Chapter Two

Today has to be one of the worst days of my life. As if listening to annoying publicists demanding pointless polaroids to show off to their bosses while I was trying to take a useful photograph, as well as stuck up celebrities who roll their eyes at the thought of doing something other than standing with a white backdrop and a 5,000 dollar gown adorning their barely there figures.

I now have just completed my shitty day with a visit to the dear old doctor. In return for peeing in a cup and giving them some of my blood they rewarded me with the news that my life is now officially over.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Not to mention the drive home couldn’t be any better. Two hours of grid lock traffic and I have had to pee since I ran out of that doctors office. I begin fiddling with the radio in hopes of finding some type of music that will calm my nerves rather than make me want to bash my head against the steering wheel.

I play with the knobs finally settling on a classic rock station which is currently playing “Take the Money and Run” by the Steve Miller Band. Interesting concept although ‘taking the money and running’ isn’t really an option for me.

A sigh of relief comes over me when the beginning of Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ comes through my cars speakers and I can honestly say for the first time today I am not trying to pull my hair out.

Maybe god doesn’t hate me after all.

I turn up the volume and smile as I sing along with the familiar words. I glance at the road ahead of me and notice my exit coming up.

The phone beside me begins shaking, an indication that’s it’s annoying ring will soon follow. I quickly pick up my blue tooth and shove it into my ear pushing the ‘connect’ button on my phone as I wait for the small beep letting me know it’s working.

“Hello?”

“Hey Meg” Meredith’s excited voice rings over the phone.

I should of know God was only teasing me with Coldplay. He truly DOES hate me.

“Hey Mere” I reply turning onto my exit.

“Are you almost home?” she asks. She needs something. I can feel it, it’s her ‘I hope you not close to home cause I forgot to pick up milk’ tone.

“I just pulled off the exit. Why, What’s up? You need something?” I ask.

“ Now that you mention it, would you mind stopping by the store and picking up some soy sauce? I’m making stir fry for dinner and forgot to tell Justin to pick some up on his way over.” She said as I sucked down a breath.

I hope to god she didn’t head my ‘gulp’ over the phone.

“Wh- Why don’t you just call him and ask him to pick it up now?” I asked already turning my car in the direction of the store.

“I tried but he isn’t picking up his phone. Pleeeeaaase Meg!” She begged

“I’m already there. Do we need anything else?” I ask as I push the release on my seatbelt and grab my purse before heading towards the door.

“No that’s it! I’ll see you in a few minuets!” She said.

“Yup, see you soon.” I snap the phone shut and pull the blue tooth out of my ear and push it into my purse.

If there was one thing to know about Meredith it would be that she never takes no for an answer. The words, “I can’t do it”, “it’s impossible”, or “I’ll never get this” do not exist to her.

When she wanted to put a book shelf into the apartment we were all hesitant since we really didn’t have much room to begin with. But Meredith pulled out the measuring tape and inch by inch rearranged furniture for hours to prove that we could fit her desired book shelf into the living room.

She then proceeded to buy all of us in the house 1 or 2 books almost every day for 2 weeks until we each had to so many we were going with her to the furniture store to order the shelf.

The girl is smart.

Glancing around the grocery store I spot the isle I’m looking for and head straight for the soy sauce. I grab two bottles of the closest one and head right for the check out.

“Meg!”

Oh no. No, no, no, no. no- Anyone but Ju-

“ Hey Justin” I say scratching my neck with my one free hand as I force myself not to look away.

“So, what brings you here?” He asks as he begins to put his few items onto the conveyer belt.

“Just, had to pick a few things for dinner.” I say as I clutch the soy sauce closer. Why is this taking so god damn long! I nearly jump out of my skin when I feel his hands over mine pulling the bottles out of my hold.

“What are you doing?” I ask pulling them back.

“Whoa, chill, I was going to pay for those for you….” He said his eyes wide. I step away from him putting more distance between us and shake my head.

“ I can take care of it myself thank you. I don’t need any help from you, I’ve got plenty already!” My own eyes were wide as the words left my mouth. Why am I freaking out on him? The man just wanted to pay for 2 bottles of 4.00$ soy sauce and I choose that moment to try and bite his head off.

Justin puts his hands up in surrender and says nothing as he pays for his items and steps out of the way. I place mine on the counter and shove them into the plastic bag before handing over the money and walking towards the exit.

I didn’t expect for him to be there but he was waiting for me at the end of the small walkway to the door. I walk slow and fumble in my bag for my car keys and I feel his hand on my arm stopping me in front of my car.

“Look, Megan….Are you still freaked out about last week? I thought we agreed to just lay low and let it die. We- we were drunk, we don’t even know-“

“I know. God-I- I’m sorry Justin. I didn’t mean to freak out on you.” He nods and pats my arm.

“You know, Meredith was trying to reach you.” His eyes light up at the mention of her name and I finally take note of the flowers in his hand.

“Oh yea?”

“Yes, she needed you to pick up a few more things for dinner.” I watch as he adjusts the several bags in his hand and looks back at the store.

“Don’t worry, I got it.” I say holding up the bag of soy sauce.

“Oh, Ok. Are you eating dinner with us?” He asks . I nod and push the ‘unlock’ button on my keys.

“Ok. Well, I’ll see you there okay?” He turns towards his car but never breaks eye contact. The boy has more manners than anyone I’ve ever met in my life.

“Okay. See you in a little bit.” I get into the car and place the bottles of soy sauce on the passenger seat beside me. I turn the ignition on and push play on the CD. I need some therapy music.

One again the soulful sounds of Coldplay fill my car and I’m at once more relaxed than a few seconds prior. I pull out of the parking lot and make my way towards the apartment in which holds a stress filled nerve-racking dinner.

I try and clear my head, enjoying the last few stress-free moments and turn up the volume.

Thank God for Chris Martin.

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“Megan could you pass me the rice?” Meredith asked as she placed the container holding the broccoli and chicken down beside me. I reached between JC and I picking up the small dish and handing it to her.

She put a small portion onto her plate and handed it to Justin. Her eyes narrowed at him as she spotted the object she had told him to get away from her dinner table back on his head.

“Justin Randall take that damn hat off!” Justin reached up to pull down the brown “UPS” hat he still had on from work. He didn’t have the chance to change so he still had his uniform pants on but a plain undershirt instead of his formal one. He also insisted on wearing his hat backwards. Meredith normally didn’t care, in fact she thought it was adorable but she wasn’t having any of that at the dinner table.

I can’t stress enough how awkward dinner has been. Not only am I seated between the two people I care about the most and betrayed the most, but I have my betrayal staring me in the face and it’s proof making me nauseas at the same time. My doctor warned that the food nausea was soon to come and boy did he mean it.

“Baby you okay? You hardly ate anything.” JC said his face full of concern. I felt myself tense when he put his hand on my head trying to sooth me. It wasn’t helping, him trying to consol me was, unknowingly to him, making me feel worse.

“I think I’m catching a cold or something. “ I lied. No surprise there. He smiled sympathetically at me and placed his hand on the back of my head bringing me to him. He placed a loving kiss on the side of my head and hugged me to him.

“Do you want to lie down? I can fix you some soup.” I shook my head. The last thing I want to do is make him wait on me hand and foot.

“No Thank you . I think I’ll just go lay down.” I turned to Meredith and forced a smile. “Thank you for dinner Mere. It was fantastic, sorry I’m such a downer.” She smiled and patted my shoulder.

“You go lay down. I’ll send JC in after he helps Justin clean the dishes. “The two boys groaned and we both giggled.

“Thanks.” I said sincerely my stomach turning faster as the moments went by. I stood up quickly and hurried out of the room and towards the bathroom.

The door closed and I quickly turned on the water before shoving the toilet seat up and practically throwing my face into it.

Oh the joys of being pregnant.

After I was finished my hand reached up to flush the toilet and I used the other to balance myself on the wall as I stood up. Not only could I not keep any food down but I was starting to get more and more light headed as the days went on. I waited a few seconds waiting for my vision to come back and those annoying blue and red dots to disappear.

Slowly I made my way over to the sink not bothering to turn off the water and rinsed out my mouth. I reached under the cabinet and pulled out the mouthwash as well as my tooth brush. As tired and sick as I felt I really didn’t want to take a nap with vomit breath.

When I finally finished I looked up into the mirror at my reflection. My hair is all over the place most of it having escaped the hair piece I tried to put it all in. My mascara had begun to run under my eye and my brown eye shadow was mushed into the side of my face.

I look like shit.

Deciding to delay my nap for a few more minuets to wipe the make-up off of my face I quickly grabbed a towel from the bathroom closet and rinsed off the crap from my face.

I dropped the towel on the floor of the bathroom not bothering to take the 3 seconds to put it into the hamper. I shut off the light and made my way over to my bed kicking off my slippers on the way. I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until dinner. Now, with my head resting on the pillow and the covers pulled up to my chin I can’t help but let my eyes close as I drift off to the sleep, praying I’ll wake up and find this all to be a bad dream.