“Hi Kevin, how are you?”
“Nervous, you?”
“Same. Have you seen A.J.?”
“Not yet, he’ll be here soon I’m sure.”
“Okay, well we should probably go see Marcy, it’s about that time now.”
“Shouldn’t’ we wait for A.J.?”
“It’s his fault he’s late. He should get here earlier. He set this up, remember?”
“Yeah, how could I forget?”
“Anyway, let’s go on in and leave a message for him at the desk to come on in. This shouldn’t have to take that long, should it?”
“No, let’s go.”
While they were in the middle of the tests, A.J. decided to show up. He apologized and said that he was “unavoidably detained.” He quickly took the test and then said that he had to take off because he had an important meeting to go to.
Kayla was determined not to tell Kevin what her decision was until they found out who the father was. When he tried to ask her about it, she told him so. Though he wanted to know her answer then, he was fine with the decision.
The waiting time for the results wasn’t really very long because it was a friend of theirs doing it and she was rushing it, but it still seemed to take forever. Kevin and A.J. were talking again and they said that no mater what happened, they’d still be friends. The next thing to do was to tell the rest of the guys. They called a “meeting” at Kayla’s house to reveal their secret.
“Hey Kayla, what’s up?” Nick asked as he walked in. “Not a lot. Sit down in the living room. As soon as Howie gets here we can start talking.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Where’s Brian?”
“He’s coming, Michelle and he went to lunch or something earlier, so they’re talking or something. He’ll be here in about 5 minutes.”
“Okay. Then as soon as Howie and Brian get here, we’ll start.”
“All right.”
Nick went into the living room and sat down. Kevin and A.J. were sitting on the loveseat, whispering to each other. When Nick came in, they stopped whispering and started talking to him. Shortly after, Brian a
rrived with Michelle. “Hi Michelle, hi Brian,” Kayla said as they walked in.
“Hi, I hope you don’t mind that Michelle is here. It’s just that I never get to see her anymore and this is her only day off for a while.”
“That’s fine, I just hope that she’s ready to hear something really freaky.”
Brian gave her a weird look, “Okay…”
He went into the living room and sat down with the others. Howie showed up a little while later.
“I’m so sorry I’m late, you know me…” he said as he breezed in the door.
“Yeah, we know,” Kayla said as she led him into the living room.
Kayla sat down in her favorite chair across from everyone. She first looked at Kevin and A.J., then at the rest of the guys.
“Kevin and A.J. already know what’s going on because it concerns them. I’m going to be completely honest with all of you because you are all my closest friends. If you choose to judge me, then so be it. As you all know, A.J. and I split up a while ago. What you don’t know is that shortly after A.J. and I split, Kevin and I spent the night together. It was just once, and it hasn’t even close to happened again. But, I recently found out that I’m pregnant, and I don’t know if A.J. or if Kevin is the father. We took a paternity test on Friday, and the results should be in today. In fact, I’m expecting a call from Marcy any time now.”
Nick looked the most stricken, “You’re telling me that you held this back from me?”
“Nick, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t tell anyone. Kevin and I didn’t even tell A.J. that we’d slept together until I found out that I was pregnant. Then we were going to wait until we got the results from the test to tell you. To tell the truth, we expected the call earlier today. I’m surprised that Marcy hasn’t called yet.”
“You didn’t tell me and I’m supposed to be your best friend. Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course I do, but Nick, I couldn’t tell anyone. I was ashamed that I’d done two things I swore I’d never do. First off, I had a one-night stand. Second, I had a one-night stand with one of my closest friends. You know that I would have told you if I could, but there was no way that I could without telling everyone.”
“You know Kayla, it hurts that you didn’t tell me, but I want you to know that I’m here for you when you need me.”
“Thank you Nick, you don’t know how much that means to me.”
Brian and Howie just sat there, unable to speak.
“Congratulations,” Michelle said, “I know I don’t know you that well, but I’m here if you need anything too.
” “Thanks Michelle.”
Brian stood up and gave Kayla a hug, “You’re going to be a good mother KK.”
“Thanks Bri-Bear.”
Howie stood up, made a kind of grunting noise, trying to explain that he had to go and made his way out the door.
“Wow, I didn’t know he’d take it that way. I was kind of hoping for a better reaction,” Kayla said quietly.
“Kayla, I don’t know how to tell you this,” Nick said, “But Howie’s had a crush on you for a while. I think that this is kind of unexpected for him, as well as all of us. Give him some time, he’ll come around.”
“Thanks Nick, I think I might go cry or throw up now.”
Kevin grabbed a wet rag from the table and handed it to her. She ran it across her forehead and handed it back to him, “Thanks Kev.”
A.J. gave them a skeptical look, rolled his eyes, and turned his attention to Brian, Nick, and Michelle. Sherilyn, Kayla’s housekeeper, came in the room to tell Kayla that she’d had a phone call. Marcy had called to tell her the results, but she was needed in the office.
“Oh shit, I know I’m going to throw up now.”
Kevin picked her up and carried her to the bathroom. Just as he placed her on the floor next to the toilet, she started to throw up. He held her hair back for her and rubbed her back to try and soothe the pain of her heaves.
“Thank you Kevin,” she said after her last heave.
He helped her walk back to the living room and sat her down on the couch.
“Are you gonna be okay?” Nick asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, it happens all the time. It’s part of being pregnant. It’ll pass.”
A.J. made a grunting noise and left the room. Brian stared after him with a questioning look on his face, “Is A.J. okay? I mean, he’s been really quiet through all this and he keeps grunting and rolling his eyes and everything.”
“I don’t know what’s up with him. When we told him, he tripped out pretty bad, and wouldn’t talk to us for a while, but he seemed to be fine the other day. He and Kevin are talking to one another and everything…” Kayla said, trying to grasp what was happening. She picked up the phone beside the couch and dialed Marcy’s number.
“Dr. Swanson.”
“Marcy, it’s Kayla. Can you talk?”
“Yeah, listen, I think it’s better if I give you the results face to face instead of over the phone.”
“Okay, when can we meet?”
“I’m getting off now. I’ll be over at your house in about 15 minutes.”
“See you then.”
Kayla hung up the phone and almost passed out.
“What’s up?” Kevin asked.
“Marcy is on her way over. She’s bringing the results. She’ll be here in 15 minutes.”
“Suddenly, I need to sit down,” Kevin said as he sunk to the floor next to Kayla.
“Don’t you two look like the cutest couple?” A.J. said as he walked back into the room.
“A.J., you know that we’re not together,” Kayla said.
“That’s not what it looks like to me. He’s carrying you to the bathroom when you’re puking, and you’re all goo-goo eyes for each other. It’s sick you know. Even if I am that child’s father, we all know that I wouldn’t actually be his or her dad. It looks like Kevin has already filled that part, doesn’t it?”
“A.J., get a grip! If you are my baby’s father, you will be his or her dad. I don’t know what’s come over you A.J., but you seriously need to get over it and be more like your old self. I don’t understand you at all anymore A.J. You’re a totally different person than when I fell in love with you.”
“Do you want me to make the decision easier for you? Fine, here it is, I’m out of your life. I’m still in the group and everything; I don’t want to ruin my career. But Kevin, I don’t think that our friendship will ever be able to survive this. This isn’t something you forgive that easily. You slept with the one person I loved more than anything and now you expect me to forgive you? That’s not right. I still talk to you, we still work together, but we’re not friends, understand?”
Kevin looked at A.J., who was more than pissed, “I understand.”
A.J. started to walk out but Kayla stopped him.
“A.J. wait! You can’t leave yet. Don’t you want to know?”
“Well of course I want to know, but it won’t matter one way or the other, will it?”
“Yes it will. A.J. please stay. If you ever loved me at all then you’ll stay and find out.”
A.J. turned around and looked into her eyes so that he could see if she was telling the truth, “I’ll stay, but only because of you.”
“Thank you A.J., thank you so much. It means a lot to me that you’re doing this. I need you to know as much as I need to.”
A.J. looked over at Kevin, “Kev, there’s something I want to talk to you about privately.”
Kevin stood up and walked out of the room with A.J. Kayla, Brian, Nick, and Michelle all stared after them. The doorbell rang a few minutes later and they came back into the living room as Sherilyn showed Marcy in.
“Hi Kayla. Are you ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Are you sure you want everyone in here to know?”
“Yes, they’re all my close friends, and they need to know just as bad as we do.”
“Okay, the results of the paternity test has confirmed that-“
“Wait!” A.J. said before she could finish, “Don’t. I already know who it is.”
A.J. looked at Kayla, and then over at Kevin, “Our little talk was about who the father is. Kevin is, whether or not I’m the actual biological father or not. He deserves you and that kid. I don’t. I hurt you a lot throughout our relationship and I don’t want to hurt any child I might have. So I don’t want to know who the biological father is, because I know who the true one is. It’s you Kevin.”
Kayla began to cry as she listened to A.J.’s words. She didn’t know what to feel at the moment, but her heart went out to A.J., who had risked everything by what he was saying. She still loved him, deep in her heart, but she’d grown to love Kevin more than just a friend, and hoped that he returned her feelings.
“Do you want to know Kayla?” Marcy asked.