Read Online Father Knows Best by Lynda Sandoval - Free Book Online Page A

know something is. Are your families okay?”
    “They’re fine. Everyone’s fine,” Caressa said, flashing a quick, uncertain glance across the hood at Meryl again. I watched her take a deep breath and blow it out. “It’s just—”
    “Jennifer Hamilton is pregnant,” Meryl blurted.
    I gasped as though someone had kicked me in the gut.
    Wait. Wait. Back the hell up.
    Jennifer.
    Hellspawn.
    Hamilton.
    Knocked.
    Up?
    Holy, holy, holy—
    “What?” I whispered.
    Meryl nodded. “Pregnant.”
    “D-do you mean she’s going to have a baby?” I asked, stupidly.
    “Yep,” Caressa said, on a sigh. “That kind of pregnant.”
    “Is there a different kind?” Meryl asked us both, totally serious.
    Natch, we didn’t answer.
    My mind spun as I tried to wrap my brain around this unexpected bit of news. Let’s review. Jennifer Hamilton is the kind of pregnant that meant she would eventually give birth. To a baby. Which simply wasn’t heard of in her circle, I might add. Speaking of her circle…
    I blinked, then looked from one friend to the other. “And the evil flying monkey posse?” I ventured, referring to her so-called “in crowd” of vapid, cheerleading, bleached-blond followers, all of whom despised and tortured us whenever possible and for no reason.
    “Well, none of them are pregnant, if that’s what you’re asking,” Caressa said.
    “But, according to Jennifer, they’ve pretty much dropped her completely,” Meryl added, in a strangely sad voice. “Some friends, huh?”
    Something seemed off. Why was Meryl compassionate to this girl? Hellspawn and the Evil Flying Monkey Posse had treated her—all of us—like unadulterated crap for years, and now she was all empathetic to the Spawn just because she was going to spawn? We shouldn’t care about Jennifer and her stupid mistake. We shouldn’t care about her hateful posse. We shouldn’t care about any of it. But there were issues…
    A beat passed.
    “Dude, this is like a bad MFTVM.”
    “What?” Meryl asked, looking mystified.
    Ah, yes. It bears mentioning that Meryl’s family is anti–pop culture. They don’t own television—never have, so she’s often utterly clueless when it comes to stuff the rest of us take for granted. “It stands for Made-for-TV-Movie.”
    “Oh.” She still looked confused, but I didn’t feel like launching into an explanation about the differences between a big-screen movie and a Made-for-TV flick. There were more important things to discuss.
    I eased out some tension and got back to the matter at hand. Of course Meryl was compassionate, despite everything. She’s Meryl. The girl doesn’t have an unkind bone in her body, and that’s why I love her to death. “How did you—?”
    “I ran into her,” Meryl said quickly. “Just by chance. She was sitting on one of the benches outside Inner Power. Crying. Like, hard.” Mer hiked one shoulder slowly. “I’ve never really seen her looking so…bereft. So I just went and asked her if everything was okay. And she told me.” Meryl twisted her lips to the side.
    “Why, though? Why did she tell you?”
    Meryl flipped one hand listlessly. “Because I asked? I don’t know. Everyone’s going to find out eventually, especially since her former friends are being so evil. And I guess her parents are”—she shuddered—“well, you can imagine how they feel, I’m sure. I assume she just needed someone to talk to.”
    I forced a swallow past my constricted throat, and nodded. Made sense, and I was trying to rein in my inner bitchiness about the fact that she chose my best friend to talk to. I pictured Jennifer as a lone polar bear drifting on a glacier chunk in the Antarctic. Why wouldn’t she unburden herself to the first living thing that crashed into her lonely ice floe? The first person who showed any interest in her plight? So many questions swirled around my head, but one whopping scary one stood out:
    How far along was she?
    That’s what I needed to know,