Breathing

Chapter Two

I wake up at 5:08 AM today for no reason at all. I roll out of bed and try to stand up, I succeed. I get dressed first, I put on my cute jean shorts and my T-shirt that says "Don't bug me, I'll fight back" with a picture of a fist on it. I run downstairs and look at the calender, I grab a red marker and cross off October Fifth, counting down the days until October 11th in six days, my sweet sixteen. I find a hairbrush lying around and brush my strawberry blonde hair, a mix between my mom's red hair and my dad's dirty blonde hair.

"Good morning." I jump and I start to hyperventilate.

"Lexi, breath. It's just your mother!" I struggle to get back to a normal state as I keep hyperventilating.

"It's okay sweetie, you're probably just still recovering from yesterday." I start taking deeper breaths as I start to regain myself, I'm lucky that I did.

"What's for breakfast?" I ask.

"Your father and I are having eggs." she responds.

"Eggs sound good." I say.

"You need more sustenance, Lexi, you need to eat something bigger."

"Mom-" I start, but she interrupts me.

"I don't want what happened yesterday to happen again, we need to be more careful."

I'm silent.

"Pancakes?" I ask after a long moment of silence. My mom walks into the kitchen, gets out her recipes and makes delicious pancakes.

* * *

I'm staring at the door that leads into Silverbirch High, I'm prepared for people to worry about me, even though I know nobody will. My hand reaches for the door, I'm prepared for nothing. When I walk in, it's the exact same until I see that Christopher doesn't show up at my locker and hits on me, like he does to all the girls, I call him Creepstopher. The bell rings, math class, my least favorite. I walk to math to talk to my only friend, Mai. As I walk in I realize something, Mai didn't visit me at the hospital, we're so close to each other. I spot Mai sitting at our desk. (we begged the teachers to share one)

"Hey Mai!" I say once I get to the desk.

"Oh hi Lexi." She responds quite strangely. I decided to start the conversation with

"Creepstopher didn't show at my locker this morning." Mai responds a little too quickly.

"That's because he's afraid of you, everyone is."

"What, why?" I ask. She responds with

"Well, I'm not sure if you remember, but you passed out in class yesterday." I decide that this would be a good time to ask her why she didn't visit me at the hospital.

"You're not afraid of me, are you?" I try to casually slip in.

"No, of course not!"

"Then why didn't you visit me at the hospital?" She hesitates.

"Well, there was kinda this party that the other popular kids invited me to and I already said yes so I couldn't back out on this chance just to visit you at the hospital, it's not like you were gonna die." I couldn't believe it! She would rather go to a party than visit me at the hospital!

"What the hell Mai!" I shout far too loudly.

"I didn't need to visit you because I know you are strong, Lexi." I'm furious now.

"I could have died, Mai!"

"But, Lexi-" I storm out of the room, too mad to hear what she says next. I run into the girls bathroom and fall to the floor, crying as I get pain in my chest. This is so freaking awful.

* * *

I'm at home now, lying on my bed. My phone rings, it's Mai, I don't answer her but I do listen to the voice message that says

"I'm not sorry anymore because the popular kids are better than you, I realize now that you are a stupid son of a-" I turn off my phone. I run downstairs to see my mom crying.

"Mom, are you okay?" I look at my dad sitting beside her, a few tears rolling down his face as well.

"Your mother is better than ever." My dad says with a sniffle.

"What's going on? I ask, a little confused. My mom speaks this time.

"I'm pregnant." I'm paralized.

"What?" I say quietly as a tear rolls down my face.

"Yup" my dad says, grabbing a tissue. I run to hug them as I burst out in tears. I'm gonna be an older sister.