Chances of That

Wouldn't Change It For The World

I barely slept that night.

Regardless of Pepper's snores that floated up to my room rom my sofa in the living room, I just couldn't find peace in my mind in order to drift off. And when I finally did drift off, it was dreamless and lasted 20 minutes.

At 6am, I'd had enough of lying in bed tossing and turning, so I got up and got in the shower.

I stood under the boiling hot water, urging it to hurt me, to scar me, to make me look as bad as I felt. But all that happened was my skin turned red for a while and then returned to it's normal olivey colour.

I sat on the edge of my bed wearing just my towel and just watched the sun shine move further across my room until, at about 10 am, Pepper knocked on my door and came in.

"Hey," She said in a hushed tone with a bashful smile on her face, "Thanks for letting me sleep here last night." She closed the door at sat down on my bed, next to me, "I thought I was going to have to sleep in their front garden when Peter told me to leave."

I looked at the girl sat beside me, how could I have been so stupid?

Her vicious out burst at me in Peter's kitchen was clearly a display of jealousy, and I have to admit, she did jump to conclusions, but so did I.

She obviously thought that me and Peter were alot closer than she thought and though it pains me to admit it - we're no more than friends.

"It's ok. No problem." I say whilst turning my head back around to watch the rays of sun in my room again.

After a while Pepper left my room and went downstairs to eat and talk with my mum.

I remianed seated in my towel.

How could I make Peter see sense?

What could I do to make Peter see that Pepper was blameless and that she does love him?

I suppose the only thing to do, would be to go over there and to try to talk some sense into him.

No doubt it was going to end up in a fight and probably some tears - on my part - so I didn't bother with make-up.

I threw some blue jeans on and black vest top; the most boring outfit I've worn in a while.

I walked past the two women in my kitchen and ignored their questions of "Where are you going?" and "Do you want me to come with you?".

I was a woman possessed.

I had a mission, and I was going to be successful with it.

I knocked on the door and awaited a reply.

I heard footsteps coming from the down the hall in his house, towards the door. They stopped at the door and a low, heavy sigh was heard through the door.

"What do you want Sophie?"

It was Peter.

He didn't sound angry. He sounded really deflated. Defeated. Useless.

"I need to talk to you Peter." I said in a flat voice and tried to look anywhere but through the spy hole.

A moment passed.

And another.

It seemed like he wasn't going to open the door so I prepared myself to break in through a window or something but then the latch was lifted and the door slowly opened to reveal Peter. But not as I knew him.

He had stubble all over his lower face and bags so deep and purple that he looked like he'd been punched repeatedly. He was where a white wife beater vest and grey joggers.

We both stared at each other for a while, but I couldn't hold his eyes for very long, they oozed pain and hurt, and this killed me inside.

"Peter. I was wrong to do what I did to you-" I started.

"No shit." He cut in.

"But you've got to understand, the fact that you were acting so close to me and so touchy feely and then the whole girlfriend fiasco made me just hate her automatically so when Pepper and I had a misunderstanding - and she was quite aggressive actually - it was my excuse to break the two of you up. I know it probably doesn't make sense and you probably think I'm an absolute nutter." I paused, bracing myself to say the next line, "But ... I've been waiting for you to come back in my life since the second your car turned off our road and you moved to your dad's house and then when you finally return you ... you bring .. Pepper with you and I didn't know what to make of it. I thought she wasn't right for you. I thought she was using you. I let ... someone convince me that the baby wasn't yours and that you were going to waste your education and your life away on this kid. I had to intervene Peter." By this point he was shaking his head, "I guess I did it .. I ... I did it because .... Because I love you."

He stopped shaking his head and looked at my face fully for the first time.

His expression was a mixture of recognition and confusion.

"So you ... you love me?" He asked me quietly, almost too quiet to hear.

"Well, yeah. But I know that I've missed my chance." I sighed deeply, "And I also know that you love Pepper a great deal. That's why you're so hurt and upset about this whole mess."

Peter looked away from me and stared at the wall to his right.

"I think ... that you should leave now. You've said all that you can say." And he started to turn around and walk away.

"No, no Peter," I ran up to him and tried to grab his arm to turn him around but he kept moving his arm away from me.

"No Sophie. I don't want to hear any more."

"Peter please. You got to believe that ..." And then it dawned on me. The only way to make Pepper blameless and for him to forgive her ... Was to make myself the hated, blamed one, "I set her up. I did it all by myself. I didn't want her here so I put a plan in motion almost straight away. I knew she was only here for the weekend so I only had a short amount of time to pull it off." His face looked like he was buying it so I carried on, "I got the camera myself, I told Pepper nasty lies about you, that you were dumping her soon, that you hated her, that you told me that she made you feel sick and that you wanted nothing more to do with her. I made her vulnerable and then I set her up." I paused to see if he'd taken it all in. The look of hate that flashed onto his features told me that I'd succeeded. "And it was my idea to show it to you infront of everyone, I would've even done it infront of your mum if I'd had to. I wanted you to myself so I acted the way I did." A lone tear made it's way down my cheek. "And I wouldn't change my actions for the world."

I knew my speech had worked, the betrayal and guilt etched on his face showed to me that I'd achieved what I came to achieve. He felt bad for blaming Pepper, because now in his eyes, Pepper was blameless. And he felt betrayed by me.

And although that speech was a lie. That last bit was true.

I wouldn't change my action for the world because I've just helped saved a child from missing out on a dad and I righted my wrongs ... Hopefully.

And then I turned away and headed home and at the bottom of the tree in the green between our two houses, I found it.

My father's coin.

It was as if I felt him there with me.

Eventhough it was hard to do, I'd done the right thing, and he was proud of me.

I picked it up, climb the tree like a pro and entered me room.

"Pepper!" I called downstairs, "Get your butt over to your boyfriends house. You both have some apologising to do to each other."

I'd barely got the words out before I heard the front door bang shut.

Peter met her in the green between our houses and she ran into his arms.

They kissed and hugged.

And although it broke my heart every second they did it. I knew I'd done good.

I'd done good.