Living Without A Heart

Prom

"So...Prom is next week! I pressume you'll be going with Hal considering you've done the dirty." Mary chortled, jumping up and down on Alice's bed. The bunker, Mary thought, was like a prison cell except it had an ice box and uncomfortably...no toilet. Mary had only been down there twice and she was the only one who knew about it other than Alice herself.

"Yeah I guess." Alice mouthed.

"Don't sound overly happy about it will ya!" she stated concerned.

"I'm sorry, if you asked me a couple of months ago who I'd be going with it wouldn't have been Hal Cooper... He's nice an' all and he appears to care about me but-"

"-you don't love him? He doesn't make you happy?"

Mary jumped up to go over to Alice, who was on the opposite side of the bunker, when she accidentaly knocked over her friends backpack. Out of it some books fell out and along with them a little card.

"What are you doing!?" 

"I'm sorry Alice I didn't mean to, but why didn't you tell me?"

"I can't tell anyone, don't you understand! promise me you won't utter a word! promise me now Mary!" 

"I promise you Alice, I promise!" 

Alice began to cry and broke down on the cold floor of the bunker. 

"Hey come here," she said hugging her. After ten minutes of Mary comforting Alice, her breathing became steady and she eventually stopped crying.

"want to tell me about it?" 

"Erm... I was working my shift at the Whyte Wyrm and he'd waited for me and asked if he could walk back home with me- we'd lived so close to each other our whole life it made sense to go home together. We just walked, didn't say anything and he'd just made me smile- I'll admit, I had a crush on him for a while. We were just about to leave and it just happened... it was like fireworks, like when a gas cloud explodes and the nuclear fusion makes a star. Anyway- we agreed we were just messing around but I had already fallen in love with him- it was too late to save myself. Two weeks later, I thought I might be pregnant so I tried to tell him and he blew me off. I did the test and it came back positive." She recited.

"Who's the father Alice?" Mary inquired softly.

"FP- we were in detention a month before we got together and then we were together another month. Something happened beyond our control which meant we couldn't be together."

"Alice, I'm so sorry- does he know?"

"Nope..." she sobbed. "I tried to tell him when he was breaking up with me but he cut me off without realising so I couldn't tell him!" she cried even harder.

"Alice you should tell him, and Hal," 

"No Mary I can't! they'll make me get rid of it and Hal and I have only been going out a short while and I'm four months gone!" 

"Okay! okay, but you won't be able to hide it forever Alice. I mean you have a very slim figure so you'll show more. I didn't want to say anything but you are already showing." Alice just gave Mary a scowel which held no bad feelings really.

"I know, but the nurse said that they would protect me and the baby and that they couldn't force me to give it up if I didn't want to." 

"Okay then, so we carry on as normal for as long as we can and tell them when you are ready."

"I don't want to lie, I know it's wrong Mary but I can't lose my baby."

"I know, at least this way your baby and you will be provided for and you won't have to raise it in this bunker."