Chapter 15|Maybe she's pregnant with octuplets

"My dad told me once that good things only happen to good people. So why does Erika have such white teeth?" Tara asked as she stared enviously across the hallway.

"Oh her teeth aren't that white, it's just the contrast between her teeth and those black eyes," I said gleefully.

That punch had done its job, and surely enough she came back to school with a broken nose and two black eyes. She hadn't talked to me since it happened, and she obviously hadn't narked on me either. I wonder how she explained that one to her mom.

Even just thinking about it made me want to jump up and down like a chihuahua on speed.

"There's something wrong with my phone," Tara complained as we walked to our English class. She smacked it against her hand, as if that would help.

"What do you mean?"

"When you nod your head yes, but you wanna say no. What do you mean?"

I glared at her. "Seriously?"

She grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Guess it's too late now to say sorry cause I'm missing more than just your body."

"That was smooth," she said with a nod of approval.

"Thanks, so what's wrong with your phone?"

"Well it's either the phone, or I'm going blind," she replied, handing it over.

A frown formed on my face as I studied the screen. "Tara, this is...Chinese."

"I like Chinese," she clapped.

"No, not the food, the language."

"Well shit."

"How did you even do this?" I asked.

"It wasn't me," she defended, "It was Sam."

"Why did Sam have your phone?" I asked, handing the faulty piece of equipment back to her.

"Because he's a thieving little shit," she scowled, supplying enough hate in her gaze, to send the devil back to hell.

"At least his latest interest isn't global warming, and he doesn't want to glitter bomb everything in sight."

"Touché," she added as we took our seats.

Mrs Hartley rolled into the classroom earning a disgusted grunt from Tara.

"If I ever get like that please buy me a gym membership," she muttered.

I snorted. "She's a heart attack on wheels."

"Maybe she's pregnant with octuplets?" Tara suggested.

"Being pregnant doesn't give you quadruple chins," I chimed.

Tara and I shared a look then burst into fits of giggles.

We received curious looks from our fellow classmates, but I couldn't care less.

"Miss Harper, Miss Ward, is there something funny about syntax that I should know?" Mrs Hartley snapped.

Tara eyes widened in alarm.

"Uh, no we were actually just-" She was cut off by the annoying voice of...you can probably guess.

"They were talking about how fat you are, miss," came a high pitched voice from behind me.

I turned around to find...Annie Whitely? Since when was she in my english class?

Tara gaped at Annie. "What is wrong with you?!" She hissed.

"Miss Whitely!" Mrs Hartley shrieked. "Get out of my sight!"

A bewildered Annie shot out of her seat, covering her mouth with her hand to mask the sobs as she ran out the door.

Tara and I sat there in shock, as did the rest of the class as we tried to figure out what the hell just happened. Mrs Hartley didn't seem at all bothered by the show she had just orchestrated, and carried right on with her syntax lesson.

I found it quite hard to concentrate for the remainder of the lesson. Partly because I was still confused as to why it was Annie sent out of the class, not Tara and I. Also partly because Ryan was missing. Well, not missing, but not in class. It wasn't unusual that he wasn't in english because he tended to be in detention, but to be in detention he would have to have been kicked out of class, as Annie discovered earlier. I hadn't seen him all day and it was last period. I was probably just paranoid and he was sick or something, but I had time on my hands and my brain ran wild with ideas.

It was only when the bell rung that I snapped out of my daze.

Tara and I walked together to my jeep, and drove in silence to her house, saying goodbye. It was great having Tara for a best friend because silent trips in a car were never awkward with her.

I parked in the driveway, passing the living room on my way upstairs. Mom was passed out on the couch. That's all she seemed to be doing lately. Sleeping. I guess she was sleeping for both of them, her and the sea monkey. Not that I minded her sleeping a lot, it just meant that I didn't have to deal with her all the time. We'd only had short conversations since her surprise announcement and most of them were short and sharp, like neither of us actually wanted to talk to each other.

I dragged myself upstairs, starting on my chemistry homework. It wasn't particularly difficult, but my mind was elsewhere. It was everywhere except for on my homework. After about forty minutes of mainly unproductive work, my gaze drifted to the window adjacent to mine. He wasn't there, but everything looked the same as usual. I wanted to see him, but I knew if I went over there I would mentally label myself as 'that desperate girl'. So guess what I did? I went over there anyway. Completely illogical, Spock would be mortified.

I knocked on the door, hoping it would be Archie that answered. Unfortunately I'm not a very lucky person.

The door swung open.

"Girl next door!" The blonde guy shouted excitedly.

"Caveman!" I shouted with equal enthusiasm.

He pulled me in for a bear hug, the scruff on his chin tickling my face.

Evan and I had become closer, developing a brother sister type relationship. We had bonded over several games of snakes and ladders, our love for pizza, and an incredibly competitive game of monopoly which almost turned fatal. Ryan had refused to play that game, saying that he feared for his life, personally I just think he didn't want to lose. I am the champion of monopoly.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, girl next door?"

"Actually, I was looking for Ryan."

"He's not here, hasn't been all day."

"Do you know where I could find him?"

"My guess would be Arnie's gym. You know where that is right?"

My face went completely blank. I hadn't been to Arnie's for at least three years, and I wasn't exactly planning on going there, the reason being, I always went there with Caleb. It was our place.

"Girl next door?" Evan waved a hand in front of my face.

"What?"

"You just zoned out."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

I smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, but of you find him, tell him to come home, yeah?'

"Sure thing," I called over my shoulder after thanking him.

I knew exactly where I was going as I headed down my street and turned right. I knew the way like the back of my hand, and I probably could have driven there blindfolded if I had to.

I pulled up outside an old warehouse covered in graffiti and I'll admit it, it was a pretty shady looking place. The area didn't exactly have manicured lawns, or fountains with naked cherubs obnoxiously shooting arrows, if you know what I'm saying. There were a few houses on that street that you might never come out of if you went in there.

I sat, eyeing the building for a number of minutes. I was kind of nervous, I don't know why because nothing bad had ever happened to me there. In fact, some of my best memories were made there. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't been to this place in four years, or that maybe they wouldn't recognise me.

Eventually I talked myself into doing it. I sidled around the side of the building where I knew the door would be unlocked. I welcomed the familiar sound of fists against punching bags as the door inched open and my eyes were greeted with many of Arnies mantras painted across the walls.

I slowly made my way to his office, where I knew he would be. More than a few of the guys stopped punching to watch me, probably surprised to see a girl in that testosterone filled building.

Before I even got close, I saw a figure stand up.

"Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that little H?" I could see his grin from where I had come to a halt.

A grin crept onto my face and my legs started moving on their own account. I jogged over to where he stood, throwing my arms around him. He returned my gesture, squeezing me tight and chucking deeply.

I looked up at his face and smiled. He hadn't changed one bit. Arnie was one of those guys who looked and acted like they were as tough as nails, but deep down he was a big softie. And when I say big, I mean it. Arnie was at least six foot three and had shoulders that were practically as broad as my arm span. Okay, maybe not quite, but you catch my drift.

"I might have to stop calling you little H, you're not so little anymore," he said, holding me at arms length, smiling fondly.

He was right, the last time I'd seen him I was thirteen. I looked down. "Sorry for not coming back, but this was Caleb's place and I could bring myself to come here without him."

"Hey, don't apologise, I get it. How is our boy? Is he safe?"

What was I supposed to say? I didn't have good news or bad news about him so I did the next best thing. I lied.

I forced a smile. "He's still cracking jokes, so I guess that's a good sign."

He smiled too. "Good to hear, and good to see you. You said you couldn't come here without Caleb, so why are you here?"

"I'm actually looking for someone."

"Who?"

"Ryan."

"Ahh, we call him Gonzales around here."

"He's named after a small Mexican mouse?"

He shrugged. "He's fast."

He directed my attention towards the ring where a crowd had formed. There were two guys circling each other in the centre, one with tattoos, one without.

I recognised both of them. The non tattooed guy was Arnies son, Hamish. And the tattooed guy was none other than my hot neighbour, or Ryan if we're doing the whole formality thing.

Arnie cleared a path through the crowd of sweaty guys for me so I could watch. He sure was right about Ryan being fast. He had a solid strategy, just keep dodging to tire his opponent, which is what I was assuming he was doing as I watched. Then he would deliver several strong blows to his face or abdomen because he wouldn't be tired unlike his opponent, who in this case was Hamish.

Neither of them had seen me, so when Hamish started stumbling I decided to add my two sense.

I cupped my hands around my mouth. "His right side is weak, he's a leftie!" I yelled to Ryan, who instead of using my advise, spun around looking in the direction of my voice. Hamish took it a step further, jumping out of the ring and squashing me into yet another hug. I was getting a lot of those that day.

"Hey there," I wheezed. My ribs were being crushed at that point.

"Little H if that's not you I'm going to cry like a baby," he said, pulling away from me.

"It's me," assured, ignoring the curious glances from the other competitors.

"What are you doing here, and where is that brother of yours?" he asked, looking around.

"Caleb's still in Iraq," I started, earning a sympathetic look from him, "and I was actually looking for him," I pointed to a very confused Ryan, who was climbing out of the ring.

"You know Gonzales?"

"Yeah, well he usually goes by Ryan, but yeah I know him."

"Sunshine?" Ryan joined the conversation. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," I countered.

"Wait, wait, wait. Little H is the girl you're always going on about?" Hamish grinned.

Ryan's cheeks reddened, and he not so subtly stomped on Hamish's toes with his heel, giving him the 'you're dead' look.

"I'll just leave you guys to it then," he mumbled, half walking, half limping away.

"How do you know Hamster?" Ryan asked, jerking his head in the direction of the dejected looking redhead.

I quirked an eyebrow at the nickname. "Caleb used to train here."

He nodded in understanding.

"I didn't know you boxed," I said.

He shrugged. "It's a hobby."

"A hobby you get payed for?"

"The money's a bonus."

"Right, anyways, Evan wants you home."

He groaned. "He sent you?"

I shook my head. "I asked him where he thought you might be, and he told me to tell you to come home."

"Oh," He said as we started heading for the door. "So why were you looking for me?"

"Well you didn't show up for school, or tell anyone where you were."

He smirked. "Aww, were you worried about me sunshine?"

Yes.

"Pshh, no."

"Liar."

"Whatever," I muttered as we went separate ways to our vehicles.

~*~*~*~*~

I'm so tired. I should take up drinking coffee. This chapter is kind of a filler because I have to make some stuff happen before the next big chapter. Exciting things are coming.

Extremely unedited.

Pleeeeeeeeease vote, comment, follow.

Yes I'm desperate. Deal with it.

Until next time.