Happiness and Other Illusions {Carpe Vitam Book One}

3- One Stand Up Guy?

Two days later, Lisa stood in the lobby of the very same doctor's office. This is now how she wanted to spend her July. She should've been at Hartford Park, getting a tan by the lake, not scheduling an appointment with a baby doctor.

Her legs shook as she approached the girl that was manning the phones. She looked up at Lisa with a smile. “How can I help you?”

Lisa tried to ignore the other women sitting around the room, all of whom were much older than her, but she could still feel their eyes on her as she spoke. "I need to schedule a doctor's appointment,"' she said in a low voice.

"Are you pregnant?"

Lisa nodded.

The receptionist asked her several more questions, each one making Lisa more and more uncomfortable. When she finally had an appointment with Dr. Tredger in a week’s time, she scurried out of the building, her heart racing. She felt like everyone was judging her. It didn't matter that she wasn't the first teenager in Radleigh to find herself in this situation, Lisa still imagined that everyone's eyes were glued to her stomach. This was ridiculous, of course. She was barely five weeks along, and no one knew but Ashton.

The sophomore caught a bus across town, getting off a couple blocks from her house. Her head spun the entire way. How was she going to break the news to Kieran? He hadn't fully recovered from her drunken striptease at Hawk Armstrong's end-of-year party last May. It had been the main cause of their breakup three days later. Instead of locking herself in her bedroom and crying all summer, she decided the best way to get over Kieran was to replace him.

Enter Ashton VanderRoma. Lisa had been crushing on Ashton ever since she'd become friends with his brother Nick. It had broken her heart to learn that he had started seeing Marcie Castle. Over the months, her jealousy had transformed into hatred aimed at Marcie exclusively.

Mere days after Kieran had dumped her, she found herself at a party with Ashton, and without Marcie. She took advantage of his drunken state, and their sordid affair began.

It didn't take long for the novelty to wear off. While she had started developing real feelings for him, he saw her as nothing more than a secret booty call. He made that very clear whenever he ran off to be with his perfect blonde girlfriend the moment the sex was over. But she put up with it, because anything was better than being alone.

When Lisa entered her front door, she was surprised to find her mother sitting on the living room couch.

"Hi, Mom. You're not working today?" Lisa asked, wiping the sweat off her face with the bottom of her shirt.

"I'm off today. My first day off in four months. Kieran's in your room, by the way."

Lisa's eyes lit up. She rushed down the hall toward her bedroom. "You should go out and enjoy your day off," she called over her shoulder before closing her bedroom door. Less than thirty seconds later, Sheila pushed it open again.

"I don't think so," she said simply.

Lisa rolled her eyes before finally turning her attention to her boyfriend. He sat on the floor at the foot of her bed, flipping through one of her old photo albums. Thier eyes met as she turned to face him; he snapped the cover shut and rose to his feet.

"Hey," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. There was the faintest hint of an Irish accent in his voice when he spoke; it drove Lisa wild. "Your mom said you were at the doctor. Everything alright?"

Lisa nodded. "Just scheduling a checkup," she said evasively.

They moved to the bed, stretching out side by side. Kieran clicked on the tv, and quickly found one of his favorite daytime talk shows. They sat in silence, Keiran absorbed in the show , and Lisa absorbed in her thoughts.