Southern Chance (Southern 1)

“I think she’s pregnant,” one girl whispers, and I look around and try not to feel like they are looking at me.

“You think she knows?” another one says, holding her glass of punch and taking a sip, trying not to stare at me. My neck suddenly gets warm and dread fills me, but I have no idea why. I look around and see eyes focused on me but they dart away once I look at them. Making my way through the people in the gym, I walk down the hallway again back outside, and I see Jacob and Savannah over to the side talking near a tree. Their conversation seems heated, and my feet feel like they are stuck in concrete blocks. No matter how fast I want to run to him, they seem to be going farther and farther away.

Walking down the steps, I spot Beau walking up the steps. He’s wearing a blue suit with a white shirt and a blue bow tie. His black hair is perfectly cut and coiffed to the side. His blue eyes almost look black with the darkness around us. “You clean up nice.” He smiles at me, and his whole face lights up. I roll my eyes and pick up my dress so he can see my worn cowboy boots that I’m trying to hide.

“You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t …” Beau starts saying, almost laughing.

“Take the boots off her feet.” I finish the sentence for him and push his shoulder jokingly.

“Where is the mister?” he asks, and I point at the tree where Savannah and Jacob are. Something about their conversation makes me feel uneasy. I walk past Beau and make my way over to them.

“You can’t seriously be saying this,” Savannah says in a tone that makes me want to get there faster. “I can’t.”

“Hey,” I say when I finally get close enough to them to see that Savannah is crying. “Is everything okay?” I look at her, and then I look at Jacob, who avoids looking at me. “What’s going on?” I ask. My stomach suddenly falls, and I don’t know why. It’s like my body knows something bad is coming and is preparing itself, but my brain doesn’t know. Neither say anything, nor do they make eye contact with me. My hands start to get clammy, and my heart feels like it’s beating out of my chest. “Jacob.” I say his name, and he looks up at me with tears in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” he says. I don’t know if I understand what’s going on. “Kallie.” He takes a step closer to me, but my instinct is to take a step back. “I can explain.”

My mouth gets dry, and the lump in my throat makes it hard for me to swallow. “Someone better say something and something fast,” Beau says when he sees me start to shake, coming over to me and holding me around my shoulders. He shouldn’t be the one holding me, it should be Jacob.

“Say it.” The words come out softly as my head starts to spin, and I try to wake myself up from this bad dream. This has to be a bad dream. This can’t be happening, not to me.

“She’s pregnant.” He repeats the words I heard whispered in the gym. I wait for him to continue, wait for him to tell me that what I’m thinking isn’t true. I wait for him to tell me anything. This is Jacob. He wouldn’t do this to me. He wouldn’t hurt me like this, not the Jacob who holds me during scary movies and brings me ice cream when I’m not in a good mood. Not my Jacob. “I’m so sorry.”

“Oh my God.” My knees buckle, and Beau’s hold on me tightens to make sure I don’t hit the ground. But he can’t stop the roiling of my stomach, and I put my hand to my mouth to keep from being sick, but it doesn’t help. I get sick right here in front of them. Jacob tries to take a step to me, the tears now streaming down his face. “No!” I shout at him, holding up my hand to stop him from approaching me. Beau squats down beside me and hands me a handkerchief from his pocket. Grabbing the linen handkerchief, I hold it over my mouth.

“Kallie, let me take you somewhere, and I can explain,” he says, but I just shake my head, not listening to the words, and then I look at her. The woman who I accepted as a friend, the woman who I never expected would do what she just did. The woman who has taken away everything that I thought I knew.

“How could you?” I ask, and she just sobs in front of me, holding her hands folded in front of her.