I shook my head. Dr. Wyatt asked me to lie back on the table. He stuck his head out and called for a nurse.

As a nurse joined us, Dr. Wyatt said,

“I need you to relax now, Ari.”

I kept my eyes on the monitor while I started to take deep breaths. Then, I saw it. It looked like a little peanut. I could hear it’s heart beating like crazy. My eyes started to tear up, and I looked away.

“Ari, honey, are you okay?” The nurse asked me.

I looked back at her and smiled.

“He should be here. I should have told him,” I said while tears poured down my cheeks.

The nurse took a hold of my hand and gave it a little squeeze.

“Honey, there are tons of women who come in here and get the first sonogram alone. You’re not always one-hundred percent sure that you’re pregnant. Some women like to wait until they know for sure before they tell the fathers.”

I tried to smile at her. When I looked back at my peanut, my smile grew bigger as I saw her little arms moving back and forth.

“She’s waving to you,” Dr. Wyatt said with a laugh.

“She?” I asked as I looked at him. There’s no way they can tell this early.

“Well, I usually call them all she until we find out for sure. It’s an old habit I picked up years ago,” He said with a laugh.

***

After Dr. Wyatt and the nurse left the room, I sat there for a few seconds, looking at the picture I held in my hand of my peanut. I placed my hands on my stomach, I closed my eyes.

“We just need to hold off another month, baby. Once Daddy finds out that the evil witch is not carrying his child, we can tell him about you. There’s no f**king way- oh god! Oh. My. God! I just swore at you. Oh, holy shit, I’m gonna make a piss-ass mother. OH! My! GOD! I did it again!”

I jumped down off the table and quickly got dressed.

I wondered how Heather doing with the use-your-boobs-on-Bruce- to “find-out-any-information-about-Rebecca. I couldn’t believe how much she belly ached about wearing a low cut-shirt. I’d simply asked her to flirt with him and then ask her friend, Rebecca. Somehow I was counting on tit-loving Bruce to spill the beans.

The moment I walked out into the waiting room, I heard Ellie raising her voice. Who the hell is she talking to that loud?

“Listen, you don’t own this doctor’s office, lady. Ari has been coming here for years, so you need to back the f**k off!”

Holy hell. I stopped dead in my tracks.

Rebecca.

Ellie looked up when she saw me. She immediately came over and stood next to me.

“What are you doing here? Your appointment isn’t until next week,” I said in a stunned voice.

Rebecca just smiled at me and tilted her head.

“So, Jeff shares that information with you, does he? He really is excited about this baby. I wish you could have seen the way he smiled at me when he had his hands on my stomach Saturday. Oh wait…you can’t because you’re not supposed to be anywhere near me.”

“Listen here, bitch,” Ellie started to get in Rebecca’s face.

As I pulled her back, I said,

“I had a doctor’s appointment, Rebecca. How was I supposed to know that you would be here? Wait, where is Jeff? Does he know your appointment is today?”

Rebecca’s face fell for just one brief moment. “I tried to call him a few times today to let him know I had to move it.”

I looked down at her stomach. No way. This bitch was about to pop.

Smiling , I walked up to her.

“I’m on to you, Rebecca. Whatever game you think you’re gonna win, you won’t. You see, I don’t play very nice on the play-ground with other kids I don’t like. I win when I choose to, sweetheart, and I don’t like to lose. If you think for one minute that I’m to just gonna sit back and let you take Jeff away from me, you have another thing coming. Pregnant or not, bitch, I will take your ass down.”

Rebecca’s smile faded. She looked over my shoulder at Ellie and then over at Heather who was still standing by Bruce. Heather really does look like a slut dressed the way she is.

“Bruce, can you please call the police? She just threatened me, and I actually have a restraining order out against her.” Rebecca said.

I looked at Bruce, who looked totally confused. The new girl sitting next to Bruce immediately picked up the phone and started to talk to someone.

I turned back to see Rebecca smiling at me.

“I hope you have fun sitting in jail, Ari.”

The next thing I knew, Ellie was pulling me out of the way as she got all up in Rebecca’s face.

“You will get what is coming to you. You will not get away with this. You’re not only messing with my best friend, you whore, you’re messing with my brother. Have you ever heard of karma? That bitch is going to come back around and bite you in the f**king ass, you douche-twat whore!”

“Ellie!” Heather said as she tried to pull her away from Rebecca.

“Um, miss I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I can’t have you…um, yelling at our patients.” Bruce said.

“What?” Ellie yelled at Bruce.

“Can’t you see that she’s the one who egged it on? She’s taunting Ari. She’s trying to get an excuse to put her in jail!”

Just then, the door opened and two APD officers walked in.

Fuck me. This wasn’t going to turn out good.

***

“I cannot believe they arrested all three of us. I’ve never even been in detention before for fuck’s sake!” Heather said as she paced back and forth.

Ellie and I both glanced at each other and smiled.

“Wow, being in the slammer really has given you a mouth, sweets!” I said with a laugh.

Heather spun around and glared at me. I quickly stopped laughing as I looked down at the floor.

“Heather, it’s going to be okay. Ari called her father, and he’ll get the charges dropped. Don’t worry. You’re not going to have a record.” Ellie.

She started to laugh and then I lost it.

“Oh yeah, the two of you just keep laughing. I want to be an elementary school teacher you bitches. What am I going to put on my application? Oh…well, you see, this one time my crazy-ass friend talked me into dressing like a slut. She told me to flash my tits around at a male reception guy…who by the way…is g*y as all get out! Oh, and I was supposed to somehow magically get him to tell me how far along my friend is. Even though if she was really my friend, I would already f**king know that information! Then, my other friend went crazy and started threatening a pregnant woman by poking a finger in her chest and calling her a whore. The best part of all is that, we all got arrested, and now, I’m in jail looking like a goddamn hooker! How in the hell is this not that bad, Ellie?”

Ellie sat there with a stunned look on her face as she stared at Heather. I, on the other hand, lost it again and just about died from laughing so hard.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph…you swore like seven times just now, Heather!”

When I looked over at Ellie, she glanced at me and let out a giggle. I had tears running down my face. I peeked up at Heather, who was now smiling. She started to laugh, too. Oh my god, I so needed this.

I laughed so hard that I was pretty sure I might have pissed in my pants.

Just then, I heard voices. One sounded like my father. I looked up to see my dad standing there with Jeff, Gunner, and Josh.

“I’m glad to see you find the humor in this, Ari,” Jeff said with a dead-ass straight face.

I immediately stopped laughing and tried to get Ellie and Heather’s attention. I stood up and looked at my father. He didn’t look very happy either. Oh shit.

After Ellie and Heather got themselves composed, Heather leaned over in my ear and whispered, “Holy hell, your dad called Josh?”

I let a small smile play across my lips. I turned and shook my head.

“I bribed the officer to let me have two phone calls, I called Josh. There was no way in hell that I was going to pass this up. I had to let him see you dressed like that! I just didn’t realize that he’d bring Jeff and Gunner with him,” I said as I turned back to look at Jeff.

This is going to be one long-ass ride back to Mason.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

JEFF

The moment Josh got the phone call from Ari, I was pissed. I wasn’t sure if I was more pissed that she called Josh and not me or that she was in jail for breaking the restraining order against Rebecca. What the f**k was she thinking?

During the whole drive into Austin, I never said a word. Gunner was on the phone with his mother. They were coming in a day early and would be in Mason around six tonight. I could tell Gunner was beside himself. Now, he had to deal with getting my damn sister out of jail.

What in the hell were they doing?

Mark called to say he’d just pulled up to the police department and would meet us inside. I could tell from his voice that he was pissed. Then we heard the three of them laughing. I had never felt so damn angry in my entire life.

After the girls got processed and their items were returned to them, we all walked outside.

Before Mark could even say anything, I turned and started in on Ari.

“Of all the stupid-ass things you could do, Ari, why would you break the restraining order? What in the hell were you thinking by threatening Rebecca? Then, you laugh about it like it’s some joke. What if you caused her to go into labor early? What if something happened to the baby? What the fuck, Ari?”

Everyone stood there and looked at me, stunned.

Mark stepped between Ari and me. Giving me a dirty look, he asked in a calm voice.

“Where did you get your information from, Jeff?”

“Well, Josh at first, since Ari felt the need to call him to come get them out of jail. Then, Rebecca called and left me a message, saying she wasn’t feeling well and was turning her phone off. I called her back and she said Ari threatened her today. She couldn’t even talk.”

I looked at Ari, who had her hands balled in fists. She looked really pissed.

“Fuck you, Jeff, and your baby mama, too! Daddy, can I please come home with you?” Ari said as the tears started to roll down her face.

“Jeff, you’re a prick! Why don’t you at least let us explain before you go off attacking Ari? You don’t even have the facts straight,” Ellie said as she poked her finger in my chest.

“Okay, everyone just calm down. Ellie, honey, just back off your brother for a second, sweetheart. Why don’t one of y’all explain to us what happened.” Gunner said.

I looked at Ari and she was still crying and in her father’s arms. Gunner pulled Ellie back away from me and whispered something in her ear. Josh was…well shit…Josh was trying to look at everyone but Heather.

“Fine, I’ll explain what happened.” Heather said as she also gave me a dirty look.

“We were at Dr. Wyatt’s office, waiting for Ari to finish up with her appointment. Rebecca walked in, and the moment she saw us there, she started asking why we were there and if we were following her. Ellie tried to explain to her that Ari had been seeing Dr. Wyatt for years and that she had an appointment. Well, crazy Rebecca started raising her voice to Ellie, and that’s when Ari came out. Rebecca was egging Ari on, Jeff. I mean, she was really going after her. She mentioned how you had your hands on her stomach the other day and how happy y’all both were with each other. It actually was Ellie who got in Rebecca’s face and started to threaten her.”