unfortunate timing | wroetoshaw fanfic

chapter 24

The room is silent.

I sit on in an arm chair while my parents sit on the sofa next to each other. My brother is standing behind me, pacing around.

I moved back down to Guernsey for a few months about 3 weeks ago, and I now decide that now would be the best time to tell my parents that I'm pregnant since I'd just started to show.

"Mum, Dad, I'm so sorry." I cry. I can see the disappointment on their faces.

"Oh Sally." My father says. He walks over, and I get up to meet his embrace.

"I thought you looked different." My mum says smiling after a while, "You looked healthy, glowing almost. I thought you'd met someone."

"Um, well, no. I haven't met anyone. This is totally a surprise for me too." I say, laughing sarcastically.

"Well, who's the dad then?" Tom pipes up from the corner of the room.

I pause, looking around at all of their faces looking at me awaiting my answer.

"Harry." I respond.

They all stare at me.

"What the fuck, Sally? Harry?!" Tom shouts.

"Tom, language!" My parents both shout.

"I'm gonna fucking break his face." Tom storms out of the room grabbing his jacket.

"Tom!" I cry, running after him. "He's in London, there's no point getting worked up over it."

"Sally." I hear Mum behind me, "We need to talk about this."

I walk back into the lounge with Mum after we hear the front door slam, and the car drives off from the driveway.

"I heard Harry got engaged, I saw his mum a couple of weeks ago in the supermarket."

"Yep, to Liv. It happened after we, um... you know." I avoid the details.

"Oh, Sally." Mum says disappointingly.

"No, it's fine. I got used to it. It's why I left."

"Does he know?" Dad asks.

"Nope, he has no clue." I answer, "Look, I'm going to go after Tom."

I grab the keys off of the side table and get inside Mum's Mini Cooper outside. I speed down the road knowing exactly that Tom is driving his car down to Harry's house which is in the next village over. I stop the car when I see Tom getting out of his car walking up to the door.

"What are you doing, Tom?" I shout

He doesn't reply, but looks straight at me.

"Tom, what are you doing?" I say through gritted teeth.

He still doesn't reply.

"Tom! What the fuck are you doing!?"

"I'm going to sort out Harry!" He shouts.

"Why? You do realise he doesn't live there. He's in London, for fucks sake." I shout back.

"Fine then, I'm telling his parents how much of a fucking twat he is. Then I'll tell him when I get back to London!" He throws his arms in the air in frustration.

"Just stop! I don't want them to know, you idiot! Harry doesn't even know."

"I'm still telling them. They need to know that their arsehole of a son knocked up my fucking sister!" He turns back around, to see Harry's mum standing there. Her mouth is wide.

"Sally? Is that true?" She says, her voice trembling, looking between me and Tom.

"I— I'm so sorry." I break down in tears, crouching on the ground. I feel awful that she had to find out this this way. She walks towards me, grabs my hand and pulls me up into a hug.

"Come inside, love. Let's talk this through." she says gently, we walk towards the door and she shouts back, "Come on Tommy."

I laugh at the nickname she's always called him. Tom is in the same year as Rosie and they were always friends, as well as me and Harry being together, both me and Tom were always at the Lewis' house.

———

"I was there, you know, at the engagement party. I went to say hello to you but you were dragged onto the dance floor by some brunette. I was quite surprised to see you there to be honest but now I understand..." She says.

Mrs Lewis made some tea while I sat on the sofa contemplating how to tell her everything. I decided to just let it all out, from the start to the finish.

"I didn't even think about you guys being there. Josh and Rosie, I suppose, were there as well?" She nods.

"You caused quite a scene, Sal, I have to say." She laughs, then turns to Tom who's sat on the armchair. "You should have been there, she smashed glass and everything."

Tom laughs and I roll my eyes. She turns back to me.

"So let's talk about the elephant in the room. The baby. What are you planning on doing?"

"I'm going to New York."

Her eyes widen again and so do Tom's.

"New York?!" Both of them retort.

"Yes, I've been offered an apartment and a job running a whole magazine there. And... it's away from Harry, so he can get on with Liv without me being in the way."

"But it's so far away from everyone. Your parents. Your brother. Your friends." she sighs, "Harry."

"I can do it. I know I can. I've gotten through the first part all by myself."

"But babies are difficult, and if your settling down in a whole new city." She tries reasoning.

"I've met all of my new colleagues, I did my job there a few weeks back. That will be fine. And then, my boss has given me his apartment, which I can use until I find another one."

"You'll be alone though. You can't bring up a child by yourself."

"I'll go." Tom speaks up.

"What?" We both say.

"Sally, I'll go with you. To help you." He gets up, "I came down to Guernsey because I got made redundant at my job so I'm free to do anything at the moment."

"Tom, that would be great, but..."

"No, no buts! I'm going with you whether you like it or not. I'm not letting you do this on your own." He argues.

"Okay, fine." I sigh, "But I'll let you go home whenever you want. You don't have to stay with me, you have your own life. You don't have to live mine."

"That's fine, I do love you Sally, you know. Just because we're brothers and sisters, doesn't mean we just fight all the time. " He laughs.

"I know, I know. Love you too." I reply, smiling at him.

"Let me send you some money." Mrs Lewis says out of nowhere, "It's my son who's got you into this, and I'm going to help you."

"I couldn't possibly, Mrs Lewis. I would be betraying Harry, I mean he already doesn't know." I say.

"It's my grandchild, Sally. Please, let me do this." She pleads.

"Okay fine, but please don't tell Harry. Or Rosie and Josh, in fact." I offer.

"Of course, but I'll tell Harry's dad when he gets home. He should know."

I nod, "Thank you."