Chapter 9:
"Why do you think someone might choose to never see their family again?" Alice asked her friends as they sat in their diner.
Stella and Veronica looked at each other before looking back at Alice.
"Alice, you're not thinking of never seeing your parents again so you don't have to tell them you broke up with Adam, are you?"
"What? No. No! Of course not!"
"Then why do you ask?"
"I just-" because of Evan. He'd been on her mind a lot since they last spoke. And that was two days ago. For someone who was 'attached to her until he completed her wish', he sure wasn't around a lot. Not that she wanted him around, that was – she was just curious about him.
"Wait, have you told your parents yet?"
Alice chewed on her bottom lip.
"I'm guessing that's a no."
Alice sighed, "I haven't really had the chance to."
"Girl, all it takes is to pick up the phone. You could do it now, no excuses."
"I –" Alice sighed. "Alright, I just, I don't know how to break it to them. Mum loves Adam-"
"And you don't?"
Alice gave Veronica a confused look.
"Alice, she's your mother. She'll understand. If anything, she'll be there to comfort you."
"I know…" But even so, somehow, Alice just couldn't bring herself to do it. It was as if breaking up with Adam would somehow be disappointing her mother. And Alice couldn't bare to be a disappointment, no matter how lacking she was in comparison to her sister, Megan.
"Ugh, I need to go pee," Stella announced.
Veronica grinned, "Wee bean sure likes to press your buttons."
"My bladder, you mean," Stella muttered before toddling off to the bathroom.
"Man, that little dude better not get too big too soon or I'm not going to be able to fit Stella in her dress."
"Dress?"
"Yeah, you know…" Veronica began before her voice faltered and a wide-eyed look appeared on her face. "Oh. Crap. Just forget I said anything."
"Veronica, you can't stop and expect me to not ask."
"God I'm the worst at keeping secrets. Stella's going to kill me for this!"
"Secret? What do you guys know that I don't?"
"Er, maybe you should ask Stella…"
At that point, Stella came toddling back. Alice waited until she was seated again before turning to interrogate her.
"Veronica says she's designing a dress for you," Alice began, watching as Stella's eyes went wide. "Apparently there's a secret I don't know?"
"Sorry, I told you I was the worst at keeping my mouth shut," Veronica said, hands held up in defence.
Stella sighed and sat down.
"But hey, at least this way, it's out in the open. I mean, you're going to have to tell her eventually."
"Tell me what?"
"Jackson proposed to me the other day."
Alice's eyes lit up. "Oh my goodness, you were keeping this from me! This is good news!"
Veronica shook her head, grimaced and winced as if she were in pain.
"Er, well, the thing is. I didn't want to wait until baby got big before, you know, having a wedding." Stella's hands instinctively went to her belly. "And I didn't want to wait 'til baby was already born before getting married."
"Ah huh…"
"So I kind of decided to have the wedding soon – just a mini one! You know, so we go through all the formalities and become a legal couple. Then later if I want to, I can do the whole big ceremony."
Alice frowned. How did one kind of decide on something?
"How soon?"
"Er, well, in three weeks," Stella replied softly.
"Three weeks?" Alice repeated after the words had processed and fully sunk in.
Stella nodded.
"That's…"
"A shotgun wedding?" Veronica suggested.
Stella shot her a sharp look.
"Well, you are pregnant…"
Ignoring Veronica, Alice butted in before Stella could retort.
"But why didn't you tell me all this?"
Stella took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry," she said, frowning with concern. "It's just that, with everything you've been through with Adam, I thought it might hit too close to home. I didn't want you thinking about it and getting hurt again… So I asked Veronica to… be my maid of honour to help me organise everything, you know, since she's already designing my dress."
Stella's words hit Alice with a pang. She'd chosen Veronica to be her maid of honour. Add that to the fact they'd both kept it a secret from her, Alice suddenly felt very insignificant.
"So Veronica's organising everything?" she asked with a forced smile.
"I'm sorry. I've hurt your feelings anyway now, haven't I?"
"I'm just - you didn't have to keep it a secret from me, you know," Alice shook her head and smiled, trying to deflect the attention from her – from her feelings.
"Hey, we're all taking turns, though! We figured if Veronica's my maid of honour, I'll be yours and you can be Veronica's."
Alice gave a bitter laugh. With Veronica's outtake on males, she'd never get to be a maid of honour.
"And since Veronica's so great with organisation, she can run us through this next time one of us gets married!"
"Right," Alice replied, trying to clear the clog in her throat. It was like it had clammed up and she could barely swallow – swallow down the hurt.
"Um, I'm just going to go to the bathroom," she said, getting up and leaving.
While she stood in front of the mirror in the toilets, staring at herself and trying to persuade herself to get a grip, her phone started ringing.
"Hello?"
"Hi, sweetheart, it's me," came the soft, sweet voice of her mother on the other end. The sound of her mother's voice was like a soothing balm to her pain, but somehow, her eyes stung more and her throat clammed further from the tears she tried to hold back.
"Hey mum," she croaked.
"How are you, sweety?"
"Great," she lied in her best chirpy tone.
"Good. Hey, you remember that Jasmine's birthday's coming up soon, right?"
Oh drat. She'd forgotten all about it!
"Of course."
"Well, we were thinking of having a birthday dinner for her this Saturday. You'll come, won't you? Oh, bring Adam along with you too, won't you hon? He's such a darling and I haven't seen him in so long! How's he doing, anyway?"
Alice bit down on her bottom lip.
"Great, he's doing just great."
"And how's his business going?"
"Fine," Alice replied.
"I don't get to see enough of him. Sweetie, you need to bring him around more!"
"Mum," Alice interrupted, as if trying to catch a breath of air from the words that suffocated her. "Actually, Adam's busy this Saturday," she lied, because she hadn't heard from Adam since they broke up and she really didn't know what he was doing on Saturday. "We both are."
"Oh, that's a shame. Your plans can't be changed?"
"Sorry."
"Well, next time then. Or I'll have to make a trip up!"
Alice chewed on her bottom lip.
"Look, Mum, I've got to go, my friends are waiting."
"Oh, sorry sweetheart, you should have said something earlier."
"It's alright. I'll call you some other time, alright?"
"Alright, and ask Adam when he's free so the two of you can come over."
"Right. Bye, Mum."
Alice sighed after she hung up. How could she break it to her that Adam and her had broken up?
The next day at work was no better for Alice. Upon entering the building, she was called into the boss's office. No matter how many times she took that walk from her seat to his office, Alice couldn't stop the storm of nerves fluttering through her stomach each time. And somehow, she always ended up leaving feeling worse than when she walked in. Her boss sat waiting behind his desk, pudgy fingers clasped before him.
"Alice!" he boomed.
"Hi."
"Come, take a seat."
Alice stepped into the lair of her boss's office. As she sat down opposite him, she felt her body shrivel up inside itself. She wasn't sure if it was his towering frame that made her feel so much smaller or whether it was his intimidating presence.
"Astounding reaction from the readers of your article for Melissa Hamiltons."
"Er, thank you," Alice answered, feeling her cheeks heat up. She certainly wasn't expecting a compliment from him, if one that was.
"We were the first to catch on."
First to expose someone who was just innocently engaging in her private love life, Alice thought with a bitter grimace.
"And of course, we now have a bunch of loyal readers, eagerly awaiting further news and updates. Just think, how could we capture the attention of our readers, entice them into wanting more?"
"Er…"
It was obvious to Alice, to any journalist, that readers wanted drama, something to gossip about - at least, the target audience she was currently thinking of. Unfortunately, it was precisely that target group she was reluctant to provide for, no matter how wild their reaction had been to her article. As a journalist, she was interested in providing solid facts, informing citizens and developing their awareness of serious matters in life, not exposing celebrities about the petty things that anyone else would get away with in life.
Alice's boss leaned forward and pinned her eyes with his. His face was so close that Alice could scrutinise the hairs poking out of his nostrils – not that she felt so inclined to.
"I want you to use your imagination, Alice."
Alice gulped and nodded.
"Dream up something big, write me something colourful."
"Er, what would you like me to write about? I mean, regarding Melissa Hamiltons, that is."
Her boss stared at her some more before leaning back.
"You're a journalist, Alice. Use your imagination. You can come up with something."
From nothing? Alice almost blurted, only her surprise and fear for her boss stopped her. Was he asking her to make something up about Melissa Hamiltons? With no evidence?
"You want me to come up with something from scratch?" Alice asked, a quaver appearing in her voice.
"Not entirely out of scratch. Use your previous article to lead you. Use your imagination, do you know what I'm saying? Have a think, where could it lead?"
He got up from his seat and paced the room, walking around Alice so that she had to keep turning in her seat to keep up. Suddenly, her boss whirled around to face her, his hands streaking across the air, as if performing a magic trick. "Melissa Hamiltons, scandal exposed. Melissa Hamiltons crashes under pressure - Caught under the influence."
Alice gasped. "Drugs? Did she really –"
Before Alice could finish, her boss was in her face. He'd leaned down to encage Alice between him and the chair with a smile on his face.
"That's what we call imagination, Alice."
"You mean there's no evidence to – "
"Evidence is only needed when there's a case of doubt. Don't you think this leads on perfectly with where you left off?"
"But, sir, wouldn't that be tarnishing Melissa's reputation, I mean, particularly since she's a celebrity and given we don't know for sure…" Alice blurted quickly because if she hadn't, she was sure she wouldn't get it in.
"Now, are you a journalist or are you a celebrity?"
"J-journalist, sir."
"Then you know our duty lies in providing the citizens with information and it is precisely those celebrities which give us the means to do so."
"Yes, but-" lying, that was going beyond their call of duty and also something she was unprepared to do – was what she wanted to say, only she never managed to.
"You're telling me you want to stop halfway? You started something Alice, you can't stop now. You're going to write me an article and a damn good one at that. Understand?"
Alice nodded, feeling her heart weighing low as she did. It wasn't until she'd left the intimidating presence of her boss that she seriously asked herself how she could have agreed to something like that. To make something up about someone perfectly innocent? To do so would be tarnishing Melissa's image as a celebrity, ruining her career. Yet she'd still agreed.
Alice sighed, running her hands through her hair in a sign of frustration. When the hour struck five, she found herself acting without thought. She was just moving through the motions and before she knew it, she was parked in front of the hospital where Evan stayed.
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