She resisted the impulse to throw the device at the wall and smash it to pieces, but let out an exasperated groan as she dropped her arm to her side. When she first returned to college after the trip to San Francisco, she found herself calling the apartment number once an hour. Her enthusiasm for doing that wore off fairly quickly, and it wasn’t long before she was only trying once a day. She still wanted to speak to Crash, but the frustration of just listening to the number ringing out on every occasion she tried became more than she could bear.
She tried to concentrate her energies on lectures and studying to take her mind off the situation, but in the last few days the urgency to contact him became more pressing in her mind. When the latest attempt just got her a ringing phone again, she knew she needed to get out of her room before she really did destroy her phone in a fit of aggravation. She slammed the door shut after stepping out to the hallway and decided to leave the dorm building to get some fresh air. Her mind was all over the place as she walked and it was only when she heard her name being shouted that she stopped to look around.
“Where are you going at this time of night?” Darlene asked as she approached her friend.
“What time is it?” Carrie answered with a question of her own.
“Nearly ten o’clock,” Darlene replied. “I was just going home.”
“Going home from where?”
“I went for a drink with a couple of friends,” Darlene explained. “So… where are you heading for?”
“Don’t know,” Carrie answered. “I just needed to get out of my room before my head exploded.”
“Have you heard anything yet?”
Carrie’s shoulders dropped as she grimaced.
“No,” she admitted in a resigned voice. “And things are getting worse.”
“What do you mean?” Darlene queried.
Carrie glanced around and saw the lights of a coffee shop still shining.
“Come on, I’ll buy you a drink,” she said and linked arms with her friend to lead the way across to the place.
There was no one waiting at the counter and it allowed them to walk straight up to it then give their order. Carrie paid for the drinks and they waited for them to be served before making their way across to an empty table.
“What did you mean things are getting worse?” Darlene asked. “Has something happened?”
“Oh something’s happened alright,” Carrie said. “I missed my period.”
“Shit,” Darlene replied. “Do you think you’re… you know.”
“I’ve been late before,” Carrie answered. “But it’s been more than a week now.”
“That’s not good.”
“I thought at first it might just be the stress of what happened over the last few weeks,” Carrie went on. “I’ve never been this late before though.”
“I take it when you seduced your crush and made sweet love… you didn’t make him wear a condom,” Darlene said.
“No,” Carrie said as she shook her head.
“Well, that wasn’t too clever,” Darlene went on. “I’m also taking it that he didn’t pull out.”
Carrie cringed as she shook her head again.
“Next you’ll be telling me you’ve been throwing up in the morning,” Darlene commented.
“Nope, that hasn’t happened,” Carrie replied. “But what the hell will I do now?”
It was a stupid question. She already knew the answer and it was confirmed to her when Darlene went on speaking to state the obvious.
“You have to check. There’s no point in just hoping that you’ll get your period. If you really are pregnant, then the sooner you find out about it the better.”
“I know,” Carrie replied and picked up her cup to take a drink before putting it down. “But I’m scared to find out.”
“Well, at least if you know you can do something about it,” Darlene pointed out.
“I’m not scared of being pregnant,” Carrie said. “It’s being on my own that worries me more.”
“You think this guy won’t be interested?” Darlene asked.
“He won’t even fucking know if I can’t find him,” Carrie replied. “I tried again tonight and I’m sick of hearing that number just ring.”
“What would you have said to him anyway?” Darlene pointed out. “Hi, how are you and where the fuck have you been for the last five weeks? Oh yeah, by the way, did I happen to mention that I might be pregnant?”
“That’s not funny,” Carrie complained.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” Darlene replied. “I’m just saying you should find out for sure one way or the other before you speak to him. If you tell him you think you’re pregnant then find out you’re not, he might think you’re playing games to get him.”
“He might not want me at all,” Carrie said in a depressed voice and slid the tip of her finger around the lip of her cup as she stared at it.
“Look, your starting point now is to find out if you’re going to have this guy’s baby,” Darlene said. “For all you know, it might be a false alarm and it really is just a late period. If it’s not, then you having his kid might be just what he wants.”
“Or not,” Carrie replied.
“Shut up,” Darlene countered. “I’ll go out first thing tomorrow morning to get you a pregnancy testing kit then come to your room. Once you know for sure what the situation is, you can move forward and decide what to do.”
“My parents are going to kill me if I’m pregnant,” Carrie let out in a flat voice.
“Yeah, but when did you ever worry about what anyone else said?” Darlene commented and smirked. “If you’d listened to me, we could be in bed kissing intimately and you wouldn’t need to worry about getting pregnant.”
The cheeky humor was unexpected, but Carrie couldn’t help her laugh coming out.
“Yeah, you should have turned me,” she said.
Darlene stuck out her tongue.
“It’s too late now, you heterosexual freak,” she went on.
They finished their drinks as they continued chatting then made their way to the dorm building afterwards and ended up at Carrie’s room first.
“I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early,” Darlene said and hugged her friend.
“Do you want any money?” Carrie asked.
“No,” Darlene answered as she turned to walk away and threw the last comment over her shoulder. “But I get to name the baby if I help and it turns out you really are pregnant.”
“Fuck off,” Carrie yelled after her friend and shook her head when she walked in her room.
She stripped off to have a shower and put her hand on her belly as she stood under the water. The thought of having Crash’s baby was something she would have happily wanted if they were together. It was the thought they might not be that was uppermost in her mind though, and she didn’t really want to contemplate being pregnant and alone. She went to lie on her bed afterwards, but there was no getting any sleep in the darkness. Things were starting to spiral out of control and she couldn’t help wondering if it wouldn’t have just been better to leave the past behind her.
It was still dark when she got up in the morning and she paced relentlessly across the floor of her dorm room as she waited for Darlene to turn up. She tried to force herself to sit down every ten minutes or so, but the nervous tension pervading her body made it impossible and she was on her feet again within seconds on each occasion. When the knock on her door eventually came, it was just after eight o’clock.
“Where have you been?” she asked when she opened the door.
“The pharmacy just opened,” Darlene protested. “I couldn’t get here any quicker.”
“Did you get it?”
Darlene held up the bag she was carrying and nodded her head.
“So, what do I do?” Carrie asked.
They went to sit on the bed and Darlene reached in the bag to bring out the box. She quickly opened it and got the instructions. It was her that read them and she passed
on the information about how the test was done.
“I can’t handle this,” Carrie said when she was handed one of the strips.
Darlene got to her feet and dragged her friend up.
“Just get it over with,” she said.
Carrie was set off in the direction of the bathroom by a push and shook her head as she opened the door to walk inside. She moved across to the toilet to get the test over and done with. When she was finished, she couldn’t bear to look and just opened the door to hand the strip out. She got the second one from the box handed in.
“Do it again,” Darlene said.
Carrie’s complaint came out without her even thinking about it.
“For fuck’s sake, do I have to?”
“Yes,” Darlene insisted. “The instructions say that false readings are possible and to do the test twice just to make sure.”
Carrie’s lips tightened together as she went through with it and she opened the door afterwards to pass the second strip out. She couldn’t bear to sit waiting and went to wash her face to give herself something to do. Her hands were trembling as she splashed the water on her cheeks and she stood staring at herself in the mirror. She ended up concentrating on her reflection so much that the scream from the bedroom made her jump. Grabbing a towel, she dried her face and quickly walked out of the bathroom.
“Well?”
“Mummy Nelson,” Darlene said.
“It’s positive?” Carrie said.
Darlene nodded her head and rushed across the room to hug her friend.
“Shit,” Carrie let out in a quiet voice when they moved apart. “What the hell do I do now?”
“You have to tell him,” Darlene said.
“Yeah, thanks for that helpful information, Einstein,” Carrie let out sarcastically. “Just because I’m pregnant with his child doesn’t mean I’m telepathically linked to him. I’ve been trying to speak to him for weeks without any luck. How am I supposed to tell him if I can’t get in touch with him? This is a nightmare.”
“Try again,” Darlene urged.
Carrie had lain awake for much of the previous night thinking about calling Crash, but she heeded Darlene’s words that she should wait until she knew for sure about the pregnancy. Now that she did know, she suddenly found herself reluctant to pick up the phone. She couldn’t bear the sound of the phone ringing out again and not being answered.
“You do it,” she said and handed her phone over.
“I don’t know the number,” Darlene protested.
“Just hit redial,” Carrie said. “His name is Crash.”
“Don’t you mean crush?” Darlene said cheekily.
“Shut up,” Carrie remarked. “Just help me out here.”
“OK,” Darlene said.
In truth, she didn’t really want to make the call, but she could see the nerves of her friend and just went ahead. The phone was the same model as her own, so she knew how to activate the redial and heard the sound of the ringing straight away.
“Crash speaking,” a deep voice said when the call was answered.
The surprise of the call actually being picked up brought a shocked look to her face and it was only after a few seconds that she managed to stammer out a response.
“Oh… hey… umm… hi,” she let out. “I have someone that wants to speak to you.”
“Stop joking,” Carrie said.
The shocked expression left Darlene’s face as she shook her head.
“I’m not joking,” she said.
Carrie grabbed at the phone to bring it to her ear.
“Crash?” she said.
“Yes,” the reply came back. “Who is…”
“Where the fuck have you been?” Carrie demanded in a loud voice.
She heard the sigh on the other end of the line.
“Carrie?” Crash asked.
“Yes, it’s Carrie,” she responded and repeated the question she just asked.
“I thought you’d gone,” he said.
“Well, what the hell was I supposed to do?” she went on. “You walk out the door with the story that you’ll be home the following day then… nothing.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Crash replied.
“Sorry!” Carrie said as the pitch of her voice rose. “Sorry! Five fucking weeks of nothing and all you can say is sorry.”
“Look, it was for the best,” Crash said.
“The best for who?” Carrie went on. “It certainly wasn’t the best for me. Was it just a quick fuck and goodbye for you?”
“No,” Crash replied. “It wasn’t like that at all.”
“So why didn’t you come home?” she asked.
“Things just got out of control,” Crash told her. “I couldn’t make it.”
“Were you on a job for the Roadrunners?” Carrie went on. “Is that the other things you do for work apart from being a mechanic?”
“Shit,” Crash cursed.
“Yeah, that was exactly what I thought when my dad turned up at your apartment and found me,” Carrie told him. “As you can imagine, he was full of fucking praise for you and your motorcycle gang. Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
“Can this get any worse?” Crash commented almost to himself, but Carrie heard the words.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “This can get worse. I can take things up to a whole new level.”
Crash closed his eyes as he tilted his head to stare up at the ceiling.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well, Daddy McCallister,” Carrie said, “unfortunately the sex we shared didn’t come without consequences.”
“You didn’t take any protection,” he let out in a slightly stunned voice as the meaning of her words hit him.
“Look, we need to talk,” Carrie told him as she ignored his comment. “And I don’t mean like this. We need to sit down and discuss what we’re going to do.”
“Yeah,” he let out in an almost dismissive tone.
It irked Carrie, but she understood that news of the pregnancy must have come as a shock, so she let his comment pass.
“I didn’t plan this,” she went on in a quieter voice. “But it’s happened and we have to deal with it, so I’m coming down to see you today.”
“No, don’t do…” Crash started, but he didn’t get the chance to finish.
“Look, I’m coming down there and you better fucking be there when I arrive,” Carrie went on and ended the call before any more was said.
There were a few seconds of silence as she stared at her phone and she only lifted her gaze when her friend spoke.
“You could have ended that conversation better.”
Carrie shrugged her shoulders.
“I guess so,” she admitted.
“Call him again,” Darlene said.
“No,” Carrie replied. “I want to see him face to face. There is no point in trying to discuss something this important over the phone.”
“Yeah, but what happens if you arrive and he isn’t there?” Darlene questioned.
“Then I wasted eight years of my life,” Carrie said with a grim smile. “Pack some clothes for me in that bag, will you please?”
Darlene looked to where her friend was pointing at the bag sitting on the floor and nodded her head.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I need to speak to someone,” Carrie said.
She let out a sigh as she brought the number up on the screen of her phone and hesitated for only a second or two before making the call. It was picked up after the second ring.
“Hi,” the voice on the other end of the line said.
“It’s me,” Carrie replied.
“Ah fucking hell,” Bella let out.
“That’s a nice way to greet your little sister,” Carrie went on.
“Yeah, well… you calling usually means some sort of trouble,” Bella responded.
“It does not!” Carrie exclaimed.
“OK, so you’re just calling to see how
I am then?” Bella said.
“Umm… no,” Carrie admitted.
“I knew it,” Bella snapped. “What is it?”
“I didn’t want the same thing to happen as last time,” Carrie said.
Club Property: Adults Only Motorcycle Club Romance: Roadrunners MC Page 13
