Heartbeat

Chapter 9.

— Aria's POV —

I'm frozen still, and I can't help but feel my mouth water, a sickening taste in the back of my throat haunting me.

Noah stands in front of me, looking so confused and if I look close enough I see the hurt in his eyes that I've caused him over the past week. Guilt eats at me, he looks so upset.

"Do you know each other?" Lillie looks very confused as she stares between us, and I can't do anything else but run.

I run back up the stairs, bolting through my bedroom to the bathroom where I fall to the floor and empty the contents of my stomach into the toilet.

I can barely stay quiet as sobs rattle through me, my reality hitting me like a bullet through my chest, and I can't keep it in any longer. I have been so stressed all week that I've made myself ill, and just as I've finished taking the test to see if I'm pregnant, I find out it's my best friend's brother who I've slowly been driving myself insane over.

It's all too much.

"Aria, what's wrong?!" I hear Lillie come up behind me, and I don't dare move my head from the toilet bowl. I don't want to face her, I don't want to tell her. "Tell me that's not what I think it is."

"What?" I sit up and look down at the test that lays on the floor beside me. "Oh-"

"You're pregnant?" She sits down beside me on the floor of the bathroom, and I pick up the test in my hands.

I have known for four days, but nothing hits me more deeper than reading the result right in front of me.

Positive.

"I am." I breathe out in shock, I look over at Lillie with watery eyes, and she takes my hand. "I don't know what to do, I don't- Fuck, I'm sorry, we just left your brother."

"Don't say sorry, it's fine, it's totally fine. He grew up with me, he knows my dramatics, I doubt yours will scare him off." She assures me, looking down at the test between us. "Wait, who's the father?"

I bite down on my lip, fighting back more tears but it's no use, they fall one after another, and I can't seem to find the words to answer her.

It's one thing being pregnant and finding out with my best friend, but it's another thing when my best friend is related to the guy who's baby I'm carrying. I don't know how she's going to react and that terrifies me.

The thought of losing my friend over this is enough to make me feel nauseous again, and I'm soon hanging my head over the toilet.

"It's fine, it's going to be fine." She soothes my lower back as my stomach churns, and I feel my cheeks dampen from my tears. "Your mom had you young, she won't be mad. Everything will work out, I promise."

And in truth, I hadn't even worried about telling my mom. All I've cared about all week was telling Noah, and now after discovering that he's Lillie's brother, I worry about telling her too.

"It's Noah." I tell her between coughs.

"Noah? He's downstairs, he's fine." She doesn't seem to understand, and I sit back, puffing out some air. I can hardly breathe, and I'm so anxious, it isn't helping at all.

"The father, it's Noah."

"My brother? My brother; Noah? Noah? My-"

"Yes." I tell her, and she looks at me in as much shock as I was in just a moment ago when I was downstairs. "I didn't know he was your brother, I promise."

"When?" She asks quietly, and then looks between us at the test. "At the party?"

"Yeah." I say, and then I go onto admit. "But that wasn't the only time, we have- well, he asked me out last week, and he stayed over, and well."