Love, Mom

Chapter Four

Lily found that she liked the clinic hall a lot.

Light entered through a large bay window, illuminating the white walls and light floor. Green plastic chairs were set up over a large space. Holding Lily's hand, Elena crossed the hall to the large reception desk. A young woman greeted them as Lily approached Elena.

"Good afternoon. Do you have an appointment?"

"Yes, at 4.30am," Elena replied. "The name is Lily Anderson. I was told it would be with doctor James."

The young woman clicked a few buttons on her keyboard, looked at her screen and confirmed:

"Yes, absolutely. You can wait in the waiting area, doctor James will see you in a minute."

Elena and Lily walked over to the plastic chairs, sitting down next to each other. Lily began to swing her legs in silence, looking around. Elena, nervously fiddling with her fingers, finally leaned over the table in front of them to pick up a magazine which she began to flip quickly.

"Oh look, they're telling us how to make a baby."

"Yeah, we kinda skipped that part."

Elena bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"We should write a manual. 'First, you'll need an old car, a hot girl and-'"

"Wait, which one is the hot girl?"

"The car."

This time, Elena succumbed to her giggles and put a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound.

"As I was saying, 'a hot girl, her horny girlfriend, a little bit of alcohol and whole amount of irresponsibility and-"

Elena was trying so hard to stifle her laughter that she fell from her chair and Lily laughed too.

"And you have a pregnant sixteen years old!"

"Mrs. Anderson?"

Lily looked up, a smile still on her lips. A woman with brown hair held in a bun on the top of her head and wrinkles in the corners of her eyes stared at them.

"It's miss."

"Alright. I'm ready to see you now."

Elena stood up awkwardly, choking, Lily took her hand, biting her lip. As they followed the doctor, Elena leaned over her and whispered:

"I'm sorry, I'm just very nervous."

"It's alright. It helped me relax a lot."

Elena squeezed her hand as they walked down a pale-walled hallway, following the doctor to an open door she invited them through.

They found themselves in a small office with a doctor's table and several chairs in front of the desk. The two young girls walked over to the two chairs as the doctor sat down in front of them in her office chair. A large computer sat on the surface, along with a stack of colorful files. Doctor James did a few manipulations with her keyboard and mouse before turning to them.

"So, you're Lily, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, that's me," Lily replied, raising her hand slightly.

"And you're the one who thinks she is pregnant."

"Yeah. I took five tests. I had to drink a whole gallon of juice. They all came back positive."

"When was your last period?"

"Two months ago."

"Two months?" Elena intervened. "You didn't tell me that. Why didn't you do anything sooner?"

Lily shrugged.

"I didn't think it was important. We were on summer break, I didn't even know what day we were. And I thought it was just hormonal."

"So," resumed the doctor, "we're going to test your blood, urine, to see if you really are pregnant and, later, for any illness. Have you decided what you want to do?"

"I wanna be a teacher."

Elena chuckled, squeezing her hand lightly.

"She means for the pregnancy, honey."

"Oh, right, sorry. Well I ..."

Lily found herself silent in front of the doctor, unable to formulate an answer. She tried to articulate something, anything, but couldn't think of an appropriate answer. Squeezing her hand, Elena turned to the doctor.

"She hasn't decided yet."

The doctor nodded.

"Alright. So I'll do a full check up just in case, if that's alright with you."

"Yes," Lily replied.

"Okay. So, what's your date of birth?"

"April 13th 2004. I'm sixteen and five months old."

The doctor was typing on her keyboard with each answer.

"You're in high school, right?"

"Yeah. I'm a junior."

"Do your parents know you're here today?"

"No."

The doctor was still typing on her keyboard and the sound was strangely pleasing to Lily's ears.

"It's alright, a lot of teenagers come here without the knowledge of their parents. Now, are you taking medical treatment?"

"Nope."

"Are you suffering from a disease or a deformity?"

"No."

"Uhm," Angela interjected.

She glanced insistently at Lily, who replied with a confused expression. Seeing that she didn't understand, Angela turned to the doctor.

"It's not a disease nor a deformity but here are suspicions that she might be autistic."

"Oh, yeah, right!" Lily exclaimed.

"That's good to know," the doctor replied while writing on her computer. "Are there any diseases that are passed on in your family?"

"Uh ... Not that I know of but ... Uh, I don't know my mother so I don't know."

Angela squeezed her hand a little harder.

"Alright. Now, about your partner in this pregnancy. Do you know who he is?"

Lily frowned.

"It's not a 'he'."

The doctor looked up from her computer in confusion.

"I'm sorry, I'm a little lost."

"It's not a 'he, it's' she'," Lily insisted.

"It's alright babe," Elena interjected before turning to the doctor, "I'm the partner. I'm a transgender woman."

"And I'm gay," Lily added.

The doctor stared at them in silence, an unreadable look on her face.

"Oh."