I Want You All To Myself

Twenty-Five

Hayley's POV 

I dialed the number with assurance, no longer terrified of what was on the other side of the phone line-or so I tried to convince myself. My mom sat behind me, watching my every move carefully, ready to face just about anything. But I wasn't planning on making a scene this time. I kept a hard expression on my face and repeated my speech in my head.  

I pressed the handset against my ear and waited for the ringing to be interrupted. Hopefully, he would actually answer his own phone this time instead of asking his friend to do it for him. 

"Hello?"  

It was him. I sighed in relief. Then, just like I expected, a sudden wave of panic overwhelmed me. Tightening my grip on the phone and twirling the wire around my finger, I promised myself to stay calm and began, "Josh, it's me. I wanted to talk to you about the... baby." I swallowed back the bitter taste crawling up my throat and shot a panicked glance toward my mom who nodded encouragingly. I took a deep breath and got straight to the point. "I'm getting an abortion." 

I felt the sickening guilt of betrayal weigh on me after saying this. Not towards Josh, but towards the thing in my belly, as if it could hear me and it knew what I was planning to do with it. I ignored it and waited for Josh's answer. 

"Are you sure?" he asked in a small voice after a minute of silence.  

"Yes," I said firmly. I had spent hours deliberating with my mom on whether I was ready to do this or not. In the end, we had reached the conclusion that I wasn't ready, but I was even less ready to have a baby. It just wasn't the right time. I was not changing my mind. 

"Ok," he whispered so weakly I wondered if it was just my imagination. My mother took my hand and squeezed it just as Josh was hanging up without another word. I placed the handset back in its cradle and smiled weakly at her. 

"I love you," she said with tears in her soft voice. "It'll be alright." 

Josh's POV 

Unfortunately, after Ian had broken Matt's mom's precious blue vase, she had not only banned him from her house, but she'd also banned him AND me from having any contact with Matt whatsoever-as if this had anything to do with me. Obviously, none of that had been my fault, but Matt's mom had spent the last few weeks just begging for an excuse to keep me away from him, and this was it.  

Which is why, after Hayley called to tell me something I had been expecting for a while now, I had no one to go whine to.  

But I wasn't exactly the type of guy who would give up in front of the first obstacle. I quickly escaped from my house like a ninja-ok, so I told my mom I was going for a walk-and ran like lightning all the way to Matt's. I got there without any trouble and just stood contemplating the house for a second. 

Now came the hard part.  

I wondered if I could just throw stuff at his window like I used to do with Hayley or if that would be too awkward. Before I could decide though, the front door opened and out came his dad, rubbing his mustache and frowning at the paper in his hands. I leaped behind the car in the driveway as fast as I could and landed on my hands. That hurt.  

I spied the short man through the windows of the car until he returned inside with a pile of mail. Breathing out slowly, I got up and examined my hands. Bloody, of course. "Ouch."  

But it didn't matter. I ran to the back of the house and spotted Matt's window. Since it was on the first floor I realised that I didn't really have to throw anything; I could just knock...  

"What the fuck are you doing here, man?" Matt asked as soon as he opened the window. "Gosh, don't knock on my fucking window! I almost had a fucking heart attack!"