Sorry, maybe I was wrong for jumping into my friend's business, but now I had to do something.

How was Chantel pregnant by this loser? Don't people believe in condoms these days? What the hell was she thinking?

After she told me, she was a mess of tears and so I did what I had to do, jumped in my car and drove the two hours to St. Louis to visit my friend. It was Thursday night and I had a class on Friday morning, but I was not thinking about that.

Nor was I thinking about the bad weather we were predicted to get sometime early Friday morning. It was St. Louis, blink and the weather would change.

I'm not sure what I was going to do once I was there, but I needed to be there for my friend. I had not told Angel or my father that I was coming to town, and they did not need to know. This was not their business. I may have to tell my mother, she lived a few doors down from Chantel, and she would surely see me there.

I could manage the drive there just fine, it was no big deal. Soon as I got to St. Louis, it was about two o'clock in the morning, the temperature dropped from thirty-five degrees to two degrees and the snow started. I must have blinked.

Gay texted me that it was snowing a lot there. I texted her why was she awake so early. She said she never went to sleep and since I left she invited Felix over.

Just great!

I texted Chantel that I just pulled over and she met me at the door with a big duffel bag stuffed to the brim.

"What's that?"

"My stuff. I'm going to stay with you till I figure things out with Donnell."

"Huh? What?" I did not know this was what she wanted. I thought I was coming to comfort her, then go back to campus, alone and on to my life.

"I need to get there and talk to Donnell face-to-face about this."

"He hasn't even returned your phone calls, but you want to go all the way there to talk to him?" Why was I in the middle of this? This was my fault. I cared too much about my friends. I warned Chantel about Donnell but she did not listen to me.

"Maybe something happened to his phone. I don't know, but I can't be here and not be with him."

We were standing outside and it was freezing. I knew she was not going to invite me in because her mother would kill her knowing what was going on. I didn't know what to say so we loaded her bag in my car.

"I don't know if I want to drive in this snow."

"It's not even snowing that much," Chantel said after she fastened her seat belt. One look at her I could tell she was pregnant. She was showing, but only if you knew her well. I could not drive in unsafe conditions with a baby on board.

"But it could get worse and that's a long drive."

"So what do you want to do?"

I thought about it. If I went to my mother's... just no. If I went to my father's they would be in my business and maybe scold me for driving when I knew bad weather was coming. I thought of my grandmother. She would not turn me away, but she would be upset I woke her up at two o'clock in the morning.

That was my only option.

I drove around the corner to get to my grandmother's and then we went to the door to ring the bell. It did not take long before my grandmother was opening the door for us.

"Child, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

"Hey gran, can I crash here? I was going to drive back to school but the weather is getting bad."

"Get in here girl," my grandmother said, then looked to Chantel. "And you too. Lord, Jesus! Letting all this cold air in my house."

"Sorry, gran. Were you sleep?" I hugged her. She was still in work scrubs so she must have been awake.

"You know I work that second shift. I just got off work an hour ago."

My grandmother worked a block away from her house at a nursing home as a nurse. Must be nice.

"Thanks, Mrs. Baker," Chantel said to her. "I told Rave we could make it back to her school but she's scared."

"And rightly so! Little girl are you crazy? Having my baby drive all the way here for you so y'all can go back and party."

"No gran, that's not-" Chantel stopped me from saying anything by hitting my side. "Ouch! Uh...nothing gran, I just came to hang and then..." I had no clue what to tell her so I shut up.

"Mmm-hmm," my granny grunted. I knew my gran was no dummy and knew there was more to it but hoped she did not press the issue. "I don't even want to know what's going on but I'm not letting you drive in that. Hear it's supposed to be six or seven inches and negative ten degrees. You ain't been driving enough to understand how bad those roads can get."

I've been driving since I was sixteen. I lived in St. Louis all my life. I knew about driving in bad conditions, but yes, I chose not to drive in it for that long distance.

"You hungry baby girl? I can make you something to eat."

"No, I'm tired, can I just go lay down? Chantel can sleep with me in my room." Well, the room I shared with my sister when we stayed with her.

"Go on get some sleep. I'll make breakfast for you two in the morning."

I did not realize how tired I was, because soon as I stripped and hit the bed I was a goner. I wanted to talk more to Chantel about her "situation," but I let her sleep. I had no idea what we were going to do tomorrow if the roads were still undrivable. I knew I would miss my two classes so I emailed my teachers to let them know.

Turned out classes were canceled due to the snow so I did not have to worry about that.

The roads were not clear, they were bad in the St. Louis area, at least around eight in the morning when we were having breakfast.

"Now you're staying the whole weekend here," my gran said filling our plates with eggs, bacon, and buttered grits.

"I am!" I shouted out.

"We are?" Chantel said with a groan.

"Little girl, what is your rush?"

I said nothing, let Chantel deal with that, which she did not, just finished her breakfast. I looked down at my phone and saw a text from King.

Fresh, you good? U need a buddy in the snow? I'll trek over there and hang wit ya

That made me smile. I texted him right back.

Actually, I'm in St. Louis, but I wish I was there with you

Ugh! I deleted that before I sent it.

I'm in STL, stuck

What? When'd you go? I was just at your place last night

Emergency

I wish I could tell him more but I left it at that. We continued to text and I told him I would wait a few days before I headed back. It took St. Louis normally a day to keep the roads clear but by it being the weekend, I might as well do as my grandmother said and stay.

"Did you let your mother know you're here?" my grandmother asked after we finished breakfast.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because she is your mother and she would want to know you're right around the counter."

I was not going to give my grandmother lip about this, so I tried to change the subject. "Are we ruining your plans being here?"

"The snow ruined my plans, child." My grandmother looked at Chantel. "When is she going to admit she's pregnant?"

My mouth flew open. Chantel looked shocked but then started to cry.

Again, why was I in the middle of this?

A/N: Do you think Rayvn should have driven back to St. Louis just to be with her friend? And she hasn't even told this boy yet.