Best of Both Worlds

Chapter Nineteen

This was a nightmare. Oh, God, please let this be a nightmare. I would very much prefer this to be a bad dream, but it wasn't. I'd pinched myself on the arm, twice, to be certain. What am I going to do? I paced back and forth in the living room. I should've told them when I had the chance, but now it's too late. Now, everything would be blown out of proportion. I knew keeping the truth away from them for this long, would come back to bite me, I didn't think it would be this hard. This is terrible. My mother flew in to surprise me. A humourless chuckle escaped my lips. Well, she's going to be in for a little surprise herself.'

Oh, God. My stomach churned from the image of my mother, looking down at me with disappointment and disbelief. I couldn't begin to imagine the thoughts that would go through her mind when she sets eyes on me. I cupped my checks with my palm then slid down to make prayer hands over my lips. I don't think I can go to that airport. I can't-

"Okay, enough," Nicholas's strong hands took hold of my upper arm and kept me in place. "You're going to wear a whole in the ground"

"I'm in big trouble, Nick" I let my hands fall limp to my side as I shook my head, like one who mourned.

"Trouble? How does your mom being at the airport put you in trouble?" he ran his thumb over my shoulders and tried to get me to focus on him.

"You don't understand," I gestured to my protruded belly. "She doesn't know about this. In fact, none of my family knows about this"

"What?" He narrowed his eyes and his brows knitted together. "You haven't told your mom, you're pregnant? Isn't that the first thing women do when they find out?"

"Well, not me." I pushed away his hands and took weak steps towards the sofa. I settled down into the chair and slid forward so that I was balanced on the edge of the seat. I ran my hands over my high puff and smoothened up the laidback bit of my hair whilst doing breathing exercises.

"I don't understand," Nicholas came to sit beside me. "Why is this such a big deal?"

I released a mouthful of air and glanced at him. "Look, from where I come from, pregnancies out of wedlock aren't exactly celebrated. And, that's why I haven't told my family yet because it's not easy to break it to them"

"Okay, so we could tell them we're engaged. I think that would be better, right?" Nicholas said after a while.

I sent him a blank look. "That's even worse. You really think that I'll be engaged and my parents wouldn't have a say in it"

He ran a hand across his face and sighed. "Okay, so what do we do? You have to come up with a plan. And, fast"

I rested my hands on my restless knees as I nodded. "Uhm... how about we act like a couple, right? We're not engaged, just dating. That would soften the blow because she cannot find out this," I pointed to my belly. "Was a one-night thing"

He nodded. "Okay, I can do that" He rose to his feet. "I'll go and get the car around whilst you change. We'll work out the details on our way there"

I stood as Nicholas made his way to the door and rushed to my room. I already had on a t-shirt, so I changed out of my shorts into black leggings and grabbed the largest coat I had. The winter cold had begun to seep in so the coat wasn't far-fetched. I pulled on the coat and looked up at the ceiling. God, I know I'm not exactly the golden child but please, don't let this end badly.

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"So, we've been dating for over a year and we met at the hospital" Nicholas drummed his fingers over his stirring wheel. There was a bit of traffic on the main road and we were going over our cover story.