This Bitch Just Blew Me Away

She’d been living with Austin for two weeks when the bank repossessed her car. She hadn’t missed a beat telling him not to consider it when he offered to help her get another one. She refused just as quickly to use his or take rides from him. She was near six months pregnant now.

She threw herself on the sofa next to Austin and he looked at her briefly before turning his attention back to his laptop that sat on his legs. Lizzy took a look at the screen and then up at him. “I need jeans,” she said. He looked at her again and she looked down with some embarrassment. “Nothing I own fits me right anymore, and I’ve been wearing this skirt for a week,” she continued. It was a long wide black skirt.

“I offered to get you some shit,” he said as he closed the computer and set it on his coffee table. “You wouldn’t let me, as usual.”

“You don’t seem to understand that I’m not looking for pity,” she snapped.

“It’s not pity, Liz. It’s me helping you out when you need someone to help you out. Stop being so fucking stubborn and let me do something for you,” he said in his defense. She glared at him and crossed her arms over the top of her pregnant belly.

“I don’t like to take things from people,” she said.

“Lizzy, they repossessed your car last week,” he said. She rolled her eyes at that comment and put her fingers through her hair.

“Look, I don’t need to be treated like a charity case because I got myself into a shitty situation. I haven’t had a job for a long time, and then I got pregnant because of a traffic ticket…” she ranted.

“A traffic ticket?” he asked then, cutting her off. She took a deep breath.

“I got a traffic ticket a while back, and I didn’t pay it on time, so I missed my court date and shit. So my friend referred me to this lawyer that could help me not get arrested and pay what I needed to pay for the traffic ticket. Well the guy got me a lot of stuff taken care of so I didn’t get in anymore trouble…”

“What does this have to do with getting pregnant?” he asked.

“I slept with the lawyer in his office after we won the case or whatever you want to call it; it was kind of like celebrating. He tried to start things up with me after that, but I wasn’t into it. I’m not good at relationships. When I found out about the baby, I changed my phone number and never talked to him again.” She picked at her nail polish a little bit and bit the corner of her lip. She could imagine what he thought of her now. Either he figured she was a whore and he wasn’t sure about having her in his house, or he thought she was easy and he could get in her pants any time he felt like. She never expected him to start laughing. “It’s not funny!” she cried.

“It’s pretty fucked up,” he said as the laughter passed from his voice. She glared at him. “So this lawyer guy, who probably could have kept you your apartment, doesn’t even know he’s a father.”

“I don’t need him to support me!” she protested with anger in her voice. Austin laughed again.

“Honey, you should have told him about his kid,” he said with a shrug.

“Why? So he can try and marry me or something? I don’t want anything to do with him. There is nothing I regret more than sleeping with him that night. NOTHING!” she said with anger and frustration. He laughed at her again and his phone started to ring. He sighed as he answered it.

“Hello…Jami…is there something I can help you with?” he asked into the phone with some annoyance. Lizzy looked at him and then started the struggle of getting up off his sofa before he put his hand up, gesturing for her to stay put. “I’m not having this argument anymore Jami…Look, can’t you just be fucking happy that you got everything you wanted and leave me the fuck alone? I don’t have anything left to give you, Jami,” he snapped. Lizzy felt uncomfortable listening to him argue with his wife on the phone. “She’s just a friend,” he said and Lizzy looked up at him then with her eyebrows raised. “What fucking difference does it make?! She has nothing to do with you...Jami, I didn’t even meet her until the divorce was underway.” There was a long pause then and Lizzy felt very uncomfortable with the fact that she seemingly had been brought into the conversation.

“I’m going to puke,” she said gently. He looked at her with a little bit of concern and she took a deep breath through her nose and blew it out her mouth, trying to calm the uneasy feeling.

“No it’s not mine…” he said and her head shot towards him with a little bit of annoyance. “Even if it was mine, what difference does it make to you? Can’t you find somebody new to torment?”

“Austin, I really don’t feel well…” she said as she started to feel dizzy. “I need to lie down…”

He nodded and stood up and she adjusted herself so that she was lying on her side with her legs curled up behind her and an arm over her belly. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe the bad feeling away.

“Jami, it has nothing to fucking do with you! You fucking left me! No it’s not my baby, no I’m not in a relationship with her, but fuck if I’m taking you back now! Even if I was in a relationship with her, it wouldn’t concern you!” Lizzy tried to block out his conversation with his ex wife on the phone. She was trying to figure out why all of a sudden she felt so dizzy and nauseous. It was starting to occur to her that she hadn’t eaten all day or drank much of anything. She’d been upset about losing her car and having to break down and ask Austin to buy her clothes, and she’d forgotten to make sure she had enough fluid. The first thing her doctor had told her was to be sure she drank enough milk and water. The more she thought about it, it had been days since she’d had enough water and she’d hardly been eating from the stress.

“I think I’m dehydrated,” she said gently. He didn’t seem to hear her.

“Jami, I’m finished with you. Get the fuck over it, find someone else to manipulate and use until you’ve gotten everything you needed. Because I’m over this shit! Fuck you, go back to hell,” he snapped and hung up. He looked down at Lizzy and she closed her eyes.

“I need something to eat,” she said gently. He took a deep breath and nodded before going into the kitchen. While he was in the kitchen there was a knock on the front door before someone walked into the house.

“Lizzy, what are you doing here?” asked a familiar voice.

“Hi, Blower,” she said with a sigh. He sat down on the other sofa and looked at her while she closed her eyes again and tried to keep her breathing calm so her stomach would stay calm.

“Hi,” he said and smiled his wide smile. “Why are you here? Are you and Austin getting sweet on each other?”

“No!” she said suddenly sitting upright. “Why would you think that?! Austin and I are only friends,” she insisted. “His wife seems to think we are sweet on each other though.”

“Jami is a bitch,” Blower said quietly. “So why are you here then, if you aren’t here for any special reason?”

“Because I wanted to hang with him,” she lied smoothly. She didn’t want anyone to think that she couldn’t take care of herself, and by telling Blower she was living with Austin, she’d be giving him everything he needed to think exactly that.

“You never come to hang at my place,” Blower pouted. Austin came back into the room then and handed Lizzy a cup of tea. She took it and smiled at him before taking a sip of it.

“What are you doing here, Blower?” Austin asked.

“I just figured I’d stop by and see what was up,” Blower shrugged. “But I guess Lizzy beat me to it.”

“Yea…about two weeks ago,” Austin said with his eyebrows pressed together. Lizzy looked up at him with horror.

“Oh my god! Why would you tell him that?!” she cried. Austin looked at her with some confusion and surprise.

“I figured you’d told him you were living here!” Austin said in his defense. She stared at him with her mouth open and her eyes wide with humiliation and horror. “It’s not that big of a fucking deal, Liz.”

“To you maybe! You get to be the awesome guy that’s helping out the pregnant charity case that has no place to live! Well fuck that! I’m not going to fucking stay here with this kind of bullshit! I’ll just live on the fucking street!” she snapped and got up off the sofa.

“Lizzy, don’t be stupid!” he insisted as he followed her up the stairs to the room she was staying in. He took hold of her arm and she turned to look at him with anger.

“Let go of me!” she cried.

“Lizzy! Listen to me; I didn’t know that you hadn’t told him. I didn’t realize this was supposed to be some kind of fucking secret,” he explained. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“I don’t want anybody to think I can’t take care of myself you know, I’m a big girl,” she sniffed. He rolled his eyes and put his head back with frustration. Then he took a deep breath and looked at her for a second.

“Lizzy, you make everything so much fucking bigger than it needs to be. I’m sure nobody is going to think that, and I’m not trying to make myself look good by helping you out. I just want to help you, because you’re a nice girl and you listen to me when I’m in need of somewhere to turn….especially with all this shit with the divorce and everything,” he said. “I just want you to be okay.”

“I don’t need you to want me to be okay, Austin,” she said.

“I know you don’t need anything from me, I’m just trying to be helpful, because I want to,” he said. She groaned and looked at him with her arms crossed over her stomach.

“Fine, helpful,” she said. He smiled a little bit and ran his hand down her arm a little bit. She tensed slightly and took a deep breath threw her nose. She wasn’t used to being touched by men and she felt a little awkward. “If you want to be helpful, you can drive me to my sonogram tomorrow.”

“Alright, babe, I can do that,” he said with a grin. She took a deep breath and smiled back him and then they went down the stairs together and went back into the living room. Blower looked up at them with his eyebrows pressed together.

“What the fuck was that?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Lizzy smiled and sat on the sofa. She picked up the tea that Austin had given her and took a sip. Blower looked at her with confusion.

“I’m glad you found a place to stay, Austin will take good care of you,” Blower smiled.

“He’s not taking care of me,” she snapped.

“I just gave her a room,” Austin added. Lizzy smiled a little bit and sipped her tea again. This wouldn’t be so bad, she could deal with this if she had to.