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Chapter 28:
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Bradin and Demi had done as Bradin had said and left it for a week. Of course, the week was hell for Demi and involved a lot of puking, but she put up with it. It would go eventually. She hoped. The Christmas holiday was now over and it was the first day back at school. Demi was dreading facing Adam again. She wondered whether anyone at school would know. Erika and Adam were bound to be pretty pissed off at being cheated on, but Demi couldn't see Adam spreading her pregnancy around. But Erika did say she knew quite a few people at the school who she could've easily told, since she frequently saw students at Mona's Sandbar. There was also Cam, but Demi didn't count on him telling. It was like Nikki had said when they first slept together, he didn't talk to all that many people, he's quite shy, and she couldn't see him having it in him to gossip about it anyway. Demi looked at herself in the mirror. She had chosen to wear a white skirt with a plain, light blue t-shirt. She straightened her outfit and gave herself a good hard look in the mirror. She couldn't help staring at her stomach. She lifted the hem of her t-shirt, revealing her belly. Demi had always had a good figure. She turned left and right, looking at how she looked from all different angles. She ran her hand down her belly. Her eyes widened. Was her belly any bigger? 'You're being paranoid, Demi.' A voice in her head told her. She continued to stare. She could swear she looked fat. She continued looking from different angles, running her hand over her stomach to see how far out it went. She felt like she was being stupid, but she couldn't help it. A few tears prickled in her eyes. She felt so ugly, she felt fat, even though she knew she was in the earliest stages of pregnancy. She prayed that no tears would fall, but one hovered precariously in her eye.
"You ok?" Demi was shocked to see Bradin staring at her from the door. She hated when people asked what's wrong when you were upset, it only makes you cry. She didn't drop her t-shirt, but looked down at her belly.
"Do I look fatter?" She asked, her voice quivering.
"What? Demi, your stomachs flat as a board, your only a few weeks pregnant!" Bradin said incredulously. A tear fell down her cheek. Bradin couldn't believe the thought had even crossed her mind.
"It's bigger." She said, referring to her stomach, her voice becoming croakier. Bradin only just remembered about women being way too hormonal when they were pregnant. He pulled her into a hug.
"You're perfect." He told her, gently stroking her hair. "And in no way are you fat. This baby will have to be in there a good month or so if it's going to start showing. Don't worry, Demi, your beautiful." He pulled out of the embrace, wiping the tear from her face.
"Thanks." She sniffed with a little smile. "Bradin… you don't think people at school will know, do you? Adam or Erika won't have told, will they?" Demi asked, worried.
"I don't know, but I kinda doubt it." Demi nodded.
"You won't tell anyone, will you?" She asked, looking up at him. He could see the fear in her eyes, it had gotten slowly worse over time.
"Of course not." He told her gently. "Now come on, or else we'll be late for school."
--15 minutes later--
"Thanks, Johnny." Demi said as she, Bradin and Nikki left the car. Adam was sat with the rest of the surfers, not really joining in with their conversation. Demi took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Demi and Bradin were both scared of confronting Adam, they'd both betrayed him. They walked slowly towards the surfers.
"Bradin, I've only just thought, what if I need to throw up in school?" Demi asked, panicking.
"Then run out of the room and throw up. Have you brought any ginger biscuits or anything, they've worked quite well lately." He replied.
"Yeah, I've got a few. And they have worked, but they don't fully stop me throwing up, I still do sometimes." Demi said, slightly annoyed. She took another deep breath when they reached the surfers. "Hey, Adam." Demi said in a small voice. He looked at her for a moment, studying her.
"Hey." He replied, not looking at her.
"Adam, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone, I mean." Demi asked timidly.
"Woah, Adam, I think she's breaking up with you, dude. You mind if I give her my shoulder to cry on?" It was Matt. He made Demi's stomach turn. She clenched her hands.
"Shut up, Matt." Bradin snapped. Adam got up after a moment or two and followed Demi, walking into the hallway, which was pretty empty seeing as the bell hadn't gone yet.
"I know I said this before, but I really am sorry. I'd never been drunk before-"
"And that's an excuse." Adam said bitterly.
"No, it's not, I just- I can't believe it happened. If I could turn back time, I would. I regretted it from the moment I woke up and I've been kicking myself ever since that moment. I couldn't believe I'd been unfaithful to you, Adam, I really wasn't lying all the times I said I love you." Demi apologised, beginning to get slightly emotional, as she had done way to easily lately, which annoyed her.
"I wasn't lying when I said I love you, too. I just didn't think you'd ever cheat. It's like, I thought you were the perfect girlfriend," Adam said, looking at her now, "and you're not."
"Don't you think I've been kicking myself like crazy for that!?" Demi said, tears in her eyes from Adam's stinging words. "And I hate myself for that. You are always perfect to me, always! And I ruined it all in one night. I made a mistake, but doesn't everyone? And no, I don't mean everyone does what I did, but we all make mistakes, Adam, even you." She said as a tear rolled from each of her eyes.
"Just because we all make them doesn't mean we should forgive them. That's why they're mistakes." Demi sniffed tearfully. The bell rang above them. "I gotta get to class." He said, leaving her stood in the middle of the hallway, tears descending down her face. She wiped them bitterly. Of course, Adam was right and she'd expected this, but it didn't mean that a small part of her hoped that he'd be forgiving, give her another chance. And this small part of her had just been completely stomped on.
"Demi, what's wrong?" It was Shannon and Stacy, 2 of the girls Demi sits with at lunch. She quickly broke down into sobs, both of them walking her to the bathroom for tissues and to clean herself up.
"Me and Adam are over." She said, wiping her eyes with some tissues. Their mouths dropped.
"I'm so sorry, Demi." Shannon told her. She shook her head in an it-doesn't-matter way and decided against saying it was her fault, not wanting the truth to come out. She stayed in the bathroom for another 5 minutes before she felt she looked ok to go to class, reapplying her mascara and eyeliner. She made her way to English, a class she dreaded, seeing as she usually sat next to Adam. She walked through the door, disappointed to see that the seating arrangements hadn't changed and that she was going to have to survive a whole lesson sitting next to her ex.
"I'm glad you decided to join us, Miss King." Miss Harrison said disapprovingly.
"Sorry, I didn't feel well, Miss." She found Bradin's eyes fixed on her, giving her a look that asked whether she'd thrown up. She gave her head a little shake before taking her seat next to Adam, sitting silently.
Half an hour of the lesson went by, feeling like an eternity. Demi felt a small wave of sickness wash over her. She quickly rummaged in her bag and pulled out a ginger biscuit and ate it as fast as she could, receiving a strange look of Adam, which she ignored.
"No eating in class, Miss King." Miss Harrison said sternly.
"Sorry Miss." The biscuit hadn't helped at all. Another wave of sickness washed over her, a lot worse than the last one. "Shit." She said, causing everyone to look at her as she got up and ran towards the door.
"Miss King, get back in your-" Her sentence was cut short by the sound of Demi throwing up, just as her hand reached the door handle but not quite opening it yet. The class gave their disgusted noises, thoroughly annoying Demi. This 'alien' really had it in for her, it seemed.
"Go and see the nurse." Miss Harrison said angrily, thrusting a hall pass at her, annoyed that she had soiled the floor. Demi sure as hell didn't want to see the school nurse and be asked all the questions she knew were bound to come. She picked up her bag and left. Not just the classroom, but also the school. No one other than the people who already knew were going to find out about her being pregnant. She ruled out going to Mona's sandbar, not quite up to facing Erika. She also ruled out Beyond the blue, not wanting to be a burden to Jay. She ran most of the way home and was there within ten minutes.
"Demi?" Demi knew this voice all too well. She turned to see Ava staring at her from the kitchen, holding onto a mug of coffee dependently.
"I threw up." Demi said. "She wanted me to go to the nurse." Ava stared at her for a long moment, then nodded understandingly.
"Ok." She said. Demi gave a weak smile before joining Ava in the kitchen.
"What am I going to do? I can't keep throwing up in school, what if people start guessing why I'm throwing up so frequently?" Demi asked, pulling a packet of ginger biscuits out of her bag as she began to munch on them.
"We're going to have to work something out, but we'll leave that for later when everyone else is here so we can all help." Demi nodded. "So have you thought about it? You and Bradin have left it a week now." Ava asked.
"I was going to talk to Bradin about it tonight." Demi replied, pouring herself a steaming cup of ginger tea, which seemed to help her a hell of a lot more than the biscuits.
"Oh, I understand if you want to tell him first."
"I- I'm not so confused anymore. I just don't know what to do with it." Demi said, looking down at her belly.
"I know it must be really difficult Demi, we're all trying to get our heads around it, but I know you'll do what's right, no matter what everyone else considers the right thing. You've got a good head on your shoulders." Ava said comfortingly, giving her a smile. "So, how've you been feeling lately, with the baby and everything?"
"Honestly, I think the little alien has it in for me." Ava smirked a little, she'd heard Demi refer to it as an alien once or twice before, never failing to make her smile. "I'm up twice through the night, on a good day! And my boobs have never hurt so much before in my life." Demi said, a little stressfully. "And I'm tired, and I need to pee all the time." Demi continued.
"Well, these are all very common pregnancy symptoms. I'm just wondering how long it will be before you start having cravings." Ava laughed. Ava looked at Demi's thoughtful face. "But of course the pregnancy might not even last that long." Ava said, serious.
"I- I know this little aliens annoying me, and the symptoms of being pregnant couldn't piss me off more if they tried, but I don't… I don't want to 'abort' the baby, it sounds wrong. I mean, I'm all for abortion, women should be able to get them with no hassle, but I'm not sure if I want to do that." Demi said quietly. Demi noticed Ava smiling. "What?"
"You just called it a baby, not an alien." She said with a little laugh.
"I guess I did." Demi subconsciously placed a hand to her stomach, sipping on her ginger tea. Ava considered mentioning this, but decided not to.
The next few hours went by, with Demi only throwing up once, which she was weirdly proud of. Her tiredness had gotten the better of her and she'd drifted off to sleep on the sofa.
"How long as she been asleep?" Demi woke up. "Sorry." Bradin said, not meaning to have been loud enough to wake her up.
"It's ok, I'm a super-light sleeper."
"How're you doing?" He asked curiously.
"Good." Demi said with a smile. "Only threw up once." Bradin laughed a little at this. "Hey, Bradin, can I, um, talk to you for a minute?"
"Yeah, sure." He said, as normally as he could but Demi could sense that he was a little nervous. Bradin led her to his room, which was the closest.
"We've had about a week to think about this." Demi said, sitting on the bed, entwining her fingers and resting them on her stomach, subconsciously.
"I know." Bradin said, exhaling loudly.
"I want to know what you think first." Demi told him. Bradin wished that she hadn't said that, but respected her wishes.
"To be honest with you, Dem, I don't know. I mean, I'll go through with whatever you decide to do, I think you should have the final decision. But… well, all the weeks you've been pregnant so far have been ok, with a bit of sick here and there, but that's to be expected. It's up to you, I just wanna do whatever you do."
"… I'm all for abortion, I think you should be able to get it and all that, but something is telling me not to abort the baby. I don't know what it is, I just don't think I should do it. But I had another idea. There's loads of infertile people out there who'd love to have kids, and we could put the baby up for adoption straight away so that a couple gets to have a baby from it being a newborn instead of from toddlers and older kids."
"You said 'baby'." Bradin said with a cheeky smile.
"Bradin!" Demi laughed.
"Ok, sorry. So you say we don't kill the baby, but we don't keep it either and give it to a couple who really want kids? Have you been watching Juno lately?" Bradin said with a little laugh.
"Make jokes, but I have always thought that adoption is a good idea instead of abortion, since long before Juno came out, I just never really thought I'd need to make this decision, especially not at this age."
"Are you sure that's what you want to do?" Demi paused for a moment, then nodded her head.
"That's the way I feel at the moment." She replied. "But what about school? Me and Ava have both agreed that we'll have to work something out, but I can't really stop being sick."
"We can pass it off as a flu for a while, maybe, but then eventually… we'll just have to tell the truth, and tell everyone what we're doing with the baby. And I don't know about you, but I couldn't give a crap about what they think."
"You're not the one whose going to carry the evidence around with you everywhere. Everyone loves Adam, so they'll hate me and call me a slag. You'll just get a pat on the back." Demi said, looking down at her stomach.
"Demi, I'm going to be here for you all the time. If anyone says anything at school I swear I'll sort them out. I'm making a promise to you that I'll be there whenever you need me, no matter what." Demi couldn't help but smile up at him after he said this. He pulled her into a tight hug. "Everything's going to work out in the end, Dem, just you watch."
