The whole situation was bad, but what really put the cherry on top of our fucked-up-day-cake was the stupid thing myself, Branna, Bronagh, and Alannah did in Keela's bathroom for fun.
Before shit hit the fan, we had some drinks to unwind from a long day of packing and unpacking and we thought it would be funny to take pregnancy tests. And it was funny, until Keela showed up and knocked the pregnancy tests into the sink and mixed them up. That wouldn't normally be a problem, but guess what one of the test results turned out to be?
You guessed it.
One of us was fucking pregnant, and we had no clue who.
We had Keela to thank for that.
It got scarier when Alannah ruled herself out of possibly being pregnant because she swore there was no tick in her clock for at least six months. So that left Bronagh, Branna, or myself to have the pleasure of being with child.
Ha. Pleasure my arse.
I prayed it was either Bronagh or Branna who was pregnant, simply because those two were in committed relationships, while I wasn't. The closest I ever got to being in a relationship was the hate/hate thing I had going on with Storm—and he was a dog. And he hated me.
We were going to see who the unlucky lady was, but Keela ran out of pregnancy tests, which of course was just fucking typical. She was on her way to go get some more tests when the bastards I mentioned before showed up and things got put on the back burner for an hour or two.
Things were calm now though, and Keela went on her way to our local supermarket with Kane Slater, we don't like him, to get more tests. I was impatiently waiting for them to return and so were the lads.
All three of them—Nico, Ryder, and Alec, were sat in the sitting room of Alec and Keela's house trying to piece a fucking shattered vase back together. I knew it was a lost cause, but I came over to Ryder's house for glue when he asked for it.
I had to go the toilet though, and that's how I ended up sitting on a toilet staring at a pregnancy test. I spotted the box on the counter and it had one test left in it. I knew Branna would've obviously wanted to use it, but I had to know if it was me who was pregnant.
I had to know.
Plucking up the courage to actually check what the result was turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated.
I was about to peek at the test results when my phone buzzed for what had to be the tenth time in the last five minutes. I didn't look at it when it first rang because I thought it was Gavin, but when I took it out and glanced at the caller I saw it was Keela.
I clicked answer.
“Aideen! Finally!” Keela's voice cried.
I froze. “Keela? What's wrong? Are you okay?”
“No,” she whimpered. “It's Kane, he collapsed.”
My heart stopped beating, my stomach churned, my throat clogged up and my head spun. I was acutely aware of how I felt in that moment—I was absolutely terrified.
“What the hell do you mean Kane collapsed?” I shouted into the speaker of my phone after a not so long pause.
“I mean exactly that. We were in Tesco and he just dropped. No warnin', he just fell. The ambulance is here and the paramedics have him on a stretcher. I'm goin' to head to the hospital with him. Can you go to the brothers' house and tell them to get their fucking arses to the hospital right away? None of them are answerin' their bloody phones.”
My voice was raspy as I asked, “What about the girls? Did you try them?”
Keela hissed. “Their phones are ringin' out too. I'm goin' to fuckin' kill them all. I'm scared shitless and none of them are answerin'.”
I blinked my eyes and was surprised when tears fell onto my cheeks.
What the hell?
I quickly wiped under my eyes then took a few deep breaths to calm myself. I would be no good to anyone if I freaked out. I was pretty focused until my best friend showed signs that she was cracking. I squeezed my eyes shut when I heard Keela sniffle on the other end of the phone.
“It'll be okay, Kay,” I said, hoping the comfort I offered helped her, because it did shit for me.
“Just get the brothers and meet me at the hospital, please.”
She hung up and for a long moment I stood unmoving and tried to process what she just told me, but I couldn't, I just couldn't. It was probably best because I quickly sprung into action by jumping up and running out of the bathroom and the Slater household without a backwards glance. I sprinted across the road and crashed into Alec and Keela's front door slamming it opened.
“Lads!” I screamed, as I ran into the sitting room.
“Aideen!” Ryder shouted and grabbed hold of my shoulders when I stumbled into the room. “Calm down and tell us what's wrong.”
I inhaled and exhaled a couple of times trying to get my breath back, and when I did I looked from Ryder to his brothers and back again.
“Keela called me… from the supermarket.”
Alec moved closer. “Is she okay?”
I nodded my head. “She is.”
Nico moved closer too. “And Kane?”
Tears gathered in my eyes. Again.
I shook my head. “She said it happened so fast. He was standin' beside her one second and on the floor the next.”
All the brothers widened their eyes, and from behind them Branna and Alannah gasped.
“She tried to ring, but no one answered their phones,” I continued. “She is on her way to the hospital with him, but we have to go there right now.”
The next few minutes were a blur of activity with the lads shouting and the girls crying. We all ran out of Alec and Keela's new house, and piled into cars. I went with Ryder and Alec, and Nico went with the girls to get Bronagh.