Just Friends (7 page)

Chase put a pillow over his lap and
then his plate on top of the pillow.

Leah sat between them with her food
on her lap.

The movie started up.

He ate his food and didn’t taste
any of it. Leah sat tense for several minutes before she lay back and finally
relaxed.

Mitch ate his food, watching the
movie. None of it sank in.

Once their food was finished and
the movie ended, she left to do the dishes. Mitch helped her clean away as
Chase set up another movie.

The rest of the weekend was like
that. The tension was not talked about. Friday night was never mentioned. It
was like their time together no longer existed. Mitch didn’t know how long he could
go one pretending they hadn’t been together.

He was in love with Leah.

****

Chase went back to work on Monday
hating the weekend. The advice Mitch’s father had provided sounded good at the
time. Leah was avoiding the conversation and looked more than happy to let it
go. He continued working through his clients, advising them on security systems
and explaining how each of them worked. Mitch spent most of his time in the
office filling in paperwork.

When they got home at night, Leah
was either late or spent most of it in her room. Their time together began to
fade.

He knew it was only a matter of
time before she cancelled Friday’s movie night.

The second week after their love-making,
Leah phoned saying she had to work late that night and on Saturday. Chase knew
she’d asked for the overtime. In the mornings she was leaving for work before
either of them woke up.

The friend he knew and loved with
his whole heart was disappearing. He knew she was cutting herself off from
them.

He spent most of his nights on the
chair. The thought of sleeping in the bed where he and Mitch had shared Leah
cut him to the core. The bed was filled with so many loving memories. Sleeping
in the bed without his two friends felt wrong.

It had been days since he’d had a
good night’s sleep.

Their time was running out. Chase
knew it. Mitch clearly knew it, and from the look of Leah, she was already
prepared to move on.

“We have to do something,” Mitch
said on the third Friday night they were alone.

“What do you think we should do?
Confront her? Demand that she listen to us?”

Chase stared at the clock watching
the hands turn as the minutes passed.

“I don’t know what we should do.
Sitting around waiting for it all to end is a nightmare.”

They both jumped as Leah walked
through the door. It had been a week since he’d last seen her. She didn’t look
healthy.

In the few weeks it had been since
that bloody Friday night, she looked like she’d lost weight. There were dark
circles under her eyes. He noticed the way her shoulders slumped in defeat.

“I didn’t pick up the movies,” she
said, staring at them.

“Are you all right?” Mitch asked.

Leah nodded her head. From the red
look of her eyes, it looked like she’d been crying.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m tired. I’m
going to skip dinner. I don’t feel very hungry.”

They nodded their heads. She moved
toward the bathroom and closed the door.

Chase frowned staring at Mitch.

“She doesn’t look healthy.”

He agreed with his friend’s
assessment. She looked awful and tired. It looked like she’d caught several
illnesses all in one.

Chase made a note to try to talk to
her. It was Friday, and if he was up in time he’d try to stop her from leaving.
She shouldn’t be going to work looking that ill.

Chapter Six

Leah woke up the next day waiting
for her body to settle down. For the past few weeks her body had been plotting
against her. It was harder and harder to get out of bed. Everything she did
felt like a chore. Her body didn’t feel like her own.

She sat up slowly making sure she
didn’t move too suddenly. Glancing at the clock, she saw she’d been dead to the
world for the last twelve hours. There was no way she’d make it into work.

A groan escaped her as her body
protested the thought of going to work.

The overtime she’d been taking was
because she’d needed to catch up on the work she was falling behind on.

The stress at home was not helping
her illness. The thought of being home with Mitch and Chase had her nerves on
end.

They’re
your best friends. They would never hurt you.

But
you slept with them. Things are different now.

She whimpered as she climbed out of
bed. Change, never before had she hated the word like she did now. Her mother
had been right. They had all changed. Pretending nothing had happened was a big
mistake.

Leah stood and looked out of her bedroom
window. The whole city was awash in rain. The weather looked cold and moody.
Even the thought of going for a walk made her feel tired.

Opening her door, she heard Chase
and Mitch talking in the kitchen. She approached the sound of their voice.

They both stopped talking when they
saw her.

“Morning,” she said.

“I thought you were working.” Mitch
spoke over his coffee cup. It was nearly lunch time.

“No. I didn’t even set my alarm.”
She folded her arms over her chest. The shirt she wore wouldn’t cover the
effect these men had on her body.

“It’s about time you stayed home.”
Chase handed her a cup of coffee. Leah took the cup. The scent wafted up to her
nose. The recoil inside her stomach was instant. She put the coffee down and
ran to the bathroom.

“What’s the matter?” Chase asked.

She heard them following behind
her. Leah got to the toilet, knelt down, and vomited the little food she’d
managed to keep down over the last day. Everything she’d eaten and drunk came
up and down the pan until she was dry heaving. Mitch held her hair up as Chase
rubbed her back.

Her head was pounding, and her body
shook from the exertion.

Chase handed her some water, which
she took, swallowing it down.

When she’d calmed down, brushed her
teeth, and sat on the toilet she stared at her two friends.

“Thank you,” she said, meaning the
two words. Mitch stroked her face while Chase had his arms folded.

“How long has this been going on?”
Chase asked.

“What do you mean?”

“The
vomiting, tiredness, lack of energy, and all around sickness.”

“The last
few weeks.”
Leah looked between the two men.

“I think we need to take a trip
down to the emergency room,” Mitch said.

“What? Why? That will cost a lot of
money. What do you think is wrong with me?” she asked, feeling scared. Did they
know something she didn’t?

Chase was pacing, and he’d gone
pale.

“You’re scaring me, guys. What is
going on?”

She rubbed her arms feeling the
chill seep into her bones. Chase knelt down before her. Mitch was stroking her
hair. She’d missed this, the comfort they offered and the ease. He took her
hand in his. “I know we’ve been pretending nothing happened, Leah, but I need
to ask.” He stopped, licking his lips and looking up into her eyes. “Are you
taking birth control?”

Her eyes opened wide as she shook
her head.

Mitch cursed.

“I don’t understand.” She couldn’t
think. What was wrong with her?

“I’ll go down to the pharmacy and
buy one,” Mitch said, leaving the bathroom.

“Buy what?” She watched his
retreating back with tears in her eyes.

This was easy logic, and she
couldn’t fathom what was going on. Chase held her hands in his firm grip.

“Mitch is going to go and buy you a
pregnancy test.”

The colour left her.

“A
pregnancy test?”

The door to the apartment closed
behind Mitch.

“Yes.”

“That night, you didn’t wear
condoms?” she asked.

Chase caught her face between his
palms. He looked intently at her. “Leah, you begged us not to.”

“I begged you not to?”

He hung his head, not saying
anything.

“Tell me, Chase.”

“We put on the condoms, and you
pulled them off, Leah. You told us that you’d waited a lifetime for us and
there was no way anything was going to be between us when we took you.”

Leah closed her eyes, slapping her
palm to her head. “I never even gave pregnancy a thought,” she said.

“Not even with your other lovers?”

She looked at him. “I’ve not had
sex in over a year, Chase. There was no need for birth control.”

Leah stared past his shoulder
feeling like a complete and utter fool. What was she going to tell her parents?
Her mother had warned her about making choices. She’d never thought the choice
would be taken out of her hands.

“I’m taking you into the sitting
room.” Chase leaned around her, pulling her up into his arms. “You’ve lost too
much weight.”

She chuckled. “I never thought
being pregnant would make weight loss so easy.” The chuckle died on her lips.
Pregnancy was a big deal. It wasn’t something she could brush under the carpet.
“I don’t think I can handle this.”

“It doesn’t matter what you can
handle anymore. You’ve got us, and I know I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

Chase sat down next to her. The
television played to itself. She put her hand over her stomach wondering if
there was a little Chase or Mitch inside her.

“This is going to be a nightmare,”
she said.

“How is it?” He covered her hand
with his own. His warmth helped to calm her.

“I don’t know who the father is.”

“Does knowing matter?” he asked.

“It would be a good idea to know
who put a life inside me.”

“We don’t even know if you’re
pregnant, Leah. I think we should do the test that Mitch will bring and make
our decisions after that.”

She nodded her head. Chase pulled
her into his lap. They sat watching the television together. He stroked her
hair as she closed her eyes relishing every touch he gave.

“I’ve missed this,” she said.

“It was never gone. You were the
one who started to distance yourself.”

“I didn’t know how to handle it. I
knew everything was going to change. Pretending doesn’t change the fact
something happened.” She looked into his eyes, seeing the old sparkle back.

“Leah Jones, it doesn’t matter if
the grass turned blue or the sky green. No matter what changes happen, nothing
will be different between us.”

“How do you know? I begged you to
have sex with me,” she said. He pressed a finger against her lips, silencing
her.

“Until you remember what happened
between us, I don’t think you should speak. Leah, we’ve survived kindergarten
and the move to high-school. Not to mention puberty and the first day you got
your period. Do you remember that?” he asked.

She chuckled, recalling the
screaming from his parents’ back garden. Leah had thought she was dying. Her
mother collected her and told her everything. Chase and Mitch didn’t tease her
about it. They came and played some video games while she was feeling sorry for
herself cooped up in bed.

“So, we have puberty and your woman’s
bits developing. Then from high-school exams to college, we survived it all. We
also survived the boyfriends and girlfriends we’ve all had. Nothing would ever
put our friendship in jeopardy, Leah. We’ve missed you.”

Tears were spilling from her eyes
at his words. Mitch walked through the door carrying a bag. He tipped the
contents onto the coffee table. “They have too many to choose from. I didn’t
know which one would work, and I figured if she used all of them, then we’d
feel better.”

Leah reached toward the selection
and pulled her hand back.

“You need to do this, Leah,” Mitch
said.

She nodded her head, picking up the
nearest ones, and taking them into the bathroom with her. Mitch followed with
the rest. Both men stared at her in the bathroom.

“I’d like to be alone, please,” she
said.

They moved away from the bathroom.
Her hands were shaking so much.

****

Mitch sat at the kitchen counter
drinking his fourth cup of coffee. The only sound coming from the bathroom was
the occasional flush of the toilet. He was on edge and wanted to know how it
was going for Leah. His hands were shaking with nerves. Chase sat with his back
against the wall next to the bathroom door.