Chasing Dreams

Chapter Twenty - 'The Seeds of Doubt'

 [Edited 21/7/14]

 Chapter Twenty - 'The Seeds of Doubt'

It wasn’t easy being back with the boys. Lacey had hoped that it would be and sighed. If possible tension was running even higher than it was before she left all those months ago. It was clear that everybody involved had different thoughts and feelings over the current events. Lacey wasn’t over Ollie but she was confident that she could cope with seeing him and Monica together.

She’d noticed the tension between Ollie and the other boys and felt terribly guilty about it. She was still arguing the toss with herself about whether it was her fault or not but eventually felt that, regardless of her involvement, the boys didn’t like Monica and would have never been happy with the situation in any event.

She also noticed how reluctant Elena and Jenny were to spend time with the boys. She suspected this was partly out of loyalty to herself and partly because they disliked being in Monica’s presence.  However, it made Lacey feel incredibly awkward that she was taking Elena away from Bradley and, she suspected, Jenny away from Silas.

Another dimension was Steve. He was, of course, hired to protect the boys from harm, yet he hadn’t been able to protect Ollie from Monica or the situation that arose. He felt torn between the job he had to do and what he felt was right. As a result he seemed to be distancing himself from Ollie which was hurting both of them.

Looking around Lacey realised that she was no longer the only one hurting. She had managed to control her emotions to a point where all she felt was a dull ache, while the others seemed to be fumbling along disorientated by all that was happening. Lacey was thankful that she had learnt to adapt to the situation because she was clearly faring better than the others.

It was quite hard to keep track of time on the tour, the days had seemed to blur into one another until she wasn’t sure how long she’d been with them, but spending time away had cleared her head and she began to notice time again. Keeping in line with Monica’s story, she was roughly four and a half months pregnant. Lacey knew that normally women usually started showing around the four or five month mark. Of course every woman was different but with Monica being so thin, Lacey was surprised there was no bump.  

However as chance would have it Lacey was absent when Monica produced her first sonogram. Upon her return, however, she was given a full account of what happened by Jenny and Elena. She had discovered how cunning and devious Jenny and Elena could be in the last couple of months, so she was not at all surprised that they’d managed to get their hands on a duplicate copy of the sonogram or that they’d been listening to a heated discussion between Ollie and Monica from behind a closed door.

“So this is it” said Lacey looking down at the sonogram.

The baby was tiny, barely even there. There was a small watermark on the bottom right-hand corner of the picture, barely noticeable but for a slight yellow discolouration.

“Yeah” said Jenny “that’s the spawn of the devil”.

Lacey frowned “you shouldn’t say things like that, it’s not the child’s fault and it shouldn’t have to pay for the mistakes of the parents”.

“You’re right, I’m sorry” said Jenny shamefaced.