FicWad

It seemed like an eternity before Lars and James came back into the room. In the meantime, I was forced to sit around and wait miserably for him to return. I tried reading a book, but that didn't distract me at all. So instead, I resorted to pacing back and forth in front of the flat screen TV in the living room. Cliff was sitting on a chair peacefully nearby as if he didn't have a care in the world and had his nose buried in some sort of novel that he was reading.

As I passed nervously back and forth, Cliff finally looked up at me with those gorgeous brown eyes and said in his passive manner, "Are you okay, Olivia?" No, I wasn't really okay, but I couldn't just go telling Cliff that. I didn't know Cliff that well and I didn't need him to know just what a hopeless case I was. So instead, I made my lips turn up in a smile as I said stiffly, "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for wondering." Cliff raised his heavy eyebrows at me, which obviously told me that he didn't but the story. Nonetheless, he realized that I didn't want to be disturbed and went back to reading his novel.

After another few minutes of waiting, I found I had to use the restroom. I had no idea where it was, so I figured I was going to have to explore the house for it. At least exploring the house would give me something to do instead of pacing and wasting time. Trying to pretend I knew where I was going, I started down the hall. Once I was about halfway down the hallway, I heard voice. The voices were low and sounded like they were arguing. Being the nosy person that I was, I decided to eavesdrop. I ducked into an empty closet to my right and listened in careful as the voices drew nearer.

"What did I tell you, James?" the first voice hissed. It was obviously Lars by that menacing tone he was using. "Did I not tell you that bringing Olivia here on the tour was not going to be a good idea? I told you that right from the beginning, but no, you would just not listen to me. That's fine since the past is done, but please listen to me now, James. I'm begging this of you!"

There was no response from the second person, who I had learned by that time was James. Lars, grasping his opportunity to continue speaking, went on, "Olivia's obviously trouble, James. First, she causes us to have to get rid of our guitarist. Secondly, she causes you to lose concentration with the band. And thirdly, now we think she's pregnant. You do know that there is just no fuckin' way I'm gonna let a pregnant girl travel on the tour with us, right? That's just not gonna happen."

"We don't know for sure if she's pregnant or not," James contradicted weakly. "It could all be just a misunderstanding. There's not one bit of evidence that she is pregnant. Dave was just trying to mess around with us. Surely you noticed something like that, right Lars?" There was a moment's silence and I could imagine Lars hesitating before he answered James' question.

"I hate to tell you this," Lars contradicted, "But we do have evidence that Olivia could be pregnant. She has a lot of symptoms that pregnant women have. She's been really tired and nauseous lately. Besides, she's also having stomach pains. Those are all signs of being pregnant. Besides, I can't say that I find that news all that surprising. I mean, just how many times have you slept with Olivia? Probably more times than you can even count, right?"

James didn't answer and I figured he was probably turning red from embarrassment. Unfortunately, Lars still wasn't done, "I'm not blaming you for anything, James. It's not your fault at all. If it's anyone's fault, it's Olivia's. She's the one who didn't bother with birth control and all that shit. However, I am going to have to ask you to do something that's gonna be hard for you. I know you really like Olivia, but she's gonna have to go. It's not gonna be hard for you to break up with her at this point."

"Huh?" James asked absentmindedly, "Why not? Of course it's still gonna be hard." Lars shook his head and went on, "Not really. She's probably mad at you for getting her pregnant. All you have to do is break up with her. It's as easy as one, two, three. All you have to do is say those magic words and she'll be out of our hair once and for all."

"Lars," James said in a flat voice, "It's not as easy as you'd like to think." There was a loud sigh. I assumed Lars was wishing that James would just agree with him so that they could end this conversation. Trying to keep calm, Lars went on, "Okay, I suppose breaking up with her might not be the easiest way. But like I've said before, there are other ways to leave your girlfriend. You know that as well as I do. Just pick the easiest way to do it so we can get rid of the fucker for once and for all!"

"Please stop," James said in a dangerous voice, "I've heard what you've had to say. Unless there's anything more you want to say, then I'm done discussing this." There was a pause. I hoped Lars was indeed done talking. Sadly, I was wrong about that. Lars sighed and finally added one last bit to his lecture, "Okay, I'll shut up, just let me say one more thing. We've gotten really far with this band, James. Look where we are now. We're just about to get our first album recorded! The last thing I want his for you to let a pregnant chick stand in your way of becoming great with this band. Just think this through, James. I was right about Olivia last time and I'm right about her this time too. Open your eyes and see what's best for her and the band. There's no way she's gonna wanna travel around the country when she's pregnant. Alright, I'm done now."

With that said, Lars finally did shut up. I heard footsteps pass from next to the closet door that I was hiding in. As soon as Lars and James had passed, I sank to my knees and put my head in my hands. I felt terrible. My body was still sore and in a lot of pain, I was dealing with the worries about being pregnant, and now Lars had just spent a good fifteen minutes trying to tell James what a pathetic little girl I was and how he was best off breaking up with me now that he had gotten me pregnant.

I sat in the dark, little closet and kept thinking about the situation over and over again. I wanted to go talk to James, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that right now. I was much too worked up and upset to talk to him right now. Besides, there was no way I was going to talk to him in front of Lars. Right now, I was very pissed at Lars. He was obviously the kind of guy who would go out and fuck and a girl and then leave her and not give a shit about her if he figured out she was pregnant.

I sat motionless in that closet for a very long time. I figured I should probably go and find the others, but I just couldn't make my legs move. After what seemed like an eternity, the door to the closet opened up just a crack. A sliver of light met my eyes. I blinked rapidly as the sliver increased and as my eyes started to get used to the change in lighting. Through squinted eyes, I looked up to see who had discovered my hiding spots. A familiar head of tousled blonde hair loomed over me. It was James obviously.

Despite wanting to talk to him earlier, I suddenly found that I just wanted to be left alone and wanted him to go away. I loved James dearly, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to know his reaction to all this was going to be. He had never really given Lars a clear answer on what he planned to do with me. For all I knew, he could have come to break up with me right this minute. Or even if that wasn't the case, he could fake his affections for me a little longer until an opportunity came for him to abandon me somewhere. Also, James could be mad at me for possibly getting pregnant. He might blame me for this whole situation even though it wasn't really my fault. After all, I had been taking the birth control so I probably wasn't pregnant. However, as much as I liked to think that, I did know that birth control didn't always work. What if I was one of the exceptions it hadn't worked on?

"Aw, Olive, come out of there," James said, reaching down a hand down to me. Slowly, I took his hand without meeting his eyes and let him pull me to my feet. Once we were both standing, James led me across the hallway and to a little couch. He pushed me down on one side of it and sat down next to me. I waited for him to say something first. I just wasn't in a talkative mood right now. Finally, James spoke, "Um...I suppose we should probably talk about some...things...don't you think?"

I could tell by James' sentence that he wasn't really comfortable with talking about me being pregnant. Unfortunately, it was something we were going to have to talk about whether he liked it or not. Sighing, I nodded and waited for James to speak again. With a strange expression on his face, James said, "What do you think about what Dave said earlier?"

"What part of what Dave said?" I asked. Dave had said a lot of things earlier. How was I suppose to know what James was talking about? Poor James was obviously very uncomfortable with this topic by the way he was twisting his hands in his lap and was still avoiding my eye. James answered, "The part about...um...you being pregnant."

"I guess it's a possibility," I stated stiffly. "I mean, I have been taking birth control, but that doesn't always work. There are exceptions to everything obviously." James nodded and looked intently at his hands in his lap. He was acting pretty weird. I couldn't tell if he was mad about possibly getting me pregnant or not. I wondered if he regretted making love to me now.

Deciding that I really needed to know if James was mad or not, I blurted out, "James? Are you mad at me? We don't know for sure I'm pregnant, but if I am? Will you be mad?" James looked up abruptly from scrutinizing his hands and quickly shook his head, looking surprised at my question, "God, no! It's not your fault if you're pregnant. You didn't ask to be pregnant or anything. I guess it was just a possibility that I never really considered happening, you know?"

I nodded. It was a possibility that I had never considered happening either. I just figured that the birth control would do it's job and that everything would be okay. Unfortunately, things were starting to look like they might not be okay. Biting my lip, I found another question on my lips. I wanted to ask James if he regretted loving me, but there was another question I needed to ask sooner. It was an important question that could change my entire future.

Forcing back the tears that were filling my eyes, I fought to keep my voice steady and calm as I said, "I heard you and Lars talking. I know it's gonna be pretty hard for me to continue on the tour with you if I really am pregnant. Would it be easier if we just break up now so we don't get any more attached?"