Love Will Save You // Ryan Follese

Chapter 43: Everything was Slipping Right Out of Our Hands

-Danielle-

"Well?" Ryan said, obviously getting impatient.

Melanie turned to me with a panicked look on her face and on impulse, I immediately jumped up, "It's mine." Everyone stared at me with the same shocked expression on their face, even Melanie. I looked at Jamie, who looked like he was going to pass out. "Jaim... Are you okay?" I asked slowly.

"What do you mean it's yours?" he asked, his voice cracking.

"How..." Nash trailed off.

I was about to answer when Amy shouted, "He knows how!"

"What I think he means is your ring..." Ian said, shaking his head.

"Promises can be broken," I said.

"But we've ne-"

Jamie started before I cut him off, "If you'll excuse us, Jamie and I have some things to discuss." I quickly looked at Melanie apologetically and mouthed, "I have to, I'm sorry."

"I know," she mouthed back, nodding lightly.

I grabbed Jamie's hand, pulling him off the couch and to our bedroom upstairs. I pushed him into the room toward our bed and closed the door behind me, locking it.

"How can you be pregnant? We've never done anything," he said as we sat on our bed, facing each other.

I ignored his question and quickly whispered, "Jamie, I have never asked you for anything this big in my life and I probably never will again, but I just need you to play along, okay?"

"What are you talking about?" he whispered back.

"I need you to promise that what I'm about to say will stay between us."

"I promise," he said quietly.

"I need you to mean it, Jamie. I'm trusting you with this. You cannot tell anyone."

He grabbed my face and looked me in the eyes, "Danielle, I promise."

I took a deep breath before whispering, "I'm not pregnant... Melanie is."

"Wha-" he started to yell before I covered his mouth.

"Jamie! Please!" I squeaked, "No one can know! There are only three people in this house that know about this and it needs to stay that way until Melanie is ready to tell Ryan!"

He sighed, "Okay, but I don't feel comfortable lying about this."

"I know you don't, Jamie, but please, do this for me," I begged.

"For you," he nodded, lightly kissing me.

"Thank you," I mumbled, hugging him tightly and grabbing his hand again, walking back out of the room and downstairs.

I guess it was evident that they just dropped the subject, because when Jamie and I reentered the room, no one said anything – not that I wanted them to.

~

*Two weeks later*

It was about 11am and I was in the kitchen with Melanie and Jamie. Everyone but Ryan was in the living room, so we had to be pretty quiet.

"Mel, you can't keep it from him forever. He's gonna find out sooner or later," Jamie whispered.

"I pick later," she mumbled, taking a bite of a doughnut.

"Melanie, look at you! You're eating everything in this house and you're starting to show," I said quietly, "We can't keep this up for much longer. They're gonna start wondering why my stomach isn't getting bigger and yours is."

"Why would her stomach get bigger?" we heard Nash ask. We spun around and saw him, Ian, Maggie, and Amy standing in front of us, confusion written all over their faces.

"Because, uh... We..." I stumbled on my words before Melanie sighed.

"Because we've been lying to you," she said.

"Mel," I stared at her in shock.

She shook her head, "Jamie's right. They're gonna find out sooner or later and I can't keep doing this anymore."

"What are you talking about?" Amy asked.

Melanie took a deep breath, "Danielle's not pregnant. I am."

"Why didn't you just tell us?" Maggie laughed lightly as we all sat at the dining room table.

"Wait, you're not mad?" Melanie asked surprised.

"Of course not! Why would we be mad?" Ian chuckled.

"Because we lied to you..."

"Well, sure, we're not happy about you lying to us, but you shouldn't have felt like you had to. We're happy for you!" Amy exclaimed.

"What are you gonna do about Ryan?" Ian asked.

Melanie shrugged, "I mean, he'll find out eventually. I just haven't exactly found the right time to tell him. I can't just casually say, 'Hey, babe. The weather looks beautiful today. You're gonna be a dad. What do you want for dinner?'"

"I think you just told him," Ryan said, walking out into the dining room from the hallway.

"Ryan! I can explain!" Melanie exclaimed, quickly standing up.

"Explain what, Melanie?! How you've been lying to me the past two weeks?! How you didn't think to tell my right away when you found out you were having a baby?!" he said loudly.

"Ry-"

He cut her off, "Were you even going to tell me or were you just going to get an abortion and pretend it never happened?!"

"Ryan, I-"

"I don't want to hear it, Melanie! I'm done!" he said before grabbing his jacket and car keys and walking out the front door. I looked over at Melanie and realized she was crying.

"Melanie..." I said quietly, choking back tears as well.

She shook her head and quickly wiped her cheeks, "I need to go lay down." She rushed down the hallway and we heard her door close a couple seconds later.

It was quiet for a moment before I grabbed my blazer and keys as well.

I looked around the room at everyone as I slipped my blazer on, "Check on her every once in a while and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."

"Why? Where are you going?" Jamie asked.

"I'm gonna go talk some sense into your brother," I said, running out of the house.

~

Title: "Mine" by Taylor Swift

Outfits:
Melanie: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=62848583
Danielle: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=62848175
Amy: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=62848880
Maggie: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=62848714