Beautiful Mistake

xiii

Last night didn't go very well. My parents spent about half of the night arguing about why my mom didn't tell him when she found out. The only bright side to the bickering was that Tessa decided to keep me company and ended up staying the night.

Now, we both lay on my bed. Not wanting to get up and get ready for the day of school that lies ahead of us.

Tessa breaks the silence by saying, "I'm sorry again for spilling the beans. I swear I thought you were still home alone."

"It's alright," I turn to look at her but all I see is her backside. Her body was turned away from me and I can tell she's upset. "You wouldn't have known. My mom was home earlier than expected and you didn't know my dad was home. You don't need to worry about it okay?"

When she finally turns to look at me, she has tears about to spill from her eyes.

"I'm just really sorry." Her voice breaks and I couldn't help but get emotional myself. I hate when people cry, it makes me cry.

"Hey, just get up and go take a warm shower. I'm gonna go and take a shower in the hallway bathroom." She nods and we both get up off my bed at the same time. I leave my bedroom and go into guest bathroom.

I take 15 minutes to get showered, then I walk back into my bedroom to find Tessa still in her towel as am I.

"Can I borrow some clothes?" I nod and she stands and sifts through my closet.

I take a matching set of a nude bra and underwear -it's not like I have anyone to impress- out of my drawer and enter my bathroom. I shut the door and put them on. I take my body towel and wrap it around my hair.

"Have you seen my belly anywhere?" I ask Tessa as I open the bathroom door.

"You took it off when we came home from school. So it's probably down stairs." I groan and childishly stomp my way over to my closet. The towel falls off my head and onto the floor, leaving my somewhat dry, tangled hair, on my back.

I put on a white, oversized sweater, leggings and a brown infinity scarf. My hair was another issue.

I brush it out, blow-dry it, curl it, and then blow-dry it again. It takes another 30 minutes to do the same process with Tessa's hair but instead of leaving it down she has me pin her's up in a combination of a messy and fancy bun. It didn't look bad, especially since it goes with her outfit.

"Do me a favor and grab my knee-high brown boots from the closet." I say as I open the door to my bedroom.

"Yeah, I'll bring them down." She says when I leave the doorway.

Once I take the last step to get into the living room, I see the belly on the rack next to the front door.

I walk over to it, strap it on properly and then enter the kitchen. My dad sets down his news paper and gives me a what-the-hell-happened-to-you look. "Is it just me or did you grow, a lot, last night?"

"Oh right! I forgot to mention. Ironically, about a few weeks or so before I actually got pregnant... I was chosen to be someone who raises awareness for a cause. My cause was teen pregnancy. So this is 21 weeks, but I'm actually 17. It just adds extra skin to my stomach to make it look a little bigger."

"Wow, that's a bit confusing. Does your teacher know about your... complication?"

"No, I don't intend on telling him. This will ruin my entire campaign. This project has enough credits to carry me through the rest of this year. If for some reason I failed four out of the six classes I take, this project will give me enough credits to still graduate. It's insane but it's an amazing insurance policy." I explain. Tessa comes running down the stairs with my shoes in hand along with her converse.