I checked the time on my phone as I waited for Kennedy. She had hit me up asking if we could meet up at our favorite smoothie shop. With her new schedule we hardly ever had any time to hang out anymore, which in turn pushed Mink and I getting a lot closer. We were all good friends, but Kennedy was closer to both of us than we were to each other; but the change was a good thing because it allowed Mink and I to realize we were basically soulmates.

Kennedy walked up with a big smile on her face, curls falling down her face. "Hey!" she said as she came over hugging me, she looked down at my belly, covering her mouth. "Oh my gosh, your belly is so big."

I chuckled as I nodded, "I know, I'm ready for her to come out."  She took a seat across from me, "when are you due again?"

"In a week and three days, the 17th."

She chuckled, "it sounds like you're counting down."

"Girl, I am. Most definitely am. And they better induce me on that day if she acts like she's not ready to come out." I laughed.

"I feel it, how have you been though?" She questioned as she looked over the menu on the table.

"Good for the most part, things have been getting a little crazy lately. But things are good. What about you?" I questioned just as the waiter came over to grab our orders.

We placed our orders and then she responded. "I'm okay. Crazy how though?" She asked.

I filled her in on the Jason situation as well as Landon having a new girlfriend. She sat there with surprise written all over her face.

"I know right?" I spoke reassuring her I felt the same way with all of it. "Who is his girlfriend?" She asked.

"Jason's or Landon's?" I didn't know who she was referring to.

"Landon's." She said in a split second.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know. Mink met her, she said it was a girl named Ashley."

Kennedy looked like she was trying to put a face with a name, "thick Ashley?"

I shrugged my shoulders again, "I've never seen the girl or met her so I don't know. Mink could tell you."

Kennedy nodded, "I'm pretty sure I know exactly who you're talking about." She made a confused face, "he's dating her?"

I nodded my head, as she proceeded to try and ask me more questions about it. "Kennedy, I do not know. I've never seen nor met the girl. Why are you so into it?" She was asking more questions than I asked about it.

She shrugged her shoulders, "I'm just curious, damn." The waiter came over dropping our smoothies off as we both opened our straws and took a sip.

"Can I be real with you?" she asked as she leaned back in her chair.

"I hope you always are." I responded. She nodded as she looked down at her cup and then back at me. "I haven't been all the way honest with you." She stated, she started fidgeting. A clear sign she was nervous which in turn made me a little nervous about whatever she was about to lay on me. I just looked at her waiting for her to continue.

"Aria, you know I love you and would never do anything to intentionally jeopardize our friendship."

I nodded my head as I motioned with my hand for her to continue. She let out a deep sigh, "now I really have been busy with summer classes, and work and —"

"And your boyfriend, get to the point Kennedy."

"Okay." She nodded, she sat completely back. She pushed some hair out of her face before she continued, "so you know how I was still rocking with Chris pretty hard? Even after we stopped having sex, which by the way we had sex again but we'll get to that another time."

"You cheated?" I questioned.

"Another time Aria, let's get through this first."

I nodded as she continued, "so you know how I used to be over there a lot, and you know I liked Landon, a lot at one point."

My stomach dropped, my nerves built back up again. Was she about to tell me she fucked Landon? No, she would never. My eyes bore into her as I listened to her.

"Well one night I was drunk and over there and I kind of told him."

"Told him you used to like him?" I questioned. She shook her head no, "told him that I liked him, like at the time." She cowered back.

"When was this?" I questioned just making sure I was understanding everything and the time line.

"This was months ago."

"While I was pregnant?" I asked.

"Like earlier in your pregnancy I'd say."

I nodded my head, "oh, so this was when I was feeling some type of way with how much y'all talked. Meaning I had every right to question that shit." I laughed, this was a joke.

She shook her head, "it really wasn't like that Aria. We were just cool as fuck, Yes, I was dealing with Chris which would be shady and ho-ish as fuck to turn around and deal with Landon."

I brought my eyebrows in together, "so it would be messed up because of Chris? Not because your best friend is pregnant by him?" I nodded my head, "oh okay, heard you."

"No, I don't mean it like that Aria, but please let me finish."

"Oh there's more?" I questioned.

"It is, I almost had a threesome with him" she blurted out as if she was trying to say it so I wouldn't catch it.

"What?" I questioned way louder than intended.

She quickly started to back herself up, "it didn't happen though."

"Well what the fuck do you mean it almost happened? You thought about doing that shit?" I questioned not believing this bullshit. "Did y'all get close to being intimate and then stop? Like what the fuck do you mean Kennedy?" I was whisper yelling. I didn't like to make a scene but I'd be damned if Kennedy wasn't trying to make me.

"Calm down please." She said as she looked around, no one was paying us any attention.

I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes, "oh trust me, I'm calm."

She let out another sigh, "Ashley, his newfound girlfriend." She rolled her eyes as she continued, "she asked me if I would join them in the bedroom when I was over there waiting for Chris one day."

"Wait, this was recently?" I would really lose my shit.

"No, no, no! This was months ago Aria. Before she was actually his girlfriend. I told her no."

"After you thought about it? After y'all were about to get it poppin'?"

"No, I did absolutely nothing with them."

I calmed down happy to hear that, but still kept it in the back of my mind that she confessed feelings for him while I was pregnant with his child. "Then why the fuck would you say you almost had a threesome with him?" I questioned.

She shook her head, "it just came out that way cause I was just trying to rush it out. Look we don't hold anything back from each other so I didn't want to hold it back from you. I've allowed it to put a wedge in our relationship thus far and I don't want it to continue to. I was just scared to let you know."

I leaned forward, "do still like Landon? Honestly?" If she did could I even be mad? She was the one that liked him the most at the start of all of this. But I could be mad, he was the father of my child. A man that I could sometimes see myself with, and she gave me the okay from the jump to deal with him.

She sighed, "no, I'm over him now. I swear, if anything I just miss the friendship me and him had."

I nodded, "this is a lot to process."

She pushed her hair back, "I know, I'm sorry. For being distant, for ever even telling Landon I liked him, especially with you already being pregnant by him. Like that's shady as fuck but I was drunk and it was stupid and I just don't want to lose you." She rambled.

I looked up at her, "it was shady as fuck, and lowkey makes you questionable as a friend but thank you for telling me. Because that also says a lot too."

She nodded, "of course, I don't want to seem like a shady questionable friend because you know that's not my character. I want us to get back to the way we were. I know it might take some time but I miss you and you're my best friend." She pouted.

I rolled my eyes at her puppy dog face, "let's take it a day at a time." I let out. I know some would have cut a friend off after that period, but I loved Kennedy and she didn't fuck him — that would have got her cut off with no questions asked. Would our friendship be the same? I couldn't say but I was willing to try.

Kennedy smiled in response as we both took a sip of our smoothie.

***

My lease had ended and I had agreed to try it out at Landon's parents for a few weeks, if I didn't like it or felt too uncomfortable we agreed I'd go to my mothers.

Landon and I were currently at his parent's house putting together a crib. Well he was putting it together, I was handing him pieces. He stood in front of me with his tattoos coloring his arm with a white t-shirt and some nike shorts on as he was screwing on one of the legs on the crib.

"Hand me the other leg please," he asked without even looking up. I went and grabbed it as I placed it beside him, standing there just looking at him.

He stole glances at me every few seconds before he looked up at me and chuckled, "what's up?"

I shook my head, "nothing," I walked to rocking chair that was in the corner of the room and took a seat.

"What you staring at me for then?" He asked as he focused back on the crib.

What Kennedy told me yesterday was still weighing on me. "Were you and your girlfriend trying to have a threesome with Kennedy at any point?" I asked before I even thought about it, but whatever I was going to ask eventually.

He stopped doing what he was doing and looked up at me, eyebrows scrunched in "what?" he asked as his eyes bore into me.

I didn't want to repeat the question, I know he heard me. "Did you?"

He shook his head like he couldn't believe I even asked him that and started working on the crib again. "Landon!" I called his name, not liking that he didn't respond.

He looked up at me as he stopped completely for a moment. His eyes burning into mine. "Fuck no, what the fuck are you even talking about?" He asked, before I could even respond he continued. "Better yet why the fuck do you even think I would fuck Kennedy? You the mother of my child, the fuck I look like trying to fuck your best friend?"

He was pissed, could see it in his demeanor and the hear it in the way he was responding. "I mean I know it wasn't recent."

It's like that further pissed him off, "no Aria, what the fuck don't you get about that? Fuck no."

Kennedy wouldn't lie about something like that though, the shit wasn't adding up. "Landon I'm not trying to piss you off or accuse you of anything I was just told that it happened." I stated honestly.

He scrunched his eyebrows in, making him look even angrier. "Kennedy told you my girl and I tried to have a threesome with her?"

"Yeah," I started, thinking about the conversation we had, "well, she said your girlfriend asked her. Before y'all were dating."

He stood there his eyes staring into me before he shook his head and laughed. He went back to finishing the crib not saying anything else about the situation.

It wasn't exactly how I envisioned the conversation to go but I wasn't going to push when he clearly was pissed. I continued sitting in the chair for a few minutes as he continued working on the crib quietly. I decided to leave him alone as he worked on it, so I left the room and ran into his mother right as I did so.

"Hey," I smiled as I started walking towards the living room.

"Hey," she returned with a smile, following me. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

I had been staying at Landon's parents for a couple of days now, his dad was hardly home and his mother did a lot of at home business stuff so we stayed out of each other's way.

I nodded my head as I took a seat and she took one right across from me. "I just want you to know I'm here for you, I know we didn't start off on the best foot but I want you to know that I look at you as my own now, you're about to give birth to the little girl who will be the light of my life. I want you to be able to come and talk to me about whatever, I don't want it to be weird between us."

I smiled, "it won't be, and I appreciate that, really." And I truly did.

She smiled as we began talking about some other stuff, only stopping when Landon walked in. He looked between us, "the crib is set up and I went ahead and got the monitor situated too so I'm about to head out." His mother told him bye and he started walking towards the door as I quickly excused myself from his mother following behind him, "Landon," I called out as he walked out the door. He turned around as I stepped outside, closing the door behind me.

"Look Landon, I wasn't —" he cut me off before I could even get out what I was trying to say.

"Aria, I really don't fucking care about what you got to say right now. You really tried me with that Kennedy shit." I internally rolled my eyes, if he didn't do it then it wasn't that deep but I was simply trying to apologize if it came off as if I was accusing instead of asking.

"I'm just trying to let you know —"

"I mean that shit, if it isn't pertaining to Ava I don't want to hear about it." He continued as he cut me off again.

I brought my eyebrows in as I crossed my arms, "wow, so that's where we're at now? Only talking pertaining to Ava?"

He stuffed his hands in his pockets as he nodded. "Yeah, like that shit showed me a lot about you. You don't trust me for shit, like you really think I would stoop that fucking low?"

"Landon!" He wouldn't let me get a word out.

"No. Let me finish. You've had your turn, you always get your turn." He said this calmly as his eyes burned into mine. "I know I've done a lot of fucked up shit, but I'm not that fucked up that I would fuck one of your friends or even ask that shit. And through all this time I thought that was some shit you would know. I fucking wanted you Aria. You. But I'm happy I finally gave up on you and moved the fuck on."

"Ok —"

"And let's be clear," he continued once again "I'm not mad you asked about it. I'm mad that you even thought for a second I would do that shit when I been on you like white on rice when it came to getting with me. Like you really think I'm that stupid?" He questioned, he paused for a moment like he was truly waiting for an answer.

"Landon I've been trying to apologize if it —"

"Nahh, fuck that apology now Aria." He made his way down the stairs and towards his car. "And if I wanted to fuck Kennedy, best believe I would have." He spoke out before he got in his car and pulled off.

That took a drastic turn, I stood outside his parents house not knowing how I felt, a mix of emotions ran through me. I didn't know I was crying until I felt a tear hit my lip. This was hormones, had to be because why was I crying right now?

A sharp pain went through my stomach, causing me to cry out even harder. Landon's mom came outside as I steadied myself on the rail, "it was just a sharp pain." I said to her as I wiped my face clear of any tears. "You okay?" She questioned, I nodded just as another sharp pain hit causing me to grab my stomach again. This shit couldn't be happening right now. This was the worst timing to be going into labor.