Friction [Book 2]

-bad news-

"Is Bodhi alright?" I whispered as Pete held back my hair.

I was bent gingerly over the toilet bowl, breathing deeply to try and lower my heart rate. My blood pressure felt sky high and I couldn't stop myself from rushing to the bathroom in the middle of Bodhi's celebrations. His birthday was a week ago but because of arrangements, we had a family part on his actual birthday and then some friends and the boys from the band came around to our house today.

But of course it was today when things changed.

"He's fine, he's with Gabe."

I sighed and Pete lowered himself onto the tiles next to me. Handing me a face cloth, I cleaned myself up as he comforted me with his arm around my waist.

"I feel so bad, what's everyone going to think?" I grumbled, shaking my head microscopically.

Pete just chuckled, "What's a birthday party without someone throwing up, right?"

Laughing, I lightly punched him in the chest. He always made the dark things better, the bad things good, the truth a shadow and the sad the happy. But it didn't take away the fact that it was happening.

"A baby's party, Pete, a baby."

Helping me to my feet, Pete grabbed me a new shirt and I quickly changed before freshening myself up. He gave me a quick pep talk, telling me that I shouldn't give a damn what anyone says because it was my life and not theirs. I obliged and we headed back downstairs to the party.

"Woah!" I jumped back as Calum and Bronx ran past the foot of the stairs, coming from nowhere.

My vision blurred and I reached out to the staircase banister for support, but Pete held me up safely. He was the only person that knew and I intended to keep it that way.

"Are you alright? I can tell people it's pregnancy issues if you want to go lie down?" He whispered in my ear, smiling at the kids who crawled past us.

I shook my head, not wanting to miss a second of Bodhi's first real birthday party.

"I'll be okay, but if anything happens then I'll go upstairs, don't worry."

Kissing my cheek, Pete grabbed my hand and I clung onto his fingers loosely as we walked into the kitchen where all the adults were. We spoke to our friends for a while and despite me being sat down for the whole time, Pete would not stop glancing over at me to make sure I wasn't about to faint.

People continued to ask if I was okay and I just reassured them that it was just all part of being pregnant. Of course, being now almost five months, the sickness should have stopped and a lot of them picked up on that. I just played the conversation topic down, telling them that my doctor told me it was normal.

We opened some more presents and before I knew it, everybody but Brendon, Sarah, Calum, Patrick, Gabrielle and Declan were gone. The group of us sat down in the lounge and watched some television. Declan was almost falling asleep on Patrick's lap whilst Calum and Bronx were upstairs playing together. Brendon and Pete were helping to build a train set that Bodhi got for his birthday whilst Sarah, Gabrielle, Patrick and I were talking about my pregnancy.

"If it's a girl, you should name her something really cool, like after a city or something," Sarah nodded eagerly.

"I like that idea, but I kind of think it needs to begin with a 'b'. Whether it's a boy or a girl. You know, to keep the trend." I nodded.

"Brooklyn?" Gabrielle suggested.

"A tad mainstream," I shrugged.

"Bailey?"