Behind The Screens

17 | Stressed Out

Britten

It was an early February morning. It looked pretty nice outside. The sun gleaming on sheets of untouched snow and shining through my bedroom window. It was a beautiful morning. Then, suddenly, my stomach turned and I found myself leaning over the toilet, hurling last night's dinner.

Morning sickness.

I'd been worried about this since the first month I missed my period. Today would make the second.

"You okay in there, honey?" I heard my dad yell as I rinsed my mouth out. "Do I sound okay?" I yelled back. My parents got back home yesterday, but I refused to have anything to do with them. They would only be gone again the next minute and I didn't have intentions to get attached to them again. Once you get attached, it's hard to come unstuck.

I walked back into my room and glared at myself in the mirror. I felt bloated and sick, and when I lifted my shirt, it was then that I decided to call Mira.

"Hello?" She answered. "Mira! You ans-"
"Oh my gosh, Britten!" Mira squealed. "It's you..." She began to cry over the phone as if she hadn't seen me in years, though, to be fair, she hadn't seen me in a couple months. "I overreacted, I'm sorry, he might not even be the one for me, but I shouldve never left you. Take me back?"
I giggled a little and agreed. "Sure wish Alex would call and say the same." I said.

I heard Mira sniffle over the phone. "Aw, Mira..."
She sniffled again and said, "it's just... I really missed you. I got a new phone so I wouldn't have your number anymore because I didn't want to talk to you, but after a week I began to regret it. I really regretted it. And I wouldn't come over because I thought that you wouldn't want to see me or that you got a new best friend-"
"Whoa, Mira, it would take forever to replace someone like you." I interrupted. "And I forgive you because if you didn't care about me, you wouldn't have told me all of this. You wouldn't have done any of this at all." I could practically hear her smiling when she said, "thank you." And sighed.

"So what's been up these couple of months?" Mira asked. My stomach twisted again when I remembered. "Oh yea... We need to talk." I said. After I explained my thoughts and concerns to her, she asked, "Have you taken a test?" I let out a huge sigh. "No, I'm scared." There was a pause over the phone, then she told me, "I'll be over in half an hour with a couple so hold in any pee you have."
I would've laughed but my uneasiness was overwhelming and seemed to omit all of my other feelings.

While I waited for Mira, I decided to slip on a sweatshirt just to make sure I wasn't suspicious. But when my mom knocked on the door and it opened, I jumped back in shock and landed, luckily, on the foot of my bed. Totally normal.
Not.

"Um, Britten? You okay?" Mom said, walking toward me.
"What? Yea, yea. I'm c-cool." I stuttered while holding my stomach. "Um... Okay. Well if you need anything, just tell me." She insisted. I nodded. "Do you know what might have caused you to throw up?" She asked. I held my stomach tighter and said, "um, no, uh, maybe... Maybe last night's dinner? Or maybe- yea. Something. Maybe."
"...Okay, Britten." She said, then left.

I blew out a sigh of relief and sunk down in my bed. What if I was? What would I do? How would I explain to my parents that I'd let them down and did the exact opposite of what they were trying to stop? But also, would they care? They'd yell at me but they were never there to stop me. They were always gone. I was in love with Alex and I don't regret that night, but it scared me.

Mira showed up thirty minutes later with a CVS bag. I tried to rush to the door before my parents got there, but my dad had already beat me.

"Hey, Mira! Glad to see you again." He said while hugging her. My mom was walking up behind him. "You too." Mira said. "Mira! Long time no see." My mom said. "Ooo, what's in the bag?"

I started to panic. I was pretty sure she didn't have a plan to hide it, but I was wrong. "Chocolate, nail polish, other girly things to do." Mira replied while pulling out a hershey bar and a tube of sparkly blue nail polish. "Well you girls have fun." My dad said, grabbing my mom's hand and walking back to their room.

"That was extremely close, Mira. Thank you." I said when we got back into my room. "No time for chit chat, we need to do this now." Mira said, opening the pack and heading into the bathroom. "Mira, wait, can't we just-"
"No, the faster, the better." Mira demanded. "But Mir-"
"No, come on, you can-"
"Mira, no!" I yelled. Mira stopped and looked at me. "I'm sorry," I said. "I'm just scared, I- I'm scared." I sat on the floor of the bathroom and began to cry.

"I know you are, Britten, but you need to be for sure first before you just start making assumptions." Mira suggested. "Well it's not about that." I replied. "What if it's positive? What will I do then? How will I tell my parents? Do I even tell Alex at all?"

Mira sighed. "We'll figure it out, don't worry." Mira said. I sighed and wiped my face. "Okay." I whispered. "Ready?" She asked. I nodded.

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Alex

My phone buzzed with a phone call for the fifth time, making Nora pull away from my embrace and fold her arms. "Okay, seriously," she began. "I know you said it's 'no one important', but if they've called you for the fifteen thousandth time, maybe you should answer." I sighed.
"It's my ex and I really don't want to talk to her." I explained, only partially lying. Though half of me still thought she was desperate cheater, the other half of me was still in love. Nora tapped her chin, looked at my phone on the night stand, then looked at me. "It's probably important." She whispered. And for some reason, I was convinced and decided to pick up the next time Britten called, which happened to be in the next two seconds.

"Hello?" I grumbled. "Oh, thank God you answered." Britten said in a shaky and breathless manner. I instantly became worried. "Why?" I asked, completely pushing aside my temper.
The moment I did was the moment a tiny spark of my feelings leaked into my mind again. I hated the way I could love her so quickly. "I really need to talk to you." She told me, beginning to cry. Her sniffles appealed to my "comfort and protect" side that was always there when we were together... when we were together seemed like it was so far gone.
"Are you okay?" I asked her in a concerned tone. "No, I'm not, I need to see-" her cries masked her words.
"Britten, calm down, I need you to say what you need to say." I told her. She whispered okay a couple of times and then said, "I need to see you so I can talk to you." She let out what sounded like a sigh of relief and I held the phone gently to my ear.

I took a deep breath.

"When?"

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