Fighting For Family: Summer and Jordan

Chapter Six

Jordan

I don’t know how this all could have happened. It made no freaken sense and how did we not know about this? How was this even possible? Of course this would be our lives at the moment, it’s not like it can’t get any worse. Crap. I am so going to shoot myself in the foot for even thinking that comment.

Finn made a huge point about reading the paperwork in front of the girls so we all can be together to see who the father of Ellie was and it makes perfect sense, right? Who ever slept with the person who signed the papers is the father, as least, slept with her in the timeframe that makes sense. It should be that easy, but nope, not for us.

Dylan opened that envelop so fast while Finn begged him not to. “Please man, don’t. Let’s wait for the girls. They have a right to be here.” He begged. He went to stand up to try to get the envelop but Dylan just pulled it away from his grip so fast. “Dude, seriously. Think about this. They should be here, my sister, your freaken wife, should be here with us to do this.”

“Dude, I need to know. I’m freaking out. I can’t wait. The answer is right here and who knows how long it’s going to take the girls to finish what they need to do. So, please, let us see who signed the papers so we can mentally prepare ourselves for when we have to face them.”

“He has a point Finn. If we can prepare ourselves, especially if the father is either Dylan or I, then we can calmly talk to the girls and it gives us a couple extra moments to mentally accept everything going on.” I tried to reason with him. I so bad wanted to turn this whole thing into a joke. f**k it, joke time. “It’s not like we all slept with the same girl around the same time.” I laughed.

“Shut your face.” Dylan threw a beanie baby at me.

“A beanie baby. What the hell?” I c****d my eyebrow at him. “What are we, ten?”

“Whatever. They are for Eliana when she gets older. Anyways, I’m opening it and I don’t care what you have to say about it. We need to know.”

His hands were shaking as he tried to open the envelop. You can see his chest rise quickly, his breathing becoming harsher and the sweat was beading on his forehead. I get that this is something that is scaring us all, but when we were talking last night, he sounded so okay with the idea that Ellie might be his. Even Ray was going to support him with her and be there, I mean, not like she has much of a choice now. I was the one that should be freaking out.

But I’m not.

I’m not freaking out as much as I was before. Do I want to be a father? Honestly, not right now. But seeing Summer with Ellie this morning really made me believe everything would be okay if she did end up mine.

“Just open it Dylan! The more you stall, the worst it’s going to be!” Archer yelled, giving Dylan that extra jump to open the envelop. We all waited patiently while Dylan read the papers.

“Oh no…” Dylan’s face paled as he collapsed on his chair, holding the papers in his hand. “Oh no…” he said again.

“What?”

“I’m…I’m…I’m her dad…” He dropped the papers and started to pace back and forth, gripping his hair and cursing under his breath. “This can’t be happening.”

“Dude, chill. Ray was okay with it last night. She said she would be there for you and for Ellie.”

“You don’t understand man. She said that so calm last night, I thought everything would be okay, but when we were alone she gave me an ear full.”

“What did she say?” Finn asked with a smile.

“Wipe that smile off that smug face or I’m going to bash it in. This isn’t funny.” Dylan glared.

“I think it’s great. I’m not the father. I’m still free. Single and ready to f*****g mingle and childless on top of that.”

“You’re an ass.” I smacked him in the back of the head, “Now, what did Ray say?”

“She yelled at me for possibly being so irresponsible with myself. She yelled at me about how we are going to afford three kids with…” and he stopped.

“What do you mean afford three kids? Dude, your fuckin’ loaded.”

He let out a sigh and groaned. “f**k!”

I watched Finn walk around him and head to the desk to look at the papers, “I just want to see what exactly this says so we can make sure we take the proper legal steps with Ellie.”

“You know you’re not a lawyer right? How do you even comprehend these things?” I asked.

“Did you forget, I read the contracts with Locke and Brother’s so I’m more familiar with the jargon the most out of all of us.” As he started to read the documents, I made my way over to Dylan and handed him a bottle of water from the mini fridge he kept in the office.

“Can you tell me what you meant by the ‘how can we afford three kids’ comment.”

“I will talk to you about it later. First, I need to mentally prepare myself how I’m going to face my wife and tell her we have three kids…” he sighed and I can see his eyes start to water. This was affecting more than I originally thought.

“Oh f**k…” Finn yelled from behind us. We both snapped our heads up.

“Dude…if you’re touching yourself behind there…” I tried to joke with him. His eyes never met mine. He was just holding the papers in his hands and he started to shake and have a panic attack.

“Oh f**k…” he repeated with staggered breathing, “Are you sure you’re the dad?”

“Yeah. I remember her from a little over two years ago.”

“f**k. f**k. f**k. This cannot be happening. How did this happen?” he started to freak out. He dropped the papers on the floor and started pacing. “How can you not tell me you slept with her?”

“Do you want me to write a goddamn list of every girl I had s*x with and compare notes? What the hell were you doing with her when you were only nineteen? She was like what, twenty four maybe twenty five?”

“What’s wrong with sleeping with an older girl? Nothing! But what the hell. How is this even possible!” Finn argued back.

“Who are you talking about?” I was so damn confused. Why are they yelling at each other?

“Scarlett Huxley.” Dylan groaned her name in frustration.

“Oh. Haha. I remember her.” I smirked, thinking back to when I last saw her…a little over two years ago. “WHAT THE HELL!” I screamed.

“What?” They both snapped their heads at me.

“You two slept with her?” they nodded their heads. What the hell. “When I made the joke about all four of us sleeping with the same girl, I was totally kidding.” I fell back on the couch and threw my head back and groaned in frustration. “Wait until the girls find out. We’re screwed. So fuckin’ screwed.”

“Okay, we need to calm down…” Dylan started to say before I cut him off.

“Calm down. Calm down? How the hell are we supposed to calm down!” I turned to look at Archer, who just sat there, quiet the entire time. “You, mini D.”

“Don’t call me that. That is so gross on so many levels.” He rolled his eyes.

“Whatever. You know I meant mini Dylan. Do you know who Scarlett Huxley is?”

“Nope. And I am beyond relieved that I am NOT the father!” He jumped with with excitement and we all just looked at him, glaring, in envy. “I cannot wait to tell my girl!”

“We need to explain how this even happened.” Dylan went back and sat on the couch next to where Archer was standing. “I just…I don’t understand. Almost two and a half years ago…”

“That was when we came home for vacation. Remember?” I mentioned and his eyes went wide, remembering the night where we met her.

“You didn’t come home…” Archer said looking over at his brother, “You never came home.” You can see the hurt and sadness in his eyes. Dylan avoided coming home for years, making every excuse possible, especially after what happened on Ray’s sixteenth birthday. Then the drugs happened and his injury and Shelly and his downward spiral. Well, you get the idea.

“I went to Jordan’s house. It was after football was over. I don’t remember much because it was in a drunken drugged out haze most of the time. I remember meeting Scarlett at some club one night.” Dylan started to explain. He closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, trying to remember what happened, anything, that could help us.

“But weren’t you with Shelly?” Archer asked.

“I don’t even know. We were so on again off again and most of the time I was high as a freaken kite. I know when I’m in my right mind, I would never do anything with anyone else if I am with someone, so I most likely was off again with her. But I remember meeting her at a club downtown and we danced and flirted, one thing led to another, and we ended up having s*x in the bathroom at the club that night.”

“Did you use a condom? You’re usually prepared and responsible. The only time I know that you weren’t was with your wife.” I laughed, and he just glared. Okay, no more jokes, got it boss.

“I think so. I honestly don’t remember. I really don’t remember. All I do remember is her name, what she looked like and that you were making out with some red head on the other end of the club that night.”

“That was a fun night.” I smiled remembering what happened with said red head.

“When do you sleep with her?” Finn asked.

“It was the same night. Dylan ended up going back to my place because he got way too wasted and left me there and didn’t tell me he was leaving. As I was looking for him, I spotted her, went to her, and asked her what happened and well, you can imagine what happened. How about you Finn? How did you happen to be with her?”

“So, funny story…” he started to nervously chuckle, “I found out that Dylan was in the next town over…”

“How?”

“I have my ways.”

“Finn.” Dylan said sternly.

“Fine. I called your dorm to see if I could get tickets to next season so I could try to surprise Raegan, Archer, Brayden and Taylor and some chick who I assume to be Shelly answered. She started to yell at me and saying that you and your boyfriend went back to Silverlake for a week. Which, by the way, thanks for telling us you two were in a relationship.” He winked at us. Dylan picked up a toy ball that was sitting on his desk and chucked it at him and of course, the showoff ended up catching it, “So, I went out to the town and saw your car in front of Jordan’s and well, I kind of stalked you..”

“Why would you do that? And why not just come right up to me and talk to me? Creeper.”

“Besides wanting the tickets, I was looking out for you for Ray. I don’t remember what happened or why I was following you but I knew I needed to. Anyways, I had a fake ID and went into the club that night and I was at the bar and she came up to me. She wasn’t shy at all, not like I pictured. She knew I wasn’t 21 and asked me how old I was. Once she finally got the truth out of me, she brought me to the back room and well, she gave me the most amazing b*****b I’ve ever had and rode me like a fuckin’ horse. Honestly, some of the best s*x that I can remember having. It was probably because I was wasted at that point.” He snickered, remembering the night he had with Scarlett. I don’t know why but hearing this annoyed the living hell out of me and I looked over at Dylan and saw the same look on his face.

Oh, wait, I know why it annoyed the f**k out of me. The fact that two of my best friends and I had s*x with the same girl in the same night and none of us even knew about it? Something about that is just so beyond wrong. Why would she do that? What brings a person to use their body like that?

“Well, one, I can’t believe you were so close to home two and half years ago and you didn’t even come over and visit us! That’s a pretty shitty thing to do. And two, you three literally slept with the same girl the same night and you three didn’t even know, it’s pretty funny if you ask me.” Archer started to laugh.

“It’s not funny. Like…how?”

“Well, I can think of some ways.” Archer grinned, “You two were not enough for her, you didn’t do the deed the way she needed to and had to get it from someone five years younger than you and who knows who else she had s*x with that night.” He threw his head back and laughed. I’ve never wanted to punch him so much.

“Obviously, us three are the only ones if you think about it.” Dylan said as he let out a heavy sigh, “Otherwise, she wouldn’t have just left Ellie here if she weren’t sure the father was here.”

“You’re an ass…” I pouted as I glared at Archer, “And we thought this was easy. Jokes on us, right?

“Now, something more important. We know Dylan doesn’t remember using a condom. Did you two?” Archer asked us. We both went silent for a moment and just looked at each other.

“I don’t remember.” Finn said softly, “I was way to drunk. I honestly don’t remember most of the night.”

“I don’t remember either. The night was blurry, I was stupid, and I didn’t know what I was doing.” I groaned. “What are we going to do?”

“We three are going to get a DNA test done. Until then, we all help each other take care of Ellie until we get those results.” Dylan said, “Now, let’s go face them.”

And well, the girls saw us in our glory, arguing over what happened. After Summer put Ellie down for a nap, she turned to me and pulled me into her arms. Her hug feels like home. I can’t explain this feeling. I know on the outside, we are a goofy couple who joke and have fun and probably are in bed all the time, I mean, it’s not wrong. I really can’t get enough of this woman but what they don’t see is the sentimental side of us and for some reason, it’s a side we don’t show all too often, probably because we both come from f****d up pasts.

We know more about each other than I think we knew about ourselves, but she was still hiding things from me. I know she had a rough past and she went through something major. I will be as patient as possible until she’s ready to tell me. But this woman here has brought out the best in me. In the past, I was the type of person who would sleep his way through girls with no care in the world but that was because I was running from what happened to me when I was younger. I was in a consistent drunk state, which didn’t help Dylan’s issues or mine and when I got hurt before I came to Crossdale, I didn’t know what to do. I felt like my life was over. Dylan and I were on the top to get drafted but it was like everything was taken away from both of us in an instant.

My parents wanted me to come home after I got hurt, but I couldn’t face them. I felt ashamed. My dad always pushed me to be the best at everything I did and football was at the top of his list. My dad busted his knee and shoulder playing college ball and he felt like he needed to live his dream through me after my brother. So, imagine how he reacted when I told him I was one concussion away from basically almost dying. I never heard him yell so loud and be so disappointed.

What was the point of helping you and spending all that fuckin’ money to be the best you can be if you’re just going to throw it all away because you have one injury? What a waste of my time on someone so completely irresponsible. I have never been so disappointed in the man you grew up to be.

Those words are forever engrained in my head. Everything I do, everything I did, was never good enough. I think back to how he felt when I told him I was hurt. Right now, he thinks I’m still in New York working to try to get better. I’ve avoided going home since I showed up and the only person who knows I’m even in Texas is my mom and she promised she wouldn’t say anything to my dad.

Now that there is a possibility that Ellie is mine and I am a father, I don’t think I could see the extreme disappointment my dad will have in me. I remember when I was a freshman in college and he walked into my dorm before I had to be at the field for a game. I was having s*x with one of the cheerleaders and he slammed the door open so fast, he scared her and she grabbed my blanket and ran out of the room.

“Dad! What the hell! Have you heard of knocking?” I yelled, covering myself before he got too good of a look.

“You’re an idiot.” He snapped at me, throwing me a pair of shorts and my football jersey.

“What the hell.” I mumbled.

“You didn’t even use a condom. Are you stupid?”

“I’ve been dating her for like five months. She has the IUD if you must know.” I rolled my eyes in frustration.

“And what about STD’s? Huh? Ever think of those and how they could affect you?”

“You act like this school doesn’t have us get tested.” I groaned, “She’s a cheerleader and we are required to get tested. Damn it dad!” I quickly got dressed and turned to face him, “What do you even want?”

“How could I raise such a disappointment of a son.” He shook his head at me, “You’re supposed to be using this time to better your game and get noticed by scouts in the next couple of years and get drafted by the time you’re a senior. But instead, you’re sticking your d**k in anything that walks. God forbid you get some poor soul pregnant.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You know exactly what it means. You can’t take care of yourself, how are you supposed to care for a child? Do you want your life to be ruined? Get your head out of your ass.” And he left the room, passing Dylan as he turned the corner. He came over to me and sat next to me on the bed and grabbed my shoulder.

“Don’t listen to him. Just do you and remember, wherever life takes you, you will do amazing.”

Now that the possibility was there, it makes me wonder what my dad would say to me now? Some washed up elementary gym teacher and football coach who has nothing to show for his life except the possibility of having a child with a one night stand that he can barely remember because he was too drunk to even wrap it up.

But another question kept running through my mind. Why did Scarlett Huxley not get a hold of us sooner?