A/N: I own nothing, is that not clear by now

A/N: I own nothing, is that not clear by now? Anyway, please read, review, and enjoy!

Chapter 9

Will felt numb as he headed down the stairs to where Charley and Elizabeth were playing Halo. Halfway down, he could hear Charley groaning as Elizabeth probably beat him down and the silence that was Elizabeth’s concentration. He finally reached the den and stood in the doorway, staring dumbly at his best friend and his girlfriend.

Elizabeth noticed his presence almost instantly and offered him a brilliant smile. He weakly upturned the corners of his mouth in an attempt to return it. Looking concerned, Elizabeth paused the game and set her controller down on the coffee table. “Will?” she said softly. “What’s wrong?”

“Can I talk to you?” he asked, biting his lip nervously. “Alone?”

“Sure,” she shrugged, glancing sideways at Charley.

Getting up, Charley sighed, “I get it. No one wants me around. I see how it is.” He flashed Elizabeth a lopsided to grin, to show that he was joking, before trotting up the stairs. A few seconds later, the sounds of his rummaging around in the kitchen could be heard.

Will sat next to Elizabeth on the couch. “What’s wrong?” she repeated.

“Why didn’t you tell Jane?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Elizabeth knew what he was talking about, even though he didn’t directly mention her pregnancy. One hand strayed absentmindedly to her slightly bulging stomach. “I’m not really sure,” she whispered softly. “I think part of it was not wanting her to feel bad for not being here. But mostly I think it’s because I’m royally pissed at her for not being here.” She looked up at him, biting her lip. “You told her… didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry. I- I didn’t know,” he stammered. “I thought for sure she knew. I thought she would be the first person you told, even before me. I thought…”

“You think too much,” she chuckled, shaking her head affectionately at him. “It’s fine, Will. Actually, thanks. I needed to tell her sometime.”

His eyes widened incredulously at her. “No problem,” he said. “So you’re not mad?”

She shook her head. “Not at all.”

Smiling widely, feeling greatly relieved, he draped an arm over her shoulders and planted a soft kiss to her hair. “She sounded really surprised,” he offered, attempting to sound casual and nonchalant and failing miserably.

“She should be,” Elizabeth told him. “I haven’t even told her that we had sex.”

“What?” he said, sounding shocked and whipping his head around to stare at her. “You said you were going to.”

“I’ve been planning on it,” she admitted. “But every time I talk to her, it’s just… I don’t know. Something stops me. First, she’s not even here to help me deal with all this. Second, I just think that somehow… it’ll make her think worse of me. You know? Like I’m not a good person anymore.”

“Just because you made a mistake while you were drunk as hell doesn’t make you a bad person, Liz,” Will said softly, stroking her hair now. “You know that.”

“I know,” she said quietly, looking down at her lap. “But I don’t want Jane to think that.”

“It’s okay,” he said, attempting to sound soothing. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”

She nodded, but a few tears escaped from her eyes nonetheless. Pregnant women and their hormones, he thought dryly, shaking his head.

CLMCLMCLM

During their Latin class that Friday, Charley said to Will, “Dude, there’s a problem with Elizabeth.”

“What is it?” he asked, snapping his head up so fast that his neck cracked. Rubbing his neck tenderly, he repeated, “What is it?”

“No, no, no, not like that kind of problem,” Charley said hastily to Will’s relief.

“Then what is it?”

“People are thinking that the only reason you’re still dating her is because you knocked her up,” he replied, translating some text from their textbook.

“So?” Will shrugged. “Who cares what they think? You know that’s not true. I know that’s not true. Elizabeth knows that’s not true. Isn’t that what matters?”

“Yeah,” Charley said slowly, carefully, as he was not sure just how to phrase this. “But… don’t you think that Elizabeth needs some sign of your commitment? I mean, seeing as she’s going to be raising your kid and all.”

“Charley, what the hell are you talking about?” he asked wearily.

“I’m just saying,” his friend replied, lowering his voice to a whisper as the teacher glanced in their direction. “You should probably prove to her that you’re serious about this relationship. You need to prove to her that the fact that’s she’s pregnant with your child isn’t the only reason you’re staying in this. She needs to know that you won’t abandon her after we graduate just because you’re ‘going in different directions.’”

“I wasn’t going to do any of that anyway,” Will said softly.

“Huh?”

“Even before she got pregnant, I wasn’t ever planning on breaking up with her. If we went to distant colleges, I was going to suggest a long-distance relationship.”

“Really?” Charley asked, sounding incredulous.

Will nodded. “I love her, Charley,” he said quietly. “How could I leave her?”

This left Charley speechless, giving Will time to consider what his friend had said. He supposed he was right. Elizabeth, in her current hormonal, desperate state, probably wouldn’t find it too hard to convince herself that the only reason he was still dating her was because of the baby.

He thought about it hard for the rest of the period, before realizing that his path was very clear.

CLMCLMCLM

Jane Benson sat in a chair facing her computer, her fingers poised over the keyboard. On her screen, she had a page opened to compose an e-mail to Elizabeth, apologizing profusely for leaving her and for being so ignorant of her pregnancy. However, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She couldn’t bring herself to do this through the internet or over the phone. How do you apologize for being the shittiest best friend you could possibly be?

She felt a few tears streaming down her cheeks as her door opened. “Jane, honey,” said her aunt, Mrs. Gardiner, who was looking at her niece in a concerned manner. “Is everything okay?”

“No,” she shook her head, wiping away the tears with the back of her hand. “I’ve screwed everything up. I’ve made a huge mistake.”