7. DESPERATION
It is a couple of days after Kyle had confronted Phoebe about the pregnancy, after being informed by Matt.
Since Chris proposed to help Kyle with getting through to Phoebe, he has been working non-stop around the clock coming up with plans and ideas, even calling Kyle at three AM one morning to inform him of a plan he had been concocting in his mind as he lay there awake.
In fact, Phoebe's pregnancy has been one of the only things on not only Chris's mind, but also both the expectant parents mind's, too. Phoebe is still struggling with the right decision regarding her very unplanned, unborn child while Kyle too has been consumed by doing everything in his power to think of how he can convince Phoebe.
In spite of all the time and energy that the three have put into thinking about the baby, the clock is still ticking for Phoebe's ultimate judgement and a decision to be made, either way, when it is still no closer to being reached...
#
"Ah, good... You're finally here" Chris says greeting Kyle as he strolls into the unopened Surf Club, having convinced John to let him use it before opening.
Upon seeing the other man who he has been waiting on enter the Surf Club, Chris who is far too energetic for 5 AM bounds around the room before pulling out a whiteboard filled with his scrawls.
Right up the top of the whiteboard is: 'PLAN FOR LIFE SAVING BABY NICHOLSTON'
As he sees Kyle eyeball the whiteboard, Chris grins with pride at his work.
"Did you see the heading?! Do you get it?! Baby Nicholston... Braxton cross Nicholson and, life saving... Cause we're planning to save its life while we're in the Surf Life Saving Club."
Chris looks as proud as punch, grinning widely at the work and effort that he had put into his ideas for helping Kyle out, beginning with the title.
"I get it... It's a play on words. Very clever" Kyle says in response although he looks neither the slightest bit amused or impressed. This fact, however, goes completely over Chris's naive head.
Chris's grin gets that bit wide before he responds.
"Thanks man! Anyway, let's get into it."
After grabbing a flag to use as a whiteboard pointer, Chris becomes more serious, suddenly, resembling a lecturer to his student.
"Now, if you look at the board, you can see here that I have three different angles of attack... There's an emotional approach, a practical approach and a legal approach."
Fighting back a yawn, not being used to the early start this morning Kyle finds a wall to lean against as he settles in for listening to Chris's spiel.
"Okay. Let's start with the easiest option; the emotional approach. So, to try and get through to her and help her realise that she wants to have the baby, we're going to need to get her emotions going and tug on the heartstrings. Firstly, we can work with Ricky to try and land her with babysitting Casey sometime so she's forced to realise that it's really not that hard for her. Secondly, we need to get her to watch a movie where a mother loses a child. Again, we could get Ricky to arrange a girls movie night with her watching 'My Sister's Keeper' or something. I've got a list. With all the extra hormones, I think the emotional approach should work for us."
Kyle just nods in response, trying to take in everything that Chris has thought and planned out.
"Alternatively, since Phoebe can be a stubborn mule sometimes, no offence, then we can try the practical approach on her. So, I was thinking that we can go around finding bargains or giveaways of baby items before then donating it to Phoebe. Surely she'll suddenly see that it's wasteful to get rid of all that stuff when the only thing that's missing is a baby!"
Kyle rolls his eyes. He knows Phoebe can be a stubborn mule and that being inundated and dumped with baby items won't convince her if it's not what she wants.
Although he does see Kyle's eye-roll it does nothing to taint or dampen Chris's enthusiasm and passion for the cause that he is helping him with as he just continues on with the next option.
"Finally, there's the legal approach. Even though it's Phoebe's decision, you have rights, man. It's your kid too. We have two options here, also. So, we can try and push for abortions to be illegal, but I don't know how great our chances are of getting this one done in our time-frame... Or, we can fight for your rights as the father and the fact that you should have a say. However, the thing to remember with the legal option is that whenever things get legal, they also have the potential to get nasty."
Kyle nods at Chris's explanations, thinking the three different plans of attack through, in addition to all of the different options within those angles.
"Thanks for all the thought and work you've put into that. I can't see the practical idea changing Phoebe's mind, it'll just annoy her. I don't know that we could abortions to be against the law in time, either, and there's no way that a judge would listen to me and my rights with my criminal record."
"So emotional is the way to go!" Chris exclaims clapping his hands together in delight.
While Chris has his mind made up, Kyle is a little more hesitant, scratching his chin uncertainly.
"Hold up Chris. I need some time to think about this. I don't exactly think that emotionally manipulating Phoebe into having the baby is the best idea, either. Besides, she's pregnant, not an idiot... I think she'll see through it. But, I'll give it some thought and get back to you."
Chris nods with understanding, putting his flag that he'd been using as a pointer down before walking over to Kyle and slapping his shoulder reassuringly.
"I'll sort it all out. Don't you worry... just leave it to me. I'll sort it all out..."
#
Later that day, Kyle is taking a bag of rubbish out to the tip on the back of Angelo's when he is approached by Phoebe who comes storming up over to him.
"Would you care to explain to me why exactly Chris dropped off 'My Sisters Keeper', 'The Words' and 'My Girl'?!"
Kyle bites his lip, knowing exactly why Chris had dropped the movies off. However, Phoebe knows why too.
"At first I was thinking how good it would be to have a movie afternoon, but pretty quickly I learnt the common denominator between all three movies. Care to explain?!"
"Hi to you, too" Kyle starts with saying sarcastically, teasing the fact that there had been no greeting before Phoebe launched into her annoyance. "It's Chris... Who knows what he does or why he does it."
Phoebe's face sours as she crosses her arms in front of herself.
"Yes, I know what Chris is like. But, somehow, I've got a feeling that that isn't just the case this time. What's going on? What are you two up to?"
Kyle steps away from the recycling bin that he has just finished filling up, with a sigh.
"Listen, he's trying to help me. This morning he was running through some ideas to help me come up with ways to persuade you to have the baby. But, I told him not to go ahead with anything because it didn't sit well with me. He did that off his own bat."
Phoebe's scowl increases as does the tension of her crossed arms.
"I told you that I wanted time to think about this. You told me that you'd give me time to think about it on my own! I think it's kind of self explanatory that that would include not manipulating me into making a decision, too."
Kyle scratches his head anxiously. He had a feeling that accepting Chris's help was a bad move. He'd also had a feeling that Chris telling him not to worry because he was sorting it out was also the first sign for him to start worrying.
"I'm really sorry, Phoebs. I'm not trying to make it harder on you, I'm just desperate, you know?"
Kyle's apology is not enough to extinguish Phoebe's blazing anger over the boy's plot to make her mind up for her.
"Listen I told you to let me think about this on my own. You blew that. So stay away from me. I'll let you know what I decide about the baby, but until then, stay away from me."
With that, Phoebe storms off as angrily as she had been when she approached him.
Despite Chris's best intentions to help Kyle, Kyle should have known that it would land him in a worse spot than before Chris's 'helped'...
Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I really appreciate the support and encouragement.
I went through months of writers block with this story, but since I posted the last chapter, I've worked on it a lot and now I'm about three chapters ahead, so thank you!
NEXT CHAPTER – Kyle comes up with the perfect solution. Raising the baby as a single dad. How will Phoebe react?