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"He wouldn’t," Piper hurried to say. "He’s so careful with the—uh—the girls. All the girls. In—in fact, this is all a prank. He’s in on it. Right, Adam?" She whirled around. "June? Zariah?"
"Uh—yeah," June replied. "We helped her make it."
Zariah confirmed it. "Just a prank from…holy shit, a long time ago."
I couldn’t respond. My mouth was dry and I must’ve stopped breathing.
"We planned it out as a fun—um—birthday thing. Adam found out…and…he thought it’d be funny. Right, Adam?" Piper urged. "Right, Adam?"
She’s lying to protect me.
Piper was telling a lie, not even one of the half-truths that she could carefully put together, but a lie, because she didn’t want to get me in trouble for potentially messing around with my RA.
And then Piper leaned in next to me and held out a fist for me to pound. We had all eyes on the two of us at the birthday party. I had to look like I was an accomplice when all I wanted to do was throw up and maybe beat the shit out of the freshman football player who dared to call Piper just my RA, to take the nerves out.
Violent, impulsive Adam.
I fist-bumped her and the tension broke in the room. Awkward chuckles were exchanged. Everybody wanted to push past the worst prank in the world.
Numb, I finally found my voice. "Piper, I need to talk to you."
A response wasn’t needed. I pressed my hand against her back and the two of us stood up. Without another word, I guided her off to the backyard.
99
Piper
A Hundred Times Worse
Oh my god, if I could do anything in the world, I would’ve burned the card. My heart thrummed in my chest like a hummingbird. And everyone was looking at us…the blush blazed across on my skin. This was a nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from.
Adam led to the shed in June’s backyard. Her garden was in full bloom around us, just beginning to inch up for the upcoming summer heat. The flowering bushes and trees offered exactly the kind of cover we were looking for.
I was all apologies the second we were out of earshot.
"I am so sorry," I hurried to say. "I am so, so sorry, that was all my fault, that was awful. If I could do anything, I’d go back and burn that card. I’m so sorry."
Adam didn’t reply. He ran his hand through his hair and his eyes flickered beyond me, to the garden around us, to the little pathway back to the house.
"I should’ve thrown it away.” I struggled to breathe. “I was going to, I kept seeing it, and I kept thinking—Piper, you’re going to regret not putting it in the garbage—and then you were there and I didn’t want to explain it." I wrung my hands together, wracked with guilt. "Just talking in circles now. It was stupid. I’m so sorry."
Taking a step closer to me, Adam’s eyes were hollow.
My heart pounded in my chest for another reason.
"Are you…okay?" I asked softly.
"You’re not pregnant?" he rasped.
"Um…no?"
His face twisted again. "Did you take a test?"
"No?” I quickly shook my head. “It’d be too soon anyway."
I knew why he was asking. We weren’t using condoms anymore and between all of the other day-to-day obligations, we were going at it like bunnies.
"Uh…I can take a test in a couple of weeks," I said softly. "But I’m not pregnant, Adam."
