Chances of That

Up In Flames

I stared at Josh for a very long time.

I still stared even when we heard out names being called over and over again from downstairs.

It was like what happened earlier with my mum - the words floated out of Josh's mouth and I tried to grab them and shove them through my ears to my brain in order to make sense of them, but for whatever reason, I could not, for the life of me, hold them in my hands.

Josh stood up and then pulled me up with him off of the bathroom floor.

"Now do you understand why we have to do this? Peter's going to ruin his life for another man's baby. He hasn't even told our mum yet! She'll have a heart attack for sure." Josh said whilst shaking his head, "So pull your shit together. It's showtime." And with that Josh shoved me out of the bathroom and down the stairs to the living room.

"Hey Soph? You alright? You looked like you ran off crying." Peter asked concerned.

"No! No, God no no. Erm ... I was absolutely bursting for a pee and I saw Josh heading there and knew I had to get there first so I just ran as quick as I could!" I said without looking at his perfect face.

"OH! That explains the worried look on Josh's face and his sprinting not even half a second after you." He finished.

I looked at Josh, suddenly feeling very .... grateful? No that's not the word ... respected? No. The word was .... loved. Yes, I felt very loved..... Uh oh, probably not good. Definitely NOT good.

"Hey Soph, why don't you put the film in that you bought over?" Josh said to me across the room.

"Oh awesome you bought a film over? What is it?" Peter asked me.

"Ermmm .. It's ermm ... The Three Musketeers. You know the one with Orlando Bloom as the bad guy and stuff ..." I trailed off as I got up off the sofa and went to my bag.

There it was.

The DVD of Josh and Pepper kissing.

I stared at it whilst saying repeatedly "Don't think about it. Just do it." in my head.

I picked it out of my bag and held it in my hands.

My eyes were pools of tears as I walked up to where Peter was sitting and said in a barely audible voice, "Peter? There's something you need to see."

His smile dropped immediately at the sight of my tears and Pepper rolled her eyes next to him (probably thinking to herself about how melodramatic I was being.).

I placed the DVD in the player and stood back.

The image of Pepper and josh came on the screen, and then suddenly Pepper kissed Josh.

I watched Peter the whole time.

His arm removed itself from being draped around Pepper, but other than that he didn't move.

Pepper couldn't have been more opposite. As soon as she saw the opening image, she knew what it was, and she couldn't apologise enough.

"It's my hormones, you know they've gone out of whack." or "He told me things, like that you were going to leave me and that you hated me." and "I didn't really kiss him, it looks that way, but it isn't a kiss." and "I was just talking really, really ... really close to his face so he could hear me properly." were all she could say.

Peter got the remote and rewound it and watched it again.

Rewound it and watched it again.

And again.

And again.

And ... again.

And then all he had to say was, "You two set her up." Then he looked at Pepper, "And you fell for it."

And with that, he got up and walked out.

I burst into tears and so did Pepper, and Josh just sat there, I suppose he was trying to process what his brother said.

And when all the crying had stopped; the silence came.

The thing that finally broke it, was Pepper.

"It is actually his baby you know." She didn't look up from the floor.

"Don't play us like you're playing him, I spoke to your mum. She said that you're so lucky to find someone to accept you and the baby. You're 6 months gone Pepper, and you've only been with Peter for 3."Josh's voice was unexpectedly harsh and it made Pepper flinch.

"I told my mum that it was my ex that got me pregnant because I didn't want her thinking that I'd had a one night stand." She still stared at the floor while she said this and then she looked up and locked eyes with me, "I had that one night stand with Peter. It's his baby."

I looked into her bright, green eyes and somehow, I don't know how, but I knew that she was telling the truth.

Josh was just about to say something but i cut him off, "I believe you."

She let out a sigh of relief.

"But you still kissed Josh eventhough you're with Peter." I said with a straight face and cold words.

"Yes but you don't understand, he reminds me of Peter so much and Peter hasn't given me much attention lately and I feel so fat now that my bump's starting to really show. Josh's speech gave me confidence, and I kissed him as a sort of thank you. Nothing more." She looked so distraught and vulnerable. This was nothing like the harsh bitch that threw me out of Peter's own house the other day. Who ever it was, they were telling the truth with everything they said, and maybe my own hormones were going crazy, but I knew I had to fix this. Especially since Pepper probably wouldn't have kissed anyone else if I hadn't set her up.

Josh must've seen me have a change of heart because he started ranting and raving at me, "For God's sake Sophie, can't you see what she's doing? She's been playing my brother for months now and she's starting to take you down tool! Sophie she's playing you for a fool. This is what she does, she manipulates people into giving her what she wants. Don't let her get you too Soph."

But it was too late. Even if Pepper was manipulating me, I couldn't see it. All I saw infront of me was a scared girl that needed my help.

I looked at Josh and I looked at Pepper and threw an imaginary coin into the air.

Heads = I help Pepper.

Tails = I leave with Josh.

I knew I was making my own decision subconciously, because whatever the imaginary coin landed on, would be what I actually want to do, but it felt better to pretend I was blameless in this.

It landed .. on heads.