It had been a whole week since I find out the news, and since Tabs found out her own news. Jordan had been trying to contact me, but I asked him to respectively just give me some space, which he did, and I was glad of that. No one else knew about Tabs being pregnant except Noah and I; she still hadn't plucked up the courage yet to tell Oli, and was kind of avoiding him like the plague.

"Um, hi," I heard a voice behind me as I was walking from my work to the subway at the end of a long day, and extremely long week. I turned around to see it was Oli, tall Oli, not 'Smoli'. "Sorry I'm just springing up on you... is everything okay with Tabs? She's kind of avoiding me." He scratched his neck sheepishly. "I just... I really like her, and I don't know if I've done something, I keep thinking over everything I could've done to hurt her, but I just come up blank."

"She isn't upset with you, there's just a lot she needs to process right now. I'll talk to her tonight," I smiled reassuringly at him, and he smiled back at me.

When I got back into the apartment, Tabs wasn't there, neither was Noah. I quickly got out of my work clothes and into something a little bit more comfortable to spend my Friday night in, and put on the kettle. "Honey I'm home," Noah called out as he opened the door. He chucked his work bag onto the kitchen island and opened the fridge, grabbing some orange juice. "How can you even drink tea, it's just leafy water."

"How can you even call yourself English?" I could never understand why Noah hated hot drinks. I thought it might just be the temperature, but it seemed to be the flavours too.

"Well, tea isn't technically English if you want to get technical honey boo," he taunted me, sipping on his orange juice.

"You know what I meant!"

It wasn't long after until Tabs came through the door, looking pretty stressed. After she had got into something more comfortable too and joined us in the kitchen, I made her and myself both a cup of tea, which she took gratefully, and we all sat in the lounge. "Oli caught me today when I was leaving work," I started. This got both Tabs and Noah to snap their heads to me. I basically relayed what Oli had said to me to Tabs.

"God, I feel so bad. He thinks he's done something wrong. Well, I mean he did impregnate me, but still," Tabs mumbled. "I should tell him. I should tell him tonight."

"Do you want to invite him over? I can just go to a bar and Noah can go over to Kyle's or something, we can give you some privacy," I suggested.

"Really? That would be really nice yeah," Tabs smiled.

So, we did just that. I got into some jeans and a jumper and just headed out to a bar nearby. There were quite a few bars near where we lived, so I was pretty spoilt for choice. Deciding on one, I headed in and plonked myself in a seat at the bar. I ordered myself a martini, really needing some hard liquor right now so that I could drown out my sorrows.

"I'll have what she's having," a female voice said to me. I turned my head to look at who the voice belonged to. Dahlia? What was she doing here?

"Dahlia?" I asked, a confused look was most definitely on my face right now.

"I'm doing the same thing you are hun, drowning my sorrows." She took a seat next to me.

"Oh, because of Jordan?" I asked, but I basically knew the answer already. Even though you could ridicule her for the way she acted around me and around Jordan, and even though I would not personally act in such a way, there is some part of me that did feel bad for her because she had feelings for a guy she couldn't have, and that is not a nice situation to be in. I know exactly how she felt now, because I have feelings for a guy I can't have too.

When the bartender handed us our drinks, we clinked them together and sipped. "God, this shit is strong," Dahlia said after taking her first sip. "I like it," she grinned, taking another sip.

We talked for the whole night pretty much, ordering drink after drink, and getting pretty pissed. As the night got later and later, the pub filled up more and more, and there was loud music, and dancing too, so, of course, we danced. I pulled off my jumper and wrapped it around my waist, because it was getting way too hot right now. "SHOTS!" Dahlia dragged me over to the bar.

"What is it?" I asked, taking the shot glass in my hands.

"Fuck knows, it's alcohol, drink it!" she clinked her glass against mine, and we took the shot. The alcohol burnt my throat, but it was a good burn, and I wasn't thinking for a second about a certain boxer. Not for a second.

In the early hours of the morning, Dahlia and I left the pub. It was shutting pretty soon anyway. We stumbled around for a bit, before going into a fast food restaurant that was still open. "You've never had a mozzarella stick before?" I looked at her gobsmacked.

"I was on a diet! I thought it would make Jordan like me more," Dahlia looked down, slightly embarrassed.

"You are beautiful Dahlia, you don't need to change for any man!" I practically shouted at her. I got a couple of cheers from some of the other drunk girls in the fast food place, and a couple of drunk girls even came over and started hyping Dahlia up. I love drunk girls.

I ordered a load of food, and we devoured it all basically. "I can't believe I had never had one of these before!" Dahlia exclaimed, munching into her fourth mozzarella stick.

"See! They're so good," I grabbed one myself and stuffed it into my mouth.

"You know, I used to hate you because you had something I wanted, but you're actually really nice. I'm sorry I treated you the way I did," Dahlia started speaking. "I'm ready to move on from my stupid crush on Jordan and find me someone nice, I want someone who wants me back."

"You'll find them, I'll help you find them," I enthusiastically said, and she giggled at me.

"I'm glad we're friends now, you're really cool."

"You're really cool too."

"I think that Jordan getting Cleo pregnant was good for me, otherwise who knows how long I would've stayed hung up on him. It was a bad thing to you. I hated to admit it, but you guys were actually cute together." For someone who was as pissed as she was, Dahlia was actually speaking rather profoundly.

"Well, I'm glad it was a good thing for you," I smiled at her.

***

"What the fuck?" I heard Noah say as he walked into the fast food restaurant.

"Are you two... friends?" Kyle asked, looking between the two of us.

"We are practically besties now," exclaimed Dahlia, throwing an arm around my shoulders. "Now, take me home!" Kyle chuckled and went over to Dahlia, helping her walk out of the restaurant, after both saying a quick goodbye. Noah took Dahlia's place, and started eating some of the food that was on the tray.

"So, was that a white flag I saw?" asked Noah.

"I guess so," I shrugged. "She's actually really nice, she was just hung up on a boy she couldn't have and that made her act like a bitch. She apologised, and she says she thinks she's ready to move on from Jordan."

"And are you ready to move on?" Noah asked.

"No," I said truthfully, sighing heavily, "but I'm ready to try, and I know that one day I will move on, and everything will be okay."

"You're really strong, you know that right?"

"Thanks," I smiled at him.

Noah walked me back to our apartment with his arm around my shoulders, keeping me upright as I stumbled all over the pavement, and pulling me back onto the pavement when I stumbled onto the road. Back at the apartment, Tabs and Oli were nowhere to be seen, but they must just be asleep in her room or something. I hoped that all went well with her telling Oli, I really hoped that he would be supportive of her and their baby, because I knew that Tabs wanted to keep it, and even though she could handle being a single mother, she really did want Oli to be in the picture. I also knew if Oli decided he wanted to leave her now, I would kick him in the balls, and god only knows what Noah would do.

***

1474 words

30/01/21