Pregnant with my two best friends

Chapter 6

Talking to Chris is surprisingly easier than Emma has anticipated for. Parker was correct after all; Emma guesses he knows Chris more than she does. She’s nervous at first but Parker just broaches the topic plainly and matter-of-factly. He talks to Chris the way he talked to Emma after the prom, straight to the point. And Chris appreciates that.

Now Chris looks at Emma with twinkles in his eyes. “Em, everything Park just said, I’m down with. Well, obviously, he is too. The question is, are you?”

“Well,” Emma says, still not a hundred percent sure. Chris is, after all, Chris. “What do you mean by ‘you’re down with’?”

Chris chuckles. “Okay, here’s the thing,” he explains. “I’ve always known that Parker loves you and he’s pretty serious about it. Now, me, I think I love you too. You and I, we’ve known each other for a long time, since kindergarten. Of course, I love you. I love you so much, Em. You’re important to me, just like Parker’s important to me. But in all honesty…”

“You don’t know whether you love me like a lover or a friend?” Emma finishes for him, couldn’t help but feeling a bit sad. “You don’t know whether it’s love that you feel or that you simply just care for me. A lot.”

Chris nods. “I don’t have Parker’s kind of commitment in me just yet,” he answers truthfully. “I still wanna have fun, and party, and do stuff. I still wanna enjoy being young. Park’s idea of fun is just being with you, watching a movie, reading books, talking about them, going bowling with just a couple of friends. I’m cool with that from time to time, just not…”

“All the time,” Emma continues for him. She’s not bitter; she just knows Chris too well. Parker and she are so much alike, they enjoy the same thing. They keep everything low profile. Is not that Emma doesn’t have friends, really, she too mingles like any other teenagers. Still, not having a lot of money means her options are pretty limited in a rich town like Alpequa. Rich kids don’t really hang out with regular kids. Not many things to talk about there. Some not-so-rich kids spend quite amount of time trying to get themselves noticed by the rich kids, trying to climb the social ladder. The rich kids usually make fun of them and snicker at them behind their backs.

Some of the not-so-rich kids don’t care about the school politics. Sadly, they become the anti-social, and Emma is not one of them either. Ergo, the number of regular, average, fun loving kids to befriended with is pretty limited in her school. Still, Emma manages to have a couple of girls she can call good friends. Not as good as Parker and Chris, but good enough. Sometimes, they even have a slumber party together.

Now Chris nods and grins his usual boyish grin. “I still wanna be given the chance, though. If you and Park let me partake in this, whatever this is.” Chris stops then looks at Parker. “What do you say, Park?”

Parker nods. “I’m cool with that. We did offer, didn’t we?” To Emma, he asks, “Are you, Em? You’re okay with this, right?”

Emma bites her lower lip. “I mean, I guess,” she says. “But how are we going to do this, though?”

“Why don’t I just make it easy,” Chris suggests. “Parker says that he’s committed, and I believe him. When we start college, he will try his best to be faithful to you, come see you, or have you come see him on the weekends and all. I’ll try to do the same, I’ll try to commit myself to this as well. But if I’m lacking, or if my will power is not as strong as his, or that, I just find another girl attractive or something like that. If, I choose to back off, I need to know that you will still love me, as your best friend. Because I love you, Em. So much. That much I know.”

Emma smiles, she has tears in her eyes. “I love you too, Chris.”

“I don’t ever wanna lose you, Em,” Chris says and means it. “I’ll do everything for you. Whatever we end up, just don’t ever cut me loose, okay? Can you promise me that, at least?”

Emma nods. “Okay,” she says, then giggles. “I promise.”

“I’m sorry, Em,” Chris says.

That makes Emma confused. “Sorry for what?” she asks.

“Sorry for all the mistakes that I know I will make along the way,” Chris says. “Somehow, I’ve got this feeling that this will not be as easy for me as it is for Park. I’m not ready to be fully committed in this age.”

“Hey,” Parker says, joining the conversation again. “Of course, you’re not. For God’s sake Chris, we’re eighteen. The only reason that I’m committed to this is because I’ve loved Emma since I was twelve. Heck, long before that even. I’ve known what I wanted since then. We can’t force you to feel the same way, it won’t be fair to you. Everything’s a process, okay?”

Chris grins again, as he always does. “Okay, buddy,” he says. “Everything’s a process.”

Emma jumps up and down. “I’m so happy,” she squeaks. “So, so happy.”

Parker comes closer and hugs her. “See, Em, we’re solid like that. You, Chris, and I, we’re solid like that.”

Chris nods and hugs his best friends. “True. Nothing can come between us, Em. You just need to continue forgiving me through the whole process, because I’m a jerk. Probably will always be, but nothing will ever come between us. I promise you that.”

***

Summer sucks! Now that Emma knows what s*x feels like, she likes it. With Parker and Chris, of course, not with other boys. Ugh, perish the thought. Emma can’t wait for college, especially since she can’t really spend her summer with the boys anyway. Parker is island-hopping in the Caribbean with his family and Chris is somewhere in Japan. While Emma, well, at the moment she is cleaning a table in their favorite ice cream parlor. So, yeah, a month away from those boys has been killing her.

Absentmindedly, Emma caresses her platinum necklace with two small pendants of a daisy and a daffodil that falls nicely just above the center of her clavicle. She loves the necklace with all her heart and promises to guard it with all her might. The necklace was a collective gift from Parker and Chris for her eighteen-birthday last April. Parker gave her the daisy and Chris the daffodil. Emma is a spring baby, and spring, according to both Parker and Chris is defined by daisies and daffodils. While Emma is shy, both boys see her as sweet, bright, warm, and cheerful. She brings happiness to them, just like spring brings hope after a dreary winter. Emma is actually older than the boys if counted by months. Parker is a May baby, and Chris is only eighteen by association. Technically, he’ll be eighteen in August.

Emma wonders how she can feel the way she feels right now towards Parker. So in love, so fast. All this time she’d never felt that way about him. Sure, she’s always loved him, like a friend. But never more than that. Her heart never beat fast every time Parker looked at her with his tender gaze. It was always Chris. He’d always been the one for her. Her and just about every girl in their high school. But now, Parker too, is in her heart. He too, makes her heart aflutter.

And Parker lets Chris be part of their unison. That’s funny, and confusing. In a good way. Why is that, though? Emma wonders. Why does Parker let Chris join them? Won’t he be jealous? When Emma kisses Chris and they make love in front of Parker, isn’t he jealous? Or is his love so magnanimous that he puts Emma’s happiness above his own needs and ego. If so, then Emma is lucky. She is so very lucky.

The boys will be back sometimes in August, just enough time for them to prepare for college. There will be one more big soiree, namely Chris’s birthday party. It will be over the top, since the party will symbolize two things: him being eighteen, and him officially leaving his parents’ house to embrace adulthood. Chris, embracing adulthood. Well, one can hope, ha ha.

Emma, as his parents too have to acknowledge, will of course be invited. She will come with Parker, as always. Chris will also invite Kate, although they have officially broken up once the school has finally over. At the moment, Kate is spending her summer in Europe with her family. However, if by the time the party takes place both Chris and Kate have not found a new fling yet, Chris might ask her to be his date for the evening. He’s told Parker and Emma that, and they both agreed. It’s not time to start a gossip or anything now. Emma, having two boyfriends. Oh, but the monstrosity! For now, they’re keeping everything in the down low, until college.

Emma’s phone dings. A text from Parker just arrives. He says that he misses her. He also says that he has bought a new dress that Emma can wear for Chris’s party. Emma texts back, telling him that she misses him too, terribly so. She also thanks him for the dress. She contemplates telling him to not do that, but sees no point in doing so especially since the dress has already been bought. The truth is, both Parker and Chris have been making a point of buying her stuff from their extensive traveling. It’s their way of showing her that they may have left her behind in body, but never in spirit.

Parker asks Emma’s plan for the evening; Emma then tells him that she’s planning to have a movie night follow with a slumber party with her girlfriends: Jessica and Penny. Parker then wishes her a good time. Emma does the same, she asks about Parker’s plan for the night. Parker says that he will spend it getting drunk with his cousins. Well, his cousins will, Parker will drink responsibly like he always does. The boy has a lot of cousins, they spend their summer and winter holidays traveling the world together. They’re snobs like that. Emma then wishes him a good time as well before getting her attention back to work. Tonight, she’s gonna have fun with her friends. It might not be fancy, by any standard, but it will still be fun.

A woman and her two children come to the shop. The children are young, bratty, and loud. They start running around like crazy. Emma becomes dizzy all of a sudden. That’s funny, she’s used to this. Seeing bratty and loud children running around is not a new thing for her, usually she can always handle that. She wants to become a teacher for crying out loud, she should be able to handle these kinds of situations easy enough. But today, the children’s dido throws her off of her game. And the woman, God, her perfume smells awful, too much, too nauseating. Emma gags, she runs to the bathroom and starts puking.

This is not the first time she pukes, though. She’s been puking and gagging for about a week now. She starts to hate food too, especially eggs and cheese. She used to love eggs, and she’s always been crazy about cheese. Not lately. She can still eat chocolate; it doesn’t upset her tummy. That’s her only favorite food that can stay inside. What’s happened?

Now Emma’s afraid. She might be eighteen but she’s not naïve. They’ve been using condoms, but not the first time they did it. Oh, God. Is she? She can’t be, right?

***