"I still don't see it," Niall muttered, turning the picture upside down. I rolled my eyes and took it from his hands.
"There's the head," I pointed out, "and there's the body." Realisation dawned on Niall's face and he took the sonogram picture from me. He was smiling to himself like someone who had just won the lottery. He placed it on his bedside cabinet.
To say I was glad was a vast understatement. I was so relieved that I thought that I was going to have to pinch myself just to wake up. Niall hadn't shut up with the, "I told you so's," ever since we had got out of the lift. He had practically danced out into the car park and into his car. It would have been quite sweet if he hadn't been shouting at the top of his voice.
Niall turned back to me, this huge grin plastered all over his face. He was about to kiss me when his phone vibrated. I reached over and took it out of his pocket, reading his message for him. Then I looked up and glared.
"Is this picture still going around?" I sighed, passing him his mobile. He looked at it and rolled his eyes, muttering something about Billy getting hold of it. The truth was, Sian hadn't been the same since her night out with Gary. And who could blame her. Gone was the sparky and confident best friend I had known, and in her place, was a shell of her former self. She had stopped making an effort with her appearance and she no longer drooled after boys that she fancied. Mostly, she kept to herself, only speaking when spoken to.
If I was completely honest, I missed her.
"Can't you do something to stop them?" I asked Niall, watching as he deleted the picture.
"Evie, do you know how many people this has been sent to?" he demanded. "There really is nothing I can do."
I frowned. Sian didn't deserve this. Okay, she had pulled some pretty nasty stunts but nobody deserved this. Even Kylie, the girl who thought that Chlamydia was a nice name for a baby girl, didn't deserve to have something like this done to her. Well, actually, scratch that; I didn't care what happened to her, but it actually made me feel physically sick when I saw that my best friend had been reduced to wanking material for spotty perverts.
"I should go and see my mum," I mumbled, getting to my feet. Niall rose with me, a concerned look on his face.
"Is this because I said I couldn't do anything?" he asked. It would sound stupid if I said yes, I was majorly pissed that he wasn't going to even attempt to confront his friends, so I just shook my head.
"I told her that I would let her know how it went," I said, walking to the door. Niall followed.
"I'll come with you."
"No," I objected sharply. "You go and...see Billy or something." I said Billy's name with as much venom as I could, making it perfectly clear that I wasn't happy. Niall sighed and stayed where he was standing as I walked down the stairs. I could hear my Auntie Francis laughing in the kitchen with Declan. It would be very interesting to see where this so-called "relationship" was going. From what I could tell, Declan was a decent enough guy; he was kind and genuine, a million miles away from Niall's cocky hard man act. And my Auntie Francis, well...in short, she was a slag. But they seemed to be pretty content in each other's company as of late. Even mum was coming round to the idea. But it was going to be a cold day in hell when I started calling Declan my Uncle. Tommy thought it was ridiculous - "He's nearly young enough to be your son, Auntie Francis!" - and he had made it crystal clear that he was not having anything to do with her cougar tendencies.
I left the house and walked around to our side of the fence. I had just made it up the steps and was turning the key in the lock, when someone called out my name. I turned and saw Kai walking towards me as fast as his short legs would carry him. His face was red from the effort and he was huffing and puffing like he had just run a marathon.
"Yeah?" I called to him. I really didn't want to engage in a conversation about his bone collection right now. I folded my arms across my stomach and watched as he jogged towards me.
"How are you?" he asked. I raised an eyebrow.
"Fine," I replied curtly. Kai skidded to a halt and I could instantly see that there was something wrong. His eyes were wide and fearful.
"Have you heard about Denny?" he asked. My legs turned to jelly and I leaned my back against the door, my heart thudding against my chest. I shook my head, unable to say anything.
"He's been released."
Kai words seemed like a distant echo. I was suddenly being transported back to the day he had been arrested, his parting words branded on my mind, searing whenever I thought about him.
I'm going to get you.
I felt my jaw tremble, along with the rest of my body. Denny was out. Denny was out and he was going to come back for me. He was going to get me and then he was going to kill me, there was no doubt about it. Kai put a hand on my shoulder and I flinched, Denny still fresh in my head. I looked up into Kai's eyes, and I could see the sadness in them.
We weren't so different, me and Kai. We had both suffered at the hands of Denny, although, Kai had been stupid enough to go shooting his mouth off about it. Me, on the other hand, I had kept quiet, trying to keep in his good books. When he had been taken away by the police, I didn't know what to do. I had all of this freedom to do what I wanted, without him breathing down my neck and dictating my every move.
And now he was back.
***
"What're you going to do?" Sian asked lazily, flicking through the channels on the television. We were in her room and I had just told her what Kai had informed me of earlier in the day. I had practically cried until I had no more tears left, and my eyes felt raw and sore. Sian had just sat there, listening to everything that she already knew. After I had finished, she had turned the volume of the T.V. up so that her mum couldn't hear what we were saying.
"I don't know," I muttered, putting my hair back in its bun.
"Have you told Niall about him?"
I had been dreading this question. No, Niall still knew nothing of Denny and what he had put me through, and I intended for it to stay that way.
"Evie, I think you're going to have to tell him," Sian sighed, looking away from the television and right at me. I averted my gaze because, as much as I didn't want to admit it, Sian was right. Again. I was going to have an overly awkward conversation with Niall about the fact that my abusive ex was running around the streets again. I would be lucky if he still wanted to be near me after this. I put my hand to my head and then put the other to my stomach. What the hell was Denny going to say when he found out that I was having Niall's baby? I mean, it had nothing to do with him; I had made it pretty clear that we were done when he smashed Kai's face in. But Denny was borderline pyschotic. They way he thought was unpredictable.
I groaned. Why did this have to be so complicated? This was exactly why I hadn't gone into boys in a big way; to avoid this sort of shit. Perhaps I was just destined to have my mother's luck when it came to men. No, I couldn't think that way. Denny was one bloke; my first boyfriend who hadn't exactly made me rush out and get a new one when he got put away. Niall was...Niall was everything Denny wasn't. He at least he acted like he cared about me and...there was just something about Niall that made me want to trust him. If you forgot about the fact that he was a bit of a slag, and took away his slightly arrogant way of thinking, you would be left with practically the perfect boyfriend. I said if.
"I will," I said eventually. "But only if Denny comes back." I mean, realistically, what were the chances? Denny probably wanted to forget all about everything related to his criminal past. He would want to start anew just like I had. The more I tried to convince myself, the more I began to believe my own fibs.
"Whatever," Sian yawned, settling herself back down on her seat, curling herself into a tiny ball. Then she sat upright, her eyes alight.
"What?" I asked, surprised by the sudden burst of life.
"The rugby club Christmas party is next Saturday," she stated. I nodded, saying nothing. Sian and I went to the Christmas party every year. It was like our tradition. But I had thought we were giving it a miss because of me being pregnant and Sian being in the state of mind she was in.
"And?"
"Well, we're going, aren't we?"
I looked at her like she was crazy. She had to be, I mean, seriously? She had been in a zombie mood for the past month and now she expected me to agree to going to a party with her. Had she not remembered the predicament that I had got into the last time we had gone to a party? Hello, I still had the evidence under my jumper.
"Evie, we do this every year."
Yeah but I'm not pregnant every year and there aren't nude pictures of you circulating the public every year. I had thought that she had wanted to keep a low profile right now, instead of making herself known. But I could see that Sian seemed to have completely forgotten everything that Rick had done. She had always been resilient but this was new personal best. I was just staring at her. Was she being real?
"Come on," she moaned, jumping onto the sofa I was sitting on. "Last marquee night before you're a mum." See, when she put it like that, it made me reconsider. How many nights out was I going to get once the baby was born? Okay, yes, I had agreed with myself that I needed to take it easy but it didn't necessarily mean that I couldn't go out and have a good time, did it? If anything, I should be out living the last of my days of freedom. And the scan had shown that the baby was fine. Was there really any harm in it? I wasn't going to drink, I wasn't going to over exert myself and I certainly wasn't going to go home with anyone.
Funnily enough, I didn't think that Niall was going to see it in as good a light as I was. But who cared? It wasn't like he owned me. He couldn't control what I was going to do and I evidently couldn't control what he was going to do. And besides, I had spent too long being controlled by people I cared about.
"So does that mean you'll come with me?" Sian asked, prodding me with her foot. I sighed.
"Yeah," I replied wearily. Sian made an excited noise and leapt from where she was sitting and basically landed on top of me, squeezing me with an embrace that could paralyse a wrestler. She was just happy that she was getting her way but I was glad that she was herself again. Any more miserable, she could have given me a run for my money. Though, in all fairness, I thought that I had been a lot more happy recently.
"Remember," she said sternly, "Girls only." I nodded, but at the same time, I was wondering how I was going to win Niall round with this one. He wasn't overly protective like Denny had been, but he liked to make sure that I was okay, which was fair enough; I was having his baby. Anything that happened to me, would happen to the baby.
"Unless the rugby boys get lonely, otherwise, you're on your own," she said, winking. The sad thing was, she was only half joking. I knew what would happen; Sian would go off with one of the rugby lads and leave me looking like a bloody lemon as per usual. But at least this time, I would drag Jen and Veronica along with me, so that I didn't look too much like a friendless idiot.
After about another hour, I said goodbye to Sian and began to walk home. Night closed in on me, casting everything into shadow. It probably wasn't safe walking through Sian's estate at night; that was the when all the freaks seemed to come out to play. But, for some unknown reason, I didn't even glance over my shoulder. That was, until, someone pulled me into a darkened alley.
Before I could even think about screaming, they put their hand over my mouth, muffling any noise I made. I aimed a kick for the person's groin but he was well prepared, putting his other hand around my throat. It was a warning; try anything and I'll snap your neck.
"Don't make a sound," he hissed menacingly. He slowly took away his hand and I remained silent, my hear thumping loudly. Oh shit. This could not be happening. What the hell was he going to do with me. His fingers remained around my throat, pressing down on my windpipe. I heard the click of a lighter.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Was he about to set me on fire? Slowly, he raised the lighter to his face.
I nearly threw up.
Denny was standing there, his jaw set and his face scarred. I struggled even more but he pressed my face against the wall he had me pinned up against, twisting my neck painfully. I thought about all the ways I could escape but each one dwindled more quickly than the previous as I realised that there was a chance he was going to kill me. I was stupid to even think otherwise. When we had been together, he had never forgotten a threat to follow through. Why had I thought that this one was any different?
Involuntary tears of fear tumbled down my face, sliding onto his rough fingers.
"Hullo, Evie," he whispered in my ear. I let out a whimper and he hit me with the hand with the lighter in it. He struck my face, leaving me momentarily speechless. My cheek throbbed with pain and my first instinct was to raise my hand to it, but I resisted; I didn't need to give him anymore ammunition.
"Did ye miss meh?"
I said nothing.
"Aw, Evie, are you nae happy tae see meh?" he chuckled. I was shaking and the only thing I could think about was my baby. I had to get out of this for its sake more than anything.
"How the hell did you find me?" I snarled. Denny let go of me and took a step back, looking me up and down, using his lighter as a source of light. I suddenly felt like a piece of meet at the butchers. I looked away from his cold eyes, tracing the cut on my face from his earlier blow.
"I've been followin' you, Evie," he said, a smirk on his face. "And I've seen some pretty interestin' things."
He put out his hand and ran his finger down my face. I didn't move, standing rigid. To make even a sound would have given him his sick satisfaction and I wasn't going to do it. My heart was beating so fast, it was like a hum in my chest.
Suddenly, Denny grabbed me by the front of my jacket and thrust me up against the wall. My head hid the hard bricks with a heavy smack and I felt blood dribbling through the waves of my hair. He was going to kill me, he actually was going to beat the shit out of me and leave me to bleed to death.
"New loon on the go?" he spat. "A babbie on the way? Did yeh no' think I'd find oot?" His loud voice made me recoil and duck my head.
"Just fuck off," I groaned. Denny let go of me, towering over my head. I had never, ever spoken to him like that before and I supposed that it had surprised him. He put his hands on my waist and I shrugged them off, ignoring the onset of dizziness. I didn't want him to touch me; the very thought of his fingers on my body made my skin crawl in disgust.
"Ye ken somethin', Evie?" he muttered. "I wiz gonnae kill yeh." My head jerked up. "But noo; I'm gonnae make yer life so fucking difficult, yeh'll be wishing that I hid." He kissed me roughly on the mouth. I kept my lips firmly shut, trying to block out the smell of alcohol on his breath. He pushed me back into the wall and began to walk away, just like that.
I slid down the brick wall, burying my head in my hands. I sobbed. Not because I was in pain, but because I was so fucking scared. There, I said it, I was scared. But I had good cause to be; Denny was a piece of shit but he had connections. If he said that my life was going to be unbearable, then I believed him one hundred percent.
My hands shaking uncontrollably, I pulled my mobile out of my pocket and dialled Niall's number. It rang four times before he picked up and when he did, he sounded out of breath.
"Yeah?" he said.
"Can you come and pick me up?" I wept into the receiver.
"What's happened?" Niall demanded. I shook my head before remembering that he couldn't see me.
"Please," I begged. I told him exactly where I was sitting and he told me not to move. Well, I wasn't actually in much of a state to go for a leisurely walk right now. Niall hung up and I put the phone back in my pocket. I brought my knees up to my chest, hugging them tightly. I rocked backwards and forwards, still terrified that Denny was going to come back for a second go.
I was so scared, I didn't notice the rain falling down my face, mingling with my tears.
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Well, all good things had to come to an end....Sorry about that. So, Denny's back in the picture, which can only mean trouble...hmm...
on a happer note...over 5000 reads..i feel like we've accomplished something chaps!!
Oh, and you see Denny, he's like proper Scottish; the real deal. So don't worry if you can't understand it (that was meant in a totally non-patronising way, promise); I can hardly understand Scottish and I've lived here my whole life...not my fault I just speak English with a Scottish accent...(I'm talking to you, Writingfornoreason!!)
Haha
thanks for reading.
x