I resisted the urge to yell to him and remind him just what had to happen for her to be in such a state. It didn’t quite seem like the time or place, but I would have been lying if I said I didn’t take great pleasure in his duress over it.
Actually, I fucking loved it, sick asshole that I was.
The DA walked up and told us not to worry—it should all be over pretty quickly, and Tria probably didn’t even have to get on the stand. I was glad about that. The prosecuting attorney still thought I was going to have to get up there, but about twelve seconds into the hearing, the defense attorney and the prosecuting attorney went up to the judge’s bench for a little powwow. When they were done, Keith was sentenced to five years, and we were told we could go.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed. “That was easy. We didn’t have to do anything.”
“I’m just glad it’s over,” Tria whispered. She was pale, and I wrapped my arm around her waist to hold her close.
“It’s okay,” I told her. “He’s gone for a long time, and we’re fine.”
We each got paid twenty dollars for showing up.
“We could go out and celebrate,” I suggested.
Tria gave me a slight smile but shook her head.
“It would probably be better to use it for something we need.”
I couldn’t argue with her logic.
“We could…um…” I steeled myself against my own thoughts. This made it more real for me than anything. How many times had I done this before—ran to a store after school to buy things the baby needed? “We’ve got a few hours before the sonogram appointment. We could go shopping for…um…for the baby?”
Tria wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Yes, please.”
So we did. And by paying close attention to prices, we got quite a bit for forty dollars.
Damon drove us to one of those stores that had pre-owned items for babies. We found one of those pumpkin-type car seats that would normally cost quite a bit at a
price we could handle and a few other things as well. Tria started crying when we picked out the seat.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. I pulled her against me and let her get my shirt all wet.
“I’m just…glad,” she said. “I was really worried about not having any place to put the baby. Now I have a place for it.”
It made no sense whatsoever to me. There would be months before the baby would need to be put anywhere, but it was apparently really important to Tria. She held on to me and cried a little more, then laughed at herself.
“I feel silly,” she whispered. She glanced around at other patrons.
“Don’t,” I said. “Is there anything else you want to have now?”
We picked out a few more things before Damon drove us back to Michael’s house. I sighed as soon as we got there, immediately recognizing my cousin’s car parked near the front door. His customary taste in vehicles hadn’t changed.
“Ryan is here,” I informed Tria.
“Are you okay with that?”
I shrugged.
“It’s okay.” There wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it anyway. It was his parent’s house.
I carried the bags inside and was thrilled to death to see Amanda in the foyer as soon as we walked in.
How was that on ye old sarcasm scale?
“Hello, Liam…Tria.” Amanda’s smile was disingenuous, to say the least.