The Other One

Sh*t Happens

Minnie had a horrible rest of the day. She used up all of her energy during her classes to be nice to her students. She barely spoke to any of her coworkers.

When her work day was over, she headed to her car. She debated whether to buy a pregnancy test or not. 

Without registering how it happened, she suddenly found herself standing in front of a rack of pregnancy tests at her local pharmacy. She picked one up and headed  over to pay for it. She stopped and went back and grabbed two more.

When she reached her apartment, she took her shoes off, headed for the kitchen, drank some water, waited until she had to use the bathroom and brought one of the tests with her. 

'Wait for three minutes' the label said.

Minnie left the test on the sink and went to sit on her couch. She was too nervous to sit still, so she moved to sit at the kitchen table instead. Then she moved over to stand by the window. And then she landed on the couch again. 

Another memory came to mind.

"Honey, are you okay in there?" Harper lightly knocked on the door.

Minnie opened and reviled her wet eyes to her mother. 

"Oh, honey," Harper pulled her into a hug.

"I'm late," Minnie whispered, referring to her period.

"How late?" Harper asked.

"Twelve days." 

Her mum pulled her even tighter as Minnie cried harder.

"I might be pregnant and I'm only 17," Minnie cried.

"I will get you a pregnancy test tomorrow. Okay?" Harper asked and Minnie nodded.

During the following day, Minnie kept a very low profile, and didn't want to be seen. She even wore an over sized hoodie with the hood up for most of the day. But Christopher always saw her. 

"Hey there," he said and swung his arm around her and placed a kiss on the top of her head. 

"Hi," Minnie whispered.

"Is something wrong?" he asked concerned.

She didn't reply, but Christopher knew her, so he grabbed her hand, dragged her out the school building and out to the middle of the football field. 

He didn't say anything. He just waited for her to say what she had to say. She debated over whether to tell him or not for a few seconds.

"I might be pregnant," she whispered. She kept her gaze on the grass.

When Christopher hadn't said anything for a while, she finally looked up at him. He looked shocked and she figured that that might not have been that best idea.

"Might be?" he asked.

"I haven't taken a test yet. Mum's buying me one," she explained. 

He softened and pulled her into a hug and whispered. "We'll get through this together."

When Minnie got home there was a package waiting for her on her bed. She brought it with her to the bathroom.

When she had taken the test she tried to distract herself with her novel for three minutes. She spent all of those three minutes rereading the same few lines over and over again.

When the three minutes had passed, she walked back into the bathroom and looked at the test.

'Not pregnant.'

Minnie walked into the bathroom. She looked at her own expression in the mirror before she looked down at the test.

"Pregnant. Eight weeks."

Oh, gosh.