Just Like Heaven (11 page)

####

“Have you still not spoken with Arthur?” Demi’s Dad asked, clearly concerned as he handed her the plate of pancakes he had just prepared.

“Not since he accused me of having another man’s baby, no,” Demi answered sadly.

“He didn’t mean what he said sweet pea, he was just in shock.”

“I’m in shock too but I’m not being horrid to him!”

“Men are different about things like this.”

“Men are idiots,” Demi declared bitterly.

“True,” her Dad smiled. “Arthur will come around; he just needs some time to straighten his head out.”

Demi sighed and dug into her breakfast, wondering just how long it was going to take Arthur to come round, and what if he never did? Despite her Dad hovering so close and the new life growing inside her she felt utterly alone.

####

It was four more days before Arthur contacted Demi to meet and talk. The text he sent seemed so ominous that she found herself throwing up just minutes before they were due to meet. He didn’t even offer to pick her up, instead suggesting they meet in town for a milkshake. Demi wasn’t even sure if she could drink dairy while pregnant. All the signs indicated that Arthur didn’t care and she braced herself for the fact that he was about to break up with her, and worse, perhaps insist he be estranged from their unborn child.

“Hey,” Demi said as she slid in to the table opposite Arthur, noticing how he glanced nervously at her stomach as she did so.

“I’m not showing yet if that’s what you are worried about!” she snapped angrily.

“No, course not, and I’m not worried…” Arthur said, blushing.

“So…” Demi felt impatient, eager to leave as soon as he had delivered the soul crushing news that they were to part. Despite her anger over his absence, seeing him in the flesh reminded her of just how much she had missed him and how much she loved him.

“I’ve missed you,” Arthur stated simply, also feeling in awe of their connection as they sat across from one another; as if she had laid a giant magnet between them, urging them together. Demi noticed as his fingers ran up and down his tattoo as he looked at her.

“I’ve missed you too,” Demi said in spite of herself. She wanted to be mad at him, she wanted to scream and shout but now that she was here, that anger was dissipating. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I’ve been thinking.”

“About what?”

“What do you think?” Arthur said looking towards her stomach and then quickly averting his eyes, fearing that people would see and gossip would leak out and somehow find its way to his father’s ears.

“Surely we should be thinking about it together.”

“Yeah, but it blindsided me. I needed to get my head straight.”

“And now?” Demi felt nervous as she asked the question, her hands almost shaking as they rested in her lap.

“I want to support you, whatever you decide to do.”

“But what do you want me to do?” Demi asked.

Up until that point, Arthur had been so sure that he would just take a back seat on the whole thing and go with whatever Demi wanted. He had lost so much sleep to his worries, pacing back and forth upon the basketball court, hoping some solution would present itself to him but it never did.

The problem was that he loved Demi more than anything. She was who he wanted to be the mother of his children it was just a case of bad timing. He was due to leave in just a few short weeks, to begin a new chapter in his life. This wasn’t the time to start a family. Yet sitting across from Demi, seeing how tired and vulnerable she looked, Arthur felt his heart bleed for her. He loved her. He loved her more than anything, nothing else mattered. Together they could conquer anything, he just knew it.

“I’ve been such a jerk. I should have called you,” he admitted.

“Yes, you should have.”

“But I’m here now, and I want to be here for you and our baby.” He reached out and held her hands which were trembling ever so slightly.

“So… you’re not breaking up with me?” Demi asked quietly.

“Of course not, I love you. The timing isn’t ideal, but this is our baby, together we will make it work.”

The window for Demi to choose not to keep her baby was just about to close. She had prepared herself for the possibility that Arthur insist she not keep the baby, which she was prepared for if not sure she could do. But here he was declaring his love for her and promising to stand by her and the baby. She knew in that moment that this baby growing within her would be a part of their lives and her entire future suddenly changed, even if at the point she didn’t know it.

“So what happens now?” Demi asked unsurely.

“I tell my Dad,’ Arthur said, feeling frightened even saying the words out loud. His father would be angry, disappointed and above all, unsupportive, but Arthur was ready for that. His mother would cry and accuse him of being reckless; the only person who would be happy about the baby would be Jared because Jared loved babies. Often he wandered over to the maternity ward just to look at them all new in their cots, their little pink hands and feet writhing about.

“Nobody knows what life has in store for them,” he’d say to his older brother as they stood looking through the glass.

“There’s something magical about that.”

“Yeah, there is,” Arthur would agree, placing a protective hand across his little brother’s shoulders.

“And I guess that as a baby I looked like all the other babies, like there was nothing wrong with me,” Jared said sadly, pressing a palm up to the glass and envying the clean slate which all the new babies had.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, Jared. You’re just sick.” Jared shook his brother off and walked away, his head down, made heavy by all the life he felt he’d lost to his sickness.

####

Arthur drove Demi home but didn’t want to part from her, not yet. Maybe it was the pregnancy but her skin appeared to be glowing. And he’d missed her so much. He yearned to hold her in his arms and just forget everything.

“Is your Dad home?” he asked with a mischievous glint in his eye as he nodded towards her house.

“He’s out at work,” she answered coyly. “But I’m not inviting you in.”

“Why not, you’re already pregnant, what’s the worst that could happen?”

He had a point. And Demi’s hormones were out of control lately. One moment she was weeping over a television commercial, the next she was so horny she thought she might explode if she didn’t have some alone time with Arthur soon. Impassioned she threw herself across the car at Arthur and they began kissing passionately, his hands exploring her over her clothes as if they were strangers.

“Come inside,” she said breathlessly as they briefly pulled apart.

Demi led Arthur by the hand in to her empty house and up in to her bedroom where he pinned her down on to the bed and kissed her before they hungrily tore each other’s clothes off.

There, on the bed where she’d dreamt of finding true love, they became one once more. But this time it was more heated than before, as though they were liberated in the knowledge that there was no risk attached as their union had already resulted in pregnancy.

Holding Demi close, Arthur didn’t want the moment to end. Her legs entwined around him and he lost himself to the sheer ecstasy of the moment. So lost in their passion that they didn’t hear the door slam downstairs and footsteps begin ascending the staircase before it was too late.

Demi’s Dad opened her bedroom door and looked in on a sight which no father should ever have to face. However, her remained calm and merely shut the door and headed back downstairs, wishing he could somehow erase the past five minutes from his memory.

“Shit,” Demi sighed, pulling away from Arthur who hung his head shamefully.

“I thought you said he was out at work all day.”

“I thought he was. He must have come home to check on me during his lunch break.”

“Does he know?”

“Yes.”

“Dammit,” Arthur grimaced in frustration. “He must think I’m such a douche bag.”

“Probably.”

“Well what now? I can’t go down there and face him!”

“You can go out the window,” Demi suggested.

“I’m supposed to come in
through
the window, not go out of it!” Arthur smirked.

“It’s either the window or the world’s most awkward conversation with my Dad,” Demi said.

“Fine,” Arthur began pulling his jeans on, his face still burning with shame at being caught in the act. It had happened before but then he’d felt proud rather than ashamed.

“Speaking of awkward conversations with fathers, are you going to speak to your Dad today then?” Demi asked gently, fearing if she tried to force Arthur to do it he would turn on her again and there would be another week without contact and she didn’t want to go through that again, not when these last week’s together were so precious.

“Yeah, I’ll talk to him today,” Arthur promised.

“I bet he’ll be disappointed about you not going to Duke,” Demi said sadly. “I know my Dad won’t be happy that I’m not going to college.”

“Duke?” It hadn’t crossed Arthur’s mind that in agreeing to support Demi and the baby he would be forfeiting his college education. He wasn’t sure it was something he was willing to do but knew better than to tell her that.

“Oh yeah, Duke, he’ll be pissed about that,” Arthur said, suddenly filled with fear about just how his father would take the news that his teenage son was going to be a father himself.

“Well let me know how it goes,” Demi said and Arthur planted a tender kiss upon her lips before awkwardly lifting himself out of her bedroom window.

Taking a deep breath Demi prepared herself for her own awkward conversation with her own father who was sat in the kitchen waiting for her.

####

“Arthur you seem distracted,” Conrad Cooper noted as his son awkwardly hovered near him as he polished his car.

“I’m fine, Dad.” Arthur said as he nervously wrung his hands together.

“Then why didn’t you answer my question?”

“Question?”

“Honestly, you’ve the attention span of a gnat sometimes,” his father sighed despairingly.

“I just asked how things were going with preparing for Duke. Won’t be long now before you leave.”

“Duke. Yes, of course. Will be great.”

Conrad Cooper sensed that his son wasn’t anywhere near as happy as he was pretending to be which bothered him, as his son stood on the precipice of an incredibly promising future and should be elated.

“What’s the matter?” he asked but Arthur merely shook his head dismissively. “If you are worried about Jared then don’t be. He’s in good hands with me and your mother, besides, the doctors say he is responding well to his treatment and getting stronger by the day,” the latter part was a complete fabrication but he felt it was necessary.

“I’m not worried about Jared,” Arthur said before realizing how it sounded. “I mean, obviously I’m worried about Jared, but that’s not what’s bothering me.”

“Then what is it?”

“Dad, I might not even go to Duke,” Arthur admitted, not even daring to meet his father’s astonished gaze.