Title: When She Cries

Book: II
Chapter: Twenty-One
Chapter Title: Stroke On My Ego

Rating: R.
Characters: Dallie, Lola, Spring, Meggie and Pat.

Disclaimer: Aye, captain. I hold no deeds to Gilmore Girls. And I don’t own matchbox twenty’s You & I & I.
Author’s Note: Kait and Summer. They stroked my ego during the writing of this. Except for Summer that took a meat cleaver to me.

 

*

 

And what doesn’t kill you/It makes you linger/
And it makes you wonder/Yeah/

For goodness sake have you ever been asleep/
Thinking one thing/I’d be here/
What doesn’t kill you/Doesn’t stay.

 

 

            Three minutes. It was going to be a long three minutes before the bell rang, signifying the beginning of British Literature. It just spoke volumes about the priorities of Chilton students that main discussion was not on Act I of MacBeth, that was assigned the other night, but rather on the absence of Lola DuGrey. And she wasn’t even enrolled in the class; she had AP Russian Literature II, for her main English credit this year.

 

            It appeared that Dallie was the only one who didn’t care what sickness had overcome the untouchable DuGrey. But that may be because he was going to see her after school, any way, to give her the assignments she had missed from the day. Alas, his indifference didn’t stop the likes of Spring Delaney from speculating.

 

            Spring leaned forward, so that important people like Marguerite Giselle and Pat Taggart could hear her. “You know, she was looking rather green at Dallie’s party.”

 

            Oh it was so easy to see where this one was going, even Marguerite rolled her eyes.

 

            “And?” Marguerite challenged.

 

            “Well,” Spring had deflated a little, but managed a shrug of her shoulder. “She could be pregnant.”

 

            “Well in that way of thinking, Spring,” Pat turned around in his seat to confront her. “I could be too. I mean, I was feeling a little green last week. Can you recommend a gynecologist for me to see?”

 

            Marguerite sat forward. “Oh, I do. See Dr. Lewis over on Main. She is so compassionate.”

 

            “Maybe me and Lo can go together,” he added. “It could be a throw back to the days when we dated.” Pat let out a gasp. “Do you think we could have impregnated each other?”

            Marguerite widened her eyes. “It could be. I think its possible not to know you’re pregnant, even though you haven’t had sex with that person in at least seven months.”

 

            Spring let out a strangled noise, good they were annoying her. “Be dignified about this, not so fatuous. It is a serious deal if she is.” Yeah, like she really cared if Lola became an unwed, teenage mother. She’d revel in it if it ever happened.

 

            “Spring,” you could tell that Marguerite’s famous control was about to break. “It’s probably nothing more than food poisoning.”

 

            “Or the flu,” Pat added. “It’s changing to winter, and season changing can often lead to the flu.”

 

            Spring blew air out of her lips as the bell rang. “Fine. Don’t consider it. But I won’t be surprised when it happens.”

 

            As much as anyone hated to agree with Spring Delaney, no one else would either.

 

*

 

            If she had the energy to get to her computer, Lola could write a whole friggin paper on why being sick sucked so much. The lack of energy would be on top of the list. Not to mention how icky it was to be in your pajamas all day, and how sweaty it seemed. Then there was the vomiting. The vomiting had to be the worst. What was the point of eating when it’d just come back grosser in twenty minutes or less? So she was stuck with watching TV and movies. Currently playing was last year’s romantic blockbuster- Unholy Alliance.

 

            Ryan was in the middle of proposing when someone came into her room. She was much too tired to bother to see who it was.

 

            “This must have been a very educational day for you.”

 

            Oh, it was just Dallie. “It was.” Lola’s voice was hoarse and scratchy. She’d have to add that to the list.

 

            He set the assignments he had brought her on the desk, and brought the chair over to her bedside. “How was that?”

 

            “Well, this morning I finished up Tired Bones by Summer Fairfax,” She gestured to the book on the nightstand next to him. “Good book, by the way, you should read.”

 

            Dallie had already. “So you went from child molestation to love triangles? Interesting leap.”

 

            “It was.” Lola rolled over and onto her back. “So what’d I miss today?”

 

            She meant gossip-wise, of course. If she wanted to know about schoolwork, she’d just look at the stack he had left her.

 

            “Well,” He picked up the DVD remote and put the movie on pause. “I’m not sure how to break this to you, but you’re pregnant.”

            Lola blinked. “Am I having a boy or girl?”

 

            “Most money is on a girl,” Dallie answered. “But isn’t there a more important question you should ask first?”

 

            She looked confused for a long moment. “Who’s the father?”

 

            “Well, so far only one candidate has been mentioned,” he told her. “Pat Taggart. You guys apparently impregnated each other.”

 

            “Wow. That’s amazing,” Lola took a sip of the water that her father had left for her when he had come home for his lunch break. “Since I broke up with Pat seven months ago, and am now dating Ryan Davis.”

 

            Dallie hadn’t known that. Must have been a pretty recent development if it wasn’t well known. “That’s the other thing. Pat has very special sperm.”

 

            “Long shelf life,” Lola conceded. “But a little slow getting there.”

 

            He wasn’t going to look too much into that comment. “So what’s really wrong with you?”

 

            She shrugged. “Not sure yet. I have to go to the doctor’s tomorrow.”

 

            Right, Lola did always have that awful aversion to doctors. “You talked one more day into Tristan?”

 

            “Yeah,” Lola nodded. “But if I die in the middle of the night its entirely my fault.”

 

            That sounded fair enough. “So what is the plan for the rest of the evening?”

 

            She gestured to the TV. “You kind of took away my current entertainment. You have a suggestion?”

            “I’m not reading to you again,” Dallie warned her. Oh no, last time had just set off a set of events that had taken too long to leave his memory. So long that it had yet to be erased.

 

            It was best for her sanity if that never happened again. “Never asked for it. Can you turn the movie back on? I want to get to the part where she rejects Ryan and ends up with her real true love.”

 

            “What a romantic sentiment coming from such a commitmentphobic.”

 

            Lola rolled back over to her side, as Dallie let the movie resume. “Only for fiction, darling. Only for fiction.”

 

            That was more believable than what she had said before. Dallie sat there watching for a few minutes before noticing that Lola had fallen asleep. So much for watching the happy ending. But it was predictable of Lola- she wasn’t one to stick around for it, anyway. 

 

 

To Be Continued…