Breathless •Eremika (Love. Me. Now. Or. Never.)

XVII: Dilemma

"Ackerman," the nurse announced, "Mikasa Ackerman."

Mikasa looked up from her hands, giving the lady at the doorway a blank look. They were in a gynaecology clinic, where to-be-mothers waited anxiously in their cushioned seats. Baby pictures and a poster of the different stages of the developing foetus were pinned on the board behind them in the waiting room, which only made the women more nervous.

"Mikasa, it's your turn," the nurse, cradling a list of names, was growing impatient, "come this way. Please." She jerked her thumb behind her.

Mikasa rose to her feet slowly, her eyes zoned out, and made her way into the doctor's room, just as instructed. The nurse entered behind her and latched the door shut. "Welcome," a man in a formal white suit spun in his chair, turning to face his patient. Mikasa couldn't focus on what he was saying. She was staring at the white, unblemished walls around them, and she felt genuinely afraid.

She hadn't asked Eren to join her as their friendship had been scarred several nights before. Yet she wished he was here with her, right now, to accompany her through this.

"You've said a few days ago via the phone that you're coming for an abortion, is that so?" the doctor fumbled through a sheaf of papers on his desk, looking through his patients' medical records.

"Yes," Mikasa stammered, "an abortion. But there's one thing I want to do first before that."

"What is it, Ms. Ackerman?"

"I want to know who the baby's father is, if possible," she faltered.

"You don't know who the dad is?" the man's eyebrow hitched up in mockery, "well, it's not impossible. We'll do a few swab tests now and you'll get the results within a few days."

"Within a few days?"

"Yes, you'll receive a phone call. We'll identify the father and tell you as soon as we can," the doctor signalled to the nurse for a medical kit, "Now let's not waste any more time, shall we?"

~

The phone on the wooden desk vibrated, waking Armin from his afternoon nap. Half his body was sprawled over the science textbooks spread open before him. He was in his study, raking through the any resource books for the upcoming finals. It was past six in the afternoon and he still had not made any significant progress in his revising.

Groggily, he blindly reached for his cell, which was hidden beneath his piled maths folders. Without glancing at the caller ID, he held it feebly to his ear, "Hello?"

"Armin. I-It's me, Mikasa." Mikasa? It had been at least two days, the duration of the entire weekend, since he had last seen her.

"Mikasa?" he croaked, cracking his weary eyes.

"I-I'm pregnant." His friend on the other end of the line sounded as if she had just collected herself after drowning in a wave of tears.

"Yeah," Armin stuttered, "Yeah, okay. I predicted that. Last time I saw Eren was when he got the pregnancy test kit for you. Neither of you told me the results, so I just presumed that they came out positive."

"A-Armin, I don't know what to do," Mikasa's voice was unusually high-pitched to suppress her wails, "I don't know how I should tell Eren."

"Oh, you haven't told Eren yet? I thought he knew already since he was the one to give you the kit on the day-"

"He knows, Armin, that I'm bearing a child," she interjected, "I'm going to have an abortion b-but-"

"An abortion?" Armin's tone was eerily calm.