Chapter 5: My Life Implodes

"Mae?" someone says.

I blink, coming out of the fog of my thoughts. We've finally reached the table of food. Oh, sweet merciful cheeseburgers. Thank you for rescuing me from my despair.

"How have you been?" Eliza asks as she passes me a paper plate. "And where's Wes? I would have thought he'd come with you today."

"He couldn't make it," I say quickly.

"Ah, that's a shame," says Collette. "He's always such a gentleman. So handsome."

"And so sweet," chimes in Eliza.

Until he sticks his cock in another chick. I press my lips together and help myself to a giant mound of coleslaw.

"He's still coming with us to the Apple Festival next week, isn't he?" my mom says. "Your dad and I still have to give him his birthday present."

This is too much. "I...I'll have to ask him."

"We've already got a festival ticket for him," my mom says, frowning slightly. "I thought you told me he could go."

"I'll ask him," I say again quickly. I look up from the table, only to find Collette staring quizzically down at my hand.

"Where's your engagement ring, Mae?" she asks.

Immediately, the conversation around us falls silent.

A dozen different excuses crowd at the front of my mind - it's getting resized. I took it off when I was washing dishes and forgot to put it back on. I'm getting it engraved. I lost it - but my tongue can't seem to move.

My mom grabs my hand, almost as if she doesn't trust her eyes and wants to feel that it's not there.

"Are your fingers swollen?" she asks me quietly. "That happens sometimes in the first trimester - "

"I'm not pregnant," I whisper back, trying to pull my fingers free.

But apparently I'm not quiet enough.

"Pregnant!" comes Collette's voice from just behind my shoulder. "Sweet mercy, you're pregnant, Mae?"

Shit.

"I'm not pregnant," I say, turning around. "No baby here. Nothing cooking in this oven, I promise." I'm just going to try not to be sick everywhere. While only those immediately around us were listening a moment ago, Collette's excited cry has drawn the attention of the entire party.

"Mae," my mom says, pulling me back around. "What's going on? Where's Wes?"

I can't do this here. Not in front of all these people. Get out of here now. Abort. Abort.

"He's sick," I say, though I know everyone can tell it's a lie. "And I...I think I got whatever he has." Oh, God - I feel the urge to be sick rising in my throat again. Do I do it in the coleslaw or the rolls?

"Mae," my mom says again, a little more firmly. "Does Wes know about the baby? Is he upset? Is that what happened?"

"I'm not pregnant," I say. But I am feeling more nauseated with every passing second.

"You need to tell me what's happening," my mom says.

But I can't. Not with so many eyes on me. I tug my hand out of my mom's grip and stumble backwards, forgetting that I still have a plate with a giant mountain of coleslaw in my other hand. The plate slides out of my fingers, and the coleslaw lands with a wet thump on top of Eliza's shoes.

Eliza gasps, but I'm not done yet. Because suddenly I can no longer fight back the bile in my throat. I turn, trying to avoid the table and the other guests, but I don't move fast enough. I lose my lunch - right down the front of Collette's sequined bird dress.

She shrieks, throwing herself backward, and the next few seconds seem to happen in slow motion.

Collette backs into Eliza, then trips over her aunt's foot. She slams butt-first into the table, falls sideways across the coleslaw, and meanwhile Eliza goes falling, flailing, into the potato salad. And the punch bowl - the huge, full punchbowl - goes flying at the line of hungry guests.

It's then that the table collapses, bringing the fallen women down with it and sending the rest of the food tumbling down on top of them.

And I can do nothing but watch, open-mouthed, as the party seems to explode around me.

Abandon ship! My mind screams. Abandon ship!

I back up a step, then another, then turn and run -

Smack into a large, firm chest. Alex.

He must have run up here to help. For the second time today, I awkwardly find myself with my nose pressed against that ridiculously fancy suit. For the second time today, he's brought his arms up to catch me, but this time, he releases me when I pull away.

"I need to go," I say quietly without looking up at his face. Oh, God - I need to disappear.

He doesn't say a word as I slip past him - and neither does anyone else, because everyone has rushed forward to help Eliza and Collette.

God, just kill me now. Maybe a lightning storm will come up out of nowhere and electrocute me right on this spot - or is that too optimistic?

I make it to the street before I hear my mom's voice again.

"Mae, honey!"

I ignore her. I can't go back now. It's time to make myself scarce. Join a traveling circus and never show my face in this town again. Because this is bad. Very, very bad.

It's not just the fact that I've caused a scene - though that's definitely a huge part of it. It's the fact that now everyone knows something is wrong. Everyone at the party knows I wasn't wearing my engagement ring, which means the next thing they're going to do is try to figure out why I wasn't wearing it and why I was lying about it. If there's one thing the busybodies of this town love, it's an unsolved mystery. I haven't even left the lawn yet, and the rumors have probably already started.

And eventually, too, they're going to start learning the truth piece by piece. They're going to figure out that Wes is a sleazeball who's been having cyber sex and phone sex with Madison Harris for the last year and having real sex with her ever since she moved back to town. Then I just become the pathetic idiot who was too stupid to see that the guy she was about to marry has been cheating on her since before they were engaged.

If I thought things were bad earlier today...well, they just got a whole lot worse.