CHATROOM LOVE
Chapter Forty

December 28, 2001
Banff, AB, Canada

"That was the longest car trip I've ever taken," Rose groaned, getting out of the car stiffly and rubbing her backside, sore from so many hours of sitting. She turned back to the car and reached in the shake Jack, who was leaning against the opposite window and snoring. "Jack, come on. We're here."

Jack opened his eyes sleepily. "Already?"

Dawn opened his door, causing him to hang halfway out of the car. "We've been on the road for seven hours!"

Jack pulled himself back up and unbuckled his seatbelt. "It doesn't feel like that long."

"That's because you've been snoring for the last three hours," Fabrizio informed him sourly.

"Yeah," Tommy cracked. "You almost drowned out the sound of Fabrizio waxing poetic about Helga."

Fabrizio shrugged, not the least bit embarrassed. "I miss her."

"Yeah, we've been hearing about that for seven hours," Dawn complained. "You'd think you were in love with her."

Fabrizio's face took on a dreamy look. "I think I am. She's beautiful, and sweet, and nice, and—"

"And not here." Tommy cut him off. "Why don't you go write her an e-mail? There's an Internet connection here."

Fabrizio shook his head. "She might laugh."

"Or fall asleep," Jack teased him.

Fabrizio looked horrified at the idea until he realized Jack was teasing him.

"Let's just go in," Dawn suggested, heading for the front door. "I have to go to the bathroom."

"We'd have been here a lot sooner if you hadn't had to stop for that every five minutes," Tommy complained. "What's up with you anyway?"

"It wasn't every five minutes," Dawn informed him. "And we'd have been here a lot sooner if you hadn't gone east instead of west."

"I'm rubbing off on him," Jack interrupted before Dawn and Tommy's bickering could turn into a full-fledged shouting match. "I could get lost in a paper bag."

"That's because men won't stop and ask for directions." Dawn gave him an irritated look.

"I was the one who looked at the map," Fabrizio pointed out.

"That's true," Rose said. "When you stop talking about Helga, you can actually be useful."

Tommy got the door unlocked and opened it. "Let's just go inside and get settled," he told the others. "Dawn and Rose get their usual room, I get my parents' room, and Jack and Fabrizio get to share my usual room."

"How come you get your own room?" Jack complained.

"'Cause it's my place," Tommy retorted.

"And he wants to sneak Dawn in…" Fabrizio added, chuckling.

He was surprised by Dawn and Rose's reactions. "Shut up, Fabri!" they snapped at him in unison.

They guys turned to stare at them. Rose laughed weakly, not sure what to say. Dawn turned to glare at her.

Tommy finally broke the tense silence. "Come on, guys. We're all tired…and I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. Let's get settled, then get something to eat."

*****

They were glad that it was only a short walk into town, and that they didn't have to get back into the car to get there. After sitting down in a local pizza place and being served, all of them were in a considerably better mood.

"This is actually pretty nice," Jack commented, picking the olives off his pizza and giving them to Rose, who favoured him with a grin. "I mean, we've got Tommy's place all to ourselves, with no parents to tell us what to do, the town's close enough to walk to, but there's all this nice wilderness here, too, so we can explore."

"I wish Helga was here," Fabrizio commented. "I bet she'd love to explore."

"Especially with you to show her around," Rose told him. "You can show her around next time, Fabri."

"If there is a next time. I don't know if I'm coming back to Canada next year."

"Then I guess you'd better hurry up and tell Helga how you feel about her," Dawn suggested.

Fabrizio looked flustered. "She might laugh…"

"Or she might not," Jack said. "But the rest of us have heard so much about her, we're practically experts on your relationship."

Dawn looked up from her pizza, a mischievous look in her eye. "Maybe we should tell her."

"No, no, no!" Fabrizio shook his head. "I'll do it myself!"

Rose leaned over and whispered to Dawn. "Five dollars says he chickens out."

"You're on!" Dawn giggled, trying to look innocent when the guys turned to stare at her.

"What's so funny?" Tommy asked.

"Oh…nothing. Nothing at all."

"Okay…" Tommy looked at her strangely.

"I'll tell you later," she told him, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

He still looked at her strangely, drawing more giggles from Dawn and Rose. Jack, having been close enough to hear what Rose had whispered to Dawn, smirked, while Fabrizio just looked confused, not sure he understood what was going on.

Jack changed the subject. "So, Tommy, how'd you convince your parents to let you bring us up here?"

"Uh…they think I'm here alone, actually. So, if someone calls, check the caller ID, and if it's my parents, let me answer the phone. I'll get in trouble if someone else answers the phone."

"My aunt and uncle think your parents are here," Jack admitted. "They wouldn't have let me come otherwise."

"Same with my mom," Rose said. "If she knew I was up here with just you guys, she'd kill me." She laughed then. "Although…I think she's spending the time that I'm gone with Mr. Lovejoy, so…she's probably glad to have me gone for a few days." She sighed. "She still wouldn't want me up here without any adults, though."

Dawn nodded. "My parents are the same way. They think they can't trust us alone."

"We're not going to get into any trouble," Tommy complained, rolling his eyes, while Rose studied her pizza with sudden intense interest.

"My family here thinks I am with Jack," Fabrizio told them.

Jack gave him a worried look. "So, what happens if they call my house, looking for you, and neither of us are there?"

"Um…" Fabrizio hadn't thought that far ahead. "Perhaps your cousins will say we went with Tommy's family."

"I hope so," Jack muttered, "or we're both in a lot of trouble."

"What about your family in El Salvador, Fabri?" Rose asked. "What if they call?"

"They do not have a telephone," he assured her. "They write to me all the time, instead."

"Don't tell them we snuck off up here, okay?" Tommy told him. "The last thing we need is your parents in El Salvador asking your family here why they let you go on a trip with no parents."

"I will not tell them," Fabrizio promised solemnly, "unless you tell Helga I am in love with her before I tell her."

"That's blackmail!" Dawn gasped, then grinned. "I guess you've got us there. Okay, we won't talk to Helga about you, and you won't tell your parents about this trip."

*****

The following afternoon, Tommy invited the others to a barbecue on the Bow River. Rose and Dawn were delighted with the suggestion, but Jack and Fabrizio looked at Tommy sceptically.

"You're having a barbecue in December?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me you never had barbecues in Santa Monica in December." Tommy gave Jack a surprised look.

"Yes…well, sometimes…when it wasn't raining…but it's a lot warmer in Santa Monica than here, and it got cold there in December, too."

"It's not raining today," Tommy pointed out, "or snowing, and if you wear enough clothes you won't notice that it's cold."

"I notice when it's cold," Fabrizio told him, not sure he wanted to go to a barbecue in this weather.

"That's because you're from the tropics," Rose told him. "Suck it up, Fabri. You'll be okay."

Fabrizio still looked uncertain, so Jack decided to agree with the others. "It'll be fun, Fabri. I'll lend you my extra sweater so you won't be so cold."

"Yeah," Tommy added, "and I'm doing the barbecuing."

Fabrizio looked even more uncertain.

Dawn came to Tommy's defence. "He may not be able to tell directions, but he can barbecue better than any restaurant." She gave Tommy a kiss on the cheek.

Tommy grinned at the praise. "Thanks," he told her, putting an arm around her and pulling her close.

"Well, then, what are we waiting for?" Rose asked. "Let's go get ready!"

*****

The sun was low in the sky by the time they reached the Bow River. They had stopped at Safeway for hot dogs and hamburgers, and Tommy had brought the barbecue grill his parents kept at the duplex.

"If you're doing the barbecuing, I think I'll go exploring," Jack said, looking around with interest.

Tommy raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's a good idea? It's starting to get dark."

"I'll go with him," Rose said, "to keep him from getting lost."

"Be careful, you guys," Tommy told them. "Seriously. A mountain lion killed someone near Banff recently…I don't know if they caught the cat or not."

"I'm sure they know to be careful," Dawn said. "There's mountain lions in California, too, aren't there?"

"Yeah, but I never saw one in the wild," Jack told her. "I saw one at this place called the Wildlife Waystation, but that's all."

"Well, maybe Fabri can go with you. A mountain lion's not going to mess with three of you together," Tommy suggested, warming to the idea of being alone with Dawn for a while.

"And Rose knows her way around," Dawn added. "Remember how we went for a walk here last summer and didn't get back until after dark? We were just lucky Tommy had that little flashlight on his keychain."

"There's a flashlight in the glove compartment," Tommy told them. "It's better than that thing I had on my keychain, which is broken now anyway."

"And if any mountain lion comes here, Tommy'll just give it a burger," Dawn joked, giving Rose a significant look. She had news for Tommy, and she didn't want the others around when she gave it to him.

Rose shrugged. She would rather have gone for a walk alone with Jack, but Dawn was right that a mountain lion was less likely to attack three of them—if there were any lions around—and she and Jack could always go for a walk alone another time. She suspected that Dawn wanted to tell Tommy about her pregnancy, and didn't want any of them listening in. Besides, she liked Fabrizio—as long as he didn't start talking about Helga again—even though he and Jack were always one-upping each other and threatening to pull crazy stunts.

"All right," she agreed. "Let's all go. We'll see you guys in a little while." Fabrizio had brought the flashlight from the car, so the three of them walked in the direction of a trail Rose knew, glancing back for a moment at Dawn and Tommy before disappearing.

When they had disappeared, Dawn turned to the grill, ripping open the packages of hot dogs and hamburgers and avoiding Tommy's grasp.

"That can wait a little while," he told her. "It takes a few minutes for the grill to heat up anyway."

"Um…yeah." Dawn stood near the grill as he lit the charcoal. "Um…Tommy…I have something to tell you…"

Tommy finished lighting the grill and looked up at her. "What?" Then his face fell. "Shit…don't tell me…you want to break up, right? That's why you've hardly been talking to me lately, and you and Rose are always whispering, and you got so mad on the way to Banff…"

"Actually…uh…no…I don't want to break up with you. But if you break up with me, I'm going to sic the others on you," Dawn joked feebly.

Tommy was thoroughly confused now. "What are you talking about? Why would I want to break up with you?"

"Well…uh…remember that night in Las Vegas, when we skipped the Britney Spears concert because I'd been so sick that day?"

"Yes…" Tommy still wasn't sure what she was trying to say.

"And…uh…we got together…and…we…um…we didn't use…"

"Crap." Tommy had finally figured out what she was trying to say. He dropped his hands down, forgetting about the hot grill. "Ow! Shit." He put his injured finger in his mouth.

"Yeah. That about sums it up," Dawn said, putting a hand on her stomach.

"Does anyone else know?"

"Rose does. She went to the Medicentre with me."

"So, you're sure you're…"

"Pregnant? You can say it. It's not a dirty word," Dawn told him. "Yes, I'm sure. About six weeks along…obviously." She shuffled her feet, staring off into the twilight.

Tommy sighed. "You can come over here, you know. I'm not some monster."

"I know." Dawn walked towards him slowly. "I didn't know how you'd react…"

"I'm still not sure how to react." He tapped his fingers against his legs nervously, then turned and started putting the meat on the grill. When he turned back to her, he asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I wanted to tell you before I made any decisions. This is as much your baby as it is mine."

"But you're the one who's pregnant."

"You'd better not run out on me."

"I'm not going to run out on you! I'm just saying that since you're the one who's pregnant, you're the one who has to make the choice about whether to have the baby or not. I mean…it's your body."

"I don't know what to do. Some people make it sound so easy, but it's not. Do I get an abortion? Do I have the baby and put it up for adoption? Do I keep it? If I do, then you'll be responsible for it, too, at least where money's concerned."

"If you decide to keep it, I'll be there for you guys."

"Do you want the baby?" Dawn sat down on one of the folding chairs they'd brought.

Tommy sat next to her. "Hell, I don't know…we've still got a year and a half of high school to go, and then there's college…"

"If I do have the baby, it won't be born until August. And if I have it, and we can't take care of it…we can always put it up for adoption."

"That might be hard, though…for you to have it, and see it, and then give it away…"

"Yeah," Dawn agreed. "Right now, it doesn't really feel like a baby…it's more like a bunch of symptoms. It hasn't moved yet…I don't think it's big enough to move yet. And if I hadn't gotten pregnant, I wouldn't even be thinking about any of this. It's not like I was trying to get pregnant…it was an accident. I never thought much about any of this stuff before."

"Is that why you didn't want any of that punch with champagne in it at the party?"

Dawn nodded. "Yeah. I suspected I was pregnant then…but I wasn't sure. But alcohol can do bad things to a developing baby…and I'm not sure what to do. If I was just going to get an abortion, it wouldn't matter…the baby wouldn't live anyway. But I'm not sure, so…"

"Didn't Rose's mom have her pretty young?"

"Yeah…but she was already halfway through college when she had Rose, and was already married to Rose's dad…I think we're too young to get married."

Tommy nodded. He'd been thinking the same thing, but hadn't said so for fear of upsetting Dawn.

"Are you going to tell your parents?"

Dawn looked down at her hands. "I don't know…I guess I'll have to eventually…unless I get an abortion. Then they won't ever have to know."

"If you tell them, how do you think they'll react?"

Dawn thought about it for a few minutes. "I think they'll be disappointed in me. Mom made sure I knew about birth control, and all the things that can happen with sex…she's a realist, not one of those people who pretends that if they never tell their kids about sex, they'll never do it. My parents told me it was better to wait until I was grown up, and preferably married, but they made sure I knew how to protect myself if I did it anyway."

"But you got pregnant because you didn't use birth control, so…"

"So they won't be very happy about that—if I tell them." She paused, thinking. "Are you going to tell your parents?"

Tommy sighed. "I don't know. They won't be happy, that's for sure."

"I'll make a deal with you…you'll tell your parents if I tell mine, okay?"

He was silent for a moment before finally answering, "Okay. If you have the baby, they'll find out eventually, anyway…I guess it's better if they hear it from us."

"Yeah." Dawn leaned her head against his shoulder. "I'm glad you're sticking with me on this." She smiled a little. "I told Rose I'd sic her on you if you decided to run out on me."

Tommy couldn't help but laugh at the idea of Rose chasing him down, determined to defend her best friend's honour. "Are we going to tell the others?"

"You mean Jack and Fabrizio, and Helga when she gets back?"

"I sure don't mean the whole football team and cheerleading squad. All of Edmonton would know if we told them. Do you think our friends can keep a secret?"

"I know Rose can…and none of the others seem to gossip much."

"Guys don't gossip."

Dawn made a face at him. "Right. That's why it would be all over Edmonton if you told the football team that I'm pregnant."

"They talk. That's different."

"Not really, but it comes out to the same thing."

"Do you want to tell them or not?"

Dawn looked down. "I'm kind of embarrassed…but I think I'm more comfortable telling them than telling my parents."

"So, you want to tell them?"

"Tell us what?"

Dawn and Tommy jumped, startled. They hadn't heard their friends approaching them.

"Tell us what?" Jack asked again. "Or did you mean some other them?"

The couple turned to stare at them—and momentarily forgot what they had been discussing. Jack, Fabrizio, and Rose were standing near the grill, trying to get warm. All three of them were covered in enough snow to be used for camouflage.

"What in the world were you doing?" Dawn asked, going to light the propane lantern they had brought.

Tommy hurried to flip the hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, which were beginning to burn badly on one side. He stared at the colourful bruises both Jack and Fabrizio sported on their faces.

Jack looked a bit sheepish. "Well…Fabrizio and I were betting each other that we didn't really need the flashlight to walk…that we could see well enough in the dark. So, we walked ahead of Rose…and Fabrizio walked face-first into a branch. He yelled, and I started to laugh at him…and tripped over a root and landed flat on my face on the ground. Then Rose laughed at both of us, so we threw snowballs at her, and she threw some at us…and we finally got cold and decided to come back."

"Why did you want to walk in the dark?" Dawn asked him.

Jack shrugged. Rose looked at him in exasperation.

"They're guys," she said. "What more reason do they need? They were trying to prove how tough they are, and now they both look like idiots."

"Hey!" Jack and Fabrizio both turned to glare at her.

Rose just smiled, then whispered in Dawn's ear. "Did you tell Tommy?"

Dawn sighed. "Yeah."

"And…"

"He was cool about it. He's not mad or trying to run out on me or anything."

"Are you going to tell the guys about it?"

"I think so, and we'll tell Helga later if Fabrizio doesn't tell her for us. We're going to wait on telling our parents, though…we don't know what we're going to do yet, so we aren't going to say anything until we've made a decision."

"Okay…I won't say anything to them, either."

"Thanks." Dawn went over to Tommy, who was scooping the food off the grill and onto a plate. "Why don't we tell them now?" she suggested, taking the plate from him and setting it on a chair.

He looked reluctant, but finally nodded. "Okay."

They turned to the others. "Guys? We have something we want to tell you…"

Jack and Fabrizio looked up from where they were serving themselves from the plate of half-burnt hot dogs and hamburgers. Rose looked at Dawn, giving her a supportive smile.

"I…uh…we…um…" Dawn cleared her throat. "I'm pregnant. Yes, it's Tommy's. Please don't tell our parents, or anybody else…we haven't decided what we're going to do yet."

Rose walked over to Dawn and gave her a hug. Jack and Fabrizio looked at Dawn and Tommy, then at Rose, then at each other, not sure what to say.

Fabrizio finally broke the silence. "Did that happen under the bleachers, too?"

Dawn and Tommy both turned red. "No…in Las Vegas," Dawn finally replied. "When the rest of you were at the concert…"

Jack stared at them for a moment, then grinned. "No wonder you were willing to miss the concert." Rose elbowed him in the side. "Ow! Rose!"

"Be nice!" she hissed at him. "This is serious!"

"I know, but…"

"Jack Dawson, my best friend is in trouble! You'd better not tease her!"

"Let's not fight," Dawn interjected. "It's not the end of the world…we'll figure out what to do eventually. In the meantime…um…"

"Let's eat," Tommy suggested, pointing to the rapidly cooling plate of food. "Everything looks better on a full stomach…even big problems."

Chapter Forty-One
Stories