Malowney's House

What was she thinking? A few weeks ago, although it had been a blur, she woke up with a stranger in her bed. She knew she had gone for a couple of drinks, but people started buying her drinks and soon she was drunk. Mal needed to make sure everything was just a mistake, but there was no real harm done. But that all changed. She threw up in the morning, and saw it as simply a reaction from the large amount of alcohol she'd drank over the course of the last few weeks, especially said night. She went out and bought a pregnancy test, and took it reluctantly. When the results came in, Malowney carefully viewed them with her eyes just half open, in case it was bad news.

Positive. Malowney threw the test on the floor and burst into fits of sobs. The stranger whom she had produced the small baby inside her with...his number was still on a slip of paper in the recycle bin. And that bin hadn't been emptied yet. Malowney dug through the trash before she found it. She called him up. It took a while for him to reply. "Hello?" he asked, and Malowney felt a pang of guilt. He sounded much more formal, much more of an everyday person than the drunken man she had met at the bar. "Um, hi. Uh, we met a - a few weeks ago?" She knew it had been much more than meeting, but the man understood. "Oh. Yeah, it's you. What do you want? I thought we were over when you never called me back."

Malowney sighed. "I was drunk. It was all a mistake, but - but...what's your name?"
"Alan," replied the man.
"Alan...I...you're...I'm pregnant, okay? I'm going to have a baby, and it's yours, Alan!" For a while nobody spoke.
"I should come back to your place. We need to get this stuff sorted out."

Afterwards, the man came knocking on her door. She opened it up and saw him there. He had combed hair, not the scruffy hair he had that night, and he wore a shirt and jeans, the only similarity to how she saw him that night, apart from his eyes and his body. Malowney's hair hadn't been brushed, she was holding her stomach, she looked slightly ill too. She looked him in the eye and said, "I'm sorry." She looked at him again, expecting him to rant at her, to slap her, to get out of her life forever. But no. "Oh, it's fine. I've always wanted a child. I just never expected to get one out of a one night stand." Malowney sighed and sat on the sofa. She ran her fingers through her greasy hair and then got up. "I can't raise a baby by myself! I'm almost 23, I'm too young, Alan, I'm too young!" He shook his head. "I may be quite wealthy, but I work almost throughout the whole day. I'm in no position to look after a meddlesome baby at this point in my career."

"I just...I just need some help and guidance here. I need someone to be here for me when times are tough with the baby. I'm not that rich, Alan. I may have short hours of work, but it's lousy pay. Please, just help me out through the pregnancy at least! My mother will always be willing to stay and look after the baby, but I can't just give up and end up running to my mother for help. I need to learn to pull through eighteen years of child care by myself." Malowney cradled her face in her hands and Alan quietened her. Slowly, Malowney fell asleep on the sofa. She was fast asleep in minutes, but Alan never left her side.

~To be continued.~