teeth → l.h

chapter ten;

"Are you okay?" Ashton asks as he watches Helena take two more ibuprofen. She's currently on a steady diet of oatmeal, ibuprofen, water, and sleep.

"Yeah." Helena says quietly as she rubs her eyes. "Got a headache." She knows she's not okay, but she's trying as hard as she can to ignore it until it resolves itself.

"You've had a headache for like a week straight." Ashton sighs as he leans against the counter. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yep." Helena groans. "Just stop talking."

"Helena-" Calum starts.

"Shut up." Helena sits down on the floor of the kitchen. "I'm dying."

"Are you pregnant?" Calum continues.

Helena's head snaps up and she's pretty sure her eyes are about to pop out of her skull. "No?" She cannot be pregnant. She absolutely cannot be carrying Luke's child. This is the worst possible situation she can get into, she thinks, and it cannot happen. Luke has a girlfriend, and Helena has a career, and Ashton would probably have a stroke if he had to find out that Luke was the one that got Helena pregnant.

She did miss her period though. It hasn't been long enough for her to really worry, but it is starting to bubble up. She's starting to get seriously worried, but she's hoping it's not actually happening.

"Who the fuck are you having sex with?" Ashton comments.

If only it were as simple as that, Helena wants to say. If only I met a nice boy who I haven't been best friends with for ten years. If only I had a simple boyfriend and a simple life and I simply got pregnant and the boy didn't have another girlfriend.

"No one." Helena whines as she drops her back head down to her knees. "I'm not pregnant." Arguing with her doctor brother about this is not her proudest moment.

"Are you sure?" Calum and Ashton both sit down next to helena. "Because you're either pregnant or literally dying."

Helena sighs. "I don't want to be pregnant."

"Well, roe versus-"

Calum uses humor to deflect serious moments, and he's kind of glad Helena interrupted him. He was going to make a really bad joke. He knows Helena would laugh, but Ashton would get mad because they're in a deep situation.

"I'm not pregnant." Helena cuts calum off. "I can't be. We were safe, and I'm not an idiot." She is kind of an idiot, she's aware of that, just not in this situation.

"As your big brother, I'd feel a lot better if I knew if you're pregnant or if you're dying." Ashton states.

"Fine." Helena sighs.

Helena wonders how she ended up at this place in life as she rides to a drugstore with Ashton and Calum. She refuses to even entertain the thought of being pregnant. Luke is with Sierra and he's happy, and as much as Helena despises that he's with someone else, she wants him to be happy.

"Stay in the car please." Helena says as she gets out of the car. She hates everything about this. She wants to go back to sleep.

The next hour is possibly the most stressful hour of Helena's life. Buying the pregnancy test was terrifying, the ride back to the house was quiet and horrifyingly strange, and actually taking the pregnancy test made her nauseous, a factor she hoped was stress-induced and not because she's growing a human.

Ashton and Calum lean against the wall across the bathroom the entire time, contemplating whether or not they should call Luke. He's Helena's best friend, and he should be there. Calum, however, was internally screaming no, no, no if she is pregnant it's Luke's kid he can't know until Helena's absolutely sure and especially not from us Ashton do not fucking call him do not do it. Outwardly, he just says that if Helena wanted him there, she'd call him.