5. REVELATIONS
"I wasn't going to tell you that Matt and I are seeing each other..." Phoebe replies, wrapping an arm around the younger male and praying that he would go along with the story which seems better than the truth in her eyes.
But through the shock and through all three of them being startled, Phoebe can see the glaringly obvious heartbreak in Kyle's eyes.
"Are you serious?" Kyle asks earnestly, hoping he has just heard or perceived Phoebe's words wrong. He can't disguise the hurt in both his voice and his eyes as he replies with shock.
Matt quickly shoots a shocked glare at Phoebe for being wrapped up in her avoidance of telling the truth. He might not be happy about it, but Matt plays along and goes along with it for his friend.
"What can I say, I don't think it's a secret that I'm into older women" Matt hesitantly adds, trying to get over his own surprise in the moment by reverting to humour. "I'm sorry, man."
The three of them stand in complete and total silence for a moment, all three of them digesting what has just happened...
Finally, all of the whispering and all of the closeness between the two over the last few days make abundantly more sense and Kyle snaps.
"GET OUT!" Kyle yells at Matt, snatching his shirt and pushing him out of the storeroom initially, but referring to the restaurant also. "You're fired."
While Matt skulks out of the storeroom unhappily and irritated with his friend and colleague for putting him in this situation, he shoots Phoebe another unhappy glare, before leaving the restaurant.
"Kyle! You can't do that! You can't just fire him like that!" Phoebe hisses angrily.
"Well I didn't think that you would hook up with my employee without properly ending things with us, but hey I was wrong about that too."
Phoebe sighs, but with a firm glare. She is in an equally lose-lose situation.
She knows that she needs to find some way to explain the situation and get Matt his job back, but that would mean telling the truth, which she is what she was avoiding in the first place.
"Okay look, the whole thing with Matt... That's complicated. But can you please trust me, Kyle. I really need you to trust me on this and give him his job back. He's only looking out for me."
Kyle scoffs. Although he is trying to seem angry and annoyed, Phoebe can see that the real cause of his reaction and outburst all comes down to feeling hurt.
So, she takes a step forward, closer to Kyle and takes his hands in hers. The two stand together in silence for just a moment, but nonetheless, a sweet moment. It's just them. No lies, no Matt and Phoebe gives no thought to the fact that she is carrying their baby.
"What... What is this Phoebe?" Kyle says softly as he retracts his hands; all of the anger has now just boiled down to plain hurt and confusion. "I can't do this. If you want to be with galaxy-shirts, then fine, that's your choice, but you can't lead me on too."
It hurts. It physically hurts being unsure of what the best move to make is. To see the man she loves pulling away because she hurt him. It hurts trying to think what she should do next.
"I'm sorry Kyle" Phoebe just utters simply. She is tempted to tell him everything and tell him the whole story, but the same reasons stand for why she can't. She can't tell him about the baby if she won't have it. Somehow, that seems worst in this entire world of pain and difficulty.
#
"Have you lost it Phoebe?! Telling Kyle that we're together?! Do you have any idea of how many murder-slash-attempted murder charges the Braxton's have been charged with?! I'm a dead man!"
Phoebe sighs.
"I'm really sorry Matt and I'm really sorry about your job. I panicked and it just slipped out. It was the only thing that I could think of to get him off our case."
"Not cool, Phoebs" Matt frowns, taking a couple of steps and distancing himself from his friend. "Listen. I didn't mind keeping the baby thing from Kyle, but this has gone too far. I need my job. I can't keep playing along like this. You're going to need to come up with a better lie quickly, otherwise I'm coming clean."
As Matt walks off before he loses his temper from the fact that he is quite irate with his friend, Phoebe is left to stress and fret over the situation even more...
#
Getting home from work that day, Kyle is a huff, with his lingering bad mood.
At the Braxton share house, Andy and Josh are sharing a pizza on the lounge while watching some car show on TV.
Kyle silently storms inside, headed straight for his room. Entering his room, he grabs his overnight duffle-bag that is stored in his cupboards before scooping up as much as he can and as many things of importance to him.
Walking in to talk to him, Ricky stands in the door before speaking.
"What are you doing? Did you see Phoebe today? Did you talk to her?"
"Yeah... I did talk to her. I don't know why you're under the impression she needs me. Especially seeing as she and Page are an item."
Ricky looks taken back. This seems to be the normal reaction for everyone who has heard of the random coupling of Matt and Phoebe so far, including Matt himself.
"What? Matt and Phoebe? Are you sure?"
"It came straight from the horse's mouths. I walked in on them talking about keeping it from me in the store room and Phoebe straight-out admitted it."
Nodding and processing what she is hearing, Ricky can't help but wonder whether Matt and Phoebe were hiding something, but were covering it up to cover something else. So seeing as that is an all too confusing concept, she moves onto another question.
"So what's all the packing about then?"
"I'm leaving. I'm moving back to Melbourne tomorrow morning."
Try as she might, Ricky can ask, Ricky can reason and Ricky can try to convince Kyle who's mind is made up, but the only thing that would keep him from leaving is the one thing that she can't say.
#
The following morning, Matt is strolling along leisurely, before noticing another man walking further along the path ahead of him and visibly on a mission.
"Kyle! Wait up. Kyle!" Matt bellows out upon seeing his former boss pacing towards the bus stop out along the road from the Diner.
Finally, on about his seventieth attempt to catch his attention and call after him does Kyle bother responding, turning around begrudgingly.
"What, Matt? What do you want? You're not exactly my best friend right now and I've got a bus to catch."
"Where are you off to? Listen, it's just about yesterday."
Kyle sighs and reluctantly stops walking to stand and talk to Matt. "What about yesterday? And I'm moving back to Melbourne."
"Does Phoebe know?!"
"I haven't told her. She'll find out soon enough. Besides, apparently she's your girlfriend now so what does it matter?!"
Matt releases a reluctant sigh, scratching the back of his head uncomfortably, knowing that he is well and truly lodged between a rock and a hard place. He feels like he has to clear up yesterday and let Kyle actually make a decision such as moving away without being it being based on or because of a pack of lies.
"That's the thing. She's not my girlfriend. There's nothing like that at all going on between us. It was just a cover up."
Kyle's face scrunches up with a confused frown. The concept of Matt and Phoebe dating is confusing in itself, but now the whole thing had just reached a whole new level of confusion.
"What was it supposed to cover up?" Kyle asks, before sighing and continuing to walk off. "Actually don't worry about it. It's still none of my business and to be honest, I can't care anymore."
Matt continues following after Kyle and in a split second decision, he scrunches his face up and despite knowing it may mean death via Phoebe, he finally unleashes the words he can't take back.
"She's pregnant. That's what the relationship was covering up because she didn't want you to know that."
Kyle continues walking for a few seconds longer, with the news that he has just been delivered not really sinking in until he stops and stands, turning back to Matt with his mouth open-wide, gaping, like the wind has just been taken out of him.
Phoebe, his former partner, is pregnant. She's pregnant with their baby... With his child, his chance to be a father and have the family that he has always wanted.
Kyle continues gaping, forgetting the fact that Phoebe hadn't wanted him to know and simply reveling in the concept... That is until Matt continues to speak.
"And I don't think she wanted you to know because I'm not sure that she intends to keep it that way..."
Kyle finally knows! Will he be able to convince Phoebe to keep it?
Next chapter: Kyle confronts Phoebe about the secret she's kept from him, but out of desperation will he do more harm than good?