Joke
1055 Words
CASEY
I opened my mouth to give him an answer when he suddenly burst out laughing.
“Just kidding.”
Gregory leaned against the railing and shook his head as if he’d made the funniest joke ever.
“You should’ve seen your faces.”
Chloe stared at him. I stared at him. We both stared at him, unsure of what expression to wear on our faces. When he noticed that nobody laughed along with him, his smile slowly disappeared.
“Okay, wow. Tough crowd.”
“Are you actually insane?” Chloe asked, taking a step towards him but I held her back.
“What?”
“You think that’s funny?”
His expression shifted to one of confusion. “Everyone on campus is acting like she’s pregnant. I was making a joke.”
A joke. Of course. This was just a funny little rumor to him. I swallowed and looked away.
“Oh s**t,” he said. “You’re actually pregnant.”
I glanced at him and saw his eyes drop to my stomach. I immediately felt a wave of nausea.
He rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled awkwardly. “My bad.”
Chloe crossed her arms and turned to look at me as if to ask me if this was the same person I was willing to risk my whole future for.
I looked from her to Gregory, who looked uncomfortable.
He was uncomfortable?
“It’s yours.”
Chloe’s eyes widened as she tried to suppress a smile.
Gregory raised a brow as he stared at me.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s yours,” I repeated loud enough for him to hear, just in case his ears weren’t working well.
He stared at my stomach, then back at me, then at my stomach.
“What?”
I crossed my arms. “The baby. It’s yours.”
For a long moment, he didn’t say anything and I watched him go through every emotion to ever exist. Then he laughed.
“Good one.”
Chloe scoffed. “She’s not joking.”
Now it was Gregory’s turn to scoff. “See now, Woods. That’s impossible. Whatever is in there doesn’t belong to me so I suggest you ask your friend to tell you who she’s been sleeping with.”
The words hit me like a slap to the face, which was exactly what Chloe did.
She slapped him.
“Excuse me, asshole?”
She was yelling now, and people from inside the party started to look our way.
“I’m saying there’s no way,” Gregory argued.
“There is absolutely a way, you i***t,” Chloe snapped. “You didn’t use a f*****g condom.”
He ruffled his hair in frustration. “I don’t need a f*****g condom. I have a vasectomy.”
And there was silence. The music must’ve stopped playing a while ago because it was completely quiet around us. Even Chloe looked stunned.
Some girl from behind us suddenly spoke. “Who gets a vasectomy at twenty?”
People were already gathered at the patio door, watching us. As whispers echoed through the air, I felt dizzy.
I could hear the word, “vasectomy” ringing over and over and over again.
But that wasn’t possible. Was it?
“And you don’t think to mention it before you sleep with people?” Chloe shouted angrily.
“I don’t owe anyone my medical history!”
“The hell you don’t!”
The argument became background noise as my chest tightened. If he was telling the truth, then whose baby was this?
I didn’t sleep with anyone else after Gregory, but before him…
Before him, there was Pete.
The room started spinning and I took a step backward.
“No,” my lips trembled.
It wasn’t possible, because Pete and I used protection. And I’d seen my period before s*x with Gregory.
So it was his. It had to be his. Unless God was playing a cruel joke on me.
“So she was trying to pin the baby on him?” I heard someone whisper.
No.
“I’m saying medically, it can’t be me,” I heard Gregory say.
No.
“What was she thinking?” Someone else said.
Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. So I turned around and pushed past everyone.
“Casey!” Chloe called but I didn’t stop.
The night air that had been welcomed before now seemed to burn my lungs as I walked. My heels kept sinking into the grass, making me trip over myself.
A vasectomy. A f*****g vasectomy. I pressed a hand against my stomach as I walked.
Gregory was the only one. It had to be him.
But a vasectomy.
It was his. It had to be his.
But a f*****g vasectomy.
And now, rumors about me will spread. I will forever be known as the girl who tried to baby trap Gregory Thorne with a baby that wasn’t even his.
Of course this would happen to me.
I heard footsteps approach me but I didn’t stop. It didn’t take long for Chloe to catch up to me.
“Casey,” she called as she wrapped her arms around my waist. “The car’s this way.”
She was already breathing hard from running after me and now, she was leading me back to her car.
“What if he’s right?” I whispered.
“You’re not a child. You know whose baby it is.”
“But what if he is?”
She turned me so that I was now facing her.
“We’ll deal with it.”
“Deal with it?” My voice was broken. “You heard him. Everyone thinks I lied.”
“Who cares what a bunch of drunk college students think?”
“I care!”
The words came out louder than expected and tears burned the back of my eyes.
“Hey,” Chloe’s voice softened as we kept walking towards the car. “How about we go home, get some rest and think about it tomorrow? Hmm? Baby steps.”
I snorted and looked at her. “Yeah.”
She smiled. “Yeah?”
We finally managed to get to the car. I climbed into the passenger seat and Chloe sat in the driver’s seat. Neither of us spoke as she started the engine.
- Writer
