After the party, we got a move on finishing Andrew’s room. Nick and I went to buy all the things we needed: a changing table, a stroller that looked more like a mutant robot than a regular stroller…and hundreds of other things I hadn’t even known existed until then. My mother helped us out.
At the party, everyone had given us tons of stuff, lots of it very expensive. That’s the advantage of being friends with millionaires… We still had time before the baby was born, but I felt like I needed everything taken care of beforehand if I wanted to relax as much as everyone told me I needed to.
I no longer recognized myself. I was going through emotional swings that drove Nick insane. But he dealt with everything with patience.
I ended up calling Charlie. I needed to tell him that we couldn’t be friends anymore, even though that hurt. My relationship with Nick was too important, and I wasn’t going to risk it. I realized that wasn’t the kind of conversation you had over the phone, so when I called him, I said we could meet up one afternoon and have a cup of tea, and he told me to come over. He swore Michael wouldn’t be there.
When Charlie opened the door, I felt happy, and we hugged each other as tightly as my body would allow.
“You look hotter than ever,” he joked.
I rolled my eyes and went inside. My memories of that night overwhelmed me, and I had to take several breaths to calm down and get through what I’d gone there to do.
Charlie hadn’t deserved me giving him the cold shoulder for so long. I shouldn’t have done it, but I didn’t know if there had been another option. After breaking up with Nicholas, I had changed for the worse, closing myself off. I wouldn’t have been a good friend anyway.
He told me he had quit school and spent five months in rehab. I felt bad that I hadn’t even known he’d relapsed. He told me he was better than ever now, though, that he’d actually become a new person in the past few months.
We had a great time until a certain inevitable subject came up.
“I know you don’t even want to hear my brother’s name, but I promise you, he regrets everything he did to you, Noah,” he said with a pleading expression. He seemed more worried about me forgiving and forgetting than Michael himself had. “He was rehired on campus, and he’s working with students with mental health problems… He really helps them, you know?”
“I know he’s your brother, Charlie, but I just want to leave him and what happened behind, okay? I’m really sorry that means I need to leave you behind, too, but I can’t risk being around him. I hope you understand.”
Charlie nodded. He was sad, though. “I’m glad you’re back with Nicholas. You look happy.”
“Thanks,” I said, hugging him. “And thanks for being a good friend.”
I left feeling ambivalent. I hated goodbyes, but I was about to start a new life, and if Nick had managed to start over from zero, so could I.
When I got home, I was a little woozy, and I went straight to bed. Nick arrived a few hours later and was quieter than usual.
“Do you mind cutting off the AC?” I asked him as I lay back and watched him take off his jacket and tie.
He grimaced, but he did what I asked. Then he turned to me but seemed to hesitate for a moment.
“I know you went to see him, Noah,” he said, throwing me off completely.
Cold sweat dripped down my back. “How…?”
“Steve.”
Of course… Fucking Steve. “I went to see Charlie, that’s all.”
“You go to see Charlie, and then you come home and you’re all exhausted… It wouldn’t happen to be that a certain person had anything to do with that?”
“What? No!” I sat up, shaking my head. Then a sharp pain jolted through my back, and I felt like I could barely breathe.
“Noah?” Nick said, hurrying over.
I inhaled slowly and deeply, and the pain passed as quickly as it had arrived. “It’s okay, don’t worry, I’m fine,” I said, lying back on a pile of cushions.
“You don’t look okay. You’re fucking pale.”
He pushed a sweat-soaked strand of hair out of my face.
“Noah, you’ve got a fever.” He looked alarmed.
“No… I’m fine, really. I’m just a little tired.”
He seemed to be wavering between his anger at the fact that I’d gone to see Charlie and his apprehension at my condition. I didn’t want to see him that way. I didn’t want him to think I’d broken my word.
“Nick… I didn’t see Michael. I promise.”
“What pisses me off isn’t you seeing him or not, it’s you going there without even telling me. I could have gone with you. Your friend isn’t the one whose face I want to break, you know?”
I forced a smile so he’d relax. “That’s done with… That’s why I went to see him. If I was going to cut him off, he deserved an explanation at least.”
Nicholas looked me in the eye, then bent over and kissed my forehead. The kiss lasted a few seconds—he was also trying to see how hot I was.
“I’m fiiiiiine.”
But then, as if my body wanted to prove him right, I felt another sharp pain and had to shut my eyes.
“Nick…” I said, frightened, and grabbed his hand.
“I’m here,” he said. I’d never heard him use that tone before.
It passed, and I fell back again, and Nick said, “We’re going to the hospital.”
“No! We don’t need to. They’re just Braxton-Hicks contractions, really, it’s norm—” I couldn’t finish the phrase before curling up once more in pain. I clenched my teeth and tried to hold back my tears. Not very effectively.
“I don’t know what’s happening…”
“I think you’re going into labor, Noah,” he said, getting up from the bed. I reached out desperately for his hand.
“No, it’s impossible. I’ve still got time left…”
And then, like a bad joke, I felt my thighs and the sheets beneath them go damp.
I opened my eyes with fear.
“Goddammit, Noah, what’s happening?! You’re scaring me.”
“I think my water just broke.”
When I sat up and saw the sheets were soaked, I nearly hyperventilated.
I wasn’t ready for this…not yet.
Nick lifted me and carried me to the bathroom. I was so scared, but he was so calm, or at least he was able to keep a grip on himself and do what had to be done, and I was grateful for that. He sat me on the edge of the sink and grabbed my face in his hands.
“Breathe, Noah,” he told me, stripping off my ruined dress.
“I’m disgusting,” I said, trembling.
Nick seemed not to notice, or not to understand. “Do you want a shower?”
I nodded, and he turned on the water, making sure it wasn’t too hot.
“Stay here,” he said, walking out and returning right afterward with clean clothes.
After helping me out of my underwear, he stood me under the warm shower. I stayed there for just a few minutes. When I got out, Nick wrapped me in a towel and dried me attentively from head to toe. No sooner had I dressed again than another contraction made me buckle over. The pain was so bad, I wanted to disappear.
“Let’s go to the hospital, Freckles,” he said, kissing my forehead once I was able to breathe normally again.
I nodded, scared.
The baby wasn’t quite ready yet…
