BETH.
“Yes! Beth! Who do you choose? A male or a female?” Tony turned to me and asked.
Since he stepped into Lara’s house that afternoon, I began to feel uncomfortable. I couldn’t explain it, so I just went silent and stared at them all through their discussions. When Yeesha had offered him to stay and everyone had glared at her, it was only because Lara had called Tom earlier to come over, and he would soon be here. If Tony met Tom here, things might go wrong.
I stared at Tony, wondering why he had to ask me a question like that. He knew what I was hiding and that meant he ought to understand how I was feeling. I felt hurt and a little jealous to see both Tony and Lara argue over their unborn baby. They seemed happy, while I was not. It was unfair to me that Tony was excited and waiting for a baby that wasn’t his, whereas I am carrying his actual baby and I had to hide the truth from everyone. I sighed and looked away before replying to him.
“It’ll be better if she resembles Lara,” I simply replied and picked up my phone to act like I wanted to do something important on it. I had nothing to do with it, I just wanted to take the attention off of me.
I meant what I said when I said it’d be better if the baby resembles Lara. This is because if she were to look like the father, he would look like Damien and not Tony. So, it was only right and better if the baby ended up looking more like Lara than her father.
“You guys won,” I heard him say before heading to the door. Then, I dropped my phone and watched the other girls squealing that they won the argument.
“Lara!” The noise subsided as soon as we all heard Tony call Lara. Our heads all turned in the direction it came from. He was by the opened door.
“Yes?” She replied, walking towards him.
“Someone is here to see you,” he said.
“Uhm… me? Who?”
“Tom,” he replied. My eyes went wide open. We had all forgotten why we wanted Tony to leave quickly in the first place. Now, it was happening. Tom is here and he met Tony here too. “A guy named Tom is asking for you,” Tony added.
The whole room had gone silent by now, as we all turned to look in the direction of the door.
“Oh, hi, Tom,” Lara said and flashed a smile at him. Then, Tony moved aside and Tom walked in. It was all awkward as the two of them walked into the house.
“I’ll be leaving now,” Tony said and Lara went to join him as they both walked out of the house together, closing the door behind them.
“Wasn’t that Tony? What’s he doing here?” Tom asked no one in particular. He took his seat, expecting one of us to reply to him. It was after about a few seconds before Yeesha spoke.
“That’s Lara’s boyfriend.” She said, making the other girls glare at her. I also looked at her in awe. What she was about to do was going to cause a rift between her and Lara, and she still decided to do it anyway.
“What was that, Yeesha? Lara wouldn’t like that.” Janet said to her, a stern look on her face.
“So? Both guys wouldn’t like it either.” She said and raised her hand, motioning to everyone to stop attacking her, even though it was only Janet that had spoken yet.
“Be ready to face the music though,” Grace simply added while I stared at every one of them.
“What’s going on here? Y’all know I’m here with you, yeah?” Tom asked with raised eyebrows.
Yeesha was about to speak again when the front door opened and Lara walked in. On her face was a look I couldn’t explain, but it seemed like she just argued with Tony. I guess I wasn’t the only one that noticed that, because Grace questioned her as soon as she saw her.
“What happened?” Grace asked her.
“Nothing,” she simply replied and turned to face Tom. “You never do things right. Why did you have to come today of all days?” She asked her, making all of us open our mouths in shock.
We were all there when she told Tom to come over because she was available, and now she was blaming him for some reason we do not know. But that was Lara, she never accepts her faults. Instead, she’d blame the other party for it. We were used to it already, but I wasn’t sure Tom was.
“What the fuck?” He said and got up from his seat. “You told me to come over, Lara. Where is this coming from? Have you forgotten that so quickly?” He asked. It was obvious that he was beginning to get pissed, from the way he spoke and looked at Lara.
“Well, you could have come earlier or a bit later! Why did it have to be when Tony was around?” She snapped at him, still not ready to admit that it was her fault. I folded my arms while still seated on my seat, and watched on.
“Are you with Tony?” He suddenly asked.
“Everyone in the club knows that, Tom. Why are you acting like you don’t?” She snapped at him. “Were you planning to ruin my relationship?”
Tom scoffed and faced Lara squarely, a frustrated expression laced on his face. “Why did you call me in the first place when you had a boyfriend?
Or perhaps a plaything? Isn’t that because you’re never really serious with any guy and all you wanna do is fuck around and have fun? So, what’s the fuss about? Have you suddenly found love all of a sudden?” He retorted, attacking her back.
“Oh, well,” she said and placed her hands on her slightly protruded stomach. It wasn’t very big yet, but it was noticeable enough for a stranger to know that she was carrying a baby. “As you can see, I am carrying his baby, and that shows you that we’re serious. He is not just my boyfriend, he is my fiancé, okay?”
“And that makes me…?” He asked with squinted eyes as if trying to understand what she had said.
“Maybe the plaything you were talking about initially,” she said firmly, making all of us gasp, except Tom.
Tom looked at her and scoffed. “Fine,” he said and picked up his car key on the table and headed out of the house, slamming the door shut behind him.
“What was all that, Lara?” Grace asked her immediately after Tom left.
“That was bad and unnecessary,” Yeesha added.
“My life, my choice,” she said and shrugged before going to her room.