Chapter 9 - Finding Out
Woody yawned, glancing at the clock, and snapped off the desk lamp. It was now April, and with only three months till the end of his third year, the pressure to do well was more intense than ever.
He looked over to where Bo was sitting on the bed under the covers, reading a magazine peacefully. She looked so calm, it seemed a pity to disturb her. "Now or never"' he thought, steeling himself for the conversation he was about to have with her.
"Bo?"
"Yeah?" Bo didn't look up.
"I've been….wondering….um….that is…..Is there something you need to tell me?" Woody began, awkwardly.
"No." Bo murmured vaguely, flipping a page.
"Ah. Well. See – the thing is…. I've been hearing a few things around the halls..."
"What sort of things?" Bo asked, her eyes meeting his suddenly as she glanced up from her reading material at last. A brief look passed over her face just as quickly as it had come, but Woody didn't register it.
Caught in her gaze, Woody continued to fumble his words. "Well, some of the girls…..well, the girls keep looking at me weird. You know, like, um, side glances as I go past. That was well, strange enough, but then they started getting to whispering when they thought I was out of earshot. But then – um, well, the guys in homeroom have been acting odd too – like, they never paid attention to me before, but…..now, well…the last few months, they're treating me like the big cheese, all high fives, slaps on the back. "
Bo smiled. "It's nice that the guys are seeing fit to include you. Even if the girls are whispering, I don't think it means anything. I'm confused though - what does all this have to do with me?"
"Well, see, I wondered that too. Then – funny story by the way - the other day when I went in for classes, I bumped into that Genevieve girl in your dance group, and she told me she'd seen you throwing up in the bathroom just before Christmas."
Bo blinked. "I don't follow."
"What I'm trying to say is…..well…..Bo, if I need to make a honest woman of you, or a honest man of myself, I will." Tentatively, Woody slid across to sit on the bed, reaching out to touch her stomach.
Bo didn't react. "Genevieve told you what she'd seen that one time?"
"Yes, Bo. Is it true?"
"Um…well….I'm not sure what right she has. It was only one time." Bo looked a little offended.
Woody decided to go for broke. "How far along are you?"
"Far al-?" Bo spluttered, finally understanding. "Is that all? She thought I was pregnant?"
"Yes….wait…..you're not?" Woody's shoulders slumped.
"No!" Bo gave a small smile, relaxing back into her pillow, "No, definitely not. How could I be? We always….well, we use…..you know….we take precautions."
Woody nodded, relieved himself, if still a little sad. "It would have been one heck of a early Christmas present! I just thought – oh God, Bo….." he paused a moment, taking it in.
But wait. Something didn't add up. He threw a look back at his blonde girlfriend, who had gone back to flicking through the pages of her magazine.
"Bo?"
"Mmhmm?"
"Why were you throwing up?"
"Sorry?"
"The day Genevieve saw you? What happened to make you that ill?"
"That must have been the day after I had that cheesecake. Back when I found out about the gala. You remember - when we went to that restaurant. Before Jessie got accepted to the Academy. I remember not feeling too good afterwards. Think I got food poisoning from it."
"That's a shame. You've never had a problem there in all the years we've visited there. Even before you and I were together." Woody mused aloud.
"Well, the staff have changed over the three years I've been visiting there," Bo shrugged, flipping a page. "Who knows that hygiene rules the newer staff do or don't keep to? That cake could have been there for weeks, it's my own fault really."
Woody regarded her. "You don't seem too bothered."
"No point." Bo calmly kept her eyes on her magazine.
"Just a few weeks ago you were the one arguing with a waiter over the size of your portion."
"I was concerned that we were paying too much for what was on my plate." Bo shrugged. "I mean, we can go to the fast food outlet and get $3 worth of food and there's loads, but fancy places like that charge over $35 for next to nothing on the plate and it's all decoration and swirls of sauce around the edges!"
Woody snickered. "Yeah, you have a point." He touched Bo's arm, and she looked up again at his affectionate touch. "But you're okay though, right?"
"I'm fine," Bo smiled at him. "Nothing to worry about." She leaned forward and dropped a light kiss onto his lips. "Now get some sleep."
They hadn't spoken properly for weeks, but going into the kitchen that evening, Buzz discovered Jessie at the counter, making a sandwich. As he entered, Jessie turned and gave him a look.
"Problem?" Buzz enquired, rising instantly, and a little more snappy than he intended to sound.
"No, why?" Jessie continued to make her sandwich, not looking at him now.
"How's Mark? Are you having a good time together?" Buzz couldn't resist the dig.
"Yeah we are." If Jessie recognised that he was trying to throw a barb at her, she wasn't letting it show. "He's taking me to the mid-term dance now. I decided to go with him after all."
"Oh." Now Buzz was disarmed. "You're still going to that?"
"Sure. Why shouldn't I? It would be a good way to close out the term, don't you think?" Jessie replied drily.
Buzz found himself covering, despite his annoyance at his now ex-girlfriend. "Yeah, sure. N-no….n-not at all. I'm pleased for you. You have someone….that m-matches your skill level. I'm sure you'll be g-great together." Blast, why was he stuttering?
He continued as if his life depended on it. "You know, I was going to see if Mollie would be my partner."
"Oh. Mollie? That's Bo's friend, right?" " A recollection stirred in Jessie from the previous month. She'd actually seen a lot more of Mollie recently, almost like the small girl had come out of hiding - maybe that was just a weird coincidence though. Jessie knew she had read somewhere that people noticed a lot more things when they were fresh out of a relationship.
Try as she might though, she couldn't wipe the image from her mind of Mollie's blonde curls bobbing as Buzz had twirled her around the floor in that particular dance class. Briefly, her heart ached with longing and regret over the situation.
"Yeah…yeah that's her. The b-blonde one, short, um – curly h-hair….yeah.." Buzz fidgeted, cutting into her thought process.
Jessie picked up her plate, about to leave the kitchen. She didn't have anything further to add to the conversation, and Buzz was now acting really odd. Also, she'd had a long day and was looking forward to curling up with a book and getting some sleep.
But Buzz blocked her exit. "Can we talk?"
"I thought you'd said everything you wanted to." Jessie responded coldly. "As I recall, it was you that said you couldn't do...this."
"Jessie..." Buzz knew he was losing her rapidly. "I...I just can't bear to see you with him."
"Who? Mark?"
"No! Mark is the least of my worries. I know he's a decent guy, from what others have told me. I just don't know about that other guy...the tall dark haired, evidently far more interesting person,,,," Buzz trailed off purposely...
"His names Karl," Jessie admitted, unwittingly taking the bait.
"So you admit he's far more interesting." Buzz spat, folding his arms.
Jessie looked taken aback. "I-well-he…he has some good stories." She said feebly, looking down at her plate. Her sandwich sat there, and for half a moment she regretted even stepping foot downstairs that night.
"I very much doubt you're hanging around with him only for his stories," Buzz huffed, not noticing the look beginning to pass over Jessie's delicate features.
"Buzz!" Jessie's eyes prickled with sadness, as she now looked up once more. "Don't say that!"
"Why shouldn't I?" Buzz shouted, ignoring the fact that Jessie's eyes were clouded with emotion and beginning to leak tears. "Woody's seen you with him, acting all chummy. I've seen you with him, all goo goo eyed and dreamy."
"You saw me?" When did you see me?" Jessie asked, her tears forgotten for a moment. She started to rile at the thought that Buzz might have been spying on her.
"Just after you go into theatre school. I was going to surprise you with flowers and dinner! Guess I was the one getting the surprise!"
"So why didn't you surprise me?"
"Because you were with Karl!"
"So?!
"So you were looking at him like you were about to jump his bones!"
"You're not in my head! How do you know what I was going to do?"
"Because that's how I used to feel when you looked at me that way! I have never been so disgusted!" Buzz hollered, and Jessie lost it.
"How dare you! I'm the one that should be disgusted! You've gone around behind my back, researched Mark and you're going on what people told you about him, and now you've just said you saw me with Karl, and you even spoke to Woody about him! What the hell is the matter with you, spying on me and telling me that I can't see this person and that person! What about me - I haven't said you can't hang around with Bo or Mollie!"
Buzz was quiet for a moment and then his voice sounded, low in the quiet that now descended between them. "I think you've said enough."
Jessie started to glare at him, then stopped, noticing that Buzz's eyes were different suddenly. They were empty, hollow. It scared her into silence further.
"I think you should go." Buzz added.
"Maybe I should." Was the terse reply.
She couldn't rest. Getting up carefully, so as not to disturb Woody, Bo slipped out of the room, and down the hall.
Locking the bathroom door, she breathed out. The lights from outside the frosted glass of the window filtered through, just enough light for her to note the time on the bathroom clock as 2am, and also to see what she was doing.
Kneeling, she steeled herself, and lifted first the toilet lid, then the toilet seat, being careful not to let them bash against each other. She gathered her long blonde hair in one hand, and breathed a couple more times before she stuck her fingers down her throat. She heaved a couple of times, but the third time did the trick.
Sitting back, she flushed the toilet carefully, noticing the beads of sweat on her forehead. The tiles on the floor of the bathroom cooled her feet as she picked herself up carefully and moved to the sink to splash her face with cold water and brush her teeth. Opening the bathroom cabinet she removed the laxative pill bottle. 'One should be enough,' she figured, swallowing it and chasing it down with more water from the bathroom tap.
Woody thought she was pregnant. She must look fat.
