Chapter 102

Chapter 26 I slowly woke up, feeling something against my neck. I opened my eyes, seeing Grayson's sandy blond hair near my face as he pressed kisses down my neck. "Good morning to you, too," I said, followed by a large yawn. I felt him smile against my neck as he continued kissing it. "I like this," I said. "I know," he murmured against my neck. "But we have class today," I reminded. "We can skip," Grayson murmured. "No, we can't," I objected. "We're in university, not high school. It's not like we can go to the professor and ask for the notes." Grayson ignored me as he continued kissing me. I bit my lip, hating the effect he had on me. Then again, I had the same effect on him, though mine was probably stronger. "I hate how this feela," I whined. Grayson finally pulled away and gave me a cheeky smile. "Happy birthday, Flower," he said. "Since you woke me up so wonderfully on my birthday, I decided to do the same." "You should do it more often." Grayson chuckled and pressed his lips onto my forehead. "Maybe. So, you're nineteen now. How does it feel?" "I feel better about being pregnant now," I said. "Nineteen and pregnant doesn't sound as weird." Grayson smiled and laid down beside me, his arms rested behind his head. "I know we have class soon, but can we just lay down for a few minutes? Or hours?" I gave him a flat look. "Okay, minutes." I snuggled into his side, resting my head on his chest. "I wish it could be hours, but we can't miss class." "I know," he said. "So, anything special you want to do today?" "Netflix." "You want to do Netflix?" "Well, I would say you, but..." Grayson looked at me. "Did you seriously make that joke? Last time I joked about it, you hated it." I smiled. "I know. But seriously, all I want to do after class is relax and watch Netflix while we pig out on food. And then we could cuddle. And possibly make out." "... In that order? Because I'm all for the last one first." "Of course you are," I said with an eye roll. We stayed in bed for a few minutes longer before deciding it was time to get ready to go to class. I grabbed a pair of jeans from dresser, but I soon realized that it wasn't going to fit at all. Ii groaned in frustration before throwing it on the ground. Grayson snorted. "Flower, why are you getting angry?" "My jeans won't fit," I said. "I'm either going to need maternity clothing or..." "Or you can wear my sweatpants," Grayson said, pulling one out of the dresser and tossing it to me. "Why spend money on other clothing when you can wear mine?" "Wow, that's considerate," I said sarcastically as I pulled on the sweatpants, as well as a loose fitting shirt. I threw on my favorite hoodie of Grayson's, since it was loose enough to hide my belly. My shirts weren't hiding it anymore and I still didn't want anyone to know about my pregnancy. Then again, people were going to find out if it turned out we were allowed to bring Ryder to the classes Grayson and I shared. And now that I was nineteen, I shouldn't care if people thought bad about me. When we were dressed, I tried going to the washroom to do my makeup, but Grayson quickly pulled me out of the apartment, telling me we were going to the cafe for breakfast and we had to leave now if we wanted to get there before the morning rush. I was sure it was an excuse just so I couldn't do my makeup. Meanie. After eating breakfast, I got a hot chocolate and he got coffee to go. The first class we had was the one we had together, so we sat beside each other in the lecture hall. Belle walked into the lecture hall just then and smiled when she saw me. "Poppy! Happy birthday!" she said, quite loudly in fact, as she gave me a hug. "I can't believe your nineteen now! You're so old!" "I'm not that old," I said with an eye roll. "If anyone's old, it's Grayson." "Why? When was his birthday?" Belle asked as she sat down beside me, which made Grayson glare at her. "What? It's not like you know my birthday." "It was ten days ago," I said. "And don't mind him. He's just a cranky little cutie pie." "Ten days older than you?" Belle asked. "He's not that old." "Belle, I'm twenty," Grayson said. Belle raised her eyebrows. "You're twenty? Since when?" "My birthday," Grayson said in an obvious tone. "But you're our age," Belle said. "No, I failed the eighth grade," Grayson said. "I'm a year older." Belle snorted. "You failed the eighth grade? That, I can see." "Shut the hell up," Grayson snapped. "You don't have to be all touchy," Belle said. "You don't have to be such a bitch," Grayson shot back. "Grayson!" I said. Belle stood up from her spot. "I'm going to sit somewhere else," she said. I grabbed Belle's wrist before she left to sit somewhere else. "Belle, you don't have to," I said. "He didn't mean it, really." Belle yanked her wrist out of my grasp. "I'm sitting somewhere else because I'm not in the mood to deal with douche bags and right now, your boyfriend is the biggest douche bag there is. What do you even see in him?" "Okay, that was rude," I said. "Really?" Belle asked. "You're taking his side? He called me a bitch!" "Well, you made fun of him for failing a grade," I pointed out. "So you agree with him?" Belle asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "What? No, that's not what I was saying," I said. Why couldn't Belle understand that Grayson was touchy about some subjects? She didn't know what he went through and making fun of him for failing a grade was plain rude. "Then what are you saying?" she asked. "Because to me, it sounds like you're taking his side. You always choose him over me." "He's my boyfriend," I said. "And I'm your best friend," Belle said. "We've been best friends for years and years, but then you replace me with... with such a jerk. I've never replaced you." I raised an eyebrow. "What about the time your brother tried to rape me, and you thought I lied about it and you turned the whole school against me. The only person who didn't hate me was the boy sitting beside me right now." "Of course you brought that up," Belle said. "I apologized for all of that. Why can't you get over it?" I sighed. "I am, but..." "Really? Because it doesn't seem like it." "Why are you acting like this?" I asked. "Why?" she asked. "Because it feels like if you had to choose between me and Grayson, you'd choose him, which makes no sense because he's a jerk." "You know what Belle?" Grayson asked. "No, Grayson, don't," I said. I did not him making things worse. "Belle, I love Grayson. You know I do. We've been together for almost two years." "Yeah? Well, honestly, I'm surprised he hasn't left you yet," Belle said. "After all, you are pregnant." The way she said that, the tone she used, hurt me a lot. She was my best friend, but she was calling me out for no reason. I didn't even say anything else to Belle. If she wanted to act this way, then fine. If I even called Devon a jerk, she would get pissed at me, so there was no reason for her to call Grayson a jerk. Yeah, he didn't make good decisions in the past, but he was sweet at heart. Once he opened up to someone, they would know what he was truly like. Belle walked away and sat somewhere else. Why was she acting like this? "I can say a thing or two to her," Grayson said in a bitter tone. "Don't bother," I said as our professor walked in. Luckily Belle was sitting in front of me because if she was behind me, I bet she would be glaring at me the whole time. When class finally ended, I gathered up my stuff before Grayson and I walked out of the lecture hall. Before going to my next class, Grayson pulled me away from the rush of students. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked. I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Belle always acted like this. If something didn't go her way, she would snap. I just don't know why she's doing it now." He rested one of my hands on my cheeks. "Don't worry about her," he said softly. "I never liked her anyway." He pressed his lips softly on mine, then gave me a smile. "After class, we'll get some of your favorite cookies, order in some pizza, and watch Netflix, okay?" I nodded. "And I'll also give you the present I got for you." I smiled faintly and looked down at my hand, seeing the promise ring he gave me last year for my eighteenth birthday. "I should be getting to class," I said. Thankfully, we only had one more class today. It was something I liked about having my birthday on a Tuesday this year. My next class went by slowly and I was excited when it ended. Now, I could eat pizza and cookies while watching endless amount of movies. And I could snuggle next to Grayson. I waited on a bench outside for Grayson. Sometimes, his classes went over because he told me his professor would go on and on about the randomest things. I pulled out my phone just so I had something to do instead of just sitting there doing nothing. While I was looking at my phone, I heard a familiar voice said, "She is such a whore." I looked up to see Mina and her two friends standing nearby. She was looking at me but when we made eye contact, she quickly looked away. I sighed at their gossipy attitude and looked back at my phone. "I can't believe she's pregnant and Grayson is still with her," Mina said. "Like I said, whore." I couldn't believe Mina was saying that. Actually, I could believe it, but I didn't know how she found out I was pregnant. I always wore Grayson's hoodie at university and it was loose enough to hide it. Grayson was out of his class and he walked up to me. "Ready to go?" he asked. I nodded, but as soon as I did, Grayson asked, "What's wrong?" As soon as he asked that, tears started flowing. He didn't hesitate to pull me up from the bench and into one of his comforting hugs. He didn't say anything, he just kept me in his arms. After a whole, he pulled away and wiped my tears away. "What's wrong, Flower?" he asked. "Someone... someone called me a whore," I told him in a quiet voice. His face immediately went from soft to pure anger. "Someone what? Who the hell did that?!" "N-nobody," I lied. I didn't want him blowing up right now. "Poppy," he said. "Tell me who called you a whore. Now." I stared at him for a bit, hoping he would change his mind. However, he showed no signs of doing so whatsoever. "Mina," I told him. "Mina?" Grayson asked. He then spotted her, still standing in the same spot. He took my hand and led me to her, even though I tried objected. But when he was determined about something, nothing could stop him. "Mina, we need to talk." "Then talk," Mina said. Grayson looked at her two friends before looking back at her. "If you need to talk so bad, you can do it in front of them." "Fine," Grayson said. "I don't appreciate you calling my girlfriend a whore. And don't bother denying it, Poppy wouldn't lie to me." "I wasn't going to deny it," Mina said with a smirk. "Excuse me?" Grayson asked. "What? She's pregnant." "Where the hell did you hear that from?" Grayson asked. "I have my ways," Mina said. "And you shouldn't deny it because I can totally see her pregnant belly. That hoodie isn't hiding anything." "So that makes her a whore?" Grayson asked. "It does," Mina said. "And I can't believe you're still with her." "You want to know why I'm with her?" Grayson asked. "Because she knows everything about me. She knows what I went through and she was there for me when I tried killing myself three times. Because she is one of the most beautiful and kind souls ever. Because she never judges everyone and even tried befriending my ex even though she wasn't that kind. Because she is probably the only one who never judged me. And a huge reason is because I'm the father of her baby. I'm not some jackass who will dump her because she's pregnant. So if you're going to tell people that Poppy's a whore, you might as well tell them that I'm one as well because we were each other's first." And with that, Grayson took my hand and began leading me to our apartment. I stopped in my tracks and he turned to look at me, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Thank you," I said in a whisper before pulling him into a hug. Grayson kissed my forehead. "You're welcome, Flower," he said. "Nobody talks crap about my girl and gets away with it." He pulled away and reached his hand in the pocket of his sweatpants. "Are you fine if I give you your present now to make you feel better?" "Okay," I said. He smiled and pulled his hand out of his pocket. In his hand was a small, square box. He opened it and revealed a beautiful necklace. It was heart shaped and had two amethyst gems -our birthstones- inside the heart. On this side were two engravings; Poppy and Grayson. "Grayson, it's beautiful," I said, nearly losing my breath over how beautiful it was. "You like it?" "I love it," I said. "Thank you." He took it out of the box and gestured for me to turn around. He put the necklace on me and when I faced him again, I gave him a kiss. I loved him so much. He always knew how to make me feel better.