"Where were you guys?" Nate asked once they got back.  Cameron leaned against the fridge with a stupid smile on his face.  He couldn't get the image of the baby out of his head.  He wanted to tell someone about it, but he felt that they wouldn't get it, or care as much as he did.   None of them had been there; they hadn't seen what he'd seen. "On a date?"

"No," losing the smile, he made a face. "At her appointment."

"What? Is she your girlfriend now?" Ty asked upon entering.  Turning one of the kitchen table chairs backwards, he flopped down and raised an interested eyebrow.  Ty was one of the bigger guys in the house, and he was pretty well known on campus since he was one of the better football players.

"No," Cameron answered.

"Then what is she?" Ty pressed.

"Yeah, you said she's your friend. But you're going to her appointments and stuff," Nate sided with Ty, leaving the end open. "Sounds serious."

"She's my girl," Cameron answered after a moment's pondering. "That's it."

"What the hell is that?" Nate fired back. "Your girl?"

"She's not my girlfriend, alright?"

"Yeah, he has Heather." Ty stood up and motioned for Cameron to move from in front of the fridge.

"She's not my girlfriend either," Cameron said quickly.  He watched as Ty started eating pickles straight from the jar. "And with Kith... I mean... I might like her a little."

"You have to like her," Nate said sarcastically. "You got her pregnant."

"That's your kid?" Ty stopped eating, pickle halfway to his mouth.

"Duh that's his kid," Nate looked at Ty like he was the biggest idiot in the world. "She moves in and she's magically pregnant three months later? Think about it."

"Seriously?" Ty wouldn't stop looking at him.

"Yeah," Cameron agreed with Nate. "But, even with that... it's not the same thing. We were just friends when that happened. It wasn't like she was my girlfriend or anything."

"So, what?" Ty crunched down on another pickle and stared at Cameron. "You want to go out with her?"

"No." Cameron shook his head before glancing down at the floor. "Well, no, I can't. I can't like her like that. She's seventeen."

"You liked her enough to have sex with her," Nate countered.

"Shut up!" Cameron retorted. "She's great, I'll say that. Gorgeous. Fucking look at her. But she - we've got enough going on without doing some bullshit dating thing. She's my girl, that's it. Shut up, man."

Raking fingers through his hair, he looked over their heads.  He couldn't go out with her.  She was seventeen, and he had that thing about not being with high school girls.  And the whole pregnancy thing made it a little weird. Not to mention, Kith wasn't interested in him, and he wasn't going to take advantage of an already vulnerable state. She'd had enough of that.

"I have to go do homework."

Without waiting on them to say anything else, he turned and left the room.  Secretly, he wanted to see her stomach again, but he didn't know how to ask her without coming off as all levels of sketchy.

Cameron started doing things for her that invited all sorts of comments about him being whipped.  At first it was annoying, but then it just became funny.  He skipped out on a party to watch a movie with her.  If she woke up hungry, he went downstairs and made food for her.  In the early mornings and on weekend afternoons, he sat outside the bathroom and refused to let any of the guys in while she showered.  He even walked with her in the cold when she had the sudden urge to be outdoors in the winds and the light dusting of snow.

    One thing she still didn't get was why he lied about being the baby's father at the appointment.  Not only that, apparently he'd told the same story to all his friends.  She figured that it wasn't that hard to believe.  She was seventeen years old, pregnant, and living in his room.  Not many guys would be so generous unless they were responsible for the pregnancy.  There was one problem with his acceptance of the role as father-to-be.  If his friends knew, it wouldn't take long before Heather found out.  She didn't want Heather looking at her with even more hatred than she already did.  She didn't want to see her face.  She wanted nothing more than to run if she actually saw her, but that wouldn't be happening any time soon.

    "Cameron," she hissed in the darkness.  Rolling onto her side and pushing the tangled strands of hair out her face, she struggled to make out his form on the floor. "Cameron."

    "What?" he woke up after a minute or so of calling his name. "Kith?"

    "Yeah."

    "You're hungry?" he guessed correctly.

    "I'm not even hungry. I just want it," she answered.

    "What?" Pushing his comforter off, he sat up and rubbed his eyes.  His black t-shirt was slightly crooked.

    "Pickles and peanut butter," she sat up with effort.

    "Ugh," he scoffed, sounding disgusted. "Are you serious?"

    "Yeah," she said feebly. "I don't know why. I would never eat that normally because it even sounds gross now. But I want it."

    "Okay." Rising from the ground, his knees cracked. "Okay... okay, I'm going." Stumbling around the room for a second, he walked to the door, opened it, and walked out.

    Five minutes passed and he turned, shutting the door with his foot.  Walking over to the edge of the bed, he handed her a small plate.  Yawning and rubbing his eyes, he stalked over to his desk and turned on his silver desk light.  Opening his laptop, he turned on one of the Coldplay albums he'd downloaded for her listening purposes. "I put the peanut butter on top," he laid back down.

    Biting into one, she was overcome by the taste of vinegar and peanuts.  It was horrible, but somehow delicious at the same time. "We have to figure out what we're gonna do for the break," he said from the floor.

    "What do you mean?" she asked while biting into her second slice.  This one actually tasted pretty good.

    "Where are we gonna go?"

    "I thought we were going to your house," she answered, scraping the peanut butter off the top of two of the pickles and eating it separately.

    "Yeah, but...," sighing, he rubbed his forehead. "If I had money, I'd get us a hotel room. But I'm a broke college kid. And we can't stay on campus."

    "I can..." she wanted to say something logical, something reassuring, but she couldn't come up with anything.  It felt wrong that he was readjusting his break for her.  He shouldn't be doing that, she thought.  Swallowing peanut butter, she felt guilty.  Glancing around the room, she probed the inner recesses of her mind for some sort of idea.  Where could she go for the break?  She didn't have a home anymore, and college kids got an entire month off from school.  Her official break wasn't until a week after Cameron's started, and even then, it was only a week long.

    "You gotta come with me," he reasoned.  He said it inarguably; there was nothing she could say to contradict him. "And I know you can't go anywhere else."

    "I could," she said half-heartedly. "You shouldn't not go home because of me."

    "Yeah, but...." letting out a low, disgruntled sound, he stared up at the ceiling. "That asshole's gonna be there, and then Mom's gonna ask questions and shit. You're, no offense, pretty big, now."

    "Hey," she frowned.

    "I said no offense," he held up his hands. "And with her though, it shouldn't be that bad. I'll just tell her to mind her own business. I've got it under control. And for school and stuff, I'll still take you every morning and pick you up."

    Sitting quietly, Kith stared down at him.  Lying on his back, wearing a black shirt and gray sweatpants, he laid one arm over his eyes.  He was doing way more for her than she would have ever given him credit.  At times though, she felt like a parasite, a burden.  He woke up every morning, earlier than he had to, just to take her to school.  He drove an hour to come pick her up in the afternoon, and then an hour back to campus.  She used up his gas, his money, his heat.  She was taking and she had nothing to give back.  Cameron slept on the floor every single night.  She'd taken over his room.  Occasionally, she genuinely felt like she was single handedly destroying his college experience.  This wasn't how things were supposed to be.

    "Why are you so nice to me?" she asked quietly.

    "'Cause," he said without removing his arm.  The jet black material clung tightly to his biceps. "You're my girl."

    What did that even mean?

    "I'm ruining everything."

    "Who said that?" He moved his arm and stared at her intently.

    "Me."

    "You're not ruining anything," he put his arm back once he realized that someone hadn't offended her. "You're pregnant. It happens."

    The average seventeen year old wasn't pregnant and living in a frat house.

    "And there are worse things," he said casually. "If you're feeling bad, you shouldn't. I get that your hormones are basically on speed, but you shouldn't feel bad. Everything's fine, Kith. It's your senior year; you should be happy, all the time. This is your last year in fuckin' high school."

    "I would be happy," she set the plate aside. "Except I'm five months pregnant."

    "It happens," he said simply, as if the incident was common enough to elicit that phrase. "And I still like you. My opinion is definitely the highest thing in your life right now, so..."

    She smiled in the semi-darkness.

    "You done?"

    "Yeah."

    "Alright." Getting back up, he flipped the light off but kept the Coldplay going.  As she settled back beneath the covers, she listened to him move around on the floor. "Don't tell anyone this either, but I'm starting to fall in love with Coldplay. I was in class the other day and I just started humming 'Speed of Sound'."

    "I told you," she said smartly. "They're a way of life."

    "I wouldn't go that far."

    "You'll get there," she said knowingly, closing her eyes.

    "Alright, you got everything?" Cameron asked over his shoulder.

    "Yeah."

    "You have to pee?" he questioned.

    "No," she said immediately.  He asked her that every time they left the house.  It was a valid question, but it was also extremely annoying.  Considering that she was basically an adult, she didn't need him to ask her if she needed to use the bathroom like a five year old.

    "Going to see your mommy?" Nate joked, staring at them from the lounge.  Cameron had all the bags, his and hers, thrown across his shoulders and wrapped around his chest.

    "Hell yeah," Cameron replied, smiling. "I've been looking forward to this since November. I need a month off."

    Nate laughed in agreement. "What about you, Kith?" 

    "She's coming with me," Cameron said quickly.  He didn't even give her the opportunity to answer. "Where the hell else would she go?"

    "Her parents' house?" Nate guessed.

    "No," Cameron smiled slowly and shook his head. "They don't want me anywhere on their property."

    Nodding understandingly, Nate drank slowly from a steaming mug of what looked like coffee. "You guys have fun, then," he raised his mug to them.

    "You sure you don't have to pee?"

    "Shut up, Cameron," grabbing the keys from his hand, she pushed open the front door and unlocked his truck from the warmth of the indoors.

    "You look nice," he said once they were inside the truck, buckled up and ready to head down the road. 

    "No, I don't," she rested her head against the window and sighed.  She was wearing a black hoodie with her school's red and yellow mascot on the front and a pair of sweatpants.  Since she wasn't actually going to school, she hadn't seen the point in dressing nicely.

    "It's not the best I've seen," he answered while backing out of the parking space. "But it's not the worst."

    "Thanks," she said dryly.

    "You look nice," he repeated, driving carefully over the ice on the road. "Trust me. I'm an expert at knowing when girls look good."

    They made the drive in forty-five minutes courtesy of Cameron's speeding.  How he wasn't pulled over and cited for reckless driving Kith didn't know.  But when he pulled up alongside the sidewalk in front of his house, she was thankful even though she didn't want to be there.

    "So...." tapping his fingers against the steering wheel, he glanced towards the front door and then around the rest of the neighborhood. "You ready?"

    Kith chose not to answer.  No she wasn't ready.  What kind of question was that?  She'd just been at his house two months ago and her stomach was reasonably flat; it'd been manageable and easy to hide.  The same didn't hold true now.  Even in her hoodie that had previously been too big for her, it was now obvious that she was pregnant.

    "We can go up first," he opened the door, shivered and hopped out. "I can get the bags later."

    Following after him, her seatbelt buckle accidentally clicked against the window.  Taking a deep breath, she fixed her hair as best she could and pasted on an easy-going face.  All she really wanted to do was jump off a cliff.  Blowing tiny puffs of smoke out of his mouth from the chill in the air, Cameron sauntered up the porch.

    "You made it!" His mom opened the door excitedly and nearly knocked Kith over with it.  She wrapped her arms tightly around him and gushed over how he looked so different than the last time she'd seen him.  Kith didn't get what she was talking about; he looked the same to her.  Maybe that was because they lived together and she saw him every day.  Cameron's mom hugged her, too, and her face changed as soon as she stepped back.  Taking on that inquisitive look she'd seen many times over the years, she stared at Kith strangely, but said nothing.  Exhaling, Kith glanced around and maintained the same level of silence.

    "Okay, we're cold," Cameron directed them inside.  Checking over his shoulder while his mom shut the door, he lowered his voice. "She's not gonna say anything."

    "But she noticed," Kith answered.

    "She's not gonna say anything," he repeated, sounding completely sure of himself.  Maybe she didn't notice, she considered hopefully.  Maybe his mom thought she just gained a whole bunch of weight, stress-weight related to senior year.  Maybe that was it.  She knew it was wishful thinking, but it was nice.

    "Austin, come say hi to your brother!"

    "I'm good," Cameron said darkly.  Kith's blood ran cold.  Austin appeared from the kitchen with a bag of unopened chips.  The four of them stood there awkwardly, and their mom was the most clueless.  Kith could read on her face that she didn't get it.  Cameron wasn't even looking in Austin's direction, and Austin wasn't making it any less obvious by standing with his hands awkwardly in his pockets.  Drawing her hands up into her sleeves, Kith wished to be anywhere other than their house.

    "Okay, then," their mom turned on an overly cheery voice once she realized that no one was going to say anything. "Austin, go help your brother with his stuff."

    "I got it," Cameron answered in the same tone, finally moving. "You can go in my room if you want, Kith."

    Without waiting for a second option, Kith waddled as quickly as she could to his room.  She didn't want to wait for their mom to ask her any questions, and she definitely didn't want to be left alone with Austin.  That would be even more difficult than having all four of them present.  She didn't want to talk to him, or look at him, or be in the same residence as him.  They were done; they were nothing.  And he had no one to blame but himself.  She knew he knew about the baby.  Not one time had he even attempted to go against Cameron's threat and talk to her about it.  Obviously, he didn't feel that he needed to take responsibility for getting her pregnant and that was fine by her. She wanted nothing to do with him.

God, poor Kith, having to be around him for so long.