Page 11 of Pretty Little Disaster

“Me and some of the boys were dirt bike riding.” he shakes it off as unimportant and I guess in the grand scheme of things it is.

“Did Madalina tell you I was here?” I sigh when I realize she must have been the one who told him, no one else knows. She’s been lecturing me about telling him ever since I told her and I guess this is her taking matters into her own hand.

“No.” Nic shakes his head and moves over to the basin in the corner of the room so he can wash his hands.

“So how did you know I was here?”

“That’s not important, what matters is that I am, especially since you clearly had no intention of telling me.” He looks down and focuses on scrubbing hard at his hands.

“I already explained, I wanted to get it confirmed before I told you.”

“Whatever. This is just typical of you.” He shakes his head as he rips a handful of paper towels from the dispenser and dries his hands.

“What do you mean, typical of me?” I sit up on my elbows in protest.

“Little Miss Stubborn. I bet you were thinking you could do this all by yourself, why would you think to notify the fucking father of the child?” He flings his arms in the air.

“I called you over an hour ago and you didn’t answer,” I point out.

“Yeah, because I was dealing with something, then I called you back and you lied to me. How long were you going to keep this from me, until my kid started shaving?”

“Now you're just being ridiculous.” I shake my head.

“Am I? Am I really? Because I’d say right now you're the one being ridiculous. Why didn't you just tell me?”

“Because I was scared!” I blurt out, hating myself for admitting it under pressure. The look on his face changes from anger to shock and before either of us gets the chance to say anything the door opens and Dr Walsh steps inside.

“Pleased to meet you both, I’m Dr Walsh.” He holds his hand out to Nic so he can shake it, then once he’s finished he does the same to me. “I understand you’ve had a positive pregnancy test?” He smiles, getting straight to work and snapping on some latex gloves.

“Yes.” I side-glance Nic as I answer his question.

“Okay, well, what we like to do first is have a look at things and see how far along you are.”

“Four weeks,” I tell him, starting to get nervous. Up until now, I could tell myself that a test was wrong but a sonogram is undeniable. “I know the exact date of conception,” I assure him, noting how Nic rolls his eyes like a delinquent child. Seriously, of all the people in the world this could have happened to me with. It had to be him!

“Maybe so, but the timeline of a pregnancy starts from the first day of your last period, so we’ll get some measurements and confirm everything’s as it should be.”

“Okay.” I nod my head and rest my head back.

“Whoa… what are you doing with that?” Nic asks when he sees the doctor slip a condom over the probe in his hand.

“This is the ultrasound probe, considering the pregnancy is in its early stages, it's the most efficient way to investigate.”

“And you’re going to put that…into her pu–”

“Vagina,” I quickly correct him. “He’s going to put it into my vagina, Nic.”

He crosses his arms and his face turns stern as he watches the doctor smother the end of it with gel, while I brace myself and wait for the intrusion.

“It shouldn't be too uncomfortable, Miss James,” Dr Walsh assures me when he notices how tense I am, “it’s best you relax.”

“Sorry, I’m just a little nervous.” I giggle awkwardly, and Nic catches me by complete surprise when he takes hold of my hand and squeezes it tight.

Dr Walsh focuses on the screen beside him for a long time, and I start to wonder if my body’s played a cruel trick on me until he uses his free hand to angle the screen around for us both to see.

“There you are.” He smiles as if we’re supposed to know what we’re looking at, and both myself and Nic lean our heads forward at the same time to try and make it out.

“See that flicker? That’s a heartbeat, you must be around the six-week mark for it to be detectable, and looking at these measurements, it coincides with the date you noted as your last period,” he tells me.

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