Page 99 of Wild Card
“Okay, I support you. The only person I know who is hanging around in their current apartment is Juan. I can ask if he’s going to be looking for a roommate.”
“I think I would rather live with my mother and commute than live with him. He’s a jerk.”
I reared back, totally confused. “Since when do you guys even know each other well enough to know if he’s a jerk?”
She let out a tiny sigh, looking off to the side. “He’d come around, oddly when you were in class. Sometimes it felt like he was checking up on me, but I had no idea why. It got worse when I dropped out. It was like he knew. But when you started dating Decker and staying at his place, Juan would bring me breakfast and coffee. He made up this lie saying our coffee machine was broken.”
“It totally was.” I nodded my head, still reeling from this information.
“Well, whatever. I hate him.” She waved her hand like that was the end of it.
“I guess I’m confused. All of those things sound really nice—how was he mean?”
“Because every time he came, he’d give me the food and say something mean like,Here take this and eat it…maybe try getting some sleep at night so you don’t look half dead.Or he’d say,I brought you coffee assuming you had another sex fest last night and can’t go to class. I hope you used a condom.Really rude shit like that.”
I sat back on my hand, staring at mysister in total shock. Why had Juan been such an asshole to her? That morning he’d randomly shown up at my apartment came back to memory; he never had told me why he was there. Had it been for her?
What in the world…?
“Well maybe one of the daddies will take you in.” I tried to joke, but from the way Taylors eyes lit up, I realized maybe she was actually hoping one of them would step up. “Cheers to paternity tests, and for having the best big sister in all the world. We’ve got this, Tay. Even if no one steps up, that baby will be so loved.”
She stood, lending me her hand. “First things first: you have to help me tell Mom and Dad.”
I accepted her help, groaning while I stood. “I’ll support you with anything but that.”
“Too late—you promised. Now get your ass in gear. Also, can you and Decker try to have a baby right now so our kids are best friends?”
“Yeah, Tay…I’ll get right on that.” I rolled my eyes as she led the way out of her room, the plastic pregnancy test shoved under her bed.
“You’re the best.”
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