She Will Be Loved

It was the next morning, Friday. Val had come in to ask if I wanted to go to school and I just stayed under my covers. I just laid in bed from then, listening to music from my stereo softly. I finally had to pull myself out of the comforts of my bed to eat. I didn’t want to be a shitty mom already just because I wanted to avoid contact with everyone for no reason.

“Hey Kota,” Jimmy greeted, seeing as how he was the only one in the kitchen. I barely nodded, walking over to the coffee pot with coffee still being kept warm. I poured it into a mug before stirring in, probably, more cream and sugar than required. “I didn’t know you drank coffee.”

“It’s something new I decided to try,” I muttered, holding up the ceramic mug. I took a long sip from the hot, light brown drink and removed the mug. Not bad. As I headed to the fridge I called, “Where is everyone else?”

“Val went to work, Brian went to check on his clothing company, Johnny and Matt went to see their parents, and Zacky hasn’t returned yet.” I paused as I was stretching to get leftover pizza from yesterday. I shrugged it off and grasped the box.

“Where’d he go?”

“Beats me.” I turned and raised an eyebrow, placing the pizza box on the counter. Something about Jimmy was telling me he knew more about the situation than he was leading me to believe. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared him down.

“Owen, don’t you dare lie to me. You know where he went and, more importantly, you know why.”

“I don’t see why you’re getting angry with me!” Jimmy exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. I could tell he was beginning to get aggravated. I don’t know if it was because he didn’t want to talk about Zacky or for the fact I was quizzing him. Maybe even the fact he was guilty. “I thought you’d be happy he was gone after the way he upset you yesterday.”

I stopped short, mouth forming a hard line. Why was I getting angry at Jimmy? I should be happy Zacky wasn’t here to anger me. But there was still that piece of me that was worried because I didn’t know where he was. I picked up my mug and turned on my heel, heading to the backyard, food forgotten. I sat on one of the lawn chairs next to the pool, cradling my mug to my chest. I took a sip, staring off to the ocean.

“Here, you have to eat.” I looked up and saw Jimmy standing there, a plate of reheated pizza in hand. I placed my mug on the ground next to my seat and accepted the plate. I crossed my legs and placed the plate on top of them. I picked up a slice of cheese pizza and began to nibble on it. “Zacky went to his parent’s house for the night. His mom called us this morning saying he was planning on staying for a while.”

“Why did he go there?” I asked. After a few moments of no reply I looked over to Jimmy who had taken a seat in the chair next to me. He looked guilty, staring at his hands which were twiddling his fingers. “Jimmy?”

“As an understatement, I got angry with him,” he confessed, his frown deepening.

“What did you do Jimmy?” I whimpered, forgetting the pizza slice as I put it back on the plate.

“I started choking him. I told him I’d kill him if he had put any harm to your baby,” Jimmy whispered. I could see the tears threatening to fall. I moved my plate aside and shot out of my seat, sitting on his lap. I began to coo sweet nothing into his ear as he buried his face in the crook of my neck. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do anything. I was just – I was angry.”

“It’s okay Jimmy, it’s okay.” I began to pet his hair and hum a random lullaby I remember from when I was young. He wrapped his arms around my waist and tears began to hit my pajama shirt. Within a few minutes he calmed again, going limp in my arms. “Jimmy?”

“What do I do Kota?” Jimmy sighed raising his head enough to meet my eyes.

“I would figure it was simple Jimmy.” He stared at me, confusion lingering in his eyes. “You have to apologize to Zacky.”

“But - ” I cut him off with a raised hand before he could continue his whine.

“I know I’m angry at him, but I have my personal reasons. You need to apologize to your best friend. My possible bastard child is not enough to break up a friendship that has been going on for years.” Jimmy winced at my choice of words, but I was unfazed.

“I will, I will,” Jimmy assured, giving me a tight hug. As I settled into my respected seat Jimmy fidgeted. “Koty?”

“Yeah?”

“How can you love that child so much? I mean, any girl in your situation would get rid of it in a heartbeat. Why would you want to keep it?” I chewed on my bottom lip as I contemplated on how to word my answer.

“To be honest, I think I want to prove my mum and father wrong. When I was younger my mum had no hopes for me and that’s why she left me behind. My father told me every day that I would never amount to shit. I want to have this baby and nurture it in a way my parents never could take care of me.”

“But isn’t that a little selfish?” I looked over at Jimmy to see him frowning.

“Probably a little,” I agreed, nodding my head. “But I’m going to give this baby the best life it can have. I don’t care who the father is, the important thing is I don’t stop a life that could be the most important ever. I mean, think about it. This child has endless possibilities. It could find the cure for cancer or discover a new animal or - ”

“Or become the greatest rock star of all of mankind!” Jimmy interrupted. “Maybe even greater than James Dio!”

I chuckled at his enthusiasm. “Yeah, possibly. I know with all you guys he or she will be able to play anything they want.”

“Damn straight.” Jimmy fell silent again and rubbed his neck. He stood to his feet and paused to stare at me. “I need to go make a phone call.”

“Don’t worry, go ahead. I’ll be fine,” I assured, picking up my food again.

“And Kota?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t hold this all against Zacky. I know he said some things out of line, but he loves you. It’s the whole reason he got angry. I know him, he has a good heart. Just – don’t let anything he said stop you, okay?”

“Okay Jimmy. Now go kiss and make better.” He grinned before leaving the backyard. I finished off the pizza slices before craddling my coffee mug again. I turned my head when I heard barking. I looked down to see Pixie trotting up to me. "Hey Pix. How did you get out here?"

"I hope you weren't expecting her to answer." I looked up to see Alice and Lia strolling forward.

"What are you two doing here? I thought school was going on."

"Early release," they spoke in unison. I smiled and shook my head at their twin moment.

"How did you get here?"

"We had our mom drop us off. Jimmy told us it was okay to come in," Alice explained.

"Yeah. He even said we could take you out for the day," Lia agreed as the two sat on the side of the chair Jimmy had occupied.

"As much as I appreciate the thought, I'm not up to going out tonight."

The twins shared a look before grinning at me. Lia spoke, "That's fine - "

"We'll just have a girl's day in," Alice finished. I raised an eyebrow, looking back and forth between the two twins.

"There's no way to get out of this, is there?"

"Nope," they replied in unison. With that I was yanked off my seat and forced to go inside.