Into the Light

“We need to have a long chat. When are you off?”

“In about two hours…I’ll pick you up, say, around three?”

“It’s a date.” Smiling, I said goodbye and headed back into town.

Exactly two hours later, the doorbell rang. I couldn’t have run any faster, Lex and my dad scolding me for almost tripping down the stairs. As I opened the door I was met with that goofy grin that belonged to my childhood best friend, Logan Rodriguez.

“Hey, girl.” Logan wrapped his arms around me, I missed his suffocating hugs, although I did not miss his man sweat.

“Hi Mark, Alex,” he nodded.

Oh, he called him Alex. Lex didn’t correct him. In fact, Lex smiled at him, which was weird. Was I missing something here? Mister ‘she’s mine and no one can touch her including that Rodriguez kid’? Okay, Charlie, seriously that was so 2005 Alex, not Lex standing before me.

“You wanna grab a bite to eat?” Logan asked, eyeing Lex.

“Sure, let’s go.” I kissed Lex goodbye and thank god he understood I needed some alone time with Logan. Last night when I raised the topic I thought he would go off his nut demanding he be there, but much to my surprise he shrugged it off and said to have fun. Have fun? Okay, seriously, something was up with the universe.

As we sat in the local coffee shop, I knew there was no better time than now to let it all out in the open.

“Go, ask me your million questions,” I said as I shoved the most appetizing chocolate cake into my mouth.

“I have no questions. You broke it off with Julian and you’re back together with Lex.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s the main…wait, did you just call him ‘Lex’?”

He shuffled his feet but laughed it off, “Sorry I heard you call him that once and it must have stuck.”

“When did I call him that?” I asked confused.

“Must have been Jen then, I don’t know. Anyway, so Alex and you are back together.”

“Don’t you want to know what happened?”

“Charlie, I’m a guy, we don’t care for sordid details. Unless of course it’s dirty, but since I look at you like a sister that is just plain wrong. Actually, it’s super plain wrong that I called you a sister when we did it twice.”

“Foot in mouth disease, welcome to my world,” I laughed.

“Okay, so what I meant is, if you’re happy, Charlie, then that’s all that matters.”

“I’m pregnant, Logan,” I blurted out.

He almost spat out his strawberry milkshake, which I kept hogging His face had a slight anger to it. Shit, did I ruin our happy reunion?

“Don’t tell me you’re with him because of that?”

“Logan, really, do you think I was raised in the 1950s?”

He remained silent and I allowed him a moment to let it sink in.

“You know babies cry all night,” he spoke.

“I know.”

“And you need to change their diapers like thirty times a day.”

“I’m aware of their bowel movements, yes.”

“And you can’t have sex for like six weeks after the birth.”