Chapter 2 #2
That was a year ago, and every day since I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop because I was convinced fairy tales don’t exist, yet I’m living in one. Where a rich boy falls in love with a girl from as opposite a family as you could get.
But he chose me back then and continued showing his love every day since, so who cares how it looks. Who cares we aren’t a perfect match. Who cares we’re moving a bit faster than expected.
This is it! This is the start of our future because the life we created is living inside me now.
With that thought, I steel my nerves and move into the living room toward his black leather couch. His electric fireplace is on. And as much as I loved the modern look, I always missed the crackling sound of the logs.
“No, no, Filip is coming this Friday. I was meeting up with Electra.”
“Ah.” Joey smiles in understanding as he settled next to me on the couch, and almost immediately, his hand is moving up my thigh as he burrows his nose in my neck.
“I have no idea how you two can literally spend over sixteen hours a day together and still have something to talk about every single time. You smell like rain.” He inhales my scent, and at that precise moment the storm touches down.
An army of raindrops beating down, shooting the large windows like bullets.
Despite being in the safety of Joey’s home, a shiver runs up my spine, because I can hear whispers of that same threatening song just outside that window.
But before I can come up with a logical explanation as to why it keeps happening or if I’m finally losing my damn mind, Joey’s lips trail over my neck and down to my collarbone, making me forget it all.
“Yeah, I just barely made it here before it started,” I tell him, my breath catching when his hand slips into the waistband of my leggings. “But I haven’t actually seen Electra today. She didn’t show up.”
“Oh? So, what or who held you up from me?” Joey pulls his face away from me, one brow arched in a teasing question.
“I was just at the park, swinging, thinking.”
“At the park?” Now, one corner of his mouth tugged up in amusement as his fingers began teasing my belly, and I can’t stop the sharp inhale of my breath at the action which Joey takes as an invitation.
“You must’ve been thinking very hard to stay there so long.
” His lips return to my neck. “And it better be something very, very important.” Joey’s voice turns low and gravelly as his hand starts slipping into my panties.
“Because I’ve been going mad here without you.
Needed this pussy as soon as I got into town this morning. ”
“It was. It is.” The words rushed out fast and hurried because I can’t think of anything right now. I can’t want anything until I told him.
My hand wrapped around his, trying to halt him but Joey was undeterred. “Joey.” His name goes through him as that wind outside.
“Joey, I need to—”
“I know what you need, baby.” Being much stronger than I am, he easily pushes through the hold I have on his wrist and starts up again.
“Joey! I’m pregnant!” I yell out, the words piercing through the room full of leather and glass. What little dust there is, freezes in the air surrounding us, as Joey stiffens, his hand stopping dead for one, two, three beats before he slowly—so very slowly—withdraws it and himself from around me.
“What did you just say?” He cocks his head to the side, those dark brows pulling together.
“I’m pregnant, Joey.” I give him a small, anxious smile, knowing what a shock it is to hear the news.
“Pregnant,” he repeats. His tone holds a note of that stupefied expression and something else. Something I’ve never heard from him before. “Are you sure? Did you go to the doctor?”
“I did.” I nod, trapping my lower lip with my teeth, and pull out the ultrasound picture from the pocket of my hoodie.
Joey briefly looks down before his eyes find mine. He does that at least five more times before all air wooshes out of him and he slumps back against the couch, lifting his arms over his face.
“How…how did that even…we always used a condom.”
“I guess one of those times it didn’t work,” I say in almost a whisper.
“I guess it didn’t.” He sits up again, throwing his arms out. “Fuck!” he spits out with zero humor. The word angry and frustrated as he runs his fingers through his hair, tugging on it.
That’s what I heard in his tone earlier and the small smile I had on my face freezes for a split second before vanishing completely.
“So, what’s the plan? You’re not having it, right?
You have that crazy audition happening this Friday, don’t you?
If your doctor doesn’t have an appointment this week, I can ask ours.
Actually…” he adds before going for his phone in his pocket.
“I’ll call him right now. We’ll get this taken care of in the morning. Don’t worry.”
Lightning flashes across the sky behind him and a few seconds later thunder follows. Only this time it’s not rocking the ground around me. It’s shaking my heart awake.
Worry? Why should I worry? Worry is the last feeling on my mind before he mentioned it. I was nervous, anxious but mostly so inexplicably excited and…happy. I was happy.
Since the moment I heard my baby’s heart beating, I was happy. He’s ours. Yet now, that last word doesn’t feel right on my tongue. Ours doesn’t feel right.
Joey is already looking through his contacts list when I interrupt him. “Actually, I’m keeping him.”
He freezes, slowly lifting his frantic eyes to meet mine and I watch his throat bob with a nervous swallow before frantic turns into something else. “What did you just say?” The words leave him in a low whisper.
“I’m not having an abortion.”
For a moment, he just watched me, his chest heaving underneath that dark Henley.
“Please, tell me this is your idea of a sick joke, Rory.” Joey grits his teeth, the phone in his hand, cracking from the pressure.
This is not happening. It’s not. He’s just shocked. That’s all. Right?
But with each quiet question my breaths pick up as the rain pounds harder and harder against the glass as if trying to break through it but only manages to leave wet streaks across it and my hand covers my stomach.
“I-I know this is a shock. Trust me, it was for me as well, but now that I’ve had some time to think about it, it’s not the end of the world.” I swallow hard as his eyes darken. “We talked about having a family and kids one day. It’s just happening a bit sooner than anticipated.”
Joey’s eye twitches, his nostrils flare with a deep inhale and his tongue peeks out, the tip running across the bottom lip in the most disturbing way. Like it’s tasting blood on it.
“Don’t worry! I’ll quit skating. I’ll stay with the baby so you can finish your school. It can all work out.”
“It can all work out…it can all work out? Oh my GOD! Are you fucking serious right now? You’re getting an abortion, Aurora! That’s it! There is no other plan!”
“But…but you said you wanted kids! When we talked about it before, you said you wanted kids!”
“Oh, fucking hell, Aurora! You didn’t seriously think I meant I want them with you now, did you?” A physical punch would hurt less than his words, laced with disgust he was aiming my way as he grabs the back of his neck, almost tearing at the dark strands of hair there.
“But we’re…together. You…you told me you loved me. I love you! So I—”
“Fucking hell, Aurora! I tell every girl that same shit. Whatever it takes to get what I want. I thought you understood what this is and isn’t!
You didn’t seriously think we were going to get married and all that shit—” Abruptly, he stops and then as fast as that lightning outside, his dark gaze snaps to me.
“Wait a second,” Joey draws out slowly. “You did this on purpose didn’t you?”
He roars, putting a fist through the wall.
“Wh-what?” I frown, understanding what he’s saying but not understanding the why. Why would he ever think that.
“Oh, yes,” he starts nodding fast as he shakes his finger in my direction before he jumps off the couch and starts pacing. “You knew! You knew this was coming to an end and didn’t want to miss your meal ticket. You…you motherfucking bitch! You did that on purpose!”
Did the thunder from outside somehow make it in? Is that why my whole body is shaking and crumbling? Did it hit me?
Maybe it’s my subconsciousness trying to soften the blow I was just served. Maybe it’s trying to find anything—anyone—else to blame for the hit I just took. Because it can’t be true. It couldn’t have come from Joey. My Joey.
The only man I’ve ever loved. The father of my baby.
It can’t.
It can’t all be a lie. I couldn’t have given my heart to that kind of person, could I?
“Hello?” That same, familiar voice snaps angrily and my eyes search for who could sound just the same as my boyfriend does, only to find the room empty, sans us.
I suck in a sharp breath just as another lightning splits the dark sky apart behind those angry eyes, allowing the storm to consume me.
It keeps on and on and on as the dark cloak of night surrounds us, spreading terror and confusion over every inch of my body as I feel its long, thin tentacles seep under my skin, crawling painfully through every crevice of my body until my soul is barred for its enjoyment.
What a sick game it’s playing…
Yet I can’t tear my eyes away from those magnetic strikes of lighting on a dark starless canvas, serving as both my hope and death in one. As my only solace and damnation, light and fear dancing a dangerous dance across the skies and I can’t stop looking.
I can hear more of those angry words, but they are now a distant murmur against the whispers coming from the outside. The one I’ve heard before.
Whispers meant only for me. Whispers that sound a whole lot like a warning.
It grows so loud, so booming, it’s almost painful. My ears are ringing and all I want to do is press my hands against them, to squish my head until I can no longer hear the truth.