Page 76 of Zen's Crash

“I guess it’s because you and Kayla have always been so good to me since I’ve known you. I wanted to repay the kindness somehow.”

“Friendship isn’t about checks and balances. Having you in my life has always been enough,” Cindy says with a smile.

I feel myself start to tear up, “You’ll do it though?”

“All right. Economy cars only. And we’ll live in your trust-fund house until we can afford our own place.”

“See? I knew you’d see the logic in my plan eventually.” Feeling a wave of nausea hit again, I grab an antacid out of my purse and pop it in my mouth.

Cindy makes a little circle in the air around my mouth. “What, pray tell, was that?”

“I’ve been getting nauseous off and on, probably from the stress. The past month and a half have been awful. Actually scrap that, the past year has been a shitshow.”

Cindy freezes in her seat. “Lexi, do you remember the last time you went to get your Depo shot?”

I think it over for a moment. “Of course, it was a couple of months ago. We went together, remember?”

Lifting my beer to take another drink, the glass doesn’t reach my mouth. Glancing down, I realize Cindy has her hand on the bottom of the glass. Confused, I ask, “What in the world are you doing?”

“Saving your ass. Put down the beer.”

Instead of putting it down, I hold it up to the light. “Did you see something floating in it?”

She grabs the glass from my hand, sets it to the side, and looks me straight in the eye. “We didn’t go together last time. I ended up going alone because you refused to leave the house. That was six months ago. You told me you would reschedule. Please tell me you and Zen have been using condoms.”

I stare at her blankly, trying to get my head around what she’s telling me. I vaguely remember putting an appointment off, but I honestly hadn’t thought so much time had passed. I guess that combined with my dad’s murder, everything that happened recently, totally made me lose track of time.

I shake my head. “Shit. I honestly thought I was covered, and we haven’t been using anything.”

“Fucking hell,” she grumbles under her breath. Grabbing my hand, she stalks off towards Zen’s room—the one we’ve been sharing here at the clubhouse. I don’t even fight it because I’m so shocked.

The moment the door shuts behind us, she rummages through her purse. I’m still trying to figure out how I could have missed something so big when she puts a long, slim white packetin my hand. I realize immediately it’s a pregnancy test—one from a bulk pack.

I stammer, “Why is the only woman in this club not having sex buying pregnancy test kits in bulk?”

She flings her purse down on the sofa and puts her hands on her hips. “Who says I’m not having sex? You realize I’ve been staying at a clubhouse full of bikers who love to have casual sex, right?”

I just stare at her, realizing I’ve only ever thought of sex as something you do with a guy you have feelings for. My best friend is having casual sex with bikers. My mind goes off on a tangent trying to guess which club brother she’s been hooking up with.

My thoughts get interrupted when she says, “I’m joking. I bought them a few weeks ago when Kayla started talking about sleeping with Evan, this was before she went on the pill.”

My mouth falls open. “She said they haven’t gotten around to having sex yet. Your sister told me they just watch movies, cuddle, and fool around.”

Cindy snorts a laugh. “For now, but at least she’s on birth control.”

I lift the kit to look at it. “I thought it was stress making my stomach churn. Pregnancy never even occurred to me. God, how could I be so irresponsible?”

“That’s understandable. You’ve been under a ton of stress. I might have thought the same in your place. Just go ahead and pee on the stick. You’ll know one way or another.”

I nod, thinking she’s right, this best friend of mine. I walk into the bathroom, and a few minutes later, I’m sitting on the closed toilet lid, watching a faint pink plus sign appear in the little round window at the end of the stick.

When I realize I’m pregnant, I tear up—not because I’m sad or upset, but because images of little boys and girls fill my mind. They all have Zen’s green eyes and brown hair. They’re all beautiful and tech-savvy like we are. Of course, they’d want to play video games and run around Zen’s shop helping us scrap old computers when they’re old enough. Suddenly, I want this bright new future with Zen more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.

Chapter 29

Zen

While Lexi is supporting her friend who got into a tussle with a new club girl, I’m keeping to the task at hand by examining the contents of Terrance’s laptop. My bot cracked his alphanumeric password within a few hours because, for a hacker, he wasn’t as security conscious as I would have thought. Either that, or the stupid fucker was arrogant enough to believe no one would ever get a hold of his laptop.

---