The Azuli by Cassidy Shay (best beach reads of all time TXT) 📕

parents out of the room, but my dad stopped her.
“No. I’m not leaving her in here alone. Not after what happened the other day. Plus, she’s pregnant. What if something were to happen? She shouldn’t be left alone with an inexperienced teenager to look after her,” he said with a scowl. Collin’s head whipped around to look at me, pain and anger making his eyes glow. I hadn’t told him about my fake pregnancy, so I knew what he was thinking.
“Come on, Robert. What’s going to happen? Is she going to go into labor or something? It’s too early for anything to happen. Besides that, do you really think that she would do anything with Collin that would hurt Carl? I don’t believe she would have done it before, and I don’t think she’ll do it today.” They bickered about it some more, and in the end, it was my mom who gave in. “Just don’t embarrass the girl,” were my mom’s last words as she exited the room.
My dad sat on Macy’s bed, never taking his eyes off of Collin.
“So… you never told me you were pregnant,” he said, gathering the dirty bedding and clothes off the floor. “But at least we know what caused you to feel the way you do.” He took his time cleaning and spoke in a slow, soft voice. As usual, his deep, familiar voice threated to pull me into a deep sleep. Despite his compassionate tone, I knew he was infuriated.
“Collin, I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you, but it’s… it’s complicated. I didn’t tell you because…” I trailed off and glanced at my dad. “Um… never mind. I’ll just tell you later.”
“I’m sure it is complicated,” my dad commented, glaring at Collin with raised eyebrows. Collin didn’t say anything else, but finished cleaning the room in silence. He sprayed something to get rid of the puke smell, and it smelled like roses. Not overwhelming roses, but just the right amount of sweet-smelling flowers.
When he was done, he headed out the door without saying anything to me. I followed him out, and almost fell on my weak knees. Collin caught me, but wouldn’t look me in the eyes as he stood me up. When I was able to stand on my own, I grabbed his wrist.
“Please come by at lunch. I need to explain this to you. When you hear the story, you’ll laugh about it.” I tried to sound surer of that than I really was, but I knew there was uncertainty in my voice.
“I will. But you better have a pretty outstanding explanation if you‘re going to make me laugh about this.” I released his wrist and watched him leave until I felt my dad right behind me.
“It’s not his, is it, Penny?” he asked. I shook my head. “There’s no possibility in the world? None at all?” I shook my head, looking right in his eyes the whole time. His face softened and he wrapped his arms around me. “I believe you. And I’m sorry I mentioned your… uh… condition in front of him. I guess I just assumed that you had told him. I’m sorry that I didn’t trust you before. I was just scared. I don’t know you anymore, so I don’t know what to expect from you.”
I walked over to my bed and sat down as he walked out into the hall. I wasn’t sure what had inspired my dad’s sudden mood change, but I was glad that it had happened. Now that he was on my side again, I knew that things would be easier between us.
When Mom, Macy, and Carl’s parents came back in, they had Carl and Jack with them. Carl came over to me and hugged me. “I’m sorry about all the stuff that’s been happening. I promise to try harder from now on.” I shook out of his grasp, but didn’t make any effort to move away from him. He was almost forgiven, but not all the way. At least, that’s what everyone else saw.
For the next couple hours, we sat in the room talking. Fortunately, no one brought up the wedding. If anyone had tried, I probably would have murdered them all on the spot.
“Penny, when we go to lunch, do you want to come with us?” asked my dad, and I shook my head.
“I have to talk to Collin about this little guy,” I explained, patting my middle section. “He’s pretty mad at me right now.”
“Alright then. We’ll just bring something back for you, okay?” I nodded again, but said nothing.
“Jack, will you just stay behind with her until Collin gets here? I want to make sure that if she gets sick again, someone is here to help her. After Collin gets here, you can come back up to have lunch with us.” With the last sentence, Carl looked at me as if to say, See? I’m trying. The lunch bell rang, and everyone filed out of the room except for Jack.
“Jeez,” he said. “What did you say to Carl last night?” I shrugged, because I was just as confused as he was. Although I was glad that it had worked, I hadn’t expected it too. At least, not for long. I told Jack this, and then explained to him what I had said to Carl. In the middle of my story, Collin walked in.
He looked at Jack and sighed. “I guess your baby-daddy’s still got you on a pretty short leash, doesn’t he?” he said with a sneer. It was a mean look and a mean tone, but I knew that the meanness was just to cover up the hurt.
“Actually, I was instructed by Carl to leave as soon as you get here. So… bye.” He left quickly, obviously feeling the tension between Collin and I. When he was gone, Collin looked at me expectantly.
“Are you going to explain this pregnancy to me now? You said it would make me laugh. Well, I’m having a pretty cruddy day today, so I could use some amusement.
“Collin, I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you. And… you probably actually won’t be laughing about this. But hopefully, you’ll at least understand.” I took a deep breath and began. “On Sunday, I drew out a Memory and it took a longer time than it’s ever taken me. I knew that that meant something bad was going to happen, so I started crying. I guess the stress of everything is getting to me, because I usually don’t cry this much. But I was crying and they came in and asked me what was wrong, and I told them I was pregnant because I couldn’t think of any other explanation that the Academy would approve of. And then I didn’t tell you because I forgot about it and it didn’t seem that important, so I-“
All of this had been coming out in a rush, almost too fast for me to form the words correctly, and I was cut off just as suddenly as I had started. Collin walked the two necessary steps to stand in front of me. His sudden movements shocked me, but not nearly as much as what he did next. In one fluid motion, he grabbed my arm, pulled me towards him, and brought our mouths together.
The butterflies in my stomach turned to fireworks, illuminating my insides and erupting over and over again. It felt like a new beginning, the door opened to a new life. I concentrated only on Collin. The smell, the feel, the taste of him. All so new, yet so familiar. It happened so suddenly that I couldn’t register it at first, but when I did, it was instantly made into a memory that I would never forget. It ended just as quickly as it had started, and when we pulled away, he was smiling a melancholy smile.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his breath ragged and is arm still around my waist. My face, which was only an inch from his, was still being help in place by his hand. “I’ve been waiting a long time to do that.” I nodded, and leaned in again, a wicked smile on my face. Instead of meeting my lips, though, he pulled away. “We shouldn’t, Penny,” he said, holding me at arm’s length.
“We shouldn’t do a lot of things,” I sighed. “But if everyone only did what they were supposed to do, revolutions would never be started. If people never did anything that they weren’t supposed to do, then you wouldn’t be here now.” I leaned in again, and this time he met me in the middle. When we parted several seconds later, I looked at him with a rebellious grin on my lips.
For the rest of lunch, we didn’t say another word. There were long moments of silence, holding hands, and yes, plenty of kissing. When it was time for him to leave, he pulled me into a strong, protective hug and simply kissed me on the forehead.
“I love you, Penny. I have for quite a while now, and I will until the day I die. I’ll be serving food and drinks at the reception tomorrow, so I’ll see you then. You need to find me, because I have something for you. But this is the last time that I’ll see you as a free, unmarried woman. That’s why I’m doing this now.”
He kissed me again, but it was nothing like the first one. Where the first had been soft and slow, this one was hard and fast. The first had been an opening to an eternity of happiness, while this one seemed like a gateway to infinity of good-byes. When Collin kissed me the first time, our bodies seemed to fold together into something inseparable. This time, it was all we could do to keep from being ripped apart.
When he finally took his arm off my waist, there were tears in my eyes. I felt like I would shatter at any second, because his arm wasn’t there to hold me together anymore. “Why did you let go?” I asked as the tears started falling.
“I have to Penny. I have no choice.” He started walking towards the door, but still held my hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay? I’ll have a gift that I want to give you.” He released my hand and left me alone in the room. Seconds later, I heard footsteps in the hallway, telling me that I had very little time to make myself look presentable. When they walked in, I could tell by their expressions that nothing was out of order.
We talked for a minute, and then heard a buzzing noise. “All parents please report to the cafeteria at this time. All parents to the cafeteria please. Thank you,” said a voice over the intercom. I gave my parents each a hug, and then they headed out.
“How long is it going to take them to tour the kitchen?” I asked when they were gone. No one answered me, so I figured that they didn’t know either.
The rest of the day was agonizingly slow. The conversations were dry and boring, and nothing exciting happened. When the dinner bell sounded over the intercom, I was relieved. I figured if we were eating, everyone would feel less obligated to carry on a half-hearted conversation. Boy, was I wrong.
Our parents were already seated with their food, and so were Carl and Mary’s parents. Carl made the mistake of asking his mom and dad how the tour was. They usually don’t get excited about much, which was why I was shocked at how enthusiastic they were about the kitchen.
They described the