Cheryl x Liam: Could It Be You? [Book #2 of Inevitable Series]

Part 14

The seconds felt like tortuously long hours as they passed by while Cheryl waited for Melanie to respond. Her hands were shaking, her palms were sweating, her heart felt like it was hammering in her chest. She closed her eyes briefly before opening them again to look at Melanie; Melanie now staring at one of the tests, it seeming that she was almost reluctant to tell Cheryl what the result was.

"Melanie, what's wrong? What's going on?" Cheryl asked, shuffling a little closer to her. Melanie breathed out before swallowing and putting the test into Cheryl's hand. Cheryl turned the test over and looked, tears filling her eyes as she read the result...

Positive.

"No," she grabbed another couple tests to check their results, "No...No...no; Melanie, I can't – I cannot be..." She tossed the tests to the floor before suddenly breaking down completely; Melanie instantly wrapping her arms around her friend to console as she cried in her arms.

"Cheryl, please stop crying sweetheart – please." She told her.

"I...can't...be...pregnant." She began breathing rather erratically, leading Melanie to grab the sides of her face and stare her in the eye.

"Look me in the eye," she told her, "Take some deep breaths; in and out slowly." She then began doing some slow breathings; Cheryl managing to copy her which helped to slow her breathing down a little bit to calm down. Melanie then went ahead and wiped her eyes with her thumbs before kissing her forehead.

"Breathe," she said again, "Now, let's calm down and we'll talk about it. You sit here for a bit and get yourself together and I'll go make us a cup of tea yeah?"

"Okay." Cheryl quietly replied. Melanie sweetly pinched her cheek before making her way out of the en suite. Cheryl remained sat on the side of the bath, looking through the other tests before putting them back on the counter and burying her face into her hands.

If there was one word to describe the feeling she felt right now, it was more so confusion than any other word. It wasn't her not wanting the baby or anything; it was more so being worried about how Liam would react. She already knew that it would probably be a positive reaction especially given how he was with her Sophia, but at the same time, Cheryl had some other strange feeling going on. She was stressed out with work and knew that it was only bound to get worse with the upcoming court case, she felt tired and sick, and it was just a weird feeling.

For some reason, she wasn't feeling ecstatic about this at all – despite having the gut feeling that Liam's reaction would be positive – she wasn't ecstatic about this.

And now she was starting to wonder if maybe if the problem was her; maybe it wasn't about Liam or stress from work – maybe she just wasn't ready to face having another child.

That killed her inside.

She burst out crying once again, burying her face into her hands as thick tears coated her cheeks, her sparkle of happiness in her eyes now being replaced by twinkling tears of sadness. She didn't realize how long she had been crying or realized that Melanie was now back into the room until she felt a warm hand on her back and felt someone stroking hair back out of her face; Cheryl instantly leaning into the warm figure who was hugging her tightly.

"It's me, Melanie; it's so me." She cried, squeezing her eyes shut to try and stop herself from crying even though there was no use really; the tears continued to fall down her cheeks as another sob built up in her throat, daring to escape.

"What do you mean? I'm confused." Melanie whispered, rocking her back and forth slightly to try and calm her down some.

"It's me," a sob escaped Cheryl's lips as she continued, "I'm not worried about Liam, it's not stress from work bothering me – it is me. I'm not overjoyed about this baby; I want to be but I just can't and I feel so sad and tired and I don't like it because I feel like I'm a bad mother or like I'm evil for not even feeling happy about being pregnant again and I really don't like this feeling. Melanie, I'm such a horrible mother – I am fucking horrible!"