No Matter What || #Wattys2016

CHAPTER 19

There were very few people down the street. It was a Saturday evening. I had gone to the grocery store to buy some snacks to bring to Robin's house.

"Yes, mom." I said on the phone. "I'm at Aby's. Yup, I'll probably spend the night there." Luckily she said she would cover for me.

I rang the bell and Robin opened the door.

"Hey. How are you? Are you ok?"

"Hi, uhm... yes, I'm fine." I felt bad for lying to him but it was better this way. I had to know for sure.

I came into the room and sat on the couch.

"Want anything?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Sure?"

"Yup." The room was very untidy; there were magazines spread on the floor, clothes everywhere and stains on the couch.

"I've been thinking about a lot of stuff..." I murmured.

He opened a can of soda, sat next to me and looked at me. "What?"

"We never really talked about...us. Are we officially boyfriend and girlfriend? Why haven't we told anybody? What's gonna happen between us?"

"I know it's been a little...unclear. But things are a little complicated now and... you're pregnant. First we gotta figure out what to do about this." It hit me in the stomach. Maybe I wasn't pregnant. He was worried about me and I was hiding it from him.

"Don't cry." He said and wiped a tear from my face. I hadn't realized I was crying.

There was a long pause before any of us said something.

"I told Aby I was meeting her at the café so I'm gonna get going."

"Ok. Sure you're okay?"

"Yes." I whispered.

I was heading to the café that was three blocks away from Robin's house, when I recognized Roy walking on the street.

"Roy!" I yelled. He turned and his face turned pale. He started running and I chased him. I caught his right arm but he shook me away, pushing me and causing me to fall to the floor. He stopped and looked at me. His eyes were telling me that he felt sorry for me. He slowly walked backwards, turned and begun running again.  'He's probably still mad at me' I tried to convince myself. I got up and entered the small café, were Aby was waiting for me.

Our table was by a green shiny poster on the wall.

"Hi" Aby said.

"Hi" I said quietly. "The weirdest thing just happened to me."

"What?"

"Well, it isn't exactly weird because Roy was mad at me bu-"

"Wait. Slow down. Roy?" Aby interrupted. I took a deep breath and sat down.

"I was walking to meet you here. But then I saw Roy and when he saw me he kinda freaked out. My first thought was that maybe he's still mad at me for...cheating on him, but he was acting really weird. I know I'm being paranoid but I felt like he knew something, as if he felt bad for me getting pregnant. I know, I'm crazy." But Aby looked down to the floor and bit her lip.

"Right?" I repeated. She didn't answer so I started to worry. "Aby, is there something I should know?" She remained silent. "Aby, does he know something? Do you know something?"

"Uhm, listen. He might know something. Didn't you ever wonder how I knew about your pregnancy?"

"Yes, but I just thought you had heard me when I was talking in the bathroom to Robin."

"Well, there's something I haven't told you. I was really mad at you for what you had done. And Roy was in a similar pain so we started talking. One thing led to another and..."

"Oh my god! You slept with him?"

"No! Well...we kissed. We started kissing and, we were about to but I then realized that I wasn't sleeping with him because I loved him. I was furious and wanted to get back at you. So I stopped myself before anything else happened." I nodded. "He said he thought I was right, that sleeping together would have been a mistake. Then you skipped school for a few days and we put two and two together. You had slept with Robin, you were throwing up. So we met again and talked about it. He was so mad at Robin for getting you pregnant. He loved you, and I think he still does. He couldn't take it anymore. So he beat Robin up."

"Oh god. I had seen the scars and Robin told me Roy had done it but...wow. I had no idea. Did Roy tell him why he was mad?"

"Of course. Roy was really angry. He was like 'I can't believe you for her pregnant. How could you do that to her?'"

"So Robin knew Roy knew about the pregnancy?"

"Well...yeah."

"So Robin knew all this and never told me?" Aby stared at me. "It's my pregnancy. I have the right to know."

"Talking about your pregnancy, have you done the test I gave you?"

"I..." I felt as if I was about to throw up. "I gotta go" I picked up my bag and stormed out of the café.