Accidents Happen

Chapter Four-Only Time Will Tell

She saw Peter at lunch, but she sure as fuck didn't tell him anything.

Michelle spent the entire lunch period trying her best to ignore the two nerds on the other side of the table, opting instead to bury her nose in a copy of Little Women, which she was reading for the fifth time. The boys' chatter became merely white noise, not that she was paying attention to her book either.

The boys asked her a question, which she didn't hear, and replied with a, 'meh'.

Clearly, she wasn't ready to tell anyone.

Their whispered conversation wasn't completely blocked out though. A few sentences here and there piqued her interest, but she chose to remain passive.

"No, dude. Kylo Ren isn't evil," Ned explained. "Just misunderstood."

"Ned, he literally killed his own father, and kind of killed his mother, " Peter argued, scoffing.

"So he has some emotional trauma! Don't we all."

That last line almost made the corners of Michelle's mouth turn up in a smile. Almost.

She could feel them throwing glances in her direction here and there as they bickered over the fictional antagonist and his qualities They were egging her on, trying to get her to say one snarky comment about their ridiculous argument.

But she wasn't going to give in.

"You're both wrong, losers," she still didn't look up, her voice monotone, her eyes never leaving the page she wasn't actually reading for the thirtieth time.

Well, at least she still had her basic communication ability. Not that anybody really noticed her slight crabbiness and her hushed attitude, though. She always acted that way, except now Michelle had an excuse, other than just being a friendless introvert. Well, except for her two friends.

The rest of the day wasn't the most fun thing she'd ever been through.

When she tried to draw (or even doodle), she got something similar to what she thought an ultrasound would look like. She erased it immediately.

The last bell couldn't come soon enough; all that she had left was decathlon practice, and she could get through that easily. No problem.

Except it was a 'problem'.

Yes, problem.

Big problem.

Peter seemingly hadn't noticed her strange behavior, though she wasn't sure she wanted to quiz him. No, she did not.

Honestly, she didn't know what she would do if she made direct contact with those adorable (goddamnit, Michelle, can't she focus for one second) eyes. The eyes of her best friend. The eyes of the boy that got her pregnant and doesn't even know. Cry? Scream? Laugh? Hell, if she knew, and she didn't want to find out.

Shit. Since when did she feel emotion like that? Even when she did cry, which was about twice a year, it was always in her room, at night, with the door locked. She never feels emotion. She works so

hard to be the emotionless shadow that she is. And now it's being ruined by this stupid thing in her stomach.

But after what felt like years and years of torture, the hour was up, and Michelle was finally free to go. Normally, she would have stayed behind to help clean up, but as soon as they were dismissed, she was gone.

Right now, all she wanted to do was go home, eat ice cream, lock herself in her room, and take a seven-year nap.

This, the pretending to be fine, was a lot harder than she had anticipated. How could she possibly act like nothing's wrong, be her normal self, when sh*t like this happens? It was exhausting. Everything was enough to make her want to never leave her room again.