She felt totally alone. Everyday that went by was just another day not having told anyone. As far as Ariel knew, she was pregnant and there was nothing she could do but cry about it. Her parents didn't know. Her friends didn't know. No one knew. She could barely believe it herself. Every morning she found herself vomiting and then doing her best to try and rationalize everything in her head. She was only seventeen, but it was still legal, right? Her parents couldn't be that mad if it was legal, right? She hadn't gone to the doctors or anything but she did do several other pregnancy tests and all of them were positive. She felt she didn't really need another confirmation. The girl was pregnant whether she wanted to be or not.
"You okay there?" Femme watched her with cautious eyes across their adjacent desks, "You've been quiet for a while, y'know,"
"Not really," Ariel sighed, she was so tired of pretending.
"What's up? Is it this test coming up tomorrow?" Her friend asked.
"..Uh, no," In truth, Ariel had totally forgotten about the upcoming French test that everyone else was tearing their hair out over. Now she had a whole new thing to worry about, "No, I've just been a bit depressed, is all,"
"Is it the club? Did we say something bad?" Femme ran through any possibly hurtful comments that she could've said. She wasn't one to be totally sensitive or aware of what might be inappropriate. Feelings were never her forte.
"Oh, no, God no," Ariel shook her head, "I just...,"
"Is it Fiona?" Femme felt she had hit something important, that she could now try and help her move on from feeling so down.
"I guess so, I don't really know, Femme," Ariel just shrugged, "It's just the way I've been feeling,"
The bell went off and their teacher reminded them of their homework and of the dreaded test.
"Well, you know that any of us would listen to you, Ariel?" Femme told her as they left the classroom, "We're here for you, don't think that we're not,"
"Thanks, Femme," Ariel gave her a small smile.
"I'll talk to you later, okay?" Femme headed down the hallway facing them, probably to go get some notes she had missed out on.
She had to tell someone. She had to tell someone. It was eating her from the inside out. Something else was alive inside of her. Her baby. She was going to have a baby. It was fucked up. She was only in fifth year. How would she survive the rest of her Leaving Certificate with a screaming baby? How would her parents react? How would her neighbours react? It was all totally fucked. She had to tell someone. If she kept it to herself for much longer, it'd be so much worse when people found out later on.
"Ariel? Is everything okay?" She didn't realize that she had begun to cry as she stood at her open locker. She looked up to see the soft eyes of Cori waiting to see if she was in total distress. And, in a way, she was.
She needed to tell someone.
She needed to tell someone.
"Cori, if I tell you something, will you promise not to tell anyone?"
•~~×~~•
Elliott knocked on the door again. It was half past two, an acceptable time of day to drop in and say hello. There was no answer though. Joseph told him that he hadn't seen her in the pub since Britney's episode. Trixie wasn't one to just wander aimlessly around the town, so where else could she possibly be? Elliott looked down at the two cups of coffee that he was holding in the cardboard holder and then knocked on the door again. Still nothing. Then an oh-so-bright idea struck him and he attempted to open the door to the hotel room. It was not locked. He pushed it open and listened to it creek before he cautiously stepped into the grubby little room.
"Hello?" He looked around briefly before his eyes found her, asleep on the double bed. She was not under any sort of blanket and was fully clothed. To some people in the town, Trixie's attire was not appropriate enough to be even deemed as clothes. Elliott set the coffee down on the floor as soon as he noticed her writhing and muttering things, "Trixie," He sat beside her and began to shake her, "Trixie, it's me,"
"Get off me!" She cried suddenly, sitting up and pushing him back. But she blinked and then recoiled slightly, "Oh... it's you," She pretended to look disappointed or disinterested, but Elliott thought it was very obvious that the girl was embarrassed, "What do you want?"
"Are you alright?" He instinctively asked, remaining where he was.
"Just dandy, what do you want?" She swung her fishnet legs over to the far side of the bed and yanked her oversized cardigan up from the floor, putting it on.
"I brought coffee," The boy said dumbly.
"Coffee?" Trixie turned back around to Elliott with a confused face.
"Yeah...,"
"Where?"
"Oh!" He got up and ran over to the two cups he had carefully left on the floor, beside the girl's set of black high heels, "Here," He held up the cardboard holder as if he were a child who had found anything on an Easter egg hunt.
"Right," Trixie looked at him, unsure what was going on.
"Here you go," He sat back up on the bed and handed her the Americano with milk and one sugar.
"Thanks, I suppose," She took it but stated at it as if he had just offered her magic mushrooms. But then she took a sip.
"Is everything okay, Trix?" Hr said after far too long an awkward silence, "When you were asleep you-"
"It's nothing. I just sleep a lot," She stopped him, "Shouldn't you be at work or something?"
"I gave myself a half day," He shrugged. He wanted to talk about her, not his stupid job.
"Can you do that?" She chuckled at the thought of him just taking off from his workplace without telling anyone. Which is exactly what had happened.
"There hasn't been a customer around since Friday afternoon. I'm not spending another second in that cell," He said firmly.
"Until tomorrow, of course,"
"Yeah, of course," He rolled his eyes at her smirking remark and took a sip of his coffee, "So, you like sleeping til the late afternoon, do you?"
