The First

Chapter 24

"What's a blue X mean?" Alyssa held the little white stick out from the bathroom door.

Teagan slumped from the bed to Ellie's shag carpet floor, well aware of what the blue X meant. Her erratic breathing invited the walls closer, the ceiling to cave in. Instinct took over and as the room blackened around her, she curled into a fetal ball on the floor, gasping for breath. Even though she'd read the directions on the box four times before she peed on the stick, she didn't want to believe. How could she, at seventeen, be pregnant?

Ellie scowled at Alyssa. "It's a plus, not an x dumb ass!"

"OMG." Alyssa turned the pink stick this way and that. "You're right. It's a plus. What's the plus mean?"

Ellie dropped to the floor and put her hand on Teagan's shoulder.

Teagan scooted until her head rested in Ellie's lap. She sobbed.

"Shhh ... It'll be okay." Ellie stroked Teagan's hair.

Alyssa flopped across the bed, above the other two. "Yeah, we'll get through this like we have all the other shit we've been through. Remember when Brady told everyone he went down on Ells and her cooch smelled like fish bait?" She giggled.

Teagan turned her head and through tear-blurred vision saw the girls next to her. Her girls. Her best friends. And she knew they always would be. She smiled. "Yeah, we turned the tables on that shit-dick. Didn't we?"

"Ughh." Ellie frowned. "Yeah. I told everyone he had a tiny prick and his pee hole was in the wrong place, upside down or some shit like that. Weirdest dick I ever saw, but the sex was actually pretty good. I'd have to say above normal."

"It's called hypospadias." Alyssa sniggered.

Teagan suspected Alyssa might be some sort of genius. She got honor roll every year, knew huge words neither her nor Ellie had any idea about, but acted like the biggest knob head in the world. She knew it had to be some sort of front.

Teagan still had no idea what to do. "I'm so screwed."

Alyssa landed on the floor next to the other girls with a thump. "I heard abortions are cheap this time of year."

Ellie smacked Alyssa across the forehead. "You insensitive bitch."

Alyssa rubbed her red brow. "Sorry. Just trying to lighten up the conversation a little, Jesus."

"Do you see either of us laughing? Seriously, Lyss, if you don't start thinking before you talk, you're gonna wind up pissing off the wrong person."

Alyssa popped out her full bottom lip. "Sorry for being eclectically sound."

"Quit it. Both of you," Teagan said. "The president ordered all pregnant women to get abortions and the government's paying for it. So Lyssa is right."

Ellie brushed the hair out of Teagan's eyes. "But you're anti-abortion. You hate the word."

"Well, I don't have much of a choice, do I? It's the law now."

Alyssa started to open her mouth, but Ellie held her hand up and opened and closed it as if she were doing a shadow puppet of a snake.

"But ..."

"Shhh," Ellie snapped her hand python's mouth open and closed again.

Alyssa sat on the bed and crossed her arms.

Teagan appreciated the silence. An abortion? What in the hell would she tell her mother? They'd never been open about sex. While her mother praised her for her staunch celibacy, she had secretly started seeing the older boy. Now she'd have to let her mom know she wasn't a virgin anymore. Ugh. She'd never hear the end of it. Maybe they could secretly go to one of the government clinics and have it done there? She'd seen the videos of how they cram a rod up inside of you and blend the baby up before pulling it out. Her insides crumbled at the thought of spaghetti baby on a stick.