My Best Mistake [#1][#WATTYS2016][COMPLETE]

seventeen

{UNEDITED}

        As we pulled up outside Scarlett’s house, it was smaller than I imagined it would be. I don’t know why I thought it would be bigger, I guess it’s just because there are more of them than there is of Matthew and I, even our house is bigger than this.

        At the front, there was a small garden which had been surrounded with a wall, built to keep a child in its boundaries judging by the height of it and the complexity of the gate lock. The front door was red with the number eighteen branded in the middle of it and there were only three windows which were visible, one at the bottom and two at the top.

        I knocked quickly on the door as Matthew closed the gate and appeared beside me, his hand finding mine as he gave me a reassuring squeeze. I had done what I did best for the entire journey, which was worry that Scarlett wasn’t going to like me now and that she wasn’t going to like Matthew either since she had assumed Braydon was the father of the baby.

        “Chloe. It’s wonderful to see you again,” Scarlett grinned as she pulled the door open and, without warning, she embraced me in a hug before turning her attention to Matthew. “You’re not Braydon though.”

        “No, this is Matthew, he’s my boyfriend and the father of the baby. Braydon was just a friend who came along for support,” I smiled, stepping to the side slightly, watching as Scarlett checked Matthew from inside her house. He wasn’t going to attack her and he wasn’t dangerous, so I don’t know why she was looking at him like he was about to murder her and her entire family. He was an idiot, but he wasn’t that much of an idiot and the thought had probably never crossed his mind either.

        “Braydon talked like he was the father of the baby,” Scarlett replied after a moment.

        “Yeah. He does that,” I sighed. I felt bad for lying, but Braydon hadn’t bothered with me since that day at the hospital when he disappeared and didn’t bother telling me where he was going. He ran at the first sign of trouble and hid when it got even the slightest bit tough, so he wasn’t going to be any use to me when the baby arrived if that’s how he was going to react to everything.

        I would be lying if I said I wasn’t pissed with him for simply vanishing. I know he had a hard time accepting everything which had happened, but I didn’t expect him to be as cowardly as he was. He didn’t even make it into the room before he was turning and running for his life, telling me he couldn’t do it.

        “I am guessing you’re Scarlett. Chloe told me about your conversation and I think it’s great that there is someone there to help her through this, someone who really understands and can point her in the right direction,” Matthew spoke up with a smile on his face. I was amazed that he hadn’t let Scarlett’s judgemental behaviour put him off wanting to be there, he just took what she did and ignored it.

        He had certainly become something different in the last month, but it wasn’t anything to do with me because I hadn’t done anything to help him. The change which people are noticing is solely down to him and whatever is going through his mind right now, he even told Lydia it was over between the two of them because he had more important things to worry about.

        She wasn’t impressed when she discovered that I was the more important thing which he was worrying about and I can only imagine how she would react if she ever realised Matthew was the father of the baby I was carrying. She would have spent two months attempting to guess the truth when, for the entire time, it was under her nose and she was simply too stupid to realise that.

        “I know what it’s like to go through pregnancy this early in life. If there is anything I can do to help, then I would be more than happy to do so,” Scarlett said, her eyes narrowing as she glared at Matthew once again.