Secret > Secret

A Little Bit Braver Than I Thought You Were

Julia walked down the hall, her hand pressed to her mouth and her face pale. Darren ran over and began to babble on about their Mamma Mia duet, but she could barely pay attention.

"Julia? You OK?"

She stared at him blankly for a couple of seconds, and then nodded. "Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine. Just been feeling a little sick."

Darren nodded and wrapped his arm around her. "Maybe you've got what Lauren had." He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek and called out to Brian Holden and Meredith. "I need to tell Brian something about Saturday, OK?" She nodded and he leaned in and stage whispered, "I think they did it in my bed." Julia nodded blankly again.

"Oh - I'll ask Lauren. LAUREN! Hey!" Julia jogged toward Lauren, slowed back down and turned into the bathroom. Lauren turned around, frowning slightly, and followed her in there.

Julia wiped off her mouth and rested her head on her arms, sighing.

"Hey, Julesies? You OK?" Lauren's voice was right outside. Julia flushed the toilet and opened the cubicle door. Lauren was looking at something in the mirror, but turned around as soon as she came in. "What's up? You called after me, then you came in here, so..."

"Oh, I'm just sick. I called after you because I think I have what you had."

Lauren's eyes widened and she looked at Julia, shocked. After a couple of seconds she seemed to remember what she was doing. "Um, ah, what do you mean? How have you been feeling?"

Julia sighed and joined Lauren leaning on the bathroom sink. "My boobs are sore - you were complaining about that - I'm really tired, I'm having weird mood swings, I feel light headed, I'm throwing up, I have to pee all the time, and I'm having these awful cramps even though I'm a bit late for my period. You talked about all this shit, and you acted this way, so, like, what was wrong with you?"

Lauren swallowed - really, it was more of a gulp - and said, "Julia, I mean, I was just fine. But, um, Julesies..." she took a deep breath and continued, "could you potentially be... well... you know..."

Julia stared at her, nonplussed.

Lauren sighed awkwardly again and said, "Um, ah, pregnant."

Julia stared at her, eyes wide. She started to laugh, a little hysterically. Lauren just looked at her. She kept biting her lip. Julia trailed off.

Ali Gordon pushed open the bathroom door. Lauren looked over and said, "Come with me after school and we'll find out," quickly hustling a stunned Julia toward class, smiling quickly at Ali on the way out.

"Lauren, I can't look."

Lauren rolled her eyes as she grabbed the test and looked at it.

"Do you want the truth?"

Julia nodded gravely.

"Not pregnant."

Julia let out a immensely relieved sigh, and flipped backward onto Lauren's bed.

"Let me see." Lauren passed it over, and she felt like an enormous weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"I feel like I should retest it. Aren't false negatives really common?"

Lauren laughed awkwardly again. She muttered, "I wouldn't know..."

"Hm? What was that?" Lauren snapped round to Julia.

"Nothing! Nothing at all." There was an awkward pause as Julia looked at her suspiciously. "Um, you know what, maybe, maybe you should redo it. Yeah. And if that one's good you're cool, but, like, it's super rare to get false positives, so..." There was another too long pause, and Lauren, blushing violently, picked another test off her drawers and threw it at her.