I Am Invincible

Zach’s POV

After Cameron went stomping off out of the mall, with his brother running behind him trying to catch up, I groaned and buried my face in my hands, muttering to myself about how stupid I was/had been. When I felt soft hands tug at mine in an attempt to pull them away from my face, I resisted until I heard Emilie’s voice tell me to stop being stupid and listen to her.

She explained to me that Cameron had pretty much been a bitch to everyone and had been stubborn and pig-headed and hadn’t listened to anyone when they tried to help him. She said that he eventually stopped answering phone calls while he was in California because he didn’t want to talk to anyone about me and our messed-up relationship. That hurt, but I guess I could understand why; I didn’t really want to talk much about it either, it hurt too much. But apparently unlike Cameron, I actually wanted to fix things, and so I opened up to my friends and tried the best I could to listen to their advice and not get too down, because, as Emilie had told me a million times, this wasn’t entirely my fault. I wasn’t as sure about that as she was but I pretended that I had relieved myself of all the guilt that apparently didn’t belong to me, otherwise I think she would’ve slapped me or something. I think it would’ve been hard trying to help two friends that were going through a relationship crisis if they both didn’t listen to a word she said, so I took in what she said and tried to respond accordingly.

Unfortunately, the problems I was having with Cameron were not the only thing on my mind. On top of trying to fix my relationship (which was my top priority), I also had a shitload of shifts at the ice-creamery to get as much money together for the not-too-distant future as I could, my parents had suddenly decided to talk to me again and kept wanting to meet up to “catch up” (that was my mother’s language for “butt into my life”), and I had an eight-month pregnant girl living in my apartment, which I think is why my parents decided that I was worthy enough to talk to again; they kicked me out cause I was gay, but when I called them a few months ago to let them know that I was going to become a father, suddenly it was like the past six-odd years never happened. Even though I assured them that I was still very much into guys – actually, probably more now that I’ve had to deal with a girl bitching at me for eight months straight as well as having to go with her to doctor’s appointments and things; I’m pretty sure Kirsten and her pregnancy has even more completely turned me off girls for life – my mother tutted at me and told me I was talking nonsense and began planning my wedding to my one-night-stand-mother-of-my-child friend. I had shaken my head and rolled my eyes at Kirsten who did the same gesture back at me. While we were friends – well, I guess probably closer than friends seeing as we were going to be sharing a child – neither of us had one ounce of romantic interest in the other. Kirsten knew (and was supportive) of my love for Cameron and I was pretty sure she liked someone too, but she never told me who it was. I actually had a feeling that it was Ryan, because she always got this little dreamy look on her face whenever he walked into the room and stuttered when he spoke directly to her. They’d make a cute couple; Kirsten is a very pretty girl when her stomach doesn’t look like she swallowed the earth and Ryan’s gorgeous so they’d be like those hot scene couples that you see on Myspace who get ten thousand photo comments whenever they’re in a photo together. The only thing is that, although Ryan’s bisexual, he’s more into guys than girls and is, in the nicest way possible, kind of a whore and I know that Kirsten has learned her lesson about quick flings. I don’t know; you never know what the future holds.

The reason Kirsten has been staying in my apartment for the last six or so months is because her parents didn’t like that she got pregnant before she was married. Her parents are strict Christians and didn’t want a child who had broken their and the bible’s rules by having sex before marriage, and unprotected sex at that. When she found out she was pregnant, Kirsten had managed to get my phone number off someone who was at the party and called to tell me the news. If I hadn’t been sitting down at the time, I would’ve collapsed. Never in a million years would I have expected to get a phone call telling me I’d be becoming a father. I also never imagined that I’d be living with the girl I got pregnant, but that’s what happened. When Kirsten started showing, her mother noticed that she’d been putting on weight, which is apparently unusual because Kirsten is pretty much a twig, she’s even skinnier than Cameron, and that is definitely saying something. Anyway, the truth came out and I received a phone call from a distraught Kirsten telling me that she’d been told to pack her bags. Without even thinking, I invited her to stay at my apartment and she’s been here ever since and I’ve watched her get bigger and bigger as our baby grew inside of her. When the time came and we had the choice to find out the sex of our baby, we decided against it, wanting it to be a surprise, but we’ve already thought of a few names and we began getting stuff set up for when the baby arrives about a month before the big day, which came all too soon.

I was pacing the living room with my fingers rubbing my temples, trying to figure out what to do about Cam. Kirsten and Ryan were talking in the kitchen, I think about something to do with the placement of the crib that we bought from the baby store that day we saw Cam, Emilie, Declan and Tamsin at the mall. The murmuring of their voices somehow annoyed me, and I was about to go into my bedroom when I heard the scraping of chairs against the floor and a loud gasp from Kirsten, followed by a panicked shriek.

“Oh my god. ZACH! Zach! Shit, it… oh my god, we need to go to the hospital RIGHT NOW! Kirsten’s water just broke. Oh my god, ew. Get the fuckin’ car, Zachary, and I’ll help her out. Oh shit, that’s really gross…” Ryan ranted, as I rushed around the living room trying to find my car keys and jacket. As soon as I grabbed my keys from the hook near the door (who would leave them there, I mean, come on, really?) I was ready to leave and Ryan and Kirsten were halfway down the stairs towards the entrance to the building, with Kirsten breathing heavily and Ryan, I think, trying not to be sick. I rushed past them on a landing and practically flew down the stairs, and made it out the door in record time. Ryan and Kirsten were at the door waiting by the time I found, unlocked, started and drove my car to the closest spot to the front entrance I could get.

We sped all the way to the hospital, luckily not meeting any cops along the way and rushed Kirsten inside. As soon as the nurse saw us, they put Kirsten in a wheelchair and began wheeling her towards the delivery room, calling to “the father” to follow behind. I received a quick pat on the back from Ryan before obeying the nurse and following her into a rather large room. I was nervous as hell when I saw the doctor come in snapping rubber gloves onto his hands and asking cheerfully if everyone was ready to deliver a baby; the guy seemed like a complete nut and I was a bit worried that he would be the one to deliver my baby son or daughter, but I let it go and concentrated on not fainting when he began talking all this medical crap about dilations and shit. If I ever needed a reminder of why I was gay, that was it. I’m pretty sure it scarred me for life. Ugh.