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I check my cell phone for messages from Zach so many times, my eyes are crossing, and I can’t even tell the dates and times of the last time he texted me.
He never calls or messages me, and he never comes home by the time it’s time for me to go to bed. I feel exhausted. I don’t want to close my eyes, but at the same time, I realize that I need to be on my best game when I finally come face to face with him. This is so ridiculous now.
I wake up with a start at around four in the morning and instantly start crying when I find his side of the bed untouched. I am going to lose it.
In a moment of weakness, I grab my cell and call Chloe.
“I’m so sorry to call you this early,” I say really quick when she answers. She sounds like I woke her up, and now I feel even worse than before. “I just…” I can’t finish my thought. I start bawling with no control over my own body. “I think,” my greedy lungs inhale all the oxygen they can when I come up for air. “I think Zach is seeing someone else. I can’t deal with it, at all.”
“Where are you?” Chloe sounds fully awake now, focused and ready to go to battle for me.
“I’m at his apartment,” I whisper into the phone, my eyes bouncing off the walls of the bedroom we’ve been sharing.
“Do you need me to come over?” My cousin offers, and I can tell she’s not sure what else to do. “Are you safe?” she adds in a low voice that takes me by surprise.
“What? Yeah, I’m safe. He is not home.” I take a deep breath trying to calm my crazy head down. “He hasn’t been home in two days, Chlo. I don’t know what to do. I’m thinking of going back home. I need my mom.”
The thought is startling, unexpected in its honesty. My mom has always been there for me even when I pushed her away and treated her not so nicely. She never gave up on me, and I know she’d help me through this now.
“Come stay with me,” Chloe’s voice bursts through the quiet line. I love this girl so much for carrying about me like she does, and I tell her so.
“Slayer,” her voice gets super serious. “You know your brother will kill Zach if he’s hurt you, right?”
Ridge has been way too observant of what’s happening between me and Zach, to the point where I worried about all of us being in the same room together. It was funny when he was not a fan of Zach’s due to his friendship with Brooke, but Ridge has been over that for a while now, and his entire focus is on my relationship with Zach now.
“Ridge is funny with that,” I try to deflect, make it sound less than what it is.
“Do you want to hang out today?” Chloe finally says after a few moments of complete silence.
I jump at that because I don’t want to be alone again today. Everyone else I know in the city is working, they don’t have time for me like I thought they would. “You don’t mind?”
She tells me to wait until there’s daylight out before heading her way, then we hang up. I think I probably have another hour and a half or so before the sun comes up.
I go into the closet and pack a few essentials in my overnight bag, zip it up and leave it there. It’s almost like a just in case type of thing. Something I can grab on the run if needed.
By the time I am done with that, it’s time for me to leave. I text Chloe to let her know I’m on my way, deciding to walk to their building. They are only a ten minute walk away from us, and the weather is nice, no use in wasting it on an Uber.
Chloe greets me with a big smile when I get there.
“Hey, I got your favorite coffee ready!”
My mind goes back to the pregnancy tests I got hiding in my bag back at Zach’s place. I have no idea if caffeine is good or bad for the baby. I try to remember if Brooke ever mentioned it when she was pregnant, but I was not around for much of that, so I don’t know.
“I can’t have coffee,” I finally say and watch her face dropping in disappointment, but she recovers quickly.
“Oh okay,” she pulls me into the kitchen. “What do you want? I got some alcohol to fortify you, but I think it’s too early for that,” she chuckles.
“I can’t have alcohol either.” That I know for sure.
“What would be an appropriate beverage for you then?” she laughs nervously, almost like she is suspecting something.
“I think I’m pregnant,” I blurt without thought.
“Milk?”
CHAPTER 37
Sidechick
