Beating For Two

Chapter 16

Friday, February 18th

Twenty-six weeks and four days

I was sitting by a table in the cafeteria at school, alone as usual, leaning my chin in my hand and being one second away from falling asleep right there. My brain was starting to melt over in a dazed puddle of nothing but a senseless mess when someone poked my shoulder and I snapped back into reality.

“Huh?” I said, my voice a little hoarse, as I looked around myself in bewilderment for a few seconds before I spotted Liam, Zayn and Niall standing behind me.

“You okay?” Niall asked.

“You looked like you were about to fall asleep there.”

“I'm fine,” I said, offering a smile that felt a little forced.

“Just tired.”

“Mind if we sit down?” Zayn asked, gesturing to the empty seats next to me.

“Sure,” I said, and even though I was a little surprised, I opted not to show it.

Liam and Niall sat down on the opposite side of the table while Zayn chose the chair that was right next to mine. Then it went quiet as the three of them looked at me with curious and worried eyes. It became quite uncomfortable after a few seconds and I coughed.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked.

“That's kinda what we were wondering,” Liam said.

“You never texted or called any of us about any news about the baby.”

I shot my gaze down to the table.

“Because there aren't any,” I mumbled.

It had been three days since Harry's fist had collided with my stomach and it had been equally long since I felt the baby kick. Night to Wednesday, I'd managed to sleep well enough, only waking up in worry one time. Then Wednesday passed without a single movement from the life inside me and night to Thursday, I'd spent almost three hours talking to my belly, begging the baby to give me some sort of indication that he was alive and okay. But nothing happened and when I finally did fall asleep at almost four AM, I had dreams about blood-covered dolls with dead eyes staring at me. Thursday passed by, but everything inside my belly remained as calm as ever. That was besides everything I ate, because I spent the entire afternoon and evening in front of the toilet, throwing up all I had. When night time came and still nothing had happened, I started crying, and I kept crying all night as I massaged my swollen tummy and whispered out desperate pleas.

“Meaning...?” Niall trailed off questioningly.

“Meaning there are no news,” I said as easily as I could.

“No bad news and... no good news.”

Zayn shot me an alarmed look.

“No good news,” he repeated.

“So you haven't... felt him kick or anything?”

I swallowed to get rid of the lump that had arose in my throat before I looked down at the table and shook my head.

“No, nothing,” I mumbled.

No one said anything for a few seconds and eventually I looked up, only to find three pairs of wide eyes looking at me.

“You have to go see a doctor,” Liam said.

I shook my head.

“I can't.”

“Why not?”

I sniffed a little, forcing back the tears that were threatening to spill over.