Love Thy Neighbour *editing*

"I love you."

He was late. I had specifically told him to be here ten minutes before the appointment for exactly this reason. I looked around, hoping that he would just pop up.

Nada.

I checked my phone. I had no missed calls and no missed messages. Was there much point in phoning him? It normally just went through to voicemail, or at least it had when I was sitting on the bus twenty minutes ago. I was going to wring his neck. I was absolutely fucking spitting fire. I couldn't believe he was going to cut it so fine. And then a horrible thought crept into my head; what if he didn't turn up at all?

Of course he would turn up; he cared about baby Peanut as much as I did. Then why wasn't he here? I glanced at my phone again and sighed; if I didn't go in now, I was going to miss the slot. I turned and went into the hospital, hoping that he was going to make an appearance. I bit my lip as I waited for the lift to come down to the floor I was on, all the while, looking over my shoulder and expecting to see Niall jogging towards me.

The lift doors pinged open and I stepped inside, closely followed by a couple. The woman was pregnant, a few more months than me. The man standing next to her was rubbing her belly affectionately, whispering things into her ear. What the hell was it about these lifts that had me reflecting on my life? Seriously; first the crying couple and now this? It was like the great lift Gods in the sky were trying to tell me something.

We reached the maternity floor and I said my name to the receptionist, who told me to sit in the waiting room. My God, I needed to pee. Where the hell was Niall? All of the worst case scenarios ran through my head, as they normally did when I didn't know where he was. What if he had had a car crash? What if he was somewhere bleeding to death while I was mentally calling him all of the names under the sun?

"Evie McKenzie?"

I froze, looking around for Niall, willing him to appear through the doors. Blinking back tears, I got to my feet, turning to the nurse who had called out my name.

"Have you got someone with you?" she asked. I sucked my cheeks in and tried to regain some composure.

"No," I said briskly, before following her down the corridor.

No, right now, I was completely alone.

***

I walked down the street, leaving a set of footprints in the freshly settled snow. I had a sonogram picture in my hand, which I was holding tightly in resistance to the cold. Night was drawing in quickly, even though it could only be about four o'clock. I hadn't gone home right after the scan; I had needed to gather my thoughts. Niall's phone was still off and I didn't know what his home number was. I just had to keep telling myself that he must have had a very good reason for missing it.

But not even that, or the good news I was carrying, detracted the pain I felt when I thought about Niall promising to be there. I would have understood if he had phoned in advance. I might have been a bit pissed off but I would have understood nevertheless. But the fact that he had stood me up good and proper was still raw in my mind.

Then I turned the corner and saw them; Niall and a tall, blonde girl in a tight embrace. Oh for the love of fuck. Did I even have the right to be angry anymore? Was that what was more important than being with me? Some girl. Why was I even crying; I knew that this would happen. Niall's dad was right; he'd got bored with playing the doting father.

Still, I didn't know whether to walk past them with my dignity or start hurling abuse. It would have been easy if the latter hadn't been so God damn tempting. But I managed to walk through my garden gate and towards the front door. He wasn't going to find out how much this was hurting me. He wasn't going to find out that he was actually tearing my heart up into tiny little shreds.