Something Else

Chapter 11 - Sorting Out

'Don't tell me Claire found out.'

'Sort of ... but it's only guesswork on her behalf, she doesn't really know anything, though she's pretty damn close.'

He glanced round to the living room, finishing what was left in his bottle before grabbing himself another one. 'Wait here a sec. I want a quick word with her. I'll be back in a minute.

The moment Lee set foot in the living room, Claire shrank back behind Gayle, scared of what he might say to her in front of everyone after yesterday.

He crossed the room with his bottle pressed firmly to his lips. And, having already seen her, he went over and crouched down, to her surprise, in front of her, folding his arms over her knees. 'Alright?' he asked.

She forced a nervous smile, and before she could even reply, he grinned.

'Relax,' he told her. 'I'm not here to have a go at you. I just want to talk to you, that's all.'
'What about?' she found herself asking warily.
'What d'you think about?' he asked in return.
She swallowed, side glancing at Gayle, not wanting to say too much in front of her, and Lee feeling the same, gave her a knowing wink and changed the subject immediately. 'So did you go to the rave last night, too?'
Claire nodded.
'So much for waiting in for my call.'

She was quick to defend herself and looked at him with wide eyes. 'I did wait in ... for a while,' she admitted, 'but once it got to half nine, I didn't think you were going to call, so I went thinking that's where you'd be anyway.'

'I had to work.'

'Yeah, Bob told me.'

He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. 'Some trip that was! Did he tell you where I had to go?'

'Yeah, Lithgow, you must be tired.'

He shrugged, shaking his head and rubbed his fingers under his nose, indicating he'd taken some speed - then nudging Gayle in the thigh as she sat beside Claire pretending to read the back of a CD, said, 'hey, you wouldn't be ignoring me now, would you?'
Gayle threw him a smile, cautious of him since the night he had knocked her back, and said sarcastically, 'how could anyone ignore you, Lee?'
He returned her smile with a lingering grin, and getting up to his feet again, patted Claire on the knee. 'Just give me ten minutes. I'm talking to Bob in the kitchen.'

Lee started by telling Bob about what happened with Claire on Friday night when she had told him she was pregnant. He told him how he'd initially reacted – that he didn't believe it was his, and how he ended up telling her that, if she was going to go through with it, at the end of the day, if she still claimed it was his, he'd want every test going to prove that it was his. He then told him of how the next day she'd found his watch in Stacey's bag at work, and how she'd attacked her over it, and how she'd then gone round to his place to confront him.

He told him how they'd argued - and how he'd finally got around it, and then told him of his afternoon in the hotel room with Stacey, and of how they'd talked and worked things out – he then told him of their plans.

At first, Bob said nothing. What could he say? He couldn't believe so much had happened in just a matter of hours. He turned it over in his mind and eventually began to nod. 'Yeah, fair enough,' he said with a light shrug. 'So long as you know what you're doing.'

Bob then went on to tell Lee about the night he'd just had with Claire - comforting her at the rave when she'd found he wasn't there. She'd wanted to know why he wasn't there, where he was going, and who with. She wanted to know everything about any girls he might have been seeing – the married one in particular.

But Bob had told her nothing. He'd remained totally ignorant, telling her, as far as he knew, Lee hadn't been seeing anyone for a while now. And that the married bird had been just another in a long line of flings. It was at that point she'd chosen to break down and cry, telling him how she'd just found out she was pregnant and how Lee had told her he wanted nothing to do with it – that he didn't even believe it was his. He told him how she'd cried and cried and cried, telling him how much she loved him, missed him and wanted him still, and that even though he wanted nothing to do with either her or the baby, at least she'd always have a small part of him and that maybe, one day, he might even come round to accepting it – and they both just looked at each other, Bob rolling his eyes to the ceiling, indicating to Lee that he thought she was a complete nut-job, and Lee said nothing. He knew that the abandoned sob story was just her laying the ground, so once it all came out in the open, everyone would feel sorry for her, and he'd be the eternal bastard. So what's new? They all thought he was a bastard anyway - and those who didn't, already knew what a manipulating bitch she was. He shrugged it off. He knew there was no way it was his baby. As far as he was concerned, this was Pete's problem, not his.