Teenagers, Love and Pregnancy

Chapter 25

"I'm shaking," I said as I fastened a string of pearls around my neck with wobbly hands.

"You're fine," Kelly said as she combed her straight-across bangs with a sigh. "Just be calm.

"I can't, Kel! Not when I'm going to the memorial of the guy I killed!"

Kel was the only person who knew the entire story about Joey -- that he kissed me, we fought, then he ran out and I didn't try to stop him. She knew all about the guilt I shouldered over his death.

"You didn't kill him, Cam," she said soothingly as she came behind me and brushed my hair. "There's no way you could have known what was going to happen, and even if you did, it wouldn't have been your fault."

"But I didn't have to be so mean to him!"

"What were you going to do?" Kelly asked coolly. "Stand by idly and let him make out with you while you're pregnant and engaged?"

I sighed and stared at myself in the mirror. I was wearing a lacy black dress I'd bought at a maternity store with white pearls and black flats. My hair was pulled into a tight knot at the nape of my neck. I had a forest green sweater over my shoulders, and although I had on makeup, I was trying way too hard not to cry. John and Mom had both volunteered to take off work to go with me, but since I had been in the hospital they'd already missed so much, so I told them not to worry about it.

I looked in the mirror and felt my huge belly. Thirty-five weeks. Just one more week, and I could finally see the face of my beautiful angel. I just had to keep telling myself things would get better once the baby was here.

I was blatantly ignoring my doctor's request that I stay on bed rest until I went into labor. I had been in bed for a week, and in a hospital bed the week before that. I had missed my best friend's funeral. There was no way I was missing his memorial too.

"You ready?" Kelly asked as she slicked on a layer of mascara.

I exhaled deeply and swallowed a wave of nausea. I had been feeling a little off all day, but then again, what about me had felt right in the last two weeks?

"As I'll ever be," I said. Mrs. Rimms, Joey's mother, had asked me to speak at his memorial since we had been so close before his. . .his death. Unfortunately, I still had no idea what I was going to say.

"Let's go," Kel said. I put on my sweater and she took my arm, grabbing me by the crook of my elbow as we went down the stairs. Everything was difficult for me now because the pregnancy was so far along, even simple things like standing up or sitting down. As we descended the stairs, I caught a glimpse of the blue of the baby nursery. The last place I saw Joey alive.

"Stop," I said as we got to a landing that was halfway down my stairs.

"Are you okay?" Kelly asked.

"Yeah," I said as I struggled to catch my breath. Everything I did was also physically challenging now, too. "Just a little short of breath, is all."

As we stood there on the stairs, something terrifying happened.

I felt a rush of warm liquid run down my legs and heard it splatter on the hardwood floor of the landing.

I looked up at Kelly, and she looked at me. For a split second we just stood there, our mouths hanging open.

"Is that --" I asked.

With that, a sharp, stabbing abdominal pain racked through my body, answering my question. I doubled over.

"Come on," Kelly said, throwing my arm over her shoulder. She helped me down the stairs and into the passenger seat of her car.

"Kelly I can't --" I paused, wincing as the pain racked my body. "Miss the memorial. I can hold him in!"

"Do you have a hospital bag?" Kelly asked, ignoring my statement.

I nodded.

"Under my bed."

"Got it," she said as she jogged off. I pressed my head into the back of the car seat and bit my lip until the pain subsided. As soon as it did, I did the only logical thing I could think of. I called Kendall, who was a thousand miles away.

"Kendall," I said as he answered the phone.

"Yes?"

"The baby's coming. Now."