His daughter (Austin Carlile)

18

Erika

*4 months later*

"Happy 7 months babe!" Alex said as I met him in the hallway. I couldn't help but smile. It was a secure feeling I had with Alex and it made me feel happy. I hugged him and even though he couldn't see my face my smile remained.

"Thank you, you to cuddle bug." I saw his cheeks redden at my nickname for him and it made my own cheeks flush.

"So whatcha doing tonight?" He asked.

"My dad wants to go dress shopping for 8th grade grad. Pretty stupid if you ask me. I hate dresses." I made a disgusted face and Alex laughed while I talked about hating dresses.

"Their so girlie and what happens when the wind blows and they fly up."

"Don't be talking about wearing a dress for grad cause i'll cry Erika! Stop!" I heard Sabrina yell as I walked into the classroom.

I pulled my hands up in a defensive stance and laughed. "I hate it as much as you do honey. My dad is taking me shopping after school today." Sabrina laughed at the pout Alex made and then laughed at my unluckiness.

"Thanks love you to." I said sarcastically.

"I can't believe it's almost the end of the year though! And then highschool is next year! Yuck!" Sabrina said. We agreed and the bell rang signaling the beginning of class.

"Good morning everyone." Today was our final exam and I just knew that I would barely pass. It was math first period. That shouldn't be allowed.

I stared at my paper in awe.

Triangles, squares, x's, pentagons were in front of me and I barely knew how to find x in an algebraic equation. I was screwed.

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The bell rang and I ran handed her my test and ran out. "How do you think you did?" Alex said. I shook my head. "I'll be surprised if I'm in highschool next year with my math grades."

He rubbed my back and we walked into the gym where we took our regular spot on the bleachers. The teacher was handing out a paper to each specific student and I had a feeling they were grade reports.

"Carlile!" I heard and snapped my head up to see the teacher stretching out a hand with a paper in it. I reached down to grab it and looked at it.
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"At least I'm passing one class with no effort needed." I mumbled as I threw it into my book bag.

A bad feeling was settled in my stomach and I had no idea where it came from. I felt eyes watching me. I felt very uncomfortable. I wanted to leave the gym and go home. I just had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen and I didn't want it to.

"Erika are you feeling ok? You look kind of pale, let me take you to the nurse." Alex said as he helped me down the bleachers.

I couldn't talk or form words. I was only thinking. 'Bad.' 'Bad.'

"That's it call your dad you're going home." Alex said as he reached for my phone.

"Hey Austin."............"no she doesn't look so good. She won't talk to me. She won't talk to anyone actually."..........."no I didn't do anything it just happened.".........."yeah can you?" ........."great thanks."

He hung up and rubbed my back as we waited by the office. "He's gonna come and pick you up. You're not staying here. I don't know what happened but I'm worried about you Erika." I couldn't respond. I didn't even know what was happening to me. It was just a pit in my stomach that I couldn't place. I just felt like something extremely terrible was going to happen. I couldn't handle it.

I grabbed his shirt and cried. "Sshh sshh.." He said as she rubbed my back. The soothing affect it once had didn't take effect anymore and the pit grew bigger and bigger.

My only thought was leaving the school and going home to spend the rest of my day in my room. I just wanted that safe feeling. And I didn't get it here. "I don't know what's wrong but I do know everything will be just fine EJ. Just fine."

"How do you know Alex! How!" I snapped and crawled out of his embrace.

"I--uhhh I don't know. But I have a feeling everything will be. I don't feel like anything bad will happen. I'm telling you my feeling. And I feel it will be fine." He answered

"Well that's just dandy Alex! You might feel it's fine and you might not feel anything but you don't feel what you feel! I feel eyes watching me, I feel a pit in my stomach..I feel something extremely negative is going to happen and I don't like it! Not one bit..," I looked down as my phone vibrated and saw a text from Austin.
"That's Austin. He's here, i'll see you later."

With that I walked away to the attendance office and noticed Austin signing me out. "Hey kiddo, you feeling ok? Alex told me you were acting strange."

I shrugged. My main goal was to go home and cry without any interruption. And I was sticking to that plan.

"Alright We can go home and you can sleep and get better. I'll take care of you and everything..." He was going on and on and on. What he didn't get was that this was something serious that was happening to me and I didn't understand it at all. I didn't understand why I had a pit in my stomach that felt like it was eating my soul. I couldn't help the fact that I was freaking out over potentially nothing.

I was completely oblivious to my thoughts and didn't think of anything but sleep, cry, worry.

I stepped in my bedroom and the first thing I did was drop to my knees and cry.

And that's all I did all day was cry and didn't stop.