26

Josh's POV

Let me tell you a little story.

One day, I was peacefully mowing the lawn in front of my house, thinking up extravagant plans to rescue a slimy creature the size of a bean from its own mother. . There wasn't anyone else around—even on a hot sunny day like today. Or so I thought. But all of a sudden, someone honked me. Obviously, and despite the aggressive noise of the lawnmower that somewhat muffled the sound of the honk, I jumped about a thousand miles.

Turning off the lawnmower, I enjoyed the silence for a second before turning to the pathetic red-going-on-brown vehicle parked right in front of the driveway. I tried making out a face through the windshield, but all I could see was the reflection of the clear blue sky. Whoever was in there was either flashing me a big friendly smile or giving me the finger, but all I could do was shrug and make stupid faces. Finally, the door opened and out came my FAVOURITE person on the planet: Mr. Sheep-Man. I was surprised he had the mental capacity to drive without running into a stop sign.

"Hey, Josh!" he greeted happily, walking all over the beautiful cut-up grass I was suddenly very fond of.

I frowned. I was not in the mood to play Nice Guy. "How the fuck did you find my house?" I remembered clearly that we'd only given him Matt's address.

"Hey, don't be mad! Matt told me where you lived." First of all, it's 'your friend Matthew' to you, twirl-head. And second of all, why the fuck would Matt do that?!

I was suddenly very aware of my very short cargo pants—which I used to wear in elementary school—and my dad's very large t-shirt that I had randomly picked up somewhere and that was most likely unwashed, not to mention the pathetic fluffy pink slippers on my feet that my sister had passed me since I couldn't find mine... In other words, I might as well have been naked. I wanted to evaporate so that Ian wouldn't see me anymore.

"I'm not exactly having guests right now," I said as coolly as possible.

Ian's eyebrows went down in confusion. "But I thought the meeting was today..."

I lost my patience. "What fucking meeting?!"

Just then, a second car appeared around the corner and sped up before braking roughly right in front of us. This one was shiny and new, and apparently the driver was even newer. I swear I heard a bump when the car hit Ian's wreck of a vehicle during the perilous action that is parking.

Who the hell was this? Had Matt finally learned how to drive? That's when Matt walked out of the right side of the pretty car, smiling brightly at me like it was Christmas. Ok, so it wasn't him—unless he was being a badass by driving from the passenger seat. From the other side of the car—just to shatter my Matt-being-a-badass theory—came a tall blonde that looked like she's walked right out of a magazine. Her face mirrored Matt's and for a second I wondered if they were laughing at my choice of clothes.

"Hey, Josh!" Well, I was already sick of hearing that.

"What the fuck, man?" I mouthed before grabbing Matt's sleeve and pulling him away from the other intruders. "What is Ian doing here?" I asked in an angry whisper. "And who's the blonde? And where's Chubby Toby?"

Matt instantly put on his annoyed face—so adorable—when I called his scooter that. It was just too easy to piss him off.

"'The blonde'," he began, his fingers illustrating quotation marks on either side of his face, "is Nicole." He cleared his throat before adding, "My girlfriend." I smiled widely but he avoided my taunting expression, staring at something behind me. "That's her car," he said in case I hadn't already figured that out. "And Ian is here because I invited him."

"Wait, wait," I said quickly. "You invited him? At MY house?"

"Well, my mom wants him out of mine!" he replied defensively.

"Yeah, but it's MY house. My house, my rules, Matty." He rolled his eyes and started to walk away. "Hey, wait a second!" Ignoring me, he showed Ian and Nicole to the door and let them in. Inside MY fucking house.

I had no choice but to follow them. Closing the door behind me, I watched helplessly as they took a seat on the wide leather couch. Nicole sat straight with her hands placed lightly on her knees like a true lady. Man, this girl was hot. Matt had sure hit jackpot.

"So, where's the studio?" she asked in a high-pitched voice.

"Excuse me!?" I eyed her in confusion, apprehending what was coming next.

"Well, isn't that where you guys play?" she asked innocently.

Matt, what the hell did you tell her? "We don't play anywhere. We actually don't even PLAY," I informed her, shooting a bitter glance at Matt.

Nicole looked at him too, questioning with her eyes. A few heavy seconds passed and then Ian broke the silence. "Wait, what's this about?"

"I thought I came here to hear your band!" Nicole shouted, looking around for an answer.

"I didn't even know anyone was supposed to BE here," I shouted back. While part of me was highly frustrated, the other part was actually finding this pretty funny.

"Matt!" Nicole squeaked, waiting for an explanation.

Matt smiled innocently and, looking down, he said, "Ok, I lied. Nicky, I know I told you we were gonna play today, but the truth is… we don't. But since you're here, now we have to." His smile turned proud as he waited for someone to applaud his genius plan.

"So… I'm your motivation?" She looked disgusted at that idea.

I sighed loud enough for everyone to hear. "Matt, that really wasn't necessary. If you were that desperate to start this band, you could've just said so."

"But I've been saying so for months!" Well, he had a point.

"Hey, hey!" Ian interrupted. "Let's all just cool down and show this lovely lady what we got. Josh, why don't you show us that studio?" He grinned at me condescendingly and I looked away. Fucking peace-maker. Who the hell did he think he was, Jesus!?

My sister Sara chose that exact moment to frolic into the room joyfully. Before I could say anything to Ian, she stopped short and gasped at the sight of us. "Whoa, Josh, you sure are popular!" Pointing her finger, she pretended to count. "One, two... three people! You actually have as many as THREE friends?! What did you do, chance your haircut?"

"Shut up, Sara." I knew she was joking, but sometimes it kind of stung. "Let's go." I walked past Sara without a glance at her, straight to the tiny studio hidden in the deepest corner of our basement. It was relatively new, and not too useful, since dad obviously had another much bigger one downtown. But at least it gave him an excuse not to bring me there all the time—other than, 'Son, you're not ten years old anymore!' You just read that in a deep voice, didn't you?

So, we went into the tiny studio and got to work. It wasn't exactly the London Symphony Orchestra, but we did manage to play Happy Birthday and the first two lines of the national anthem. Nicole was a whole lot more supportive than I expected—I later learned from Matt that she was a cheerleader, which explained a lot. Surprisingly enough, I actually managed to have a little fun. Ian may have been a total asshole, but he was a hell of a good drummer. And Matt was creative as always.

Yes, life was good.

That is, until my stupid sister decided to disturb us again. I don't know what was wrong with her, but lately she'd stopped being my favourite sister in the world. She was just so direct, throwing insults around like there was no tomorrow.

"Hey, twat," she greeted, interrupting our awesome conversation about the health benefits of hamburgers.

"Hey, Sara," I said slowly, trying not to lose my cool.

"What's up?" What do you care? We all watched her in silence until she sighed and closed the door behind her wearily. "Listen, I'm sorry if I've been a little rough with you lately." Oh, so now she was doing this in front of the only three people I could call 'friends'? This was a fucking trap. "I've just been pretty stressed, you know? With college and all that… But I wanna make it up to you."

I pursed my lips, keeping a straight face. "How?"

"I don't know… however you want. I can help you find that girl of yours again." She giggled like there was something funny about that statement.

"Don't mention Hayley! Ever!" I roared at her, making everyone jump. Ouch, where did all the anger come from? I steadied myself and waited for her reaction.

"Sorry…" she said again. "What's the problem? Why don't you wanna talk about her?" Seriously Sara, is it that hard to figure out? "Josh?" I didn't want to answer that dumb question. I didn't want to talk about Hayley or her stupid baby or any of that.

"Maybe you should tell her," Matt suggested in a whisper. I felt like turning on my heels to face him and slap him. With my guitar.

"Tell me what?" Sara asked, getting suspicious. I felt Nicole and Ian's heavy stared on me but I kept my eyes on my sister.

"Hayley's…" No, I couldn't tell her. I couldn't tell all of them. I felt my cheeks getting hot while I searched for an escape from this horrible situation. But all I could think of was my utter panic. "She's…" I shot a desperate glance at Matt before remembering that this was all his fault.

He shrugged and turned to Sara. "The thing is, Josh doesn't really wanna talk about it." You don't say, genius. At least he didn't tell her.

"Talk about what?" Nicole asked angrily. "Jeez, if you're gonna start a top secret conversation, don't do it in front of people who have no idea what you're talking about!" She grabbed Matt's shoulder. "You! You can tell me what this is about, right?" She looked at him in such a romantic way that I already knew he would fall for it.

And he did. "Well, the truth is…" He sighed and looked at me for approval, but all I could do was stare back helplessly. "Hayley used to be Josh's girlfriend when he lived in the US, a few years ago." He pretended to talk only to Nicole, but everyone else was listening carefully to finally understand the full version of the story I so wished to keep to myself. "But then Josh moved back here and they were forced apart. But then, Hayley started a band and they did Warped Tour and thus, came here where she met Josh again. And then…" He cleared his throat uneasily. "Josh got her pregnant." There was a general wave of gasps as three accusing glares fell on me. I felt like throwing up. "A—And now," Matt stammered uneasily, "Hayley wants to get rid of it, but I'm not sure Josh is entirely ok with that…"

Awesome, wanna tell them about my drug problems too, while you're at it? Or maybe tell them my bank account number? I was never telling this guy my secrets EVER again.

I expected them to frown at me forever. To leave and abandon me all alone for all I was worth. To stay at least ten feet away from me at all times. The band project was obviously ruined, 'cause I didn't see how Ian would ever talk to me again. And Matt would probably leave me too, so he could stay with his girlfriend who now hated me and was sure I was some kind of rapist.

Or anyway, that's what I thought.

But instead, Sara suddenly went, "Oh, poor twat…" and Nicole got up from her chair purposefully.

"We're gonna help you save that baby!" she said with conviction, smiling at me. "Come on, who's with me!?" Ian nodded approvingly—probably at Nicole's physique—and Sara gave me a one-armed hug that I subtly escaped from as fast as I could.

"Hey, I have an idea!" she said with excitement. "Dad's going on a business trip to America in two days! Maybe you could convince him to take you!"

I snickered. "Yeah right, like he'd actually agree to take me somewhere he isn't even going so I can stop a girl from getting an abortion."

"Maybe you can sneak into his car when he's not looking," Ian proposed. He hadn't said anything in a while, and I sort of wished that hadn't changed.

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Nicole squealed. "Oh my God, let's plan this out! What else do you know, Sara?" The excitement with which flared the next conversation was disturbing. Even Matt seemed to have fun planning out my escape from this fake prison I was stuck in.

I didn't say much, but to be honest, this whole thing filled me with a hope I hadn't even had the courage to feel.

Operation Save-the-Baby was born.

Hayley's POV

I ignored Josh's phone calls until they became very rare and eventually ceased. It only took about two days.

I felt bad every time I watched my phone ring, like it was begging me to answer but I was too cruel to do it. In fact, everything I did made me feel cruel. When I put bread in the toaster, I felt like I was torturing it. When I took a shower, every drop of water that splashed onto the bathtub seemed to scream in pain. Everything from walking in my slippers to squeezing the tube of toothpaste made me feel horrible and terribly guilty. I felt like a murderer, so much that I had to stop myself from turning myself in to the police.

I suppose it was a symptom of abortion and all that was behind that word. But I had to fight it. I had to fight it because there was no other way.

Nothing could stop me.