Read Online Brat by Alicia Michaels - Free Book Online Page B

the next eighteen years.”
    Chase shook his head. “The kid’s going to get married someday, right? We’re going to be in-laws to the same person, grandparents to the same kids—”
    “Let’s just get through this part before we start talking about grandchildren.” Just thinking about becoming a grandmother makes me cringe, as I tend to associate grandmothers with women who’ve had too much plastic surgery, wear too much make-up and jewelry, and stagger around muttering about how sexy that ‘fine, dark chocolate’ Blair Underwood is. No? Just my grandmother then?
    Chase nodded. “Fair enough. You’re throwing up all the signs here, and it’s pretty clear.”
    It wasn’t that simple, but there was no way I could tell Chase that I’d never wanted anyone in my life the way I wanted him … or how much that terrified me. I couldn’t tell him how much it freaked me out, the possibility of losing yourself in someone else so much that you start to lose yourself. I did that once, and ended up with a guy’s handprint on the side of my face while I sobbed and tried to rationalize his behavior and convince myself that it wouldn’t happen again. Until it did … again, and again, and again.
    Instead of telling him any of that, I simply opened my car door and stepped one foot out onto the pavement. “I guess it is,” I said simply before leaving the car altogether.
     
     
     
     
    The house was fairly quiet when we returned. Christian, Luke, and Jenn had gone to a party one of the fraternities was throwing, which left Kinsley alone. She was in the bathroom … again. Frowning, I tried the knob and found it locked. Since her breakup with Aaron she’d been spending a lot of time in there, and no one ever knew what she was doing. She always emerged with red, watery eyes and a flushed face. Anytime one of us would ask her what was wrong, she would say ‘nothing’, and change the subject. Something weird was going on with her, and I hated not knowing what.
    Now that Jenn was gone, we were the only girls in the house. Even though we shared a room, I’d never been as close to Kinsley as Jenn. They were friends before I moved in, and while we became close quickly, I sometimes felt like the third wheel with them. It didn’t bother me or anything; I’ve never been the type to have close girlfriends. Jenn and Kinsley were the first girls I ever let get close, and I was just happy to be able to call them my friends.
    Still, I was worried about her and wanted to try to help her if I could. Knocking gently, I pressed my ear to the door. “Kins, you in there?”
    A few moments of silence, and then she answered. “Yeah.”
    Her voice sounded strained and hoarse, as if she’d been crying. Pressing a palm against the door, I closed my eyes and tried to think of what Jenn would say. She’s the most sensitive of the three of us. “Are you okay?” I asked. “Do you need anything?”
    It was really the best I could do when I was barely okay myself, when I had no idea what I was going to do about my own situation.
    “No,” she answered sharply. “I’m fine. I’ll be out in a second.”
    Sighing, I nodded and backed away. “Okay.”
    I retreated to our room, relieved to have a door, a hallway, and another door between me and Chase—at least until morning. He was being cool about things now, but it wouldn’t be long before he started pressuring me for an answer about what I planned to do. How was I going to look him in the eye and tell him that I didn’t want this baby? Aside from the fact that I had no desire to become a mother at the age of twenty-two, there was also the fact that I had no notion of how to take care of one. All I knew about babies was that they cried, pooped, and chewed things. I didn’t know what to do when one got sick, or how to put one to sleep, or even how to make a bottle of formula.
    It wasn’t a question of being financially able. One phone call, and my dad would have set me up in an