JJENNY

"Jenny?" Emma's voice accompanied yet another small knock. Jenny wasn't sure how long she had been in the bathroom for, but it had been a while and she still didn't think she was ready to move.

Another knock. Another feeble voice, "Jenny?"

Jenny finally stood up and pulled her pants up. But she had no desire to leave, the confines of the toilet felt somehow safe. So she closed the lid and sat back down. There was another little knock. "I'm kind of getting worried. I have a spare key... I don't want to use it, but..."

Jenny had been too shocked to think. But now that the shock was vaguely wearing off she was struck by the serious awkwardness of this moment. She had just found out she was pregnant, practically in front of her ex-best friend, oh, who also happened to be pregnant with the boyfriend that she had stolen from her years ago...

And now she was locked in her bathroom at the back of the shop she ran. It was like a scene from a bad movie, oh, and she was pregnant with a Prince's child. The Heir to the throne of some Arabian Kingdom. Wow! Could her life get any more odd right now.

She heard a key in the door and saw a tiny eye pop around the corner. "Jenny?"

"I'm fine... sort of. I think, maybe. I don't know." Jenny managed.

The door pushed open a little further and a face appeared. It was a face she had seen a million times before. The face she had grown up with, since they were two years old they had been best friends, she, Emma and Anton. The three musketeers.

"Hi." Jenny finally managed. "It's been a while."

"Three years." Emma said matter-of-factly. She glanced down at the pregnancy test in Jenny's hands. Jenny looked down at it and shrugged.

Emma smiled a weak smile that Jenny wasn't sure how to interoperate. "Can I get you anything?"

"No." Jenny shook her head.

And then she and Emma fell into a strange silence. She had imagined this moment a million times before- seeing her ex-best friend again after that fateful morning so many years ago. The morning she discovered that the guy she'd been in love with for years, something her supposed best friend had known, had been running around together behind her back. At the time she's thought it was the most painful experience anyone could go through, boy was she wrong.

"Congratulations." Jenny finally said looking at her stomach. Double awkward.

"Tha.. anks." Emma stuttered. "And you... " she tentatively pointed down at the test in Jenny's hands, "I guess congratulations too. Is it? Sorry, I don't mean to pry... but, well, sorry. I don't mean sorry about....ok, I'll shut up now. But congratulations, if it is. Anyway."

Was it? Jenny thought. Was it a congratulations moment. She was still in too much shock to figure out how she felt about this. How she felt about a little part of the man she once loved- now hated- growing inside her.

She stared at the pregnancy test again. The other pink line looked a little paler now... maybe she wasn't!

She held it up, "How many lines do you see?"

Emma leaned in. "Two."

"But the one is faint, right? Maybe it's disappearing, maybe it's...?"

Emma shook her head. "It's definitely there. But these things can sometimes be wrong, I went for a blood test to make sure..." She stopped talking and looked down nervously.

Jenny nodded. Maybe she wasn't pregnant after all. Maybe it was just a bad joke and a bad pregnancy test. But she knew otherwise. If she silenced that skepticism, she knew she was. She could feel it- not physically, but in another way.

"Do you want me to leave you?" Emma asked.

Jenny looked up at her smiling face, and it seemed so familiar and bizarrely comforting. She was so over that event right now, especially having gone through what she had with Zayn. She had also learned that you cannot plan who you fall in love with. She looked up at her face and had a thought.

"I don't hate you anymore by the way." The thought had developed into a sentence and shot out of her mouth.

Emma's eyes instantly teared up. "You don't? Really?"

Jenny shook her head. "Nah. I don't have the energy to hate you anymore. I don't even think I have the energy to get off this toilet seat."

"You want a hand?" Emma asked.

"Sure." Jenny held her hand up and her old friend took it. It made her remember how they used to hold hands all the time. Skipping to school together every morning. Emma pulled her up.

"You know what helped me, " She said, "With the nausea?"

"No."

"Giner biscuits. Here..." Emma walked into the shop and grabbed a packet from the shelf and opened it. She passed Jenny one and took one herself.

"Thanks." Jenny bit into it and chewed. Emma did the same and they stared at each other awkwardly.

"This is weird." Emma finally spoke.

"Tell me about it."

"I didn't ever imagine seeing you again like this."

"Me neither." Jenny admitted.

"You want to sit down somewhere?"

Jenny nodded. She followed Emma to the counter and they both sat down. They sat down opposite each other eating their biscuits in total silence. Jenny was grateful for the silence and it gave her a moment to gather her thoughts. She was pregnant. With Zayn's baby. Only this time it wasn't a hypothetical child. But Zayne was very married and thus, she found herself pregnant with a married man's baby.

Not exactly how she'd seen her life playing out. A girl doesn't really grow up hoping to be pregnant with a man who doesn't love her's baby.

Jenny finally stood up. "I better go," She said.

"Sure. Sure. Of course you should." Emma shot up. "Do you need anything? Um... you know what is also good, ginger tea. Let me get you some."

Jenny watched as Emma rushed to a shelf and pulled the stuff off. "What about more biscuits?" She called out.

"It's ok." Jenny said watching her frantically pick at the shelves.

"Do you parents need anything?" She rushed over and poured packs of biscuits and tea into Jenny's hands.

"Thanks. This is enough. I just need to pay for the bread and the-"

Emma cut her off. "Don't be silly. Take it. It's fine. let me help you to your car."

Emma rushed off and carried the things to Jenny's car.

Jenny climbed in and was about to close the door when she thought of something. "Please don't tell anyone about this."

"No! No I promise I won't. I know you don't trust me and you have no reason to, but I won't tell anyone. Promise."

"Thanks." As Jenny started closing the door Emma stopped it.

"Listen, if you need anything or if you want to talk or something. Not that you want to talk to me but, if you need more biscuits or any medicine, I can order it. Stocks aren't great at the moment, but if there is something you need?"

"Thanks." Jenny said with a small smile. Jenny was sitting and was face to face with Emma's belly now. She stared at it fascinated. She would look like that soon.

"How many months are you?" She asked.

"Five." Emma said with a smile in her voice and touched her stomach. "It's a girl."

"Your first?"

Emma nodded. "We've been trying for..." she stopped herself. "Yes, my first."

"I'm very happy for you." Jenny said, and in that moment she meant it.

"Thanks. That means a lot, really. Thanks."

Jenny closed the door, started the car and drove off. She glanced in the rearview mirror as she went. What a bizarre fucking day. She still couldn't wrap her head around it all and she needed to think. She needed to be alone and think, and she knew exactly where to go.