Chapter 17

“Are you alright Hol?” Claire asked a week later. “You look a bit pale.”
“No, I’m fine. Just a bit queasy.” Shane had joined the rest of the band in America so Hollie went over to stay with Anna and Claire.
“Me and Nicky were talking about moving back to Dublin last night,” Anna said fiddling with the ring on her finger.
“Me and Mark were thinking about going back to Sligo,” said Claire.
“But if we’re in different places then we wont see each other everyday,” said Hollie with a disappointed tone.
“But we can phone each other everyday,” said Claire.
“But that’s not good enough.”
“We don’t know if we are going for sure yet,” said Anna. “So don’t panic already. What are we going to watch then?”
“I want to see Nutty Professor two,” said Hollie looking in the TV guide.
“What about Pearl Harbor?” asked Claire.
“I love that film!” exclaimed Anna.
“That explains why you always watch it,” laughed Hollie.
“She only watches it cos Josh and Ben star in it,” Claire added.
“But you just have to love them. They are both so gorgeous,” Anna defended herself.
“But what about Nicky?” Claire asked.
“Oh I love him too.” They all laughed.
“I’m gonna miss this if you two go to Ireland,” Hollie said as the laughter died down.
“Let’s not talk about it until we know for sure,” Claire said.
“Yeah, or I’m gonna cry,” added Anna and they all laughed again.

Three weeks later Hollie was in her own bathroom sat on the edge of the bath staring at her watch. For the last month she had been throwing up and had all kinds of mood swings. Things had been getting better for her and Shane. They had been talking more and when the band came home from America the next day he was going to take her out for dinner. Her watched beeped and she looked over at the sink. She stood up and nervously walked over to it. Her hand reached up to pick up the little stick that was laying on the back edge of the sink. Hollie looked down at the two blue lines that had appeared and gulped.

“Hurry up!” Shane called up the stairs.
“I’m just coming,” Hollie said as she walked down the stairs. Hollie was wearing a light blue dress, which was cut just above the knee. Shane smiled at her then held out his hand.

“Christmas,” said Anna. “It has to be Christmas.”
“It has to be this year,” said Nicky.
“Ok. It will be Christmas this year,” said Anna.
“Settled. That was easy.”
“But we have to pick an exact date. And find a church. And the rest,” Anna said with a sigh.
Nicky turned round on the sofa and started to massage Anna’s shoulders. “Why don’t we go to Dublin for a while and look around. While we’re there we can look at houses too.”
“Ok. Are you really serious about going back? What will Anto say? And the others?”
“Relax. Everything will be fine.” Nicky started to kiss her neck. “I love you,” he whispered into her ear.
“I love you too,” she replied.
Nicky ran his hands over Anna’s back then brought one hand down on her leg and started moving upwards. Anna kissed him.
“I love you so much. More than you could ever know,” Nicky said as he kissed her back.