A Dance of Life

6

I wake up in a bland looking room with no recollection of how I got there. I find Patricia seated in an armchair beside the bed with her head in her arms, and Nathan staring out of the window. I let out a groan as I try to sit up, letting them know that I'm awake.

Pat springs out of her seat and is at my side in a second. She grabs my hand and leans her forehead against it. "Ellie! Oh, thank God you're awake. Do you know how scary it was to see you fall like that? Even the judges were worried. How do you feel?"

The judges? Oh no, the audition! Please God, no. They'll have to give me another try...

Before I can ask them what exactly happened, a nurse walks in with Frederic trailing behind her.

"This man says he's your boyfriend?" she asks, looking annoyed.

Does he really think we're still dating?

"Yes, he is," I croak out to avoid an argument.

I glance at Nathan to see his reaction, but he looks more pissed than jealous. He's clenching and unclenching his jaw in a steady motion, keeping his eyes on Frederic the whole time.

"Annelise are you okay?" Freddie says, "I came to the theater to surprise you after your audition, but I only met chaos. What happened?"

"You haven't hit me up in weeks, Frederic, why would I want to see you?" I ask him, irritation showing up in my voice.

"Because I'm your boyfriend? Or has that changed?"

"You tell me, Frederic," I reply, looking away from him.

"Pat, can you tell your boyfriend to excuse me while I talk to my girlfriend?" He gives Nathan a foul look as he says this.

"He's not my boyfriend, you idiot, he's here for Annelise," Pat spits at him. "And don't call me 'Pat', that's a privilege reserved for my friends."

In true Frederic fashion, he ignores the jab and turns to me, "Who is he, Annelise?"

A doctor, and the same nurse, walks in, saving me from answering. "Ms. Allard, I have your test results here. Do you want your companions to leave while we talk?"

"No, it's okay." I'm tired and I want to go home. No, I want to speak to Ms. Bernard so I can find out if I can get another audition. "Let's just get this over with."

"Alright then. We did a blood test, and everything is fine, but we found some hCG, which stands for human chorionic gonadotropin," he pauses as if expecting some feedback but he receives only blank stares.

"How about you put that in layman's terms, doc," Patricia tells him bluntly.

"Right, of course. It's a hormone made by the placenta, and it only shows up when a woman is pregnant." His statement is met with a more pronounced silence.

"Pardon me?" I whisper in shock.

"Yes, Ms. Allard, you're pregnant. From your expression, I'm guessing this wasn't a planned thing?" I don't answer him, and he takes that as an opportunity to continue talking. "We can do a scan to see how far along you are so you can know all your options."

Options? Pregnant?

"Get out," Pat says with a deathly calm.

"Sorry? Ma'am, I'm only letting her know her op-"

"I said get out," she repeats.

The doctor raises his hands in surrender and walks out, the nurse sighs in annoyance and follows suit. His statement is replaying in my brain, and I feel like I'm floating; watching everything from out of my body. I search everyone's face for their reaction, this must be some type of joke. But Pat looks confused and hurt, Nathan looks like he would rather be somewhere else and Frederic... Frederic's face displays absolute disgust.