Me, Just Different by Stephanie Morrill

Author:Stephanie Morrill [Morrill, Stephanie]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2009-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

11

A little after 1:30, I heard Abbie sneak up the stairs. She tiptoed into her bedroom, closed the door with a soft click, and exhaled with relief.

“Nice to see you,” I said.

Abbie faced me, a hand over her heart. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

“So you’re not sneaking into the house at”—I glanced at her alarm clock—“1:43?”

“I am, but I wasn’t doing anything bad.”

I stood from her bed. “I’ve been lying here worrying about you for the last couple hours. Why didn’t you take your cell phone?”

“I wasn’t thinking clearly.” Abbie chewed on her lip for a moment. “I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Where were you? I didn’t see you at the dance.”

“I didn’t go. I really didn’t plan to leave the house tonight, but then . . .”

“Then what?”

“Chris—”

“Abbie.” I rubbed my dry eyes. “Now is really not the time for someone like Chris.”

“I can’t help it. And we weren’t doing anything bad. Well, other than sneaking out, I guess. We just went to the park and sat and talked.” She followed me through the bathroom and into my room. “I know I probably shouldn’t have, but he’s just so great, and—”

I turned and faced her. “Have you told him?”

She averted her eyes. “No.”

“Is that really fair? Making him think this is leading somewhere it can’t?”

“But why can’t it?” Abbie nearly whimpered.

“Abbie, you’re pregnant.”

“But—”

“But nothing. Yes, Chris likes you a lot, but no fifteen-year-old guy is going to stick it out with you when he finds out you’re pregnant from your last relationship.”

Abbie looked to the floor, deflated. Her silence lasted so long I nearly asked her to leave.

“If any guy would support me,” she whispered, “I think it would be him.”

Then she turned and left, sliding the door shut before I had a chance to agree.

“You weren’t at church this morning,” Connor said when I answered my phone.

“No, I wasn’t.” I snapped off the light of my new sewing machine. This sewing thing had taken a couple weeks, but I was finally getting the hang of it. “Late night around here.”

“Oh, right. Jodi’s.”

“Jodi’s?”

“Didn’t you all get together at Jodi’s?”

I snipped a thread. “No.”

“I thought I overheard Alexis and Jodi talking about some kind of after party.”

“You must have heard wrong.” But somehow, I knew he hadn’t. I had a strange sensation deep inside my chest, an itchiness. Was that how it felt when you suspected being left out?

“Anyway,” Connor continued, as if my group of friends ousting me was trivial, “I just heard on the radio that this is supposedly one of our last warm days of the year. Chris and I are hitting Sheridan’s. You and Abbie wanna come?”

I hesitated. “I think Abbie might have homework.”

“Just check with her,” Connor said. “We don’t have to be gone long.”

What else could I do? I had to ask and hope that what I’d said the night before would make Abbie proceed with caution for once in her life.

Instead, she said, “Sounds good,” and rolled off her bed, where she’d been scribbling in a notebook.

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