She Screams in Her Pillow

"Val, you're here," Nick said excitedly as he opened the door.

"Hey," I smiled as he hugged me. And today, it didn't hurt. I smiled, more privately this time. I was so grateful for Idalis.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me up the stairs. "Let's put your stuff into my room and then we'll go do something."

I nodded, letting him drag me up the stairs. "Hungry," he asked as we put my stuff on his bed.

I shrugged. "Not really."

"Did you eat," he accused, his face falling.

I thought of the burger and milkshake and Nick's face. "Um – no I didn't," I lied. "Actually, I'm a bit hungry."

He laughed. "It's okay if you're not. You can watch me eat then."

I laughed too. "Okay. I am hungry though."

We walked into the kitchen and saw Kevin and Joe already there. "Mom and dad went out. There's plates in the microwave for you guys," Kevin told us.

"Thanks," Nick said. He went to go get the stuff while I took a seat at the table. I noticed Joe started to stare intently at his dinner. Kevin looked up and smiled at me.

"Yo Kevo," I grinned at him.

"Hello annoying," he grinned back. I knew he was joking. He was always joking. Kevin was really nice. He treated me almost as well as Nick, and a whole lot better than Joe did. I had a feeling he was just a kind person in general though. "So," he said, staring at me. "The face that launched a thousand break-ups."

Joe started coughing. Kevin looked at me and then screamed, "Ow."

"Are you okay," I asked Kevin.

Kevin glared at his brother. "Yeah, I just um – stubbed my toe."

"Here you go Val," Nick put a plate in front of me before sitting down with his own.

We ate in silence. It was a bit awkward. My thoughts were on Kevin's words. The face that launched a thousand break-ups. I almost had to refrain from rolling my eyes. Only Kevin would come up with a reference like that. But break-ups? The only break-up that we knew about was Joe and Devi. Was he saying that I was the reason for that? Nick broke through my thoughts. "So Val," he said. "What do you want to do first? Play Rock Band? Watch a movie? Eat junk food?"

I laughed. "Whatever you want to do," I said.

"Rock Band it is then," he grinned. He turned to his brothers. "You guys want to play."

Kevin nodded, as usual. He always hung out with us when I slept over. What surprised me though was that Joe nodded too. He never hung out with us. He barely came out of his room. Kevin and Joe finished their dinner and left to do things before we started. I was done quickly too, unable to eat more than half. Nick sighed. "You ate," he said. He went to get up too.

But I stopped him. "Finish. I have to go to the bathroom and change and stuff anyway."

He nodded, sitting back down as I quickly put my plate into the dishwasher and went to his room. I changed into my pajamas. As I was leaving his room, I bumped into someone. I froze. It was Joe.

He grinned, still holding me. "We have to stop meeting like this."

I half smiled. Was he joking around with me? It was so weird, so not normal, so not Joe.

He sighed, sensing my discomfort. "I'm not going to hurt you Val." I didn't say anything. "Idalis was wrong today." Still, I didn't say anything. Joe's eyes were staring into mine. "I do care about you."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Since when?"

"Since forever I guess," he shrugged.

I rolled my eyes. "Nice way of showing it."

"Val, I—"

I cut him off. "Leave me alone, okay Joe?"

"But—"

"Something wrong," Kevin cut in.

"No, we were just on our way down," I said firmly, my eyes cold as I stared at Joe. I pulled myself out of his grip and went downstairs. Whatever his game was, I was not going to play along.

---

The next morning, I finally decided it was time to do what I had been afraid of for days, since I had run out of pills. I walked to CVS and went straight to the pregnancy tests. I stood there, not able to decide which one to get. I sighed, picking one and turning to go to the counter. Once again, I found myself bumping into none other than Joseph Jonas.

"Val," he asked, his eyes wide as he looked back and forth from my face to the box in my hands.