Separately Together

Chapter Seven: Positive 1/2

There was only one month before the wedding, and everything was in line. Liz had finally settled on bridesmaid dresses, the color of a storm cloud. They were beautiful and fit me nicely. Liz and Finnic picked on me about Harley every time I'm over, despite me telling them that I wasn't ready to date multiple times and mentioning the fact that they were talking about Harley, Finnic's best friend. None of that deterred them from bringing it up every single time. They had learned that he spent the night again and being the simple-minded folks they assumed we had sex and once they came to that assumption there was no stopping the jokes and nags.

I had only seen Harley twice since he showed up at my door at one in the morning. Once was at Finnic's when we came to visit at the same time, that was fun, considering they picked on him ten times worse than they did me.

The next time he came by the bakery and ordered half a dozen donuts. Nothing was said between the two of us but for some reason the way we looked at each other caused Debra to assume he was my boyfriend. I had been refilling the shelves when he came in, he hadn't known I worked there. I didn't say anything to him other than sending him a small wave like the awkward person I am.

"Maddddiiieee!!!!" Liz screeched and I heard her tiny feet pounding down the hallway of the top floor. She made it to her room and jumped over a piece of paper that was on the floor before falling beside me on her bed. "It's positive!" She shoves the pregnancy test in my face, and I gasp.

"No!" I yell excitedly. Liz pushes back her curly blonde hair behind her ear so that she can stare at the two deep pink lines. Tears were whelming up in her eyes, but she held the prettiest of smiles on her face. She was excited but worried and I really could understand why with the wedding being so close. I double-check to make sure it's a pregnancy test and not an ovulation test because I've heard of several cases where women have mixed the two up. She was pregnant.

"How am I supposed to tell your brother?" She stands up off of the bed and clutches the pregnancy test in her fist. "What am I going to do about the wedding? Is my dress not going to fit?"

"One, it doesn't matter how you tell him, he is going to be happy. Two, the wedding is going to go exactly as planned. Third, your dress should be fine, the wedding is only a month away." I scoot to the edge of the bed so that I could reach for her hand and sit her down beside me so that she could calm down and quit panicking and pacing.

"You're going to be a great mother, Finnic a great father. There is no reason to panic." I rub her back encouragingly. It was ironic that I was helping her soothe her panic when the roles were reversed the majority of the time. It felt good to be of service.

"Hey, Liz!" Finnic's booming voice echoes through the empty house, he must be home from work.

Liz panics and throws me the pregnancy test and I shove it in my bra having nowhere else to put it. Liz turns the tv on and the Titanic is playing. The bedroom door opens, and Finnic comes in plopping down on the bed beside his wife. His eyes scan over Liz seeing her puffy eyes. "What's wrong?" He asks.

"Watching sad movies," Liz explains and I mentally kick her in her behind. I always cry in romance movies, always. Finnic knows this. Before he can put two and two together, I try to make myself tear up.

Think of a puppy dying. A kid without a home...

I can't breathe. He has his hand over my mouth laughing in my face.

I curse my mind for going there but tears stream down my face. Real genuine tears that have so much more meaning to them than a normal sad romantic movie cry.

A finnic glances at me and laughs. "Oh, I see."

Finnic's phone starts ringing, and he kisses Liz's cheek before excusing himself from the room.

"I will never trust you again. You cried way too easy." Liz laughs.

I chuckled trying to play it off and get my heart rate back to normal. "Shut up." I joke but the smile doesn't reach my eyes and I just hope she didn't notice it.

"We're going for drinks tonight, too. Should I just make up an excuse not to go?" She asks me, it being obvious she couldn't get drunk tonight.

"Nonsense we can just change the plans. Who and all is coming?" I ask because if it was a couple of people there would be more opportunities to change the plans for tonight.

"You, Harley. Then I think Asher said he was coming." Hmm, that would be a little more complicated.

Finnic comes back in, and we hush our conversation quickly. "Asher canceled. Looks like we're double dating." He jokes and I roll my eyes. His nagging kept coming and coming. When would he realize that I'm not going to date Harley or anyone for that matter?

"Well, this must be a sign that we shouldn't go to the bar, let's just go to the movies. Fewer people for Maddie and perfect for double dating. Plus, Maddie isn't even old enough to drink with us." Liz throws me under the bus quickly.

Oh, she was going to pay for this one.

She knew that the bar wasn't going to be full tonight, we had made sure of it when we made the plans, and I was going to be the DD to make sure everyone makes it back home safely. She was using it as an excuse, I get it she panicked but I didn't exactly want to go under the pretense that this was a double date.

Finnic picks his phone up once again and starts walking out. "Sounds fine to me. I'm going to call Harley."

"Liz this was not how I planned on getting you out of drinking." I scold with furrowed eyebrows it was something that I did unintentionally when I got mad.

"Please. Just this once for me?" She gave me her best puppy dog eyes and it crumbled away my anger, I could feel my frustration fading away already. She was a weakness of mine. My only friend.

"I guess. You owe me, though." She hugs me close just as he comes back into the room.

"He's down." It was shocking that he agreed willingly, if I didn't have Liz and her puppy dog eyes in my line of sight I would have turned down the offer.

"I'm going to head home so I have time to get ready." I winked at Liz, she knew I had my clothes in the back of the car, I just wanted to give her space to be able to tell him that he was going to be a father.

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