The Campus Bully Hounded Me Out of My Seat, Then I Told Him I Was Pregnant novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Shell Room
He woke me at five with a hand on my shoulder and a thermos of ginger tea.
"Boathouse," Aksel said.
"It's dark," I said.
"It's the last good water of the year," he said.
"The river skins over by the end of the month, and I want you in the boat."
I lay with my face in the pillow.
It was the Sunday after Gunnar, and I had cried in the shower the night before for twenty minutes.
I had run the water so Halle would not hear.
"I'm pregnant," I said into the pillow.
"I know," he said.
"I'm told light exercise is good for you."
"It's four months of throwing up in a sink," I said.
"I'll hold the bucket," he said.
I got up.
The boathouse was cold and smelled of cedar and oil.
The long pale shells hung in their racks overhead.
He had put a double scull on the slip, a narrow white boat with two sliding seats.
A life jacket lay on the dock beside it, orange and absurd.
"It was my mother's," Aksel said.
"She rowed in college, and it's the only one I have your size."
I put it on.
He held the boat steady while I got in, one foot on the center line and one hand on his shoulder.
He climbed in behind me.
The river was black and smooth, with a thick white fog lying on it from bank to bank.
He pushed off, and the boathouse went out of sight in four strokes.
"Squeeze with your legs," he said.
"The arms come last."
I pulled with my arms.
The blade skipped on the surface, and the boat lurched.
"Again," Aksel said.
I did it again, and I got it on the fifth try.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Campus Bully Hounded Me Out of My Seat, Then I Told Him I Was Pregnant are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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