His Vanilla Girl | ✔

Chapter Thirty-eight

"Are you sure you aren't pregnant?" Her mom's disapproving eyes bore into hers as once again her head was in the toilet bowl.

"Mom, please. Can't you at least wait until I..." She paused as another heave overtook her body. "Stop puking?"

Her mom's eyes darkened, but she nodded her head and turned around, leaving the room with a storm trailing after her. It was wrong of her to think that her parents would be supportive of her situation. They were ever only one word away from a lecture.

And now with her puking daily for almost a week, her mom was certain that she was pregnant. Her dad remained relatively clueless. Her stomach usually settled by the evening when he got back from work.

Standing up, Maria turned and faced the mirror. There were dark bags under her eyes from lack of sleep and her eyes were slightly red from puking so hard. She looked and felt like death warmed over. Could she really be pregnant even if the test was negative?

A chill rippled through her body and her legs shook as she gripped the edge of the counter. It was like her whole body was under a mutiny. Maria rinsed her mouth out with water and gave her teeth a brush before opening the door and inevitably meeting her mom on the other side.

"Well?" she asked. "Are you?"

Maria hung her head, staring at her feet, feeling very much like a teenager again. "I don't know. The test was negative."

"So you had sex then?"

"Mom, do we really need to have this conversation? I'm not a kid anymore, and I feel sick enough as it is."

"I hope you enjoy feeling like that for the next 9 months."

"Hun, that's enough." They jumped at hearing her dad's voice behind them. "If she is, she is. Nothing we say will change it."

She turned and looked at her dad who had nothing but sympathy in his eyes, holding his arms open to her. Maria moved into them and buried her face in her dad's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Daddy."

His arms wrapped around her. "I may not have always been the best father over the years, but I'm always there for you."

That's when the flood gates open and all the pent up tears flowed unceasingly. They guided her to the couch and she told them everything that had been happening, with the exception of the super kinky stuff.

"We were going to get married and then he found out that Karen didn't abort his baby after all. I knew I couldn't stay around and not give them the chance to find what they might have found back then. But if I'm pregnant, that's going to screw everything up."

"No it won't. If you are, then God has a reason for it, and his reasons are never screwed up," her dad said calmly,

"How can you be so confident, Dad?"

"Because our God is a big God and nothing happens outside of his providence."

It was hard to reconcile all the bad things that happened in the world with God's all-consuming love. The evil that have surrounded her over the last few weeks shook her confidence and her faith a little. She'd been far too sheltered growing up, kept from all the bad things that happened around her. Now, it was coming at her in droves.

"Honey, let's deal with first things first, okay?" He turned to his wife. "Nora, I want you to book an appointment with our doctor. Get her checked out as soon as we can."

"Okay."

Looking back at Maria, he said, "We'll make it through this one step at a time."

She didn't want to be pregnant, not if it meant that it would make things harder for Caleb. He deserved the right to choose what he wanted without any intervention from her. It was hard. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to be held by him and reminded that everything will be okay. It just wasn't the same coming from her parents. Truthfully, nothing felt right in her spirit.