Sorry for the lack of updates, but the heat's really gotten to me this summer and knocked me about so I haven't had the brain power, energy or inspiration to update sooner than now, not to mention a spout of writers block and inner unhappiness over this chapter. Anyway, I've FINALLY managed to get this up. Here it is! Enjoy another new chapter that comes with another new puzzle...

"My life; My choices; My problems; My mistakes; My lessons. None of your business... and mind your own problems before you talk about mine."

~Unknown~

Chapter 10 – Don't Go There!

Zane's P.O.V

A few weeks passed and Will, Rikki & I all slowly started to get into a bit of a routine and things had started to settle down. Will and I worked on Rikki getting used to our rules of the house, and although she added a few of her own rules too, she surprisingly seemed to abide by ours. We all started to connect on the same page and any previous awkwardness gradually faded away.

It was actually a pretty good set up and any household decisions, big or small, were ruled by Democracy and consensus.

Anyway, it was midday on Friday, and I realized rent was just about due. It was no big deal for me, because my Dad surprisingly still gave me a generous sum of pocket money, but I knew Will had a bit of trouble keeping up with the shared rent payments and generally needed a bit of notice, and although she'd been frequent with paying rent since she had moved in, I was aware of Rikki's previous financial situation, although I had no idea of her current financial stand.

"Oh good" I stated as Will walked into the room, walking past me to grab a glass, filling it up at the tap. "Can we talk?"

He nodded as he gulped his mouthful down, leaning against the bench. "Yeah?"

"Um, rent's due again... are you able to get it in or do you want me to cover the cost for a couple of days longer?" I enquired.

I watched as Will's cheeks flushed, while he looked away, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry for doing this to you, again, but can I have a few more days? Sophie should be paying me back a couple of hundred this week that I lent to her."

I nodded at him, pre-occupied, while I transferred a small percentage out of the horde of money that was sitting in my bank account – untouched.

I looked up as I heard Will leaving the room. "Oi! Will!" I shouted to get his attention without moving from my comfy position that was currently luringly moulded to my shape and comfort.

"Yeah?"

"Are you going back upstairs? Can you ask Rikki to pay me later or can you grab her rent money off her?"

"Zane Bennett the entrepreneur!" Will laughed as he left the room, which was followed by a series of 'doof, doof, doof's' as he sprinted upstairs, referring to all the money I was playing around and dealing with - like it was just a card game.

Five or so minutes later, I wasn't keeping an eye on the time, Will returned, walking back into the lounge room where I still hadn't moved from the lounge.

"THERE'LL BE TWO FIFTY'S AND A TWENTY" Rikki yelled out, surprisingly clearly considering the distance, lack of echo and the noise gate from her bedroom upstairs to be heard from the further-most room on the bottom storey... I guess all that swimming must seriously help her lung capacity and perhaps vocal chords.

After locating Rikki's handbag, which was sandwiched in-between the back of the lounge and a cushion, he yelled back to her in acknowledgement, deafening me in the process.

"Frickin' hell... this could be mistaken for Mary Poppin's' carpet bag" Will commented as he shuffled through her handbag, pulling out a camera, multiple camera lenses, a empty bag of lollies, packet of gum, mini bag and box.

"Uh huh..." I replied, half-heartedly, not really listening and hoping whatever he'd said wasn't a question.

"Zane? Am I really out of the news-feed loop?" he asked randomly, which triggered my attention more so than his previous statement.

I looked up, with no clue what he was referring to, but wondering where his strange question had came from all of a sudden out of the blue... Maybe it was some test to check if I was really listening to him or something? "No I don't think so. Why? What's that supposed to mean?

In one hand he was holding Rikki's open purse, and in the other hand, a box. "Is Rikki pregnant?"

Neither of us spoke as we shared confused looks, trying to work out why our housemate had an at-home pregnancy test in her handbag.

In all honesty, at first, I was a bit hurt - not that that's something I'd ever, ever publicly admit. I mean, I didn't know that Rikki had a boyfriend, she'd never said anything about a guy, or even if she did, I hated the idea of her having a baby with someone else. That's what feelings and an attraction to somebody made you feel... jealous and defensive, regardless of the situation.

Right on cue, we heard Rikki thumping down the stairs, urging us to escape from our silently shocked trance before she entered. Will threw the box back into Rikki's handbag, grabbed the money, handed it to me and chucked her purse back into her bag before flopping down next to me on the lounge quickly.

We both watched Rikki silently, as she walked in, oddly looking from Will, to me, back to Will.

"Rikki, are you feeling okay?" I asked softly as she grabbed her handbag and hung it off her shoulder, completely oblivious to our discovery.

Still examining us weirdly, she nodded. "Apart from being a little bit disconcerted by you guy's creepiness, I'm fine."

We both nodded, looking at each other, trying to establish whether we were being fed the truth, or just a porky.

"I think this is my cue to leave you two freaks alone again... Bye" she added before walking out of the room, followed by a slam of the front door seconds later.

"She seems normal... too normal. And she doesn't look pregnant" I commented, breaking the silence that Rikki had since left.

Will agreed. "I guess so..."

"It's probably not even hers."

Will's face scrunched up with confusion. "What was it doing in her bag then?"

I shrugged. "I don't know... maybe she was going to give it to someone else."

He nodded. "Maybe it's for Cleo or something."

"Cleo? Couldn't Lewis get that sort of thing for her? It could be for Bella..."

Will frowned. "Well she's got a boyfriend too so why would she go to Rikki? Besides, if it was in Rikki's bag, then it means it probably belongs to Rikki."

Then it struck me as I realized why he too was getting so defensive about Bella. He was just like me. He didn't want his ex-girlfriend having someone else's baby just like I didn't. But that didn't meant that I was about to go soft on him...

"Besides, a couple of weeks ago when Bella was still staying here she said to Rikki that she felt sick after breakfast, remember?"

"Yeah I do, but that was after Rikki made breakfast, remember that? Not only is that enough to make someone sick, but she never cooks if she doesn't have to, so she could've been going all maternal and 'mumsy'."

I scoffed, rapidly feeling competitive over our debate that shouldn't have had anything to do with either of us. "That's not a reason, it's a coincidence and 'mumsy's' not a word you idiot!"

"Well I know that Bella always feels sick after she has pancakes, so your 'reason' isn't even applicable either" Will smirked back at me.

"But she has a boyfriend! She's one level up from Rikki on the 'likelihood' chart!" I exclaimed.

Will's face scrunched up a little more as he looked at me with an expression that was only describable as being a cross between disbelieving and weird before he continued with our debate. "Likelihood chart? Who's the idiot now? Besides, Rikki has never actually said that she doesn't have a boyfriend, she just hasn't mentioned one. Even if she isn't with someone, that doesn't mean anything definite."

My anger was twisting into a temporary hatred and dislike of my mate. I hated how Will was bringing up points and implying slutty remarks which added to the horrendous thought. And I had no other information that could extinguish the flames of the figurative fire that was increasing and rising in the matter of suspecting Rikki. So instead, still not backing down, I resulted to attempting to inject his thoughts with a measly measure of guilt.

"I thought Rikki was your friend..."

He nodded. "She is. Well according to me I think she's my friend, but if you asked Rikki that may be a different story. But our friendship, or whatever it is, has nothing to do with this. I'm just basing this and my opinion of this on the cold hard facts."

"Oh it's so more than just facts Will. Admit it. You're biased. You just don't want the test to be for Bella. Besides, what about all those photos of the other little girl? She's already got one child so it's obviously not that much of a far-fetched matter for her."

Will's focus point and sight looked away from me, peering off to the right in the distance as his lips pursed and jaw rocked slowly back and forth a few times. "That's the thing I don't understand, Zane. If she's got one child already, I don't know how it could look that old. It might just be a niece or cousin of one of theirs or it could be another friend's child, but I don't know. It just didn't look like that." His jaw-rocking stopped and as his gaze slowly returned to me, I knew something was up with him.

"It's just that, they... they looked like a family" Will added, before his lips pursed again with a blank expression.

"What about it?" I asked, not quite understanding what the effect and relativity of his turmoil played and the role it beared.

He exhaled, straightening his upward position slightly more. "She told me she's only been with her boyfriend for 9 months. I mean, I've never been good at maths, but I can at least add up. So if it is theirs, she has either been lying to me about how long they've been together... or she was cheating on me before we broke up. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless the little girl isn't his..."

I nodded wordlessly, understanding where Will was coming from more so now.

"But still, Bella would of definitely of had to know that she was pregnant when we broke up. Why would she hide that from me?"

I really had no insight into Bella's mind; especially the depth of reasoning or choices that Will's unanswered questions were posing so I just sided with the idea of giving Will more general information that I knew on the topic that I really didn't have much knowledge in. Whether my facts would be any help to him or whether they made him feel even worse was still yet to be decided and known.

"Well did you know that one of my dad's associate's daughter's had no idea that she was pregnant until 2 months or something before she had her baby, and remember there was that water polo player, Keli Lane or something. No-one knew she was pregnant the whole time and then she murdered the baby a couple of days after she had the kid... well that second part's irrelevant, but my point is that she did that without absolutely anyone finding out that there even was a baby for years. It's not impossible to hide or not know something like that."

He paused, appearing to contemplate and consider my speech. "Yeah I guess so, but why would Bella do that? Why wouldn't she say anything to me? Both of us wanted kids. That's what makes me think that it isn't mine and that she was cheating or something."

I nodded and despite the fact that I didn't say anything extra in addition to Will about it, I had to admit that it was quite strange.

"Anyway, what were we talking about before that little conversation?" I asked trying to move on from the frets of my friend that was still silent.

"Who's test it is" he answered as his sulky disposition returned.

I nodded, coming up with a plan on the spot to try and defuse my mate's unusually glum and intense mood, because it was not enjoyable to be around, not to mention no fun.

"How bout we call Lewis? Ask if it's Cleo's. It probably is, and all this fruit-looping and weirdness is for nothing."

He nodded, as his forehead creased up slightly more with each nod. "Okay. But you're making the call. It's kinda awkward calling him, just to check if his wife's pregnant!"

I frowned, knowing that I'd lose a heck of a lot of respect if anyone found out that I'd made the ridiculous call and asked Lewis that, so I handed the burden back to Will. "Nup mate. I'm not doing it. No way no."

He looked away, not impressed but appearing to be contemplating his options before replying in a growl. "Fine. Just gimme the bloody phone."

I leaned over to the coffee table from my spot on the lounge and grabbed Will's unprotected iPhone, tossing it to him which in hindsight could've very possibly ended badly if it wasn't for my great aim and his good reflexes.

I watched as he unlocked it, tapping a few buttons and raising the object to his ear before walking out of the room. As I heard muffled talking coming from the hall, I returned to the bank transactions that I'd been going over before the um, disruption. Then after what felt deceptively felt like a few seconds, but in actual fact was a lot longer, Will walked back into the room silently, clutching his phone tight.

"And? What did he say?" I asked, not sure if Will would've even volunteered information without me asking or at least prompting the question I wanted to know from him.

He sat down on the single lounge seat closest to the TV, with a blank expression and appearing to have no intention to respond, well not soon anyway.

"He didn't know what I was talking about. He asked if I was drunk or whether you'd dared me."

I nodded, realizing what that had the possibility of meaning. "Okay..."

That's when Will's positivity kicked in. "I guess that doesn't mean anything's set in stone, either way, with any of them..."

I was still sceptical about the whole thing, but went along with it for now, before I came up with a much better idea for the meantime, having the strength to get up and walk over to the fridge, grabbing a handful of un-opened beer bottles, ditching one at Will, keeping one to myself and putting the remaining beers on the coffee table.

As Will unscrewed the lid off the beer he was holding and threw the lid nowhere except in the straight direction of the wall, I explained the presence of the half a dozen beers so early. "I think 'happy hour' is coming early today otherwise this is gonna do our heads in..."

So, maybe-baby! .. Another mystery's thrown into the pot! Any guesses or thoughts on the happenings of this chapter and the boy's unexpected discovery? Is the test for Rikki? Bella? Cleo? I can guarantee the test causing all this confusion is definitely for one of the trio. I would love to know what you guys are thinking!

Next chapter: 'Tipping Point'!