A Teenage Love: A Coming of Age Story

Chapter 23 - Multiple Choice

Michelle. It was a peaceful evening in the Desoto/Pierce household. Brandon was occupied with his video game and I spent the evening watching decade old classics on a portable DVD player. My stomach turned after I finished off my third slice of pizza. I stood still hoping the nausea would settle, but it only brewed. I rushed to the sink to throw it all up.

"Wow," Kevin said watching me violently hurling up my lunch.

My eyes were watering, my nose was running, the taste of puke was making me gag. I wiped my mouth. "What are you doing here?" I asked pulling my head out of the sink.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing."

He opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water for me. "You know your friend Jess is here?"

"Jordan? Oh my God," I said holding my stomach. He laughed at my gagging thinking I was just being funny and animated, but I was literally sick to my stomach. I covered my mouth and ran down the hall to the bathroom.

I felt him following close behind me. "Are you alright?" he said concerned by my erratic behavior.

"Just a little nauseous," I gagged.

"You're not pregnant are you?" he said half jokingly.

I froze, still as a statue. My saliva was thick as syrup. The thought of me being pregnant was enough to make my stomach turn again. I swallowed roughly. "I had a bad pizza now I'm pregnant?"

"No, this is how it works: A guy and a girl—"

"I'm not pregnant," I snapped. "But since you like to voice your opinion about everything, let me ask you this..."

"He doesn't make you wait. Is that why you picked him? Because he has time for you right now?"

We stared at each other until his cheeks reddened. He quickly came back to his senses. "You know they have these little sticks at the store. You pee on them and they tell you if you're pregnant yes or you're pregnant no."

"Smart ass must run in the family."

"Along with the sickle cell trait and jungle fever?"

His charm was back on, but I couldn't ignore the flash of vulnerability that had just surfaced. "He's better for me."

"How do you know?"

"I just know."

"Because you're pregnant."

"I'm not pregnant." He was starting to piss me off with this pregnant nonsense.

"Prove it."

On my way home from Davenport, I stopped at the drug store to check out the lady aisle. The pregnancy tests were chomping at me like a hundred vicious dogs. The daunting pink packages turned my small ripples of nausea into a hurricane. I snatched the box off the shelf and headed to the counter grabbing a few other things on the way so the cashier's focus wouldn't be solely on the pregnancy test. I couldn't sleep wondering what that test would say if I were to actually take it.

I took it to the girl's restroom at school the next morning and squatted over that grubby toilet with no care in the world other than what that test would say. When I saw the faint blue lines appear, the wall of tears in my eyes blurred them together.

I put my arm over my face and leaned against the wall. As hollow as I felt on the inside, I wondered how something could be living in there. I rushed out of the bathroom and weaved through the morning traffic to the senior hall. My first instinct was to tell Ryan, but when I made it to the end of the hallway I choked.