As for me, living with his mom in the same house, I definitely couldn’t put up with it for long. If anything was going to happen between Howard and me, I had to figure out a way to move from that house. But then I would have to stop playing sports agent for Dad’s sake and deal with getting a job first before I could even think of moving out.
“My life is just completely crazy,” I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose as I felt an ache start in my head. “I know what I want to do, but I don’t know how to go about it for now, so I’m stuck in that really awkward atmosphere at home, and I don’t think Dad and Katie even notice it.”
“Why?” Kayla asked, sipping her drink. “Your dad just got married and you have a new step mother now, but you’re all grown up. It’s not like you’ll live at home forever either, right? You won’t have to worry about it when you finally move out.”
I groaned again. “That’s not the problem. I don’t mind that she’s my stepmom. She’s fine with me calling her Katie, and honestly, for now, she’s just a stranger I have to interact with, but that’s fine. What isn’t fine, is the fact that Howard is now my stepbrother, Kayla. You know? The guy I’ve been sleeping with for the past couple months?”
Her eyes widened. “Oh... I don’t know how I forgot about that.”
Kayla, of course, knew everything. As one of my closest friends, when I found out about Dad dating Katie, I’d gone to her to vent. I’d stayed away from Howard for a while at the time, because it was awkward, but somehow, things between us didn’t end back then. He and I had run into each other while I was out shopping with Kayla, and I’d briefly introduced the two of them before he talked me into going back to his apartment with him.
I wondered if this really was where we stopped, and I felt my stomach clench at the thought. Now more than ever, that option wasn’t something that would make me happy.
“You guys weren’t serious, were you?” Kayla asked. “You told me you just hooked up occasionally, right? So, it’s not like you’re dating. Can’t you just end it?”
I grimaced, because no, I couldn’t just end it. I didn’t like the idea anymore, which was why I was willing to wait until Howard got his shit in order before we continued our relationship, if that was what I could call what we had. Also, hooking up ‘occasionally’ didn’t sound right, because while we didn’t meet up every day, we met up often. I definitely saw more of Howard than I did of my dad, and we lived together.
Besides, now I had a legitimate reason not to besides my own feelings.
“There is a problem with that, though,” I murmured. “I can’t just cut things off with Howard, least of all now. Kayla, I think I missed my period.”
“What!”
She was a little loud, and I stared at her with wide eyes. The music and murmurs in the room wasn’t that loud, a few people looked over, wondering about the noise, and I ducked my head down, pretending to be focused on my drink.
“Okay, that could be a problem,” Kayla said after a moment, sounding dazed, but at least she was quiet. “Crap, Zoe, what are you going to do? If your parents find out, what will they say? Wait, are you even sure? Are you pregnant?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I missed my period and that’s never happened before, but I don’t know if I’m pregnant or not. I’ve been trying not to think about it since I realized, and then this whole mess happened, so I don’t think I should put it off.”
“Of course not!” She hissed. “You can’t run away from it if you are pregnant, Zoe. You need to know right now!”
I looked at her, startled. “Right now?”
“Yeah! This isn’t the kind of thing you waste your time on. Actually, stop drinking that right now.” She took my cocktail from me. “The alcohol content is low in this, but you shouldn’t be having any at all if you’re not sure.”
I blinked, then frown. “Right. I’d totally forgotten. Good thing I didn’t drink any beer, then. And I only had a few sips, so it should be fine...”
Suddenly, though, I was worried. How could I have forgotten something so basic? It had been a while since high school, but I already knew things like drinking and smoking while pregnant were bad for the baby. Especially when I wasn’t sure yet, I shouldn’t accidentally hurt my baby just because I wanted a fucking drink!
Kayla finished both cocktails, then paid the bartender and dragged me right back out of the bar. We walked around until we found a pharmacy and bought a pregnancy test. I didn’t want to go home with it. Dad usually came home late, but Katie could be home. So, Kayla took me to her apartment.
The test didn’t take long. I had to drink a lot of water and wait for a while before I could go to the bathroom and use the test. Kayla kept me distracted with what was going on in her own life. She didn’t have any big news like I did, but there were a lot of interesting stories from her office that I did find interesting.
Ten minutes after I walked back out of the bathroom, I had the result. It was positive.
“Well, damn,” Kayla said.
I dropped onto her couch. “What am I going to do?”
More importantly, how was I going to tell Howard about this? How would he even take it, especially with the news of our parents’ marriage?
Chapter Eleven
Howard
I laid down on my bed in my apartment. There was no practice, and I had nothing to do, so I was bored. If my mood was better, I could have gone outside to look for something to do, but I just didn’t feel like it.
How could Mom do this to me?
My thoughts were unfair, and I knew it, but they persisted. Because I missed the dinner, I didn’t hear it at the same time as Zoe did, but Mom had called me and told me about her getting married with no warning to me, and to Ben of all people. I wished now that I’d sucked it up and gone to sit with them so I could read Zoe’s reaction to the news, or at least tried to talk to her.
Fuck!