Forbidden Baby

Chapter 12 – My Baby

Freddie’s POV

‘Hey, Zeke, what’s up with Tabitha?’ I hated calling her that, she hated it, but it’s what Zeke called her, so I had to keep up as much pretence as I could. I tried to sound casual, but I knew me asking was going to seem suspicious

‘Why do you care?’ Jenson jibed ‘Do you have a crush on the prissy little princes’ he laughed.

Zeke was furious ‘Shut the f**k up Jenson, that’s not even funny! But yeah Freddie’ he said my name with bite ‘Why do you wanna know?’

Damn, I had to think on my feet, and fast! ‘I don’t really, I was trying to be a good friend, she clearly isn’t well, or she would be here, and those two idiots wouldn’t be crying!’ I shrugged, hoping I sounded indifferent, as I indicated towards Sarah and Elizabeth who were comforting each other and obviously knew more than me.

‘Oh.’ he said seemingly lost in his own world ‘She’s not well, she has gone away for treatment. It was a bit of a shock, but she’ll be okay. Thanks for asking, I guess, but I don’t want to talk about it anymore’

Sick? She seemed fine on Friday in school, and she never mentioned feeling unwell. How could she have gone from being okay to being whisked off for treatment in a few hours? And what treatment? It sounded serious.

What had happened? I knew there had to be more to this, we were meant to meet on Friday and having treatment wouldn’t stop her from being able to message me. Why hadn’t she told me. My mind was swamped with uneasy questions and no answers. None of this made any sense.

I had failed to respond, and thought I should say something, but I didn’t really know what to say to that. Luckily, Lewis chipped in ‘Sorry Man’ it was the sincerest I had ever seen Lewis be, he was usually more of a jackass than Jenson.

‘Yeah, sorry, if you change your mind, you know where we are’ I added, thinking I really would like to be in the loop, but figuring this was not likely going to be the case.

Zeke changed the subject and soon enough we had arrived at school. I wanted to catch up with Gabe, maybe he could tell me what was going on, but he had disappeared. I managed to get through first two lessons, but I wasn’t paying attention.

At break, I overheard Sarah and Elizabeth talking about how Thia had been transferred from the school and would not be attending for the rest of the year. This was beyond strange, and my heart sank as I considered what I had failed to allow myself to admit to earlier.

Thia was gone. My girl wasn’t coming back.

I took myself off to a quiet corner and avoided all human contact as I slunk to the ground and started to cry. If anyone had seen me, I would have been annihilated, but no-one ever came here, so I knew I was good. I needed to let off some anguish.

I worried about what was wrong, but selfishly I felt lost, and heartbroken without her. I had fallen in love with the enigmatic, bright, and spirited girl I discovered she was, and I didn’t want to be apart from her.

It was hard enough going through the weeks as it was now, only getting chance meetings and hiding our relationship, but I could handle that, knowing I would get to see her and be with her at times. We had a plan, and we weren’t all that far from the end game.

After I finished school and went to Uni, we would have a year of being apart, but I had intended to apply to the City Uni so I wasn’t that far away, and I hoped that we would still see each other on our Friday nights, but maybe with me having my own place, she could come and stay over instead of going to Loretta’s.

I felt a little selfish, knowing that Loretta was her closest and only real friend, but they saw each other in school, and this would be the only chance I would have to see her. I knew Loretta would understand. And I knew it wouldn’t be every weekend, I just hoped it was most of them.

She was going to apply to be at the same Uni the following year, and then we could be together.

Thinking about not being with and not seeing Thia made my heart hurt. I had never felt so desperate and alone. I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep up appearances for much longer. I felt like everything around me was falling apart and had no control to do anything about it.

‘Freddie’

Shit. I looked up, there was no point in trying to hide my tear-stained face, whoever it was, was going to know I had been crying.

It was Gabe ‘Oh, it’s you. Gabe, Please, tell me, what’s going on?’ I know I sounded desperate, but at this point I just didn’t care.

‘Not here. Pull yourself together, no one can know about this Freddie. Meet me at lunch by the back field in the tree line. Tell no one. I’ll tell you everything. Make sure you aren’t followed’

I nodded and he walked away. Gabe was being weird, and it was all so cloak and dagger. I mean, I know their family was odd, but this took it to another level, for real.

This was so surreal; I could hardly believe this was happening. He obviously knew about me and Thia, yet he didn’t seem angry, he sounded concerned, I struggled to get through my next two lessons, knowing I was about to find out what was happening.

The bell rang and I grabbed my bag ‘You’re in a rush’ Jenson jibed ‘You that hungry you can’t wait for us?’

‘I’m not coming to lunch with you’ I simply said, but I knew I wouldn’t get away with not explaining.

‘What have you got on that’s better than eating with us?’ Lewis scoffed.

Zeke just seemed lost in his own world, again, and I had considered this was mainly to do with what really happened with Thia, but I wasn’t sure, he had been doing that a lot recently, and that was before the Thia thing.

‘I have to see the principle’ I lied, but I knew they wouldn’t follow me there to check.

‘Why?’ Zeke’s interest now peaked.

‘My Dad wants me to drop PE and switch, but I told him it was too late. He said I didn’t even try, which is true, I didn’t, I don’t want to switch, but he is making me see him anyway’

It wasn’t a complete lie, but I had no intention of going to see the principle about that now or anytime. I liked PE and for Uni I needed 3 A levels, only one of them had to be Business because that is what I intended to study at Uni, the others could be whatever I wanted.

My Dad hated that I was doing a ‘pointless’ A level, but I really didn’t care what he thought, nor did I listen to his advice. He managed to ruin his own life by taking it, I wasn’t about to let him ruin mine as well. I would make my own mistakes thanks; I had no intention of copying his.

They didn’t bother to quiz me anymore, they didn’t know the entire truth about my Dad, but they knew enough to know I wasn’t a fan, nor would I be amused at this situation.

I was grateful they left it at that. I felt a little guilty lying to them, especially Zeke, under the circumstances but I had to know what Gabe was going to tell me and the fact that my Dad had become useful for a change was a bonus.

I made my way to the tree line on the outskirts of the field to try and avoid being detected. I was pretty sure I had made it unseen. I felt a hand reach out and pull me into the trees and nearly squealed like a girl, only another hand went across my mouth before I had the chance.

‘Shhhh, For f***s sake Freddie!’

I relaxed knowing it was Gabe, and he let me go ‘Was that necessary?’ I asked with a little more attitude than I had intended.

‘Entirely. You are lucking I don’t punch you’ he said seriously.

I eyed him suspiciously, assuming he was mad because he found out I was dating his sister,

‘You obviously know about me and Thia, Gabe. So where is she? What the hell is going on?’

I had no intention of beating about the bush. I was beginning to fall apart.

‘Mum and Dad have sent her away’

‘Away? Why? Where too? None of this makes sense, if they knew about us, then Zeke would know, and my Mum would be planning my funeral right now!’

‘You may want to plan your own’

‘Gabe, quit with the riddles, you are freaking me out! Please, just tell me what happened!’

He eyed me cautiously, clearly trying to decide what to say next. What he said floored me.

‘She’s pregnant Freddie’

The colour drained from my face, and I thought I was going to be sick.

‘What…’ my mouth had dried, and I knew my words were barely audible, but he heard me nevertheless.

‘You heard. She’s pregnant. You didn’t know?’ he sounded hostile; I could hardly blame him. I knocked his sister up. She was pregnant, with my child.

‘No. Why didn’t she tell me? Is she okay? I need to see her! She must be petrified. Where did they send her? Will she come back?’

I was trying desperately to get my head around this, we had been so careful. It wasn’t like we had ever not used protection, and we didn’t even have s*x all that much. I was shocked and confused and I still had more questions than answers.

‘Slow down Freddie. I tell you everything that I know. You may want to sit though, before you pass out’ he indicated to a log just behind us and I sat.

‘Gabe, is she okay?’ I was beside myself with fear for her. Her parents would be horrified she had done this to them. Because that Is exactly how they would see this. She was lucky to be alive the way I saw it.

‘She was actually handling it really well before Mum and Dad found out’

‘You knew before they did?’

‘I’ve known for over a week. They found out on Friday’

‘I saw her last Friday and she knew, and she didn’t tell me’ She told me she loved me, but she didn’t tell me about our baby, but she told Gabe, I couldn’t get my head around it, I felt betrayed, and a sadness washed over me. Did she really think I wouldn’t have done whatever I needed too, to help her? I would do anything for her. I love her.

I must have said that last part aloud, as Gabe’s features softened and he sat next to me ‘I think she was just frightened Freddie, don’t take it to heart. She was going to tell you, she told me she was going to. She only told me because she didn’t really have much of a choice’

‘s**t. What did they say? Your folks?’

‘Not a lot. They were shocked, I think. But boy do actions speak louder than words’ he muttered.

‘Have they sent her away to…’ I didn’t want to say the words, but I had to know ‘to have an abortion?’ I could feel the anguish in my voice, the thought of her going through that alone horrified me.

‘No’ he said gently, and I was surprised at the answer, they were going to let her keep my baby ‘She is too far along for them to do that, or they would have’

I mulled over this latest information ‘Too far along? How far along is she?’

‘5 months’

‘f**k! How did I not notice?’ I mean, we had s*x a week ago, seriously, how did I not know?

‘She was barely showing last week, she has sprouted quite the bump since then. It was going to come out sooner or later, unfortunately it was sooner than she had hoped’

I was struggling to wrap my head around it all. It all seemed like too much. It was too much