The Elephant And The Ballerina

The Big Reveal

"So... have you managed to speak to um... you know who, again" I was outright avoiding saying his name as I knew her hormone's were running wild and I didn't want to be the source of any discomfort for her or her baby. Genie sighed.

"You can say his name Doofus!" I pulled the phone away from my ear, sensing just talking about him (even without using his name) pissed her off royally. "And no I haven't, its pretty clear now that I'm preggers though, and all the girls at school are having a field day about it" I pitied Genie for that, some of the girls from back home had been royal cows, and now she was the subject they made fun of. Not only that but her stupid ex boyfriend thought she was a cheater and her mum was kicking her out at the end of the month. Genie and I had both hoped that her mum would come to her senses but it was already Genie's first trimester and her mum had shown no sign of changing her decision any time soon.

"But no I haven't. I tried to a few times, but he's sure I cheated and he wont accept any explanation I give him. Nor will he listen to the messages I leave him, and he never answers the phone to me either" I bit my bottom lip, would he answer the phone to me if I called him? Or would be ignore me or hang up? I thought long and hard about this the last few weeks as Genie sent me weekly photographs of her bump which seemed to have doubled in size in the last few days. The rate at which she was eating was ridiculous also, she used to be such a petite little thing.

"I see" I had nothing else to say on the matter, I knew it would only stress her out and make her hormone's rage if we stayed on such a delicate matter for too long so I just changed the topic of conversation and carried on as if that little emotional blip had never happened.

"Got any more morning sickness yet?" I had found it funny when she'd rang me saying nobody was holding her hair out of her face, and in an attempt to do so herself she nearly fell headfirst into the toilet. Genie never was the most coordinated person, and the face that she'd managed to have sex so successfully she got pregnant, was astounding to me. She'd had to quit ballet classes after a few weeks because she kept stepping on my feet and falling over.

"Yep, not just in the morning either. The evening, lunch time, dinner time, morning, noon and night" I laughed a little bit at her obvious over exaggeration. She'd always been one to exaggerate her own pain, every time she'd ever had a bug she seemed to be dying for a few days until she got over it and would come into school with a new lease of life, talking about how everything was peachy keen jelly bean. Something we used to quote frequently from Grease.

"How's it going with you and Quinn?" I nodded, felt stupid because I realised she couldn't see me and then replied with a quick good good. She didn't seem satisfied though, and I knew she would push the matter until I told her the absolute truth. Genie was ruthless like that, and she was the only person who knew the whole truth about my past outside of my own family. "What's wrong?" I sighed but replied honestly.

"We went back to Quinn's the other night after our date and I freaked out because his house was covered in bars and fingerprinting boxes and it was foggy and I just had a few flashbacks to the past" I ran over the words fast to try and get the memory to stop fading in and out of my mind as they had been doing recently. She sucked in a breath and the next time she spoke her tone had changed.

"Aw babe, well are you okay?" I tried hard to force my voice to return to its normal carefree tone but I could not.

"Not really, they wont go away. I have the dreams and everything again and Dad hears me at night so I cant even keep it private any more and I can see its wearing him down, I haven't had a sleepover with Quinn either in case he hears me sleep talking. I'm afraid to let him touch me in case the flashbacks happen and he can tell something's wrong but he doesn't know what" I breathed out a long deep breath, amazed that it hadn't taken more than one gust of air to get all of that out of my lungs.