Chapter thirty-seven

Having something hard pressed against my side woke me up.

Ok, that sounded wrong.

I opened my eyes slowly and pain pounded in my head like an explosion, "Ow." I managed to mumble, blinking. My room was slightly dark but it was day time, it was probably another cloudy, snowy day.

Aside the hard thing pressed against me, there was something heavy on my legs and I was at the edge of the bed.

I squinted my eyes, taking a moment to understand my pressed up situation. It was a good thing my bandaged hand was safe.

Groaning at the headache, I glanced next to me to find the cause of the hard poking: Lau. Her elbow was pressing against my ribs painfully. She was completely asleep, her mouth opened, drooling over the pillow, just lovely.

I tried to push her a little bit away but she wouldn't budge as if there was something behind her not allowing the movement.

Mumbling nonsense, I sat up to get a better view at my bed.

Oh dear Ruffles.

This is not what I expected to wake up to the first day of the New Year.

My bed was a mass of passed out humans entangled in ways I didn't think were possible.

Lau was next to me, Jordan was behind her and Nadia was behind him, her head in the other direction of the bed. Shane and Nash were asleep on my legs, laying across the bed. I could not believe we all fit in the bed and slept in such uncomfortable positions.

My neck hurt, my ribs hurt, and I couldn't feel my legs. How could I? I had two human beings sleeping on them and one of them is snoring.

Nash Sullivan snores, people, loudly.

I slid my legs out of those two as slowly and carefully as possible. My plan didn't work. Why? Because since we were all entangled, if I moved, Shane and Nash moved which means the others across them would move. It was like a domino effect.

But I needed to get those off me. I moved, and everyone moved, groaning and somehow Nadia fell off the bed with a hard thud.

Did she wake up?

No.

Did everyone else?

No, they were completely out of this world.

I felt the need to check their breathings.

I got up and a wave of dizziness washed over me. I held to the wall for a second.

After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I rubbed my face. Everything hurts and I feel sick. Why did I drink? Why?

Last night...

It came to me in different flashes and moments.

There was a lot of drinking and me speaking nonsense.

Dancing...

Did I...

A blurry memory of Shane's face close to mine startled me. Oh my God!

I gave Shane a lap dance. What was I thinking? You weren't, that's the thing.

I texted Evan.

I was starting to hate my intoxicated self. Drunk texting? Seriously, Jules? I couldn't even face myself in the mirror so I walked out of the room. I wondered why they were all sleeping in my room. They wouldn't dare sleeping in mom's room but there was a guest room downstairs.

Entering the kitchen, I found Helen sitting in front of the counter, she barely glanced at me, "Morning." I waved my hand, but she didn't reply.

Getting a bottle of water from the fridge, I lazily walked to sit across Helen. She still didn't look at me, her head down.

It was then my still drunken brain did the math. Jason wasn't sleeping upstairs, neither was Helen. I doubted they could even fit but that's not the point. They weren't in my room so they probably took the guest room to sleep, together.

Slamming my bottle of water on the counter, I spoke, "No, you didn't!"

Helen grimaced but said nothing.

"Tell me you didn't!" I pleaded.

Her brown hair was in a messy bun and the word guilt was written all over her face, "Oh Helen!"

"He said he missed me and i..." she pursed her lips, "And I have missed him so much and he was so sweet."

"He was drunk."

She rubbed her face, "I know."

"this is going to sound awful but he probably said all those nice things because he wanted to get laid." I spoke in all honesty.

"I know that, too but I'm weak and it was New Year's eve and I just wanted to feel loved." That broke my heart, "I just wanted to pretend for a moment that he cared, that he loved me."

I extended my hand forward on the counter to hold hers, "It's okay. I'm not judging you, I'm just looking out for you. He has hurt you so much. It pains me, really."

She squeezed my hand, "I know you care about me and I wish that I was stronger than this."

"Love makes us weak," I whispered, "Look at me, drunk texting your brother last time. That wasn't my smartest move. If he had been here, I'd probably woke up next to him this morning. I'm the last person to judge anyone."

"He loves you." She said, looking right into my eyes, "He really loves you, you know that, don't you?"

"I love him, too." I admitted, "Lack of love is not the reason we are not together."

"Then what is it?"

"Lack of trust."

"Are you going to give him another chance?"

I sighed, "I honestly don't know. I've never been more conflicted in my life."

"You'll be alright. You'll figure things out."

I drank the whole bottle of water in one go, "I needed that."

She smiled but it doesn't reach her eyes, "Everyone got super trashed last night."

"Tell me about it. It's a freaking human puzzle upstairs."

"After you passed out on your bed, they kept drinking and it got crazy."

I grimaced, "I can imagine."

"I think Jordan has the videos. Shane was serenading Nadia thinking it was you." I grinned at the picture; that must've been fun, "You two look alike. I haven't really given it a thought before Shane pointed it out last night."

Yeah, we're half-sisters.

I didn't say anything.

Helen played with a cup on the table, she couldn't stay still. There were big bags under her eyes and they were bloodshot. She looked like she didn't sleep one second last night. She was anxious and I couldn't blame her, "Helen, you need to get pregnancy test. This uncertainty is obviously affecting you."

"I know." She looked at me, the plead clear in her eyes.

"I'll go with you. We can go right now and get one if you want."

"Would you do that for me?"

"Of course." I gave a reassuring smile, "let's get ready and go, before everyone wakes up."

We went to the only pharmacy in town. I remembered that night Jason came to my room, looking for condoms because it was close at that time. He and Helen were beginning their casual thing. It seemed so long ago.

The day was cold and cloudy, snow covering the sidewalks and trees. We were back at the house very fast, of course, not before going super shy and uncomfortable when we were paying the pregnancy test at the pharmacy.

That was incredibly awkward.

Back in the house, I had to push Helen inside the bathroom in the hallway. She didn't want to do it and I kept telling her, she had to.

Reluctantly, she went in and after a few minutes she walked out, pale as a white paper, "Oh no..." I whispered.

She shook her head, "I didn't see the results. I couldn't. I just peed on it and put it on the sink. I can't look at it. I can't." she moved her arms around frantically.

"Calm down." I held her shoulders, "We will take a look at it together."

"What are you guys whispering about?"

Jason.

Shit.

Jason stood at the end of the hallway, his hair a mess. My heart almost stopped right there. God, I'm going to die so young of a heart attack.

"Ah..." Helen and I shared glances, why were we always getting busted?

Jason walked towards us until he was facing us, "Both of you have been acting weird since yesterday. What's going on?"

"Nothing!" Helen said in panic mode on.

"We were just... talking?"

Really, Jules?

Jason frowned at us, "Right. I need to use the bathroom."

"No!" Helen and I screamed at the same time.

"Jesus Christ! I have a headache, don't scream like that." He held his head, wincing.

"You can't go in there." I said blocking the door, "We... there's... a leak."

"A leak?" Jason was only getting more suspicious.

Lord, why can't I lie?

Helen opened her mouth, "We broke the toilet. It's disgusting in there."

Jason scrunched his eyebrows, "You broke the toilet? How?"

I spoke before she could, "We got our periods so it got really nasty in there with all the blood and-"

"Oh God, Jules!" Jason gagged, "Too much information. I'll go to the one downstairs."

He walked away and I found my breath again.

That was close.

But then Jason stopped at the top of the stairs and turned around to us again, "Wait a minute. Helen is not on her period. And you two are all nervous and sweaty. You're lying."

Before he could reach us, I pulled Helen inside the bathroom and I went in after her locking the door. Jason knocked on it, "What are you guys hiding in there?!"

"Go away!" I yelled back at him.

"I'm not going anywhere!"

I turned to Helen, "We need to get rid of the evidence!"

Helen walked around in panic, "How?"

"Flush it down the toilet!"

Helen grabbed the pregnancy test and started laughing histerically.

"What?"

Oh shit! The result!

She bent over, holding her belly, laughing, "Helen! Why are you laughing?!"

She showed me the test.

Oh.

Two straight blue lines: Positive.

She was laughing out of shock or maybe she was laughing not to cry.

"Jules!" Jason's voice echoed at the other side of the door.

I had no idea why tears sprung to my eyes. Weirdly, this strange feeling of pure happiness filled me. My best friend is going to be a dad, the love of my life is going to be an uncle.

There is a baby coming, a life forming and growing. I could never be sad or angry about something so beautiful. The timing wasn't the best but things happened for a reason.

I started laughing like a crazy person with tears in my eyes.

Helen stopped laughing and looked at me weirdly, "Jules?"

I walked to her and hugged her tightly, still giggling, "Congratulations."

We broke our embrace and Helen smiled at me, and this time the happiness reached her eyes and gave her a glow, "I'm going to be a mom." She touched her belly and put my hand over hers.

"Yes."

"Open the door!" Jason's voice snapped us out of our moment.

I wiped my tears away, "Let's hide it in the medicine cabinet. Quickly."

We hid the evidence and took a deep breath. Before opening the door, I looked at her, "Are you going to tell him?"

She shook her head, "No."

"No as in 'Not today or no as in 'No never?"

"I don't know yet."

"Alright. You'll figure it out." I said the same words she said to me earlier that morning.

We opened the door to see a very flustered Jason, he walked past us into the bathroom checking. Of course, he found nothing.

Holding her hand, I walked with Helen downstairs. We shared a genuine smile.

It was the first day of the Year and it was already filled with a memorable moment.

5