Life Unexpected

06: Life Unexpectedly Ended with Huge News

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."

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IT'S BEEN ABOUT two weeks since Austin last party and since then, the world has been slowly caving in on me. My fear of becoming my mother only grew with every passing second of uncertainty. My period was late, it had never been late, not once. I was on the pill, taking it on time every single day out of paranoia that I would follow in my mother's footsteps if I even missed taking it by one minute.

The door to my bedroom creaked open, "Sweetheart, aren't you going to get up for school? You're going to be late." My aunt, Aurora poked her head through the door. Her brown locks curved around her face, she was wearing bright red lipstick – a trademark look she had passed down to me.

"Seems like a pattern in my life these days." I whispered as I tugged the sheets over my head in a sad attempt to hide from the world. I wanted to disappear, run away from my responsibilities, but most of all from the look I could see, with clear cut clarity, on my aunt's face when I told her the truth.

It was bad enough she was basically forced to take me in after everything that happened with my mom, now she had to deal with history repeating itself. I couldn't bare to even think about how disappointed she'd be when she found out.

The bed shifted beneath me, my aunts delicately long fingers wrapping around my ankle in a soothing embrace, "What was that Madeline?"

"Nothing Aunt Ari, it's nothing." I smiled through gritted teeth, reassuring her that I was okay because for her actions spoke louder than words. I could begin to see the worry lines forming on her face.

"Is it safe to assume you're skipping school today? You know, just so I can call and let them know you're out sick." She placed her hand against my forehead to double check I didn't come down with a cold or something.

Once she determined that wasn't the case, she started twisting her wedding ring. Adjusting it so that it sat perfectly against her ring finger. After my uncle died in an accident two years ago, she picked up the nervous habit as a reminder to herself that no matter how bad things seemed, he was still with her – even if only in spirit.

Aunt Aurora was never one to drag me out of bed if one day I just wasn't in the mood to get to school, she was rather lenient in that department. She knew I had amazing grades and worked hard to keep it that way, so missing one day of school didn't seem like the end of the world. She knew that I would make up for the day in any way I could.

I simply nodded my head, too emotionally exhausted to use my voice. My heart and body needed to just stay home and wallow in self-pity. I wanted to avoid Austin at all costs, so skipping school felt like the only option I had left. My sad attempts at avoiding him around school fell short, we had history together and much to my dismay, we were partners. It felt almost cynical to continue the cold shoulder game when our project depended on the both of us cooperating with each other.

"I'm just not feeling well." I lied, although technically it wasn't a huge lie ­– more or less just not telling the truth. A white lie I guess you could call it. The justification still didn't make it hurt any less. The logical half of me wanted to just tell her, rip the Band-Aid off with one quick swoop.

She just stared at me, her easygoing hazel eyes burning straight through me while the wrinkle on her face seemed to get deeper. Guilt washed over me until it felt like I was drowning in it. If I told her there was even a slight possibility that I was pregnant, she'd just jump to the conclusion that I was falling into old patterns. History would be repeating itself and I hated that. My mother was where she was because of me.