Standing By

Pillow Fight

(Tim)

My world starting to come back into focus, I blinked water out of my eyes, starting to try to get away from its source. Should I start swimming? Where was it coming from? I threw my arms up.

"Ugh, what the hell?" I grumbled, starting to sit up. Had I fallen off the bed? What was I doing on the floor?

Kevin reached out to steady me. "Slow now. You just passed out."

"I did?" I muttered, feeling totally discombobulated. Then her voice started whispering in my brain, reverberating, echoing. Tim, I'm pregnant. Tim, I'm pregnant. Tim, I'm pregnant.

Oh God. I leaned forward, holding my throbbing, pulsating head in my hands. Baby. She was going to have a baby. We were going to have a baby. And she knew I didn't want kids right off the bat. She even agreed! Not to mention the fact that she was on the pill. You can't get pregnant when you're on the pill, right? A small part of my brain whispered 'course you can', but I told it to shut up.

"Tim?" Adam finally ventured. "Are you, um, OK?"

Not really. Oh Lord, how was I going to tell them this? Shit, now I really will have to quit the band—for the kid. After all that, now just to quit.

"Tim," Chance said softly. "What's going through your brain?"

"Um," I muttered, putting my hands on the edge of the bed and pulling myself up on it. "Err. Well, she kind of just dropped a bombshell on me."

Rob and Austin glanced at each other and Chance shrugged at Adam.

"Yeah," Adam said slowly. "We kind of, ah, heard that."

"Sorry to be eavesdropping," Avi apologized. "She shouted it over the phone."

"Yeah," I grunted. "She's doing a lot of that lately."

"At least now we know why she's been so, um, out of sorts," Austin pointed out.

"No excuse to be a bitch about everything," Kirstie argued. "There are a million different ways to deal with things, but striking out and being awful to your significant other is not the best way to deal."

"Have you ever been pregnant?" Carrie asked hesitantly. "Not necessarily to defend her actions, but when you're pregnant, you've got a gazillion hormones you're not even used to coursing through you. It can turn you into Mom-zilla."

Kirstie shook her head. "No, I haven't."

"Me either," Rob began, making all of us, even me, giggle. "But I have been around pregnant women, namely my own wife. Kelsey never really got super bitchy."

"Ericha had her moments," Adam confessed. "But she never really completely changed personalities. Jenika here seems to have done a complete 180."

"Not to be rude or anything," Scott began delicately, "but has she had any history of mental illness of any sort?"

I shook my head at him. "No, never."

"She's usually nice enough," Austin volunteered. "This whole attitude is really out of character."

"Not being nice right now," I pointed out. "She's said and done things to me that I'm going to have a hard time getting past."

"Could she possibly be on drugs?" Mitch suggested. "Drugs make you do crazy shit."

I shrugged, sad that I couldn't give it a definite answer.

"And feel free to slap the shit out of me if you want, but is the baby for sure yours?" he continued.