Beating For Two

Chapter 15

For a week after the incident in my bedroom, I shunned Harry like the plague and I was pretty sure he did the same thing with me. If I saw him in the hallways at school, I turned around and ran the other way, if I saw him in the cafeteria, I left and found somewhere else to eat, if I spotted him somewhere outside school, I hid behind the nearest building or tree. I felt incredibly childish and immature, but I also felt like I had the right to be; Harry had jerked me off, despite the fact that he had a girlfriend – who was always with him it seemed like – and after doing so, he'd virtually fled the room with a lot of mumbling about how “it never happened”, so what was I supposed to do?

I had no idea and so I avoided him at all costs.

The only problems were that I desperately craved some answers to what had happened and that just like the last time I'd lived my life completely Harry-less – after I got to know him –, I started missing him when it had been a few days. It had felt particularly sad and depressing to go to yet another doctor's appointment without him and I almost hoped that he'd show up despite our... well, whatever it was, but of course he didn't. I'd been there alone while Dr. Hayes performed the ultrasound, asked me questions about my health and miscellaneous other things, and it had felt completely wrong. I wanted Harry to be there with me, but because of my goddamn raging hormones, he wasn't. Okay, maybe he'd been the one to start it, but still.

I wanted to go up to him in school and ask if I could talk to him, but it took me a little while to muster up the courage to do so.

Tuesday, February 15th

Twenty-six weeks and one day

At the twenty-six weeks mark, I felt more like a hippo than a human, and I knew that both Owen, mum and even Ian had taken a notice to it as well. Neither of them said anything, but I saw the glances they were giving me when they thought I wasn't looking; Owen looked suspicious, mum looked worried and Ian looked confused. Not that I could blame any of them because no matter how many layers of clothing I put on now, it didn't hide the fact that the rest of my body remained its usual semi-skinny self while my stomach was growing more and more every day, and it did look strange. It really did. After having gotten quite a few odd looks in my PE-classes when I wore a huge hoodie while running around, clearly feeling way too warm, and when I didn't jump into the shower like everyone else afterwards, I'd decided that I would simply have to skip gym until this was all over. I knew I had to tell mum and Owen the truth within the next couple of weeks though, but for now, it remained my secret. Well, a secret that six other people knew about.

Despite it not helping all that much, I put on two sweaters, a huge coat and an even huger scarf when I went to school that morning. It was only February 15th and the air was still cold enough for it to be possible to wear so much clothing, but as I walked along the pavement and heard the birds sing from the trees, I bit my lip in worry. Spring was slowly approaching and when the temperature reached ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five degrees, I would no longer be able to hide my condition with the help of clothing. The rest of the walk was spent trying to come up with other ways to cover myself up in the following months, but none came to mind and thus added yet another concern to the already sky-high stack that was piled up in my head.

The two classes I had before lunch, maths and history, went by slowly and more than once, I was on the verge of falling asleep. I managed to stay awake though and when the bell rang after my history class to announce that it was lunch, I got up with slow, heavy motions. My plan was to try and locate Harry during the thirty minutes I had before my next class started and I headed for the lockers first to see if he could might be there. When I got there, I saw a lot of people, but none of them had curly hair and a wide, perfect smile on their face. With a sigh, I left the locker-area and headed for the cafeteria in hopes that he'd might be there. But no. No Harry was to be found there and I noticed that it was only twenty minutes left of my break. Figuring that he could might be on the football field, I headed out of the cafeteria and walked through numerous hallways. Just as I entered a completely empty hallway and rounded a corner, I spotted five people walking with their backs facing me about twenty metres ahead. Even on distance I recognized Niall's bright blond hair, Liam's short-cut brown hair, Zayn's jet-black quiff, Harry's curls and... Lauren's flaming red waves. Great. Lauren was here. I drew a deep breath before I sped up to be able to catch up with them.