New Leaves, No Strings (35 page)

‘Yep, drunk three glasses of water
this morning. Will you come and sit with me?’

‘Sure.’ I went into the bathroom
with her and handed her the first test. ‘Right just pee on the end and it will
say within a couple of minutes.’ I sat on the edge of the bath as she sat on
the loo and bent forwards to hold the stick in the bowl. ‘Don’t pee all the
way, you might need to save some for the second test,’ I warned her.

‘Great, like there’s not enough
pressure on me already,’ she said as she shook it and removed it. I looked away
while she sorted herself out and flushed the chain. ‘Here.’ She thrust the
stick at me.

‘Well I don’t want it,’ I grimaced.
‘You’ve peed all over it.’

‘I peed on this end and I wiped the
end you hold. Don’t be such a wuss, I can’t look at it. I need you to.’

‘Lexi,’ I objected.

‘I had to listen to you screaming “
O
Gabe, O you’re so big, Gabe I’m coming, I’m coming”
and the bedhead rattle
all bloody morning. You owe me.’

I gave her a scowl and took the
stick off her carefully as she went back to the toilet, lowered the lid and sat
down, her feet tapping on the floor impatiently. I put the stick next to me on
the edge of the bath and watched the clock.

‘Fucking hell check it will you, it’s
been like half an hour,’ she moaned.

‘It’s been about a minute Lex.’

‘Well it feels longer and you were
fannying around not taking it off me for ages. Please Mia I can’t bear it.’ I
picked up the stick and looked at her before taking a deep breath and looking
down and my heart sank. ‘Well?’

‘It says pregnant,’ I whispered as
I looked up at her.

‘Fuck it. Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUUUUCK,’
she screamed.

‘It may be a false positive Lexi,
we can try the other one.’

‘Now who’s being stupid? I’ve apparently
missed three periods, I’m being sick and the stick says yes, I think it’s pretty
damn conclusive.’

‘Can you pee again? Try the other
one.’

‘Don’t you have to wait a day or
something?’

‘I don’t know. I’m not a leading
authority on pregnancy Lexi, I only lost my virginity five days ago.’ I read
the box. ‘No you can do it again now. Here take it. I’ve found a local doctors
so I’m going to get us both an appointment asap. I’ll be back in a second.’ I
walked over to her and gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and went to
the bedroom to phone. The quickest they could get us in was Thursday morning at
nine. I heard Lexi swearing again in the bathroom. Damn, it must’ve been
positive again. I went back in and looked at her and she bit her lower lip, nodded
and started to cry. I reached out to her and she came into my arms and I just
held her as I rocked her back and forth.

‘I’ve got us into the doctors at nine
on Thursday,’ I whispered.

‘What am I going to do Mia? I can’t
do this, I’m 18 years old. Christ I can’t even look after myself, I burn bloody
sausages.’

‘We can worry about that when we’ve
seen the doctor and found out how far along you are. What did the stick say?’

‘3+ weeks, which is no help at all,’
she sniffed.

‘Well if you were due on at the end
of July, you must’ve got caught mid-July, so you’d be about eight or nine weeks
pregnant by now.’

‘Fucking great,’ she sighed.

‘Come on, we’re going to have our
movie night as there’s nothing you can do for now. It is what it is and we’ll
deal with it when we need to, together ok? Let’s have a comedy evening to take
your mind off it.’

‘Well I’m not watching Knocked Up,’
she grumbled making me smile.

‘Thank god, everyone but me seemed
to love that film,’ I smiled as I took her hand and we headed to the lounge.

We decided to watch Hangover I and II
and I sat on the sofa with her head on my lap so I could stroke her hair, it
always made her feel better. I looked down at her from time to time, but she
seemed fine, totally engrossed in the film, despite us having watched them two
or three times before. We both fancied Bradley Cooper so at least he was a good
distraction. It was just after six thirty when the first film ended and I was
starving.

‘Lex, I need to eat, do you want
anything?’

‘Yeah I could eat, what you
thinking of having?’

‘Well there’s either some of the
Bolognese left from Sunday night, or we have the beef stew Gabe made for us.’

‘Was that what I could smell this
morning?’

‘Yes.’

‘Best I avoid that then, unpleasant
associations,’ she said with a wrinkle of her nose.

‘Ok, Bolognese it is. I’ll have to
go and read the spaghetti instructions and get it sorted. Do you know if we
have any freezer bags or boxes for this stew?’

‘Hey I didn’t know you had to leave
the grill door open. I’ve no idea what’s in any of the cupboards other than the
ones that house the cereal, popcorn, mugs and bowls. Is Gabe coming over?’

‘No, it’s our night. You think I’d
drop our Tuesday nights just like that?’

‘Well it’s all new and exciting and
you can’t keep your bloody hands off each other.’

‘Well tonight we are. I’ve made it
perfectly clear that Tuesdays are off limits, besides I need a break. My bloody
thighs are killing me and it hurts every time I get up and sit down.’

‘Lucky sod.’

‘Yes I am aren’t I?’ I grinned.

I rummaged around our kitchen and
found some plastic air tight freezer boxes, which Mum must’ve got for us. I
loaded up four of them with the stew and stuck them in the freezer and boiled
the kettle and put on the pasta for 10 minutes, thank god the instructions were
on the packet. Once it was on the hob cooking, I went and got my phone from the
bedroom and saw I’d two text messages from Gabe and a voicemail.

Hey girlfriend, I can’t
concentrate in class. All I can think about is how amazing you were last night
and this morning. Are you ok? How are your wrists? I feel awful. Have fun with
Lexi. Your boyfriend G xx

I chuckled and checked the next one
that came in four hours later.

Are you ok? I’m worried
that I’ve not heard back from you. Let me know you’re ok baby x PS I’m glad I
have your pictures on my phone to look at, I miss you G x

I smiled as I read the last part
and dialled my voicemail, he’d only rung five minutes ago how had I missed it?
I looked at the side of the phone quickly and realised it was on mute, bugger.

‘Mia please let me know
if you’re ok. If I don’t hear from you by seven I’m coming over to check on you’

He sounded really cross, god he was
so overprotective. I really didn’t want him turning up tonight of all nights. I
looked at my watch, it was already quarter to seven so I dialled him as I
walked back into the kitchen to check on the pasta. He answered within two
rings.

‘Mia what the hell? I’ve been
worried sick.’ God he sounded mad and so sexy.

‘Hello to you too. I’m sorry, my
phone was on silent and I’ve been studying and doing stuff. I only just saw
your messages.’

‘Seriously? I’ve never met a woman
who puts a phone down for more than a minute without picking it up to check it
again.’

‘Well that’s not me, I’ve other
things to do you know than hang around checking my phone all day, besides you
were in lectures and I didn’t expect to hear from you.’

‘God you sound so sexy on the phone.’

‘Thanks, so do you.’

‘We could have phone sex.’

‘
Gabe
I’m busy.’

‘What’s more important than me
telling you what I want to do to you?’

‘I told you it’s my night with Lexi
and I’m not going to abandon her to have phone sex with you. Besides I’ve no
idea how that even works anyway.’

‘O baby,’ he sighed down the phone.
‘I’m going to have so much fun teaching you exactly how that works.’

‘Then I’ll look forward to learning
Gabe, but if that’s all you’ve rung me for then you’re out of luck. I’ve
boiling spaghetti to watch, Bolognese to microwave and a date with a very
handsome man and a monkey.’

‘Firstly is it safe to let you near
the hob? I hope you knew to take the spaghetti out of the packet first?’

‘Hey,’ I protested.

‘And seriously, Bradley Cooper?’

‘You
do
know your films. Well
he’s quite sexy with his mop of blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.’

‘Well I’m pleased to know that you’re
at least consistent with the men you’re attracted too.’

‘He’s on my famous person, allowed
to have sex with list.’

‘Really? Who else is on there?’

‘Well Gabriel Macht from Suits is
my absolute number one. I know he’s old enough to be my dad, but he just exudes
masculinity and confidence as Harvey and when he smiles,
wow.
You know
Lexi thinks you like a younger version of him, I’ll be very happy if you look
like him at that age.’

‘Suits
is
awesome, but as
for Gabriel, I’m going to try to only focus on the fact that you’re thinking
about being with me when we’re in our forties, rather than you getting off on
his smile. It’s also nice that we have the same name.’

‘Your name’s Gabriel too?’ I asked
astonished.

‘Yes,’ he laughed.

‘Well you call yourself Gabe, I’d
no idea. It’s not that funny, it’s not like you know what my name stands for.’

‘I do Mianna.’

‘How the hell did you know that?’ I
exclaimed and I could hear his smile down the phone.

‘I got hold of your timetable and it’s
printed on it.’

‘You’re
such
a stalker Gabe
Austin.’

‘I love your full name, why don’t
you use it?’

‘I don’t know, most of my family and
friends have always called me Mia and it just stuck.’

‘You don’t think about him when we’re
fucking do you?’

‘Who?’

‘Gabriel Macht.’

‘Gabe of course not. Why would I
when I’ve my very own delicious Gabriel to fantasise about?’

‘So who are the other ones on your
list?’

‘Narrowed to a top three, the other
two are Stephen Amell from Arrow, you both have fantastic bodies and Jensen
Ackles from Supernatural, he’s very yummy and funny too.’

‘Setting aside the serious older
man theme going on here, I love your taste in shows.’

‘Older guys are just so much more
confident and I like that in a man. You’re an exception Gabe Austin, you’ve got
that going on at 19 and it’s very sexy. So what about you? Who’s on your list?’

‘You.’

‘I’m not famous. Come on who?’

‘I like Emilia Clarke from Game of
Thrones and I guess Nina Dobrev from Vampire Diaries.’

‘That’s two.’

‘I don’t have a third.’

‘Then it’s not a top three, it’s a
top two and that’s not a thing. I’ve never heard anyone say who’s on your top
two list.’

‘It’s a never going to happen in
your wildest dreams list, what’s the big deal?’

‘I’ve shared mine with you. I’m
interested to know who you find attractive.’

‘I think you know the answer to
that question, I can’t keep my hands off you.’

‘Shit. Hang on a second the pasta’s
boiling over.’ I turned off the ceramic hob but water was everywhere, sizzling
and turning brown. ‘Shit Gabe I’m sorry I’ve got to go, the hob’s a mess, I’ve
dinner to cook and Lexi needs me tonight.’

‘Is she still sick? What’s wrong?’

‘She’s just off colour and doesn’t
do being ill very well. Listen I really need to go, I’ll see you in the morning
at nine.’

‘Nice try Mia, but we agreed eight
thirty, so be ready. God I can’t wait to you see you again.’

‘Night Gabe,’ I said with a big
grin on my face at his declaration.

‘Night baby, sweet dreams.’

I sighed as I put the phone down. I
didn’t like lying but Lexi would kill me if I told him what was really wrong. I
wiped up the burning sticky water off the hob with a damp cloth before draining
the pasta and microwaving the Bolognese for a couple of minutes. By the time I
plated up I was quite impressed at how good it looked. I really needed to learn
actually cook instead of just heating meals. I loaded up a tray and put a glass
of water on and took it into Lexi.

‘How you doing?’

‘Fine, I was wondering where you’d
got to.’

‘Sorry Gabe was getting panicky
that I hadn’t replied to his texts and left a message saying he was coming to
check on me, so I rang and put him off.’

‘Shit you didn’t tell him did you?’
She shot me a frown.

‘Of course not, how could you ask
me that?’ I asked insulted.

‘Sorry, it’s just personal you know.
I don’t want anyone else to know.’