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My hand slipped from his arm as I reeled back in shock. “Yes, of course,” I stammered. “I mean–”
“It's a simple enough question.” Emotionless, he stood there.
I wanted to touch him, to make him look at me. But I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe.
“And she gave you an answer.” Surprisingly, it was Elodie that snapped and not my brother. “Of courses it's yours.”
“No.”
I wasn't sure how one word could hurt so much, but it did. I swayed where I stood and it was only Erik's arm around me that kept me from going down in a pile on the floor. “Dion, let's do this somewhere private.” He tried again as he tucked me into his side.
“No.” There it was again, that word. The dreaded N.O. “I've been through this once before, so no.”
Finally, he turned, and his face was scarlet. There was no love in his eyes as he raked them across me. No tenderness or softness. Only a dark kind of anger and disbelief.
He didn't believe me. It hit me in the stomach like someone had punched me. He thought I was like Isla, trying to trick him into raising someone else’s kid.
“Dion.” My legs were shaking with the effort to keep myself upright as the room swam around me. All the faces staring at me blurred together. The bright lights streamed.
“No. Just fucking no.”
Without another look in my direction, he walked away. I watched him go without really seeing it. I had played out telling him so many times, I'd imagined every single scenario, or so I had thought. But I hadn't pictured this.
My knees gave out.
“Lola!” Louis was moving suddenly, pushing his way through people in his haste to get to me, but it was Erik who caught me as I collapsed. He lifted me up in his arms and I was dimly aware of his voice, though it sounded far off. “Someone turn that damn music off. This party is over.”
* * *
Erik’s was like a different place entirely with the people gone, the lights up fully and the music silenced. Not that I was paying much attention to anything but my bare toes. Someone, and I wasn't sure who, had slipped my heels from my feet.
My pale blue painted nails seemed to catch under the overhead lights and twinkle. They were kind of mesmerising but I knew I couldn't sit and stare down at them all night. I had to face reality. And reality was that Dion had left.
“It doesn't mean it's over.” The cushion next to me dipped as my brother sat down. He’d been suspiciously quiet since everyone had left an hour or so ago. “It doesn't mean you and Dion are over,” he repeated, thrusting a glass of water into my hand. I took it gratefully, but I didn't answer him. Instead, I sipped at the water, keeping the ice cold liquid in my mouth so I didn't have to. My mouth tasted like ass from the amount I had been sick just after Dion had left.
“Are you hearing me, Lola?”
Turning my head to him, I met his eyes. “Yes, it does.”
Dion had made his feelings perfectly clear. Walking away was his way of ending things. I didn't like it, but I didn't have to like it. I just had to accept it and move on.
“He loves you.” Louis shook himself. “Look, he's just in shock. He didn't mean to imply you had been with someone else, but guys in our situation, we get it a lot. Girls trying to trap us.”
My eyes flashed, and in an instant my self pity morphed into anger. Anger at him for his words, anger at Dion for making me feel like crap, but mostly anger at myself because I had let him make me feel that way.
“I'm not trying to trap him,” I snapped back. “I was on the pill. I didn't do it on fucking purpose.”
My brother's eyes widened. “I wasn't saying–”
“I don't care what you were saying, Louis. If Dion wants nothing to do with the baby, it’s fine. I will manage. But don't go stereotyping me as one of the fucking groupies that try to trap you. I am not them.”
His warm hand slid over mine. “I know that Lola. That's not what I was trying to say. And I'll make sure you and the baby are looked after if he doesn't step up.”
“I have a job now, Louis. I can look after my damn self.”
His eyes widened even more. “Yes, you can, Lola. But as your big brother, it's my job to look out for you as well.”
“Fine.” My fingers were shaking as I reached out a hand towards him. “You can start by doing me a favour.”
