Page 100 of Finding Fate

“So?”

“So?” he repeated back, “So?”

She didn’t say anything.

“I’m not putting up with any hormone crap today, Izzy.”

She glared at him. “Excuse me?”

“I’m serious.” His voice was sharp. “I know you’re pregnant and everything, but you’re still you, and I know you knew how much that would upset Annie.”

She looked out the windshield then, her eyes ashamed with her anger.

“Why did you even think you needed to pay Annie back?” he asked less severely this time, now that he knew she was showing regret.

“Because she just made me so angry.”

“Why? Because she and I did something to help you…because we love you? Where’s my payback? I did it, too.”

She didn’t say anything again, her eyes still focused on the road in front of them.

His anger was beginning to rise at her lack of response. Why couldn’t she just admit what she did was wrong? Certainly, she knew it was, or she wouldn’t have looked away like she had.

“You know what I think?” he asked when the silence grew tense.

She shrugged. “I have an idea.”

“I think it was pretty crappy of you. Annie did what she did out of love and concern for you. You did what you did out of anger. Not one small part of what you did had good intentions. You know Annie hates that kind of attention, but you did it anyway. She’s done nothing but tried to be a good sister to you through this whole thing, and you threw it in her face today.”

He watched as the pale twin’s features flushed scarlet and braced himself for the explosion he knew was to come. It didn’t surprise him. He knew he’d hit a nerve with that one.

“You know, you’re right,” she said, turning to him. She wasn’t yelling, but her fury and frustration seeped through in every word. “I did do it out of anger, Jet.”

“Keep going, Izzy. Tell me.” His tenor tone was stern, picking up on something in her voice.

She crossed her arms under her chest and glared out the window once again.

“Come on, Izzy! Say it!”

That was all she needed, and Jet was thankful he had a knack for knowing when and how to push his friends’ buttons.

“I’m pissed because she doesn’t understand!” Izzy exploded. “She just expects everything to go along as it was supposed to! Like we had planned it to be before this started!” she yelled, pointing to her stomach.

“But it can’t! Nothing’s the same! Everything’s different! And what sucks is that I know she cares, that she’s trying to be there for me, but all she’s been doing lately is making me feel guilty about it! Guilty that we can’t all go off to school together! Guilty that she and I can’t stay together after this year, whether in dorms or not! And guilty that I’ve changed everything with one stupid mistake, including Tucker’s future!”

Jet pulled off to the side of the road when he realized he was staring at her, dumbfounded. The last thing they needed was a wreck.

“That’s what this whole thing is about?”he wondered incredulously. He’d had it all wrong. Here he was thinking that Izzy was oblivious to Annie’s fears when she had been carrying the guilt over them all along.

The silence enveloped them while he gave his upset friend time for her newly unearthed frustrations to saturate her mind. After a long while, he spoke.

“Izzy, I have to ask…” He hated doing it. It would sound awful… “Are you regretting the baby decision?”

She looked at him, her wide eyes round with shock. “I just wish that Tucker and I hadn’t been so careless that night. That we would have used protection. That we could have had Destiny a little later. But no, I don’t regret my decision about her. I love her and want her more than anything now that she’s on her way.”

Jet nodded, trying his best to understand, but not fully being able to. “I guess you have to be in that situation to really get it.” He said the best response he could think of.

“You shouldn’t feel so guilty.”

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