45. Sunday Week Eighteen
Although it seemed like a small defeat, in taking down Vincent, Dante had allowed for the Donatelli's to start attacking Mikael's networks from the bottom up.
Turns out, Vincent wasn't all that faithful to his father and gave up the locations of his stash houses and drug channels citywide â shocking that he was so disloyal.
It had been two days since Dante took in Vincent and the Donatelli's had attacked so much of Mikael's business that we were now just waiting to hear from Mikael so that we could negotiate.
Currently, I was sat in a booth at the back of Kasey's. Eli had asked me to wait for him after my work shift but it had been over 20 minutes since I had finished up and he had yet to show.
The telltale sound of my phone beeping with a text deepened my confusion as I read over the words Eli had sent me.
Boxer Boy
i've told them everything, tigru. even the stuff about me. you love them and you deserve to have them in your life
My brows furrowed as my gaze concentrated on my bright phone screen and my eyes scanned over the words repetitively as I tried to make sense of what he was saying.
It became clear though when I looked up to find Lana and Kins sliding into the booth and taking a seat my right with Tori and Kie taking a seat on my left.
"Hey," Lana uttered in a soft voice
"Uh, hi," I replied lamely which made her smile at me, "what are you guys doing here? I'm supposed to be meeting Eli."
Tori shook her head and I looked at her questioningly, "no, we spoke to him in school earlier this week and asked him to set this up."
"We've been going to your house, Rei," Kinsey informed me, "we feel so sorry for abandoning you."
Lana reached out and gripped my hand tightly in her own, "and we did abandon you Rei. Regardless of whether you were keeping secrets or not, we love you so much and we never should have walked out of that party like that."
Kinsey gave a sheepish smile as she looked at me, "that was mostly my fault, I was having a really rough night."
Slowly, I nodded at her, "yeah," I motioned to Kie, "I heard that things didn't go to plan with you."
"That's one way of putting it," Kie scoffed across the table and everyone chuckled lightly.
"We can talk about that in a second," Tori said as she reached out to grip my hand also, "we feel so so bad for what happened. Eli told us everything, Rei, as in he let us in on all the stuff that has been going on with you."
My eyes flickered to Kie and she nodded, "he told the whole group, Arik, Jasper, Kyle. We all know. He said that he was sick of lying and he didn't want to make you lie anymore either."
"But," I raised my hands to wipe at my moistening eyes, "I thought it was too dangerous for all of you to know."
Kie shrugged, "what's life without a bit of danger, babe."
I laughed at her response, "I've missed you guys so much."
"Oh, chica."
Lana wrapped her arms around me and I buried my head into the crook of her neck as I let every tear fall out of my body. I felt Tori hug me from behind but the awkward shape of the booth meant that Kinsey and Kie just had to hug Tori and Lana. I'm sure we made a comical sight as we sat there, hugging, laughing and crying in each other's arms.
After a long moment of raw emotion, we all decided to order some milkshakes and then settle in for a good old gossip session. It was crazy how after four weeks of not talking to each other, how easy it was to settle back into our normal rhythm.
Raven had arrived not long after and despite being a few years older than us, she fit in perfectly with our little group. I loved that she finally had a little circle of girls who she knew had her back.
"So," I began, "tell me all the dirty details about what went down after I left that night."
"Okay," Kinsey said, "actually, we haven't fully spoken about the whole night yet so I think this will be good."
Raven rolled her eyes exaggeratedly, "you broke up with your boyfriend and then slept with Rei's best friend aka the gorgeous hunky quarterback, of course, it is going to be good."
"Si, that is true," Lana stated, pointing to Raven with her milkshake as a sign of agreement.
"You have a boyfriend, Lana," Tori reprimanded.
"Si? So what, I can still appreciate."
"Okay, okay," Kie declared, "we're getting off-topic, c'mon Kins, tell us what happened."
"Alright. Well, Derek and I had just got in this huge fight and we broke up so I was obviously emotional about that. And then we had that huge argument with Rei and so I got piss drunk. Noah got in that fight with Eli and then he had the same idea to drown his sorrows. He found me at the bar and we both drank a shitload, I don't really remember a lot of it but we woke up in bed the next morning and well yeah."
The story was simple enough but something was up because Kinsey kept tugging on the ends of her fraying sweatshirt and her blue eyes kept flickering over to a suspiciously quiet Tori.
"Huh, well we knew that already Kinsey," Lana admonished before wrapping her red lips around her straw and taking a huge gulp of coke â Lana though milkshakes were far too uncivilised.
My eyes narrowed at Kinsey and she caught my look, "what else aren't you telling us?"
"I-uh," she stuttered, "it's nothing."
"Nope, there is defiantly something else," Kie deducted as she peered at Kinsey also.
Raven reached across the circular table to comfortingly grab Kinsey's hand, "hey," she said, tugging on her hand so she would meet her gaze, "we're here for you, whether you decide to tell us whatever it is or whether you decide to wait."
There was a general murmur of agreement and Kinsey smiled at us all gratefully before she shook her head, "no, I think I'm ready to tell you."
"Are you sure, Kins?" Tori questioned, pushing her glasses up her pert nose, "it's pretty big news and no one will hold it against you if you wait."
"Hold on," Lana declared, "Tori knows?"
Kinsey nodded, "well, yeah, but only because she walked in and saw me holding it."
"Holding what, Kins?" I asked her
She looked at me before offering a weak smile, "a positive pregnancy test."
"Holy shit."
"Mierda."
"Okay, then."
We all released at the same time, my response being the last one as I tried to absorb the fact that my best girl friend was pregnant and that my best guy friend might be the father.
"And you think Noah is the father?" Raven asked her softly
Kinsey shrugged, tugging at her jumper some more, "I really don't know Raven. It could be him, it could be Derek. I suspected I might be pregnant weeks ago, I mean, Noah and I had sex over four weeks ago and Derek is five weeks. But I only took the test last week because," she paused.
"Because what, carino?" Lana asked comfortingly
Kinsey looked shy, "well, because I didn't want to take a test and have it be true."
I took a deep breathe in and out, "whatever you decide to do, gorgeous, we are all here for you, okay? We will support you in every way that we can."
"Yeah, of course," Kie inputted
"Have you decided though?" Tori wondered, "when we last spoke you still didn't know what you wanted to do, have you figured it out yet?"
"Um, no, not really. I haven't told my parents yet because I still haven't told the father. Hell, I have no idea who the father is."
"You could get a paternity test done," Lana offered
Kinsey nodded, "yeah, I know but they cost between $1500 and $2000, I don't have that kind of cash. My parents won't pay for it, they're catholic and will defiantly not approve of this."
"Okay, I think you need to figure out what you want to do, honey, then we can all do whatever is needed to help you. If you want that test we will all find a way to make it happen for you Kins, we just need to know what you need from us."
There was a round of 'yes' and 'of course' which lead to Kinsey tearing up as her closest girlfriends all banded together to help her out.
"True friends are those rare people who come to find you in dark places and lead you back to the light." - Steven Aitchison
I am so sorry for the late update, corona really did a number on me but I am finally feeling so much better! Thank you for all the lovely comments about getting better - I honestly appreciate them so much!!
Lots of love and appreciation, lovely people! XX
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