Forever Bonded (BWWM Pregnancy Romance) (12 page)

Liam laughed at Jasmine's reaction and
raised his drink in the air in a mock salute. He guzzled down the last of it
and slapped the bar for another, keeping his eyes steadied on hers as she
continued with her flawed performance.

When the song came to an end and another
began, Jasmine failed to meet her cue and Eli decided that enough was enough.
He’d been watching the whole ordeal unfold from backstage, and the series of
expletives that were flying from Stephen’s mouth made it pretty clear that he
had to do something. Ignoring Jasmine’s request not to get involved, he stormed
onto the venue floor and grabbed Liam up by the collar, causing his drink to go
flying.

Shit.

Jasmine stumbled even further when she
caught wind of what was happening. She watched the two men converse, but the
expressions on their faces weren’t friendly, and it wasn’t long before it
turned into a full-fledged argument. She stumbled off stage as soon as her
final song came to an end, and it was at that exact moment that she saw Liam’s
fist make drunken contact with Eli’s nose.

Jasmine gawked at them for a few seconds
before attempting to make her way over to them, but Eli held up a hand to stop
her. The look on his face made it pretty clear that he was pissed. He grabbed a
wad of paper towel from the bartender and angrily wiped away the blood
gathering near his nostrils before hunching his shoulders and making his way
towards the door with the rest of the crowd.

It was just after midnight when Jasmine
finally made her way back to her dressing room to grab her things. She pushed
her way backstage and ignored the many complaints Stephen was hurling at her as
she entered the dimly lit corridor where her room was located. Once she reached
it, she pushed open the door and froze as soon as she saw Liam.

“What the hell are you doing back here?”
Jasmine spat. It astonished her that he’d managed to make it past security
after his little brawl with Eli. She’d assumed that he would be smart enough to
leave the club after that, but then again, this was Liam. It was impossible to
predict his next move.

“Aw c’mon,” Liam slurred. “Is that any way
to greet an old friend?”

Acquaintance
,
Jasmine silently corrected, but she didn’t say it. “You’re shitfaced,” she said
instead, crossing her arms over her chest and pulling her jacket closed in an
attempt at hiding her stomach.

“Nah, I’m just happy to see you, can’t you
see the elated smile on my face?” Liam spat back in an overly condescending
tone. He grabbed a bottle of liquor up from Jasmine’s vanity and swallowed back
a mouthful before she could stop him.

“Liam…” Jasmine warned. She looked to the
hallway for help, but of course there was none there when she actually needed
it.

Liam smiled and took a step forward.
Jasmine tensed when his palm made heavy contact with her abdomen.
“Congratulations,” he whispered, keeping his eyes steadied on hers.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Jasmine
shot back, stubbornly continuing her charade.

Liam let out a humorless laugh. “If it
wasn’t on the cover of every magazine, there’s the fact that our moms are best
friends,” he clarified. “How long did you really think it would be before I
found out?”

Jasmine stared at Liam in shocked silence,
evoking another strained laugh from him. “Don’t look so glum,
babe.
I get it. There’s no slowing down
your type is there? It’s just that, if I’d known you were this easy, I’d have
gotten you in bed a long time ago. My bad for assuming you had standards.”

Jasmine’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me?” she
spat, shoving Liam away from her. “My type?”

Liam shrugged and waved a hand at her.
“Industry floozies who have no problem sleeping their way to the top,” he
explained, failing to mask the hurt in his tone. “Knocked up by your publicist,
huh Jazz? I don’t know who the fuck you are anymore, but you’re not the girl I
knew growing up, that’s for sure.”

Liam’s harsh choice of words made Jasmine
deflate a bit, but she didn’t correct him. There wasn’t any point. “Oh please,”
she shot back. “I don’t need your judgment. How many bimbos have you been with
since we hooked up? Ten? Twenty? And don’t even get me started on the airheads
you keep bringing to my shows in some lame attempt at making me jealous. As if
I actually give a shit.”

“Yeah, because you definitely sound like
you don’t care,” Liam said. “But it doesn’t matter what you think of me,
because at the end of the day, I’m not the one expecting a kid with some idiot.
At least I’m bright enough to use protection.”

Jasmine narrowed her eyes at Liam and
placed a hand on her stomach as if to protect her unborn child from his words.
“You say you don’t know me anymore, but I don’t know you either,” she
whispered. “The Liam I knew would never talk to me like this. You’re not him.”

“You’re right, I’m not,” Liam shot back. He
squared his shoulders and took a step towards Jasmine on his way out the door,
causing her to cower under his close proximity. “I thought you were better than
this, Jazz, but I was wrong. The only reason I came here tonight was because I
needed to see it for myself. And I did. So I’ll stop calling. I’ll stop coming
to your shows. And I’ll stop trying to be your friend again. From now on, you
won’t hear from me at all.”

Jasmine watched Liam storm out of the room and
slid to the ground, allowing the tears she was holding in to roll freely down
her face.

Chapter
three

Liam emerged from the club and stumbled
when someone grabbed him from behind and slammed him up against the building.
He turned around and came face to face with Eli, whose nose had already began
to bruise.

“Stay the fuck away from her,” Eli spat,
giving Liam another rough shove. The dude was cruising for even more of a
bruising.

“Sorry man, but I’m not one for rules,”
Liam said in an amused tone. “Especially not when they’re set by jack asses who
take advantage of girls half their age.”

Eli sniffed through the dried up blood in
his nostrils and narrowed his eyes at Liam. “You think you’re hard, don’t you,
you little shit? Well guess what? I know a sad sap when I see one, and swinging
your fists won’t change that. You can live as miserable as you want, I don’t
give a shit, but when that misery starts wearing off on Jazz? Well, that’s when
it becomes my problem.”

“Right,” Liam shot back. His sarcasm was
apparent. “Cuz she’s so happy with you, isn’t she?”

Eli shrugged. “Actually, she is. If you
actually gave a shit about her, you’d see that her only real problem these days
is you. As soon as you disappear back into obscurity, which lets face it, is
exactly where you belong, Jazz will pick up right where she left off before you
shoved your way back into her life. You’re her past man. I’m her future.”

Liam snorted. “So you got her pregnant. Big
fucking deal. You and I both know that doesn’t equate to a commitment. The only
thing you did was fuck up her career. Do you really think she’s going to
continue being your cash cow once she has a baby on her hip? And when the money
starts drying up, what are you going to do? Support her? Stick it out through
thick and thin? Yeah fucking
right
man. You can lie to Jazz all you want, but there’s no sense in lying to
yourself.”

The underlying layer of truth in Liam’s
words left Eli visibly perturbed, so much so that it caused him to loosen his
grip on him. “I would never abandon them,” he spat, but Liam could hear the
insincerity in his tone as clear as day.

Liam grinned and shook his head as he
continued down the road. “I’m not the sad sap in this equation,” he called over
his shoulder. “You are.”

Liam hailed a taxi and slumped into the
backseat as he grated out his address, waving a hand at the driver to signal
that he wasn’t in the mood to talk. He was pissfaced, but in his defense, there
weren’t many coping mechanisms that didn’t involve alcohol when it came to
finding out news like this.

Today marked the sixth day in a row that
Liam had gotten this drunk. Ever since his mother giddily announced to him that
Jasmine was pregnant, drinking was just about the only thing he could find it
in himself to do. He didn’t know who the father was, and he sure as hell wasn’t
going to ask, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. That
publicist of hers was such a tool it was almost award worthy. Liam figured it
was only a matter of time before he fucked up her life in some way.

After hearing the news, Liam left his
mother’s place bright and early the following morning and immediately set about
on throwing himself into an alcohol-induced trance. After bombing his exams and
getting into a meaningless argument with his roommate, he downed an entire
bottle of Jack in one sitting and decided somewhere in the midst of his fifth
or sixth drink that he absolutely had to see Jasmine. It didn’t matter that
she’d made it perfectly clear that she didn’t want to see him.

Now, in the present, Liam was more than a
little regretful. He had a monster hangover, sore knuckles, and more anger than
he knew what to do with. He thought seriously about downing the bottle of
aspirin on his bedside table, but he clawed his way out of bed and searched the
floor for his clothing instead. As good as sinking into a permanent slumber
sounded right about now, that particular course of action didn’t exactly
coincide with the kind of guy that he was.

“Damn dude,” Liam's roommate, Jason, spoke
up from his doorway. “You look like shit.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “Thanks,” he
muttered, pulling his arms through the first clean t-shirt he could find.

“Wild night I'm guessing?”

“You could say that.”

“Celebrating?”

“Not exactly,” Liam said with a sigh of
annoyance. “I just found out that Jazz got herself knocked up.”

Jason whistled but appeared sympathetic.
“Shit,” he said after a few seconds of surprised silence. Suddenly the reason
behind Liam's weeklong binge drinking rampage made sense to him.

Jason knew Liam better than anyone. He was
one of the few people Liam shared personal information with, and he knew enough
to know when he was bummed about something. Now was one of those times.

“Fuck, I'm sorry dude,” Jason spoke up.

Liam shrugged but didn't say anything. The
look on his face was purely complacent.

“How far along is she?” Jason questioned,
attempting to carry on the conversation despite Liam's obvious discomfort.

“Twenty weeks according to my mom.” Liam
exhaled another sigh and took a seat on his bed. “I fucked up. I made the
mistake of going to her show last night and it all went to shit.”

“Hold up...twenty weeks?” Jason spoke up, furrowing
his brows. It didn’t surprise Liam that he was doing the math in his head. He
always was the analytical type. “So the kid was conceived during the summer
then. Weren't you two still together?”

Liam stared at Jason like a deer in
headlights. His mind wouldn't stop racing. The only thing he could think about
was why this hadn't occurred to him sooner.

Chapter
four

Jasmine heard her doorbell rang and
hesitantly approached her front door. She knew who it was without having to
look, but she did anyway. When she saw Eli lingering on her front porch, she
exhaled a deep sigh and rolled her eyes before propping open the door. “Goodbye
Eli,” she called out to him, unlocking the top lock but keeping the chain
secured so that he couldn't push his way inside.

“Come on Jazz,” Eli begged. “I thought you
said that you wanted me there for the big scan. It's today isn't it?”

“I said I'd
think
about it, which I have,” Jasmine corrected with another roll
of her eyes. This whole arrangement was shaping up be far too suffocating for
her tastes. If she wasn't honest with Eli now, she felt like she'd never get
him off her case.