“Hi, princess,” Cameron says, pulling Ari onto his lap. He smiles down at her and it’s a real, genuine smile.
Everything seems fine, since no one else around the table has taken notice of me, but then Cameron looks up to find me and everyone follows suit.
Kyle’s eyes find me next, growing wide with shock, followed by Kimber’s and Rachel’s. Kyle’s dirty blonde hair still hangs in his eyes, and he looks broader, more muscular then he was in high school. Kimber’s hair is still over-dyed, just like Rachel’s, and she too looks much the same as she did when we last saw each other.
“Hayley?” Kimber’s voice screeches, all nasally and exactly how I remember it.
“You know each other?” Cameron asks, looking between us.
I don’t answer him. I can’t. The bad feeling I have is crippling, and has wrapped itself around my vocal cords.
Kimber answers, “We went to high school together.”
I look at Hannah, silently pleading her to help me get out of here unharmed, even when I know any effort to do so will be futile.
“So this is where you’ve been hiding,” Kimber says. The tone of her voice makes every hair on the back of my neck stand up. She takes a look at Ari, and sneers. “And I see it didn’t take long for you to get knocked up. Always knew those one-night stands would catch up to you.” I should’ve known it wouldn’t take her long to start. Simply looking at me was enough provocation for her and clearly that hasn’t changed.
I suck in a breath, cursing my stupid lungs when they just won’t work. My eyes dart to Cameron, only to find him staring at me. In fact, every pair of eyes are on me, except Kyle’s. He’s observing Ari, studying her face and the eyes she inherited from him. Shit.
Deciding now’s the best time to leave, I move closer. “Ari, baby, let’s go.”
“No mommy,” Ari protests, grabbing hold of Cameron’s long sleeve navy shirt. “I stay wif Cam.”
Kimber props her arms on the table with a thud. “So, who’s the unlucky man who got to father…” she waves her hand dismissively in Ari’s direction, where she sits on Cameron’s lap. “This?”
I clench my fists, my panic being overshadowed by a growing anger. “This,” I say, motioning to Ari. “Is my daughter, and you can say what ever you want to me, but don’t you dare say anything about her.”
“Why so defensive, Hayls?” Kimber taunts. “I just asked who your ‘baby daddy’ is,” she pauses. “Unless you don’t know who he is.”
“Why don’t you just shut the fuck up?” Hannah snaps. The diner goes quiet but it doesn’t stop her from continuing. “You weren’t even invited, so why don’t you just throw yourself out with the rest of the trash out back?”
Kimber has the audacity to look affronted and throws a scowl in Hannah’s direction. “Somebody get me a leash, the dog is loose.”
Hannah’s mouth drops open. She looks ready to fly across the table and strangle the life out of Kimber’s body. If only.
“Hannah,” I say, reigning in my anger. “It’s not worth it.”
I reach my arms out to Ari and this time she comes willingly. I turn around to leave when Kimber says, “I’d also be ashamed if I were you.”
Turning to face her, I stand taller and straighten my shoulders. “Excuse me?”
She rolls her eyes. “You heard me. I said I’d also be ashamed if I were you.”
“Of what?” I ask. “Having a child?”
“Among other things.”
“Enough,” Kyle growls. “Stop, Kimber. Now.”
It’s the first time anyone else has said anything and I wasn’t expecting it to be Kyle. But now that Kimber has opened that door, he has no choice. Kimber bristles and beside her Rachel looks uncomfortable. Noah fidgets with a napkin and when I risk a glance at Cameron, he's looking away from me. But I see the way his jaw ticks. He's angry. But with whom?
“Hayley, I think you need to go. Take Ari home,” Cameron says.
“No Hayley, don’t go. We were just starting to catch up,” Kimber intercedes. “You were going to tell us who little Ari belongs to.”
That’s it. There’s no way I can walk away and let her have the last word. We’re not in high school anymore and I’m not about to allow her the chance to sneer at Ari with disgust.
“She belongs to me, what else matters?”
“Oh it doesn’t, but I’m just curious if her father only slept with you because he did know about your sex tape or because he didn’t know about it.”
And there it is. The proverbial ‘skeleton in my closet.’ Hannah gasps, Noah chokes on his soda, and Cameron’s expression remains, to my surprise, eerily impassive. My throat starts closing up and my eyes start to burn. I look down at Ari and humiliation is the last thing I feel when her eyes connect with mine. No matter what, I can never regret her. It was one night, one stupid decision, and yet, it leads me to the most precious of consequences. Her.
Cameron’s voice breaks through the deafening silence that has suddenly fallen around me. “Is it true?”
I meet his cold gaze and square my shoulders. “Yes,” I choke out, barely keeping my weary emotions at bay. Cameron and I aren’t together anymore, so what does it matter now? “It was my senior year of high school.”
Hannah stands and jumps over the back of the booth. She comes to my side and in this moment I can’t be more grateful for her support. She already knows everything, so this is of no surprise to her.
I hand Ari over to Hannah. “Please take her to the car, I’ll be there in a minute.”
Hannah walks away and Ari waves at Cam from over Hannah’s shoulder. “Bye Cam. Wuv you.”
Cameron waves. “Bye Princess. I love you too,” he whispers. My heart sputters and I feel the ache deep within my bones. Minutes pass and they feel like hours. My stomach is in knots and this has proven to be too much to deal with a second time. So I make a choice - now that’s out in the open, I can let it go and leave the shame, and indignity that I’ve carried for so long in the past, where it belongs.
“How old is she?” Kyle asks abruptly.
“Two and a half,” I reply.
He thinks on it for a minute, and I can hear him trying to figure it out. “But that means…”
“She was born eight weeks early, in July 2012.”
He swallows hard, recalculating it in his head. “She’s mine,” he states with a shaky voice. “Fuck me, she’s mine.”
I nod, “Yes.”
Kyle starts to speak but I beat him to it. “I forgive you,” I tell Kimber. “I know why you did it.”
“Did what?”
“Recorded that video of me and Kyle. I know why you did it. And I forgive you.” Her face drops, realization making it’s way into her eyes.
Having had enough of this conversation, I turn my back on them and walk out the diner quickly, fumbling with my keys when I get to my car. Hannah is leaning against the back passenger door, holding Ari.
“Hayley!” I don’t need to turn around to know its Cameron. I could be a deaf mute and still know that voice. Without looking at Hannah, I ask her to get Ari into her car seat. I keep my back to Cameron, hoping he’ll get the hint that I don’t want to talk.
“You lied to me,” he says angrily. “You told me Ari’s father wasn’t in the picture. Why?” He’s talking about Kyle, which I find odd considering what he’s just found out about my past.
I spin around and my words come out rushed, thick with indignation. “I told you he wasn’t in the picture, and he isn’t.”
“You didn’t tell me he has no fucking idea that she even exists!” he snaps.