The next week flies by. I go to class. I have coffee with James on Thursday after our lecture. I do an excellent job at pretending to be shocked when I see him sitting in the same seat as last week. I text Isaac. I study with Laurel and Max. I go for a run. I call my mother. Everything goes relatively smoothly. It’s the kind of week that you forget easily. But it’s one that you crave when you have a bad day. When everything is hectic and chaotic.
I have a feeling today is going to be a day where I want nothing but the dull and dreary.
For starters I got a phone call from Tabitha this morning.
“Mom’s pregnant!” She blurted out the minute I picked up the phone.
“What?” I yelled.
She rushed on, her words escaping her mouth before she had time to process them. “She’s pregnant. I found a pregnancy test in the bin and it’s positive. She’s pregnant. I thought she was too old.”
“She’s forty three Tabs. There’s been women who get pregnant at fifty. Sixty even. It’s rare but if anyone’s going to do something practically unheard of its Mom.” I said, feeling exasperated. Trust my mother to get pregnant in her forties. She’s already got three children, to two different men. She really doesn’t need another. I certainly don’t need another sibling to worry about.
“I can’t believe it.” Tabitha said. “I can’t. I just…how can she does this to us? I’m going to be a big sister. I don’t want to be a big sister Kat. I don’t.”
I couldn’t help but silently laugh. Tabitha would be worried about the responsibility of being an older sibling. “Don’t worry, it’s not that hard.
“Kat she’s going to have another kid. Mom can’t handle that. She can barely handle herself.” Tabitha goes on. “Can you imagine her waking up every hour for the next year? She’ll crack.”
“She’s done it before Tabs.” I told her, trying to sound calm for her. “Mom might not be the best at marriage but she’s not completely incompetent in raising children. Listen, it might have been a dud. You’re just going to have to forget about this and keep quiet till she says anything. If nine months pass we’ll know it was nothing to be concerned about. If she starts getting fat and eating pickles we’ll know we’re going to become a four.”
“I don’t want to be a four. I want to be a three.” She whines. “Kat, what if she really is pregnant? I’ll be almost twice the kids age when I’m thirty. You’ll be nearly forty when it’s twenty. Doesn’t that scare you?”
“No, no it doesn’t.” I replied. “What scares me is that you might blurt this all out to Mom. Listen Tabitha, you really can’t tell her you found the test. Just leave it alone. Don’t even talk to Lachlan about it. If she’s pregnant she’ll tell us soon enough. Take a deep breath and go do your homework or something.”
She sighed and said she’d try and keep is hush, hush. But I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was going to do some more investigating. Tabitha is smart and curious. She’s also afraid of practically anything that could ruin our family unit. I understand completely.
I also got a call from my father this morning. I let it go to voicemail. I wasn’t in the mood.
After that I found Natalie crying. This has become normal. She hasn’t stopped since her appointment with the counsellor on Monday. Apparently it’s good for her. If I’m being honest it makes me nervous.
It was the note that I was holding in my hand, right now that had me wishing things had been just a little bit more forgettable today.
It was just one slip of paper, folded over. Natalie’s name printed on the front in black cursive writing. I unfolded it and read the words covering the page. Slut.
YOU ARE READING
This Is How It Goes
Romantizm"Once upon a time there was a girl. She was an idiot. The end." Katarina Elizabeth Ryan, a self confessed heart breaker, lover of doughnuts and a worshipper of felines is about to have the strangest year of her life. College, the experience she's be...
