Step Up

Chapter One

Chapter One:
Introduction

She didn't usually eat breakfast, but this morning especially. She was much too busy pacing back and forth across her bedroom floor. Her mind was racing with all kinds of thoughts.

"How did this even happen? We only did it once."

"Maya?" She called, standing in my door entry.

"Riley!" I jumped, startled

"I– er– I knocked but no one answered and I got worried. You really shouldn't leave the door open for anyone to come in, it's not safe. Oh– Maya, are you okay? You don't look so good ..."

"Huh? Oh, yeah– yeah. I'm fine! What's up? Do you need something?"

"Maya, I know there's something going on. You've been acting ... weird."

Oh no. She knows. She can't know. It's all too early, too fast.

"'Weird'? Weird, how?" I obliviously questioned her.

"Maya ... you're all over the place; you're distant, quiet, you've been awol the past few weeks and we've all noticed– all but you apparently. You haven't been this way since you realized you had feelings for Lucas in the eighth grade. So I know something's not right. Now, what is it?"

I nearly lost all balance when my knees began quivering so hard that they just up and quit and then a nauseating feeling hit me dead in the stomach. "Oh," I cried, "I think I'm going to be sick–" as I ran to the bathroom, falling to my knees just in time for any remaining contents of my stomach to spurt out into the bowl.

Riley raced in after me, holding my hair in a ponytail and rubbing my back like the sweet girl that she has always been to me, no matter how little I deserved it. Placing my arm underneath my head to balance, I turned to face the door that divided my bathroom from my bedroom. Underneath the window at the other side of my room, sat my waste basket with an empty box labeled "Early Pregnancy Test 99% accurate."

She must have followed my glare because, minutes later, she stood up and walked at a slow and steady pace– it was as if she were walking on a tightrope– until she reached the basket, where she kneeled down and lifted up the box like a glass item: fragile, and easily broken.

"Riley ... "

"Maya ... " she whispered, almost too quiet for my own ears to obtain. "You're pregnant?" She turned, facing me, the box still being held up with her right hand and a tear so close to escaping her eye.

"Oh, honey."

She made her way back over to me and sat at my side, pulling me close to her chest.

"What am I gonna do Riley?" my voice, faint-hearted and monotone while I sat there staring straight with not a flicker of emotion in my face, wrapped up in her warm embrace.