Chapter 15

What do you say to a girl you've just knocked up?

This and other thoughts floated through my mind as April and I stood at the bus stop. We had finished cleaning up Jim's apartment, grabbed dinner, and said our goodbyes, just in time to catch a bus back to campus, which was, of course, late.

"This is going to be rather awkward, isn't it."

"Yep. Do you want me to talk to her first? You know, maybe the woman-to-woman thing will be more comforting for her."

"I don't know, you might be right."

"Of course! I'm always right," she grinned, shooting me an elbow in my side. "Besides, there will be a lot of other people there. I'll be surprised if we get to talk to her alone at all."

"On a more mundane subject, who all *is* going to be there tonight?"

"The usual crowd. The two of us, Ann of course, Rob, Mark and Heather, and Barb."

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but --"

"Ann doesn't want us to tell anyone. Of course not."

"Not until we know for sure, anyway."

The bus chose that particular moment to show up. We hopped aboard and found two vacant seats near the back. It's only about two miles from the stop near Jim's house to campus, but in an odd twist of fate, those two miles felt like they took about an hour to ride through.

"I'm really nervous about this."

"I know, honey, so am I."

"You? You've been Miss Calm, Cool, and Collected through this whole thing."

"It's all a show."

"What could you possibly be nervous about?"

"... That I might lose you."

"After this weekend? I'm still thanking my lucky stars that you haven't broken up with me. Don't think for an instant that I'd let a gorgeous, intelligent girl like you slip away from me."

She didn't say anything; she just smiled, and slipped an arm around my shoulder. I tousled her hair for a second, then let my arm fall onto her shoulders. And we sat like that until the bus pulled into the stop in front of Midway.

Stepping off that bus was like stepping into a new world. The students who were in charge of Carnival had done a great job lighting the place up, and with the sun setting just behind and to the left of the parking lot which Midway occupied, the whole world, for just that one second, was perfect.

I wished I had a camera.

"George! April! Over here!"

As my eyes adjusted to the lights, I squinted into the crowd to figure out who was calling us. Suddenly I focused on Rob, standing and waving his arm like a lunatic at us. April and I wandered over to where he was and sat down at a picnic table. Rob and Barbara had already shown up; Rob was stuffing his face with a piece of funnel cake, while Barb was sipping a soda.

April chimed in first. "Hey Rob! How you doing?" She gave him a hug and sat down next to him.

"Just fine, just fine."

I sat down next to Barb. She turned to me and smiled, and I gave her a wink and nudged her knee with mine. She blushed -- are you getting sick of reading that yet? -- and seemed to busy herself with her wax paper soda cup. I turned to Rob instead.

"Still recovering after last night?" I asked him.

"Ehh, I was fine. That advice you gave me about drinking water before going to bed really worked. That, and the Aleve I took this morning. Hey, if you wanted some, you just had to ask." April had ripped off a piece of his funnel cake when Rob wasn't looking, quickly shoving it in her mouth and trying to eat surreptitiously.

"True. But stealing it's more fun," she said, and I reached over and ripped a bit off as well.

"God, this stuff doesn't get any better, does it?" I asked between bites.

"Nope, not really. But Carnival wouldn't be Carnival without it."

"I doubt that seriously."

April perked up. "Hey, there's Mark and Heather."

Rob managed to flag them down with only slightly less flair than he had April and I. Heather ran up to us, gave me a quick hug, and squeezed between me and Barb on the bench. Mark came over and sat down next to Rob.

"Hey, Mark. So what do you guys want to do first?" asked Rob.

April beat me to the punch again. "Wait for Ann, first of all. But after that, I want to go see our booth. I haven't seen it since it was finished."

"Shame on you. Okay, that sounds good to me. And speaking of the devil... "

"Hi, guys. Devil, indeed! At best, I'm a minor demon."

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and saw another one on Heather's. I turned to look at Ann, who was smiling at me like a maniac. I jumped to my feet and gave Ann a hug. As quietly as I could, I whispered in her ear, "We're here for you. No matter what." She just hugged me a little tighter, then turned and greeted April in much the same way.

April turned to me and said, "Hey George, do you want something to drink?"

"No, thanks, but I would love a hot pretzel. Here," I said, handing her a couple bucks.

"Come on Ann, come stand in line with me."

"Get mustard, too!" I yelled after them.

"Same to you, buddy!" April yelled back at me.

I laughed at her and sat down. "So, Barb, how has your weekend been so far?"

"Oh, nothing special, I guess." I thought for a brief moment that I could actually read the lie as it ran across her face. "It's nice to not have to worry about classes for a couple of days."

"Oh come on... It's Carnival! You're supposed to be having a good time," Rob chimed in.

"Yeah," said Heather, "aren't you looking forward to the party tomorrow night?"

I thought Barb was going to spray Diet Coke halfway across Midway. Instead, she choked on her mouthful of soda and tried to elbow Heather in the ribs.