Don't Let Me Fall Again

Chapter Nine - Tell Me

‘She was nice,’ I commented, closing Ryan’s front door after James’s mam walked out. We had just finished our first appointment with her, and she was brilliant. She talked to us about everything, answered all of our questions, and made a more accurate guess of how far I was in the pregnancy – nine weeks, and my baby was around the size of a grape. She gave me a list of all of the vitamins and food I was to start eating, and the right amounts to eat, and went through the importance of folic acid supplements. She was just like James – super nice and incredibly helpful.

Ryan sat down at his laptop, logging onto his new Facebook account. It wasn’t like him to not want to go out and enjoy a lovely Saturday like this, but I didn’t really understand why I was so surprised to see him return to his laptop. He never stopped going on Facebook these days, and it was starting to get annoying. He wouldn’t tell me what was so interesting no matter how many times I asked. He was messaging someone about something important. I wasn’t just being paranoid – I knew very well that he was hiding something.

‘You’ve just got a dose of the girlfriend suspicion. It’s okay … you’ll get over it soon enough. Every girl goes through it. It’s probably just a false alarm, anyway. I’m sure he wouldn’t cheat on you. Maybe you’ll just have to wait until he talks …’ Gabby had told me simply on Thursday, walking into school with me. I was alone again, because Ryan had something “important” to do. He only showed up once to school during this week.

I doubted very much that this was just a dose of the girlfriend suspicion. I knew Ryan didn’t have another girlfriend. He wasn’t like that … but he was hiding something else, and I knew for a fact that it had something to do with Mr Anderson. What he said to me that night when I was helping him clean up in Ryan’s house just kept replaying over and over in my head.

“Laura, something horrible will happen and you need to be ready for it. I’ve got a bad feeling that it’s about Travis getting locked up. Revenge is a bitch, Laura, trust me.”

When Mr Anderson first said it, I laughed and told him to stop trying to wind me up … but he didn’t smile one bit. He was serious, and since then I was so worried. Another frightening thing was the fact that Ryan refused to tell me what was going on every time I literally begged him to tell me. How could I be ready for something that I didn’t have a clue about? If the other gang was planning revenge, that meant they were going after me. That meant my baby was in danger. I didn’t think I could handle that.

I moved closer over to Ryan, trying my best to peer into the screen, but when he noticed me peeking, he closed the laptop and rolled his eyes. ‘Seriously, Laura, this is getting ridiculous.’

I stared at him. ‘Ridiculous? You’re the one who’s keeping secrets from me. Secrets always lead to lies, Ryan, and lies lead to me leaving.’

‘So you’re honestly thinking about breaking up with me just because I don’t want to tell you something?’

I nodded, glaring into his eyes. I wasn’t going to give up until he told me, and pretending to be thinking about breaking up with him might just work. ‘That sounds just about right. I’ll do anything just to get you to talk.’

‘It’s not even important,’ he growled.

‘Oh, of course it’s not … Mr Anderson just warned me about it for the fun of it, didn’t he? Oh, and not to forget the fact that he quit his job because of what is going on! Not important at all! Don’t tell me, suit yourself! I’m only your girlfriend! I’m only going to have your baby in a few more months! Oh, well, why on earth would I be important?’

‘You are important to me! That’s the reason why I’m not telling you! I don’t want you worrying your head off about what’s going on! You can’t afford to be worrying now – you’re pregnant!’