FicWad

TWENTY FOUR

Ryan felt yet another wave of nausea wash over him as his brain was trying frantically to decipher the madness before him. Helen was hanging on him, tugging at his arm and talking to him but all he could do was stare at Pete and he could tell from Pete’s resigning shake of the head and the almost shameful expression that this statement was for real. Suddenly as he flicked Helen away from him and began his walk across the corridor towards Pete. It struck him why Pete was so angry with her. He stopped in front of his friend and he asked him one simple question.
“Did you sleep with Helen Pete?” Pete’s eyes shot over Ryan’s shoulder and he saw Helen stood pleading and her hands fidgeting. He nodded. Ryan sighed a long sigh before he turned his back on Pete and faced Helen. She winced as though he had struck her because the expression he had directed towards her felt physical. She knew her only way out was to insist that Pete was lying but she also knew the loyalty Ryan felt towards his friend and was fairly sure he would side with him and not her.
“He tried to get me into bed.” Helen whined. “It was horrible and I’d been drinking and…”
“You fucking….” Ryan held his hands above his head and closed his eyes, waiting for both Helen and Pete to fall silent. They did.
“Ok this is what’s going to happen.” Ryan spoke with a decidedly calm tone as he opened his eyes and look at Helen. “You.” He said pointing at her. “Are going to leave now.”
“But I….” Ryan’s hand raised into the air again and a frown began to creep across his forehead silencing Helen once more.
“You are going to leave now.” He finished his sentence and Helen opened her mouth to speak again. “NO Helen!” Ryan shouted making her jump a little. “LEAVE!” she nodded, a strange smile cracked her face and she left the scene. Ryan turned to Pete. “This is seriously fucked up.” He told his friend. Pete nodded. “I need to know when this happened because if this baby’s not mine.” Ryan immediately noticed the expression on Pete’s face change from one of shame to anger.
“Has she told you she’s pregnant?” he asked Ryan.
“Well yes.” Ryan replied. Pete was clenching his fists at this point but Ryan was lost as usual.
“That scheming little fucking wench!” Pete shouted before he went on to explain to his friend what happened shortly after his encounter with Helen.

Ryan listened carefully as Pete recounted the bizarre turn of events between himself and Helen. He explained with an odd expression on his face how he had managed to drink two bottles of champagne the night Helen had made a move on him. Ryan was aware Pete wished he had a real excuse to have slept with his girlfriend but it was obvious he didn’t.
“Just a stupid fucking moment of weakness.” He told Ryan. “She was all over me and you know what I’m like in that kind of situation and Brendon told me you guys were pretty much done with and I guess I…”
“Just get to the point.” Ryan insisted not really wanting the details. Pete told him that a week or so after his indescression with Helen she had turned up telling him she thought she might be pregnant. Pete was obviously suspicious but did not remember a lot of their encounter and she was telling him they hadn’t used protection.
“I kept thinking to myself it was wrong, I would never do that.” He explained. “I’m a lot of things but that’s just stupid right?” Helen it seemed pushed and pushed Pete on the matter, starting to talk about money and responsibilities but Pete just didn’t believe her. “There’s something about her that I don’t trust.”
“I’m starting to feel the same way.” Ryan muttered.
“I told her to prove it, prove she’s pregnant and I’d deal with it.”
“And?”
“And next thing I know you and her are all tight again and she didn’t want anything to do with me.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you just tell me?” Ryan shouted making Pete’s more relaxed state suddenly tense again.
“I just did.” He looked down at his feet ashamed of himself.
“So what? The baby’s yours?” Ryan then suggested.
“That’s just it, I don’t think there even is one.” Pete replied. “I think she knew you and her weren’t working so she tried to bag herself another rock star instead.”
“But why the whole baby thing?”
“It’s one way to keep a man.”
“Some men it wouldn’t keep anywhere.” Ryan then said.
“She knew it would keep you though and she knew it would get rid of Ana.” Pete suggested. Ana. Ryan hadn’t thought of Ana in all of this and suddenly he felt the tiniest glimmer of hope, if Helen was lying about everything then he would be free to love Ana. Free from Helen.
“What would she have done though, when she wasn’t showing, when she wasn’t pregnant?”
“I don’t know, maybe pretended to lose it.” Ryan stared at Pete and for a moment he wondered if this was some elaborate plan to escape the consequences. “I might be wrong though, she might be pregnant, in which case it probably isn’t yours or mine.” Ryan bent over and rested his hands on his knees for a moment, staring at the pattern on the carpet, trying to gain some perspective.
“We need to find out if she’s pregnant then.” He said. “How the fuck do we do that?”