Avery's POV
I was dumb.
I was incredibly fucking dumb.
It'd been about a week after Mona was confirmed pregnant after she took that test in our bathroom. And things had been fine. She hadn't told anyone and I helped hide this until she was prepared and she thought Axel would be prepared for the news as well.
She was planning on telling him this weekend. Sitting him down and giving him the honest truth. Discussing what they should do and their options.
But she never did get that chance. Because life was a bitch and just had to screw us all over.
And maybe it was partially my fault for what did happen. But I honestly didn't think that any of my supposedly nosy roommates would actually go through my shit. The shit at the bottom and back of my closet to be precise.
Exactly where I'd tossed Mona's positive pregnancy test.
Walking down the hall with Mona after school to go back to the flat, I never expected to see almost all seven of them sitting on the couch in complete silence and anxiety.
"But like strawberry bananas the shit bro," Mona tells me slurping up her smoothie while I, my iced coffee.
"Bananas literally taste like baby food Mona." I stop and give her a judgmental look, "and you like sardines so don't even try to tell me what is and isn't good food-wise."
"You're just mad you were born picky and can't eat like 70% of food."
"Okay, ya know what-" I start while opening the door and stepping in. But obviously, I stopped at the sight in front of me.
Everyone was here but Dawson and to my surprise both Eva and Sawyer were sat awkwardly on a small couch together.
"Hi..?" I asked not knowing exactly what was going on right now. To be honest, in this moment I completely forgot about the test in my room.
I carefully and slowly shut the door behind Mona and I and lean against it while Mona looks over to me to see my reaction.
All I was was confused though.
"What's up?" I ask them all oddly.
No one speaks up so Sawyer stands up from her spot on the small couch and takes small steps towards me.
"Aves, I think we need to talk. And we're not here to bash or judge you, we'll all support you no matter what." Her hand grips mine gently as she smiles softly and nods her head a bit.
"That's sweet and all Sawyer, it really is but I honestly have no fucking idea what you're talking about."
And I didn't. I was really confused right now. What could have gotten all of them so worried?
"We know..." victor says cryptically.
"Well duh. But know what exactly?" I ask still not understanding what they were referring to.
"The pregnancy test!" Keegan shouts throwing his hands up. I notice Eva took a step closer to him and grabbed his arm to calm his nerves.
And it all falls into place. Shit.
I stay quiet just staring at everything and everyone.
"I..uh...I" was failing at this whole explanation hint right now.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Callum asks seeming hurt. But at the same time off. He probably thought my nonexistent child was also Dawson's.
"Have you decided on what you're gonna do? Cause we'll be there no matter what." Axel adds in shrugging but he has a sincere smile on his face.
"No matter what?" Mona stutters beside me.
She was gonna tell him. Oh shit. No no no. This was a mess. A big mess.
"Yeah. No matter what she decides I'm sure it'll work out for her." Axel responds which only seems to make Mona more sure of her decision.
But I know once this is out in the open, she can't take it back.
And it's at that time that Dawson walks through the door looking hot as ever as he casually sips his iced coffee and looks through his phone.
His eyes look up at us once he notices the stuff atmosphere.
"What's wrong?" He asks slowly to nobody in particular.
"Avery's preggers." Bentley blurts out.
I was gonna kill that boy at some point, I swear.
At this point in time, Dawson chokes on his iced coffee and stares at me with wide eyes. Which Mona and I soon reciprocate.
"Holy shit..." he mumbles after recovering from his coughing fit.
This just went from bad to worse.
"I-" before Dawson can ask any further questions Mona yells "it's mine! I'm pregnant! Not Avery. Me."
That causes any previous whispers to stop. And everyone to look between Mona and Axel.
I think I hear a few released sighs but those stop after it's obvious who the father is.
"I'm just gonna...go," Eva says breaking the awkward silence. "I think we all should. You guys should um...talk."
We all listen to Eva and silently walk to our bedrooms and Sawyer to Elliot's. Eva leaves the flat after a wave goodbye to Keegan and a small smile my way and Axel and Mona silently head out to a more private area where they can talk alone about what they should do.
I immediately plug in my earbuds after falling on my bed to avoid any awkward conversation with Dawson about the baby.
But my plan fails since he's a nosy little shit and can't take a hint.
Dawson pulls my earbuds out and sits next to me, making me scoot over so he has more room.
But instead of attempting to make conversation like I thought he'd do, Dawson just sits next to me, his arm around my shoulder as we listen to our Spotify playlist.
***
It was quiet the next morning.
I noticed that both Axel and Mona weren't present at breakfast. I wondered what happened between the two last night.
I was worried Axel wouldn't be able to step up to the plate for Mona and their kid.
Of course, I understood if he was scared. God knows I would be but I hoped, in the end, he'd want to be involved.
But then again I didn't even know what Mona's decision for the baby would be...even if I had a huge hunch I knew what she wanted to do.
I'd support her no matter what though.
I just hoped they knew what they were doing.
I hear the creaking of the front door and look over, as do the other boys sitting at the table.
Axel was standing there with his arm around Mona's shoulder whose eyes were red and puffy. I notice she was gripping his jacket in her small fists and leaned into his side.
"Hey..." he says shyly which is something I've never seen Axel do before. Be shy. Or awkward.
A chorus of heys or hi's are muttered although they're muffled from the food in everyone's mouth. Or just pure awkwardness.
Mona wipes her eyes and walks over to the couch and cuddles up under a blanket.
"Is it okay if we have my brother over for the week?" Axel asks everyone with a yawn.
They all nod and then discuss details of Axel's brother staying before he finally walks off and makes the call.
"I'm assuming that means they're gonna...keep it?" Victor asks
"I think she will." I pipe up. But it does get me a few odd looks from everyone. "I mean I know her. She's my best friend. She loves kids. She's selfless. And I can't tell she couldn't bare to follow through with any of her other options. The only thing that would stop her is..." I look over to Axel who's just exiting the front door with the phone close to his ear. "Him."
"But I don't think even he's capable of hurting her like that for his own selfish needs. Cause he's not selfish." I shrug and get back to eating like I didn't totally just bring up such heavier shit than we usually talked about at this table.
Some part of me missed the dick jokes and familial violence.
It's silent for a while as everyone just thinks over the entirety of the situation and what the future might just hold.
And it stayed that way for the rest of dinner.
***
It was about midnight when I got into bed and I'd been here for about 10 minutes. I was on the verge of finally falling into a deep sleep when I feel a pillow tossed at my back and the loud whisper of Dawson.
"Avery!" He whisper shouted at me. I was pretty sure I could hear him kicking around in his bed, even though I was half asleep.
"What?" I ask, more like groan as I hide my face deeper into my pillow like that'll allow me my awaited slumber.
Yeah no. Over time I'd noticed that Dawson had this habit of talking to me in the middle of the night when I was half asleep. Simply because he was bored. And sometimes it did make me happy that he wanted to talk to me and actually enjoyed our conversations but other times, like now, for example, I just wanted to go to bed for two days.
"I can't sleep." He whisper shouted back at me again.
"Well, I can so goodnight." I pull my blanket tighter around my shoulders and get situated for my long night's rest.
But again, nope.
"Avery."He says dragging out the y in my name for what seems like hours.
"Aves."
"Ave."
"Roommate."
"Avie."
"What!" I finally whisper in the loudest voice I could possibly muster up. Still in a whisper of course.
"Pay attention to me." He mutters from across the room.
"Fine." I grab the pillow he tossed at me earlier and chuck it across the room with all my force. And I did it surprisingly well for still facing the wall and not him. "That enough attention for you?"
"Not the attention I'd like but at least you're talking to me now."
"Dawson." I groan finally rolling over and roughly blinking the sleep away from my eyes. I often tried specifically not to get rid of that sleepiness but I decided to be nice and make an exception. "What do you need?" I ask with an annoyed frown so he knows how much pain he's currently causing me and my sleeping routine.
"Oh, only you." He smiled widely and propped his chin on his palm as he lies on his side, his elbow buried in one of the many pillows on his bed.
"I'm too tired for that. Save your flirty jokes for after 8:00 a.m please."
"Mm," he says scratching at his hair like he really had to think about it. "I don't think I can do that Aves. That's a long time."
Annoyed, I reach up to the locket hanging around my neck and twist it around, clutching the oval pendant between my fingers, letting it relieve me of my annoyance. I wasn't extremely annoyed at Dawson and it wasn't necessarily even his fault, I was probably just more tired than anything.
I take notice of how his eyes drop to it and see him smile softly.
I watch him as he watches me, and then something that was probably crazy suddenly strikes me. "Hey, Dawson?" I ask him not letting my hands leave the locket. "Why're you looking at me like that?"
"Like what?" He asks playing dumb not letting our eye contact falter.
He was oddly good at lying, unlike Callum. Something I've also picked up on overtime.
"You're not dumb. You know what I mean." I tell him raising my eyebrows and tilting my head ever so slightly.
"I'm glad you have that much faith in me Avery, but I'm quite stupid. And I was just zoning out." He tells me repeating my stance.
I sigh and finally drop the necklace from my grasp. "If I let you flirt with me before 8:00 will you tell me?" I finally ask in desperation. Although it wasn't heavy desperation as, if I was being completely honest, Dawson's 'flirting' didn't bother me one fucking bit.
"Deal." He tells me eagerly as he flops out of bed and makes his way to mine. Dawson crawls under the blankets with me and stares back up at the ceiling.
"Keegan might just kill me for showing you he actually does have a heart, a tiny one buried deep down but I guess it's there." He pauses to look at me seriously. "So if I end up dead tomorrow under suspicious circumstances, you know who did it and I expect you to avenge me."
"Long as I don't have to go to court." I joke, smiling up at him.
"Funny. Anyways, to sum it up for you, he found it at the beach by our towels after you were already at the car and he gave it to me. And I was gonna give it to you to make you like me even more than you already do" he jokes while smirking at me "but then I may have sorta kinda asked around about your cousin?" He says sheepishly rubbing at his neck awkwardly. "Then gave it to her one day after school. And that's that." He says it so casually like it wasn't sort of shocking and adorable. On all their parts.
Holy fuck.
I was a little bit shocked at his confession, not to mention the sleep deprivation was starting to get to me too, so that was most likely amplifying everting I felt by 10. But still.
Keegan didn't totally hate me. Dawson was to thank for Eva, even if we hadn't totally reconnected yet, it was mainly the knowledge that she didn't despise me and hate me like her parents that helped me sleep at night.
I stayed silent. Mainly because I didn't know what to say. And if I said or did anything I knew it wouldn't exactly be PG-13. Just saying...
So instead, knowing I had to take the platonic (and boring) route I decide to just lean over and hug him.
I wrap my arms tightly around his torso and rest my head on his chest, hoping he knows how much it meant to me. How much he meant to me.
And I don't move, even when I feel myself finally drifting to sleep I keep my hold on him. And I didn't plan on letting go for a while.
***
Sooo I got nominated for the fiction awards under humor for those of you who didn't know and that's like actually so awesome? So if anyone wanted to vote for BWB on there that would be even cooler.
ALSO, this chapter is literally twice as long as some other ones I've posted and I'm aiming for longer chapters (this is so gonna fail) but I'm trying it lol.