25. Melody's POV

I honestly shouldn't be shocked. I feel like my life is a Chinese finger trap. The more I try to pull away, the more impossible it seems to escape.

I hold my breath, feeling irrational tears prick at the back of my eyes. Betrayal surged through me, even though I had no reason to let it bother me. It's not like Tyler and I are dating, but she must've realized by now that I liked him. Why would she let him pin her up against the locker? I figured the one person I wouldn't have to worry about messing up my plan would be Riley. Especially since we had made up. Apparently, I was wrong.

I walked into a Freshman bathroom. It was empty and filthy. The bathroom had beige tiles that were covered in dirt. I walked up to the sink and I buried my hands into my hair, closing my eyes, the black sparkling dots danced into my vision, and I tried to focus. And think reasonably. I should just ask Riley, I decided. It wasn't fair to assume based on a quick glance as I walked down the hall, no matter how compromising the position was. Plus, this would help to circulate the gossip that Tyler and I were over and convince Harris further.

And I still need to meet Archers girlfriend. My train of thought abruptly changed, I was gonna be an aunt! The feeling of hopelessness disappeared. But then I thought about how the mother of my niece or nephew could be the ex of the guy who I'm interested in and my brain just gets confused all over again.

I know a semi-easy way to resolve my confusion and quickly leave the filthy bathroom. I notice Riley still in the parking lot and sprint to catch a ride.

I see Em, and I cringe slightly. She was still ignoring me, I had asked Tyler about it, but he had said she that her acting like this was normal. She catches my eyes watching her and scowls. Her lovely eyes pulling together into what looked like a betrayal.

I'm pretty sure he was lying to make me feel better, but I was wondering why my friendships only seemed to work with one girl at a time.

I had sent her twenty spammed messages and left her at least a dozen calls in the past few hours. Maybe I had annoyed her into ignoring me. But the whole reason I spammed her was that she had been ignoring me. I couldn't place what I had done to make her this pissed at me.

Riley saw me and waved. I tried to smile back, but I'm almost certain it looked more like a grimace than anything remotely similar to a smile. Her face twisted into something similar to guilt. Figuring I had an idea as to what caused her the unpleasant emotion, I decided to not immediately press her for answers. I swing the door of the car open, and I almost fell while climbing in the car.

Riley looks happy that I'm here. She reaches to turn the radio on, I want to talk to her, and I can't do that while my eardrums are screaming so I bat away her hand. Knowing that it wasn't very polite, but I decided to ignore my manners.

"How was err, your day?" Riley stutters, and I can tell she is very nervous. The fact that the radio wasn't on most defiantly unsettled her. Her face is bright red and she shiftily keeps glancing at me. I decide to take the mom approach.

"Is there something you'd like to tell me, Riley?" I ask calmly while studying her face, she seems to freeze. She glances at me, and I just sigh.

"How did you know?" She mumbles and keeps her eyes on the road. I just roll my eyes.

"You are horrible at keeping secrets, so what did you do. There is a 60% chance I won't get mad at you, but the percentage gets lower the longer you make me wait." I manipulate. I watch the clock. A minute passes without her saying anything, 50%. Then another, and we were down to 40%. I stare at the air freshener hanging from the mirror, it always used to be vanilla. Now it was pumpkin spice. Probably left over from Hallowe'en.

"Riley." I prompted, not caring if I sounded like her mother, I was too curious. She chews on her lip, and I start to get annoyed. 30%.

"Does it have anything to do with you talking to Tyler in the hallway earlier?" I offer and can tell from her sharp intake in a breath that that is definitely it.

"You saw..?" She says helplessly, and I nod. 20%.

"What was it about?" I ask, getting more and more irritated by the minute.

"Look, I just politely threaten-" She started, but I interrupted her.

"YOU WHAT?" I yelped. And she looks personally offended, although she does flinch back at the force of my voice. Shrinking slightly into her seats.

"It's all fine, we're friends now on experimental terms, it's all good." She rushes quickly. And before I can yell at her some more, she cuts me off with a complaint.

"You promised you wouldn't get mad at me." She pouts, but I just glare at her.

"I said there was a 60% chance that I wouldn't, but then you let it get down to a 20%, and it was fair game for me to get pissed at you." I bicker back. She pulls up to my house, and my scowl breaks into a smile. I am so thankful that I have one of my friends back.

"Bye, talk to you later," I say with a wave, and her tires squeal as she races away.

I walk into my house and throw down the heavy bag plaguing my back. It hits the ground with a loud thump that echos in the halls of my house.

I hadn't spoken to Archer, for a while. He had been M.I.A, all the passive aggressive energy radiating from my parents was getting to me now too. I honestly felt bad for my brother.

At least he wasn't in High school, imagine if I had been the person in that family hiding a pregnancy. All hell would've broken loose. Sure, he wasn't married and that was making it worse. I knew that eventually, probably the day that mystery girl gave birth, they would accept it.

I texted Archer with;

SIS, I want info. Come home now.

He probably wouldn't respond, but that was okay. I knew when he saw it he would head home. He was reliable that way. After all, I used Sis Is Suffering, he had better come home.

- - - - - - - - - -

I heard his motorcycle pull up, and the door pulls open. The cool air slipped in and it was very dark when he finally arrived. I smiled when I saw him, and he looked relieved to not be seeing mum or dad.

"Hey." He says, and I roll my eyes.

"Long time, no see," I say walking up with my arms spread like I was going to hug him before I punched him in the arm. I smiled at him sweetly as I danced out of the way of his retaliation.

"No wonder I left..." He mumbles loud enough for me to hear him. I gasp, an obviously fake one, and press my hand slightly above the place my heart would be.

"I'm so hurt, how could you say such venomous things about me." I joke, and he smiles slightly. His hair is pressed down from his helmet, and he looks ridiculously stupid. Another thing about him is how dark the shadows under his eyes are.

"So, what was this SIS about?" He asks although I am certain he already knew.

"I want to know more about the baby, the due date, your girlfriend. I feel like I hardly know what is going on in your life anymore." I say, falling onto the couch. He flinches but settles down next to me.

"Well, right now the baby is about 20 weeks along, I waited so long to tell you guys. We're going to get the gender checked soon, and I promise you'll be one of the first people to know." The thought made my heart warm. He continued "We obviously still have a few months." He paused as if remembering my last question.

I tensed in anticipation. This is the thing I've been waiting for.

"I'm actually pretty sure you've heard of her before." He says, and I feel my heart drop.