Those Left Behind

Ten

Olivia awoke drenched in sweat, an intense wave of nausea coming over her. She tried to move but her body was being held in place by the deadweight of George's arms. Without waking him she managed to slip out of his grasp. Landing on the cool floor. She put her forehead against it and breathed deeply, trying to calm the storm within her. Her body fought back violently, forcing her to surrender.

She jumped to her feet and covered her mouth. Instead of running to the washroom where someone might hear her, she bolted out the front door. As the warm, salty air hit her nostrils she leaned over, braced herself onto her knees and emptied the contents of her stomach into the sand below.

"Well, that was repulsive.", Fred gagged, startling her. Unable to stop her body from purging itself, he watched in disgust as she vomited a second time. Slowly, she stood back up and wiped the corners of her mouth. She looked up at Fred through watery eyes and he responded with an overexaggerated reaction to what he had just witnessed.

"Don't look at me like that! I guess I just had too much to drink last night.", she lied, hoping that he had drank too much to remember the events from the night before.

"Here's the thing Greenwood, normally I would believe the hangover excuse, except you had absolutely nothing to drink or smoke last night.", he stated matter of factly. "So why don't you try that again?"

"Perhaps, I'm just sick", she shrugged nonchalantly, embarrassed that she had been caught in a lie.

"Or maybe you've got a little Georgie growing inside of you. You two have been going at it enough lately.", he joked. Olivia scoffed at the idea of it, but out of curiosity, she began to do the math in her head. She tried to remember how many weeks it had been since her last period and when the number seemed too high, her face dropped. This didn't go unnoticed by Fred. "You aren't! Are you?", he sputtered.

"Pfft no! I mean...I can't be certain.", she admitted, causing a mischievous smirk to spread across his face. In a panic, Olivia grabbed the collar of his shirt and shook him violently until his smile disappeared. "You can't tell George!", she cried, her heart racing.

"Yeah, right!", he scoffed, prying her fingers off his shirt one by one.

"Fred! Freddie? Please!", she begged. "You know how he gets! He can't be worrying about something like this, not when we're this close to everything falling apart!", the tears in her eyes and the desperation in her voice was enough to convince him.

"Damn it, Liv! And what exactly are you planning to do when you start to get fat?", he questioned harshly.

"Fat?", she hissed, her hands clenching into tight fists.

"You know...start to show or whatever.", he mumbled, pointing at her stomach.

"I was hoping that everything would be over by then. Merlin, Fred! You're rubbish at this."

"What did you expect? It's not like this sort of thing has ever happened before.", he shrugged, trying to defend himself. "Oh bloody hell, don't do that!", he watched as Olivia's bottom lip began to quiver. As she broke down into a flood of tears he pulled her into a hug, awkwardly tapping her back. "There. There.", he tried to comfort her but it only made her cry harder.

"What am I gonna do?", she sobbed, soaking the front of his shirt.

"Uh...why don't we ask George since he's standing right behind you.", Fred cleared his throat, sending Olivia spinning around. A sense of relief came over her when she realized that George wasn't there, but her relief soon transformed into anger. She turned back around and hit Fred on the arm, causing him to wince in pain. "Sorry! Sorry! That wasn't funny!", he apologized, dodging more punches.