted him with a hug, Brian gave him one next, “I’m so glad that you’re okay. I don’t know what I would do if I lost another friend,” Brian said, putting a hand on his shoulder, and I knew that hit something deep in Payden, though she didn’t show it. I just grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, telling her not to break down in here, to wait until later.

“Thanks, man. I don’t know what I’d do if I died,” Zacky said.

“Um, you’d be in a coffin, I think,” Brian said, a blank look on his face, which caused Zacky, Payden, and I to giggle.

“That makes me feel a whole lot better, Bri, thanks for pointing that out,” Zacky patted Brian’s shoulder, and opened his arms to me. I gladly stepped forward, and crawled into his arms, careful not to put him in any pain.

“We’re going to go to the cafeteria and get something to eat, quickly. We were heading to breakfast when you called,” Payden said.

“Alright, we’ll be here,” Zacky said.

“I’m not moving,” I said, my head resting on Zacky’s chest.

“Okay, we’ll be back in about half an hour, see you guys then,” Brian said, and grabbed Payden’s hand as they both left the room.

“So, whatever it was that you were going to tell me, why not tell me now? We’re alone, comfortable,” Zacky trailed an, and I started tracing circles on his chest.

“I’m not sure how you’ll take this but…I’m pregnant,” I told him, and he didn’t say anything. The exact reaction Payden had when I told her, and the same reaction I had when Dr. Litner told me, “The doctor told me when he brought me in to tell me you were here. He didn’t know if I knew because he found out from when he operated on my head, from my pee,” I told him.

“So we’re going to have a child,” he questioned, and I looked at him.

“We are,” I said, forcing a smile on my face, and a smile crawled across his lips.

“I’m going to be a dad,” he said to himself.

“We have a lot of preparing to do, and a lot of shit to learn before I have this child, though,” I said, leaning my head back onto his chest.

“Well, no fucking shit,” he said jokingly, and I wrapped my arms around him.

,,,

Zacky

,,,

It took two fucking weeks before the doctors finally let me out of the god damned hospital. I hated being in that place so much. You were stuck to a room, and had to eat shitty hospital food. Saleigh came by every day, though, and stayed with me all day, to the very minute where she took me home.

I was still shocked about the news she gave me. I was going to be a dad? I’m still growing up myself. Of course I had my suspicious, so I went to Dr. Litner to see if they could extract any DNA from her urine, to see if it would match mine, and he said it would take a while, but he’d see what he could do. That was something I would be keeping secret from Saleigh, to avoid a fight, but she had been keeping so much from me lately, the suspicious literally ate away at me. He said he would call me as soon as he figured out if the baby’s DNA matched mine or if it didn’t.

I held Saleigh’s hand as we walked down an aisle in the parking lot, where we got into her car, and she drove me back home, a place I was so very happy to be.

“Val wanted to throw a party for you, to welcome you back. Like a celebration that you were okay,” Saleigh told me, knocking me out of all my thoughts and curiosities.

“Can it be small? If it’s too big I’ll end up getting drunk in the basement with the guys,” I said in a joking matter, my heart lifting at her smile.

“I’ll make sure to note that to her,” she said, unlocking the front door, and leading me inside.

“Home sweet home,” I muttered, closing the door behind me, and heading to the fridge for some actual food.

“Yes, I like being here, aware that I’m not just a couple floors above people dying,” she said, lifting the mood

“You don’t know, somebody could have a torture and murder chamber right below our house. We’d never know,” I looked at her and smirked at her horrified face.

“I think I want to move,” she said in a completely serious tone.

“I don’t think we need to do that, Say. I was only kidding,” I assured her, grabbing leftover Chinese from the fridge, and piling it on a plate, and slipped it into the microwave, “Plus, I like our house. I have that room you gave me for Christmas. I couldn’t part with that,” I said, leaning against the counter as my food was heating up.

“I’m so happy you’re back,” she said, changing the subject, “and as soon as Payden has everything figured out and gives me the okay, I’ll tell you everything,” she said, and there was something weird on her face, making me suspicious.

“As long as you’re not doing anything behind my back,” I said, and turned to the microwave as it beeped, and I retrieved my food.

“I’m not, I promise,” she replied as she followed me into the dining room.

“I believe you,” I said, looking her in the eyes, and then shoveled the food into my mouth.

“Thanks,” it sounded like the fact that I believed her meant a lot to her, “well, I’m going to go take a shower, I think I really need one,” she said, standing up.

“I’ll join in a sec here, just let me finish up,” I called after her, and couldn’t really hear the response as my phone started ringing. I looked at the caller ID, which was an unrecognized number. I accepted the call anyways, greeted by Dr. Litner’s voice on the other end.

“Hello, Zackary, I was calling you about the DNA results,” he said.

“Alright, so what are they,” I asked, setting my fork down. I was hoping for the better. Saleigh wouldn’t betray me, would she? No, she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. Not after everything we’ve been through. She loved me, didn’t she? I mean, we were getting married soon.

“I’m sorry to say that they don’t match,” he said apologetically. I couldn’t believe what he had just said. It wasn’t possible.

“Thanks,” I said numbly.

“I’m sorry,” the doctor said through the receiver.

“Yeah,” I said, before hanging up. My head found its way into my hands. I had to confront her about this, but I had to do it when I didn’t honestly want to throw her out of the window. This whole time she said she was with Payden…she was fucking somebody else. I would find out who she was messing around with, and I’d kill him. I’d put a bullet in the middle of his fucking forehead. I got up from the table, and grabbed my car keys, making my way over to Brian’s house. I needed a place to stay that wasn’t here. I couldn’t be here.

Not around her.

,,,

Payden

,,,

I had bought a new car, and with the remaining money, which was about half of the hundred grand, I got in cash, and left it in my old apartment, on the coffee table, just in case he decided to go there. He’d see it, and we’d all be left alone. We’d all be safe. I was on my to go over there to see if he had gotten it or not when Zacky busted in, fuming.

“Calm down, tiger,” I said, backing away from him as he slammed the door. Brian wasn’t here, so the only one hearing the racket would be me, and the neighbors.

“You know, I spent ten years with that girl. I loved her with all of my heart. Of course, I made a few mistakes, everybody made mistakes. But not once, [i]ever[/i] did I cheat on her,” he raged, stomping over to the couch, and plopping down on it. I stood on the other side of the coffee table, and stared at him.

“W-what happened?” I asked, and he looked up at me, anger in his eyes.

“She’s pregnant,” he said, and I nodded, “it’s not mine,” he said, and my eyes furrowed into confusion.

“How could it not be? She doesn’t leave the house,” I said, making my way to the couch to sit next to him.

“Great, so some fucker has fucked her in my house. That just adds to how amazing this is,” he said.

“Zacky, calm down. I don’t like seeing you like this,” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder, and he looked at me, and his face calmed down.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a smooth voice, looking down, “I didn’t mean to scare you,” he looked back up me, and I shrugged it off.

“It’s whatever,” I said, “You just surprised m-“ he cut me off by grabbing the sides of my face and crashing my lips into his.

©Shannon.

Notes

Oh man, I am just a horrible friend.

xoxo, Shannon.