*Thursday*
Chip wakes up, to the sound of shuffling around the room. He opens his eyes, hazily looking over at Vanessa who was looking through her bag. "Oh hey," she says seeing he was now awake. "Hey, what are you doing?" "I was going to go get some breakfast while you slept," she says swinging the bag over her shoulder. He sighs laying back down, "That sounds great actually," he says and she smiles before walking out of the room.
Chip takes a deep breath before getting out of bed, to freshen up for the day. He goes into the bathroom and decides to take a shower. He grabs the towel and tosses it on the counter but he misses, making it fall on the ground, knocking over the trash can. He sighs, kneeling on the floor to pick up the mess. He then notices a plastic stick wrapped in toilet paper. He picks it up and his eyes widen seeing it was a pregnancy test. It was positive. He mentally freaks out as he wraps it back up and picks up the rest of the mess. Vanessa was pregnant! He knew for sure it wasn't his and that meant only one thing. She was pregnant with Mikey's child.
"Hey" Vanessa walks into the room and Chip tried to act as normal as possible to not freak her out. "I brought some waffles," she says sitting on the bed. He hesitates as he sits next to her. "No beer?" He tries to make a joke and she shifts slightly, "Oh no, didn't feel it" she says not looking in his eyes and by this, he knew that she was definitely pregnant. "So, I took a look at the map and if we left here before noon, we could get there by tomorrow night," she says and he nods, keeping his head down. Tomorrow will be there last day together. This leaves him to worry about what would happen to her. She was only 18 and is pregnant. They ate in silence, his mind still racing on what was going to happen.
Vanessa picked at her food, trying to contain her nausea that has been killing her all morning.
She kept tossing and turning throughout the night, her stomach feeling like it would burst. She woke up early in the morning, feeling a gut-wrenching urge to puke her intestines out. She ran to the bathroom and let everything out. Her head pounded and she was left seeing stars as she sits next to the toilet. At first, she thought it was a stomach bug but she began to realize that she skipped her period. Her heart began to pound remembering the last time she and Mikey slept together. Last month. She began to breathe heavy, tears blurring her vision as she paced around the room. She needs to be quiet so Chip wouldn't wake up. After a while she managed to calm down, reassuring that she needed to get a test just to be sure.
She snuck out of the room, going to the nearing pharmacy so she could get one. The lady at the desk eyed her as she handed her the box. Vanessa fakes a smile as she walks out, going back to her room, praying that Chip was still sleeping. She checks her phone and sees it was barely 6:40 in the morning. She sneaks into the bathroom and takes the test, waiting around for a few minutes before checking. Fuck. It came back positive. Now was the time to freak out. She cried, panicked, even internally screamed at herself. But after she calmed down, she began to start thinking straight. She needed to figure out what to do next. She examined her stomach in the mirror, noticing the firmness. There were two ways to deal with this. She could simply make an appointment when she makes it to Los Angeles. That seemed like the best solution. But the more she thought about it, she knew she couldn't do it. She had always thought about having a baby and even though this wasn't how she planned, she still couldn't bring herself to doing it.
It was pretty silent between them as they prepared to get on the road. They got into the car and drove out of the town, taking the freeway that would lead them to California. Chip wasn't sure how to tell her that he knew. He wasn't sure if he even should. He didn't know if this would change anything between them. He wasn't the father but he felt like somehow she needed him more than ever. "Tomorrow's your birthday," he says, trying to kill the silence. She looks at him, being pulled out of her thoughts. "Yeah" "Do you know how you want to celebrate?" He asks. She smirks, knowing she needed to act as if nothing has changed, "I have a few ideas" she says and he looks at her, almost surprised that she was being so normal. "Are you nervous?" He asks, not realizing what he said. She pauses knowing she couldn't tell him, "Well I may be on my own for a while but I'll manage. Plus I'm hoping to find my aunt also" He nods, feeling relief that she has family in California.
Those next few hours were pretty quiet and now the sun was starting to go down. "Chip, is there any way we could stop for food?" "Are you hungry?" He asks and she nods. He immediately exits the freeway, taking the first exit into town that he found. There was a little diner and he opens the door for her, leading her inside. She orders a burger and fries with a strawberry milkshake and he gets the same. They sit down and eat Chip watching as she downed the shake completely. He chuckled and began eating his own food. "You know, I'm gonna miss this," she says. He looks at her, "What?" "Us eating together, being on the road" He sighs, realizing he hadn't sat down for a nice meal with someone in a long time. "You know, this isn't going to be the last time we will see each other" She sighs looking down at her plate, "I know, it's just I'm gonna miss you is all," she says and he sighs, not wanting to see her look sad. "I need to go to the bathroom," she says then standing up and walking away. He sighs, knowing she was upset and he understood why. He notices lights flashing in the sky from the distance. Those lights looked like those that would shine during a carnival. Maybe that will cheer her up. She comes back, sitting down as she looked down at her food. He could tell she had been crying and he sighs, leaning over to touch her hand. "Come on, I want to show you something," he says standing up. He places money on the table and grabs her hand leading her to the car. "Where are we going?" She asks. He smiles, "You'll see"
