The Senior (College Years 4)

Me: Grab some breakfast somewhere?

Ava: Okay.

We go back and forth for a little bit, discussing where to meet and I can tell she really doesn’t care where we meet. I make a suggestion, she agrees, and that’s it.

We’re meeting tomorrow morning. I wonder what she wants to talk about.

Hopefully it’s nothing too serious.

I enter the restaurant at 9:55 to find her already there, sitting alone at a table with a glass of water in front of her, wearing a thick sweater that swallows her up and makes her look tiny. I stop short when I catch sight of her face. She looks…

Worried.

Scared.

Pale.

Tired.

So damn tired.

I rush to the table, ignoring the hostess who calls out to me, and sit across from Ava at the table, leaning across it, my voice low as I ask, “Princess, you okay?”

She blinks at me, then rolls her eyes. Sassy as ever, even when she looks low. “So many people have asked me that exact question the last couple of weeks.”

“You look a little…beat.” I wince the moment the words leave me. I’m trying to make things right with her, not make her feel worse.

Ava sighs. “I know. It’s—how are you? How’d you do at the game yesterday?”

I notice her change of subject but decide not to push it. “Good. We won. I played well. Didn’t throw an interception.”

Her smile is small. “I’m glad. I didn’t know you guys played on Thanksgiving.”

“It’s a new thing, I guess. We’ve never done it before.” I shrug, turning my attention to the server who stops by our table to ask if I want coffee. I ask for a water and then pick up the menu, casually scanning it and suddenly nervous as fuck when Ava speaks.

“I need to tell you something.”

I glance up at her real quick before my gaze returns to the breakfast specials. “Shoot.”

“I’m pregnant.”

I drop the menu with a clatter, my gaze going to hers. She’s watching me, her expression absolutely petrified, her eyes so wide it’s like I can’t see anything else. “What did you just say?”

Nervous laughter leaves her and she shoves the menu out of her way, as if it disgusts her. “I’m pregnant. I took a pregnancy test last night. Actually, I took three. And they all came up positive.”

I’m speechless. All I can do is watch her, my brain scrambling to come up with words.

I’m drawing a complete blank.

“Don’t you have anything to say?” she prompts.

“H-how did this happen?”

Yeah, that’s the first thing I manage to say to

her.

“I think you know how it happened, Eli.” Her voice drips with sarcasm. “It was the whole us having sex thing, if you haven’t figured that out yet.”