Survival

Chapter 18 Confirmation

Cynthia and Vita went out the next morning in search of a pharmacy with the elder Pele's directions. They hadn't told the others what they suspected just yet. Since they were short on water, Vita had been holding in her bladder contents for the past hour and was ready to piss herself at a moment's notice if the pharmacy didn't appear soon.

"Do you know who the father would be?" Cynthia dared to ask.

Vita nodded. "Yeah, unfortunately. I thought the world was ending, so he's not the greatest guy. Or he wasn't. I don't think he made it out of the fire."

Cynthia's lips fell into a grim, flat line, and she tried to meet Vita's eyes. "I'm so sorry, Vita."

"Don't be. He started the fire."

The conversation stopped there. Vita assumed that Cynthia probably thought she was some kind of naive, deranged girl at this point. Honestly, it didn't matter anymore. She had spent far too many days and nights obsessing over how other people reacted to her. Even the night of the disaster, it was still one of her main concerns. How trivial it all seemed now.

"How do I look?" Vita asked, tugging at her fishnet stockings so they wouldn't sit so uncomfortably.

"You look fine Vita. They're not going to judge how you look," Mischa said as she put on a darker coat of eyeliner than usual. Her curling iron was heating up on the vanity. Vita shook her head, of course they were.

"Why are we going?" Vita asked. She stared out the window at the dark sky.

"Because, my dad is out of town on business, and there are rumours that tonight is going to be the end of days." Mischa's slight smile betrayed her attempt at an ominous tone.

"You want to spend your last day with Gunnar?"

"He's not a bad guy Vita, just give him a chance, and I think you two could get along. For me, please?"

Vita sighed, flicking on the TV since Mischa had now gone for her curling iron. "Fine, I'll be nice, for you." Tornadoes were tearing through the Midwest just as they had been all week. Another image flashed to high tides and pounding waves tearing apart the coastlines of California.

"I still don't understand why you'd choose a guy like Gunnar over Danny." She hadn't meant for the football player's name to come out in an airy tone but she couldn't help it.

"That's not fair Vita. You know Danny and I are over. If you weren't so in love with him yourself, you'd see that he's just like everyone else."

Vita's eyes narrowed as she took a sharp intake of breath. It hurt to hear her friend refer to her feelings so casually. "Since when is that a bad thing? Why is different suddenly your thing?"

"It isn't bad for you Vita, and you know I'm sorry about the whole thing. I didn't mean for you to get hurt with the whole Danny situation. If I had known how you-"

"I'm not hurt," Vita said, swallowing her emotions. She was happy Mischa was so focused on her reflection that she hadn't noticed Vita's red face.

"Yeah, and bears don't shit in the woods."

"Gunnar's rubbing off on you. Careful, he'll probably try rubbing something else off on you tonight."

"Vita!" Mischa exclaimed, whirling around to face her. The redhead's face softened seeing Vita focused on picking at her nail polish. "It's not like that. Things just ended with Danny and Gunnar knows that. We're friends."

Vita's eyes flickered over to the screen with fires that had begun raging in New York City. Apparently they were having crazy blackouts around the east coast too after ice storms uncharacteristic for this time of year. "They sure aren't lying about this end of days prediction," Vita muttered as sinkholes in China swallowed up dozens of homes in the next headline.

"What if this really is our last day? Should we really be fighting over guys?" Mischa asked.

Vita shook her head and walked over to give her good friend a hug instead. "Sorry, Misch."

"I just wanted us to do something exciting, in case it is the last day. The party seemed like a good idea."

"It'll be fun. Good times always seem to find you."

"Yay! And hopefully Rob is cute, and you two can hit it off."

"I've been thinking Misch, if this is the end of days, I'll be dying a virgin. I'll never know what it feels like to have sex."

"Well first off, no one said this would be the end of days, just some kooky reporters on the news. Second, losing your virginity is overrated. It's awkward and disappointing all at the same time. Then you just end up wishing you'd never even slept with that guy because he wasn't that important."

The house shook and the power shut off for a good twenty seconds. All that could be heard were the howling winds. Mischa put down the curling iron and went to sit with Vita on the bed.

"Don't feel pressured into anything. But if you're serious about this thing, this party isn't a bad place to consider. Lots of Gunnar's friends are older, and for older guys, sex is just another thing they do, like going to the movies or something. It's not really a big deal for them and they've got to be better at it than the guys we go to school with."

"You mean better than guys like Danny?"

"Vita, we're dropping the Danny subject right now and you're going to forget he exists. Focus on this new Rob guy."

Cynthia and Vita had finally made it to the pharmacy. It was quite fortunate as Vita was about to burst. She ran to the restroom with the pregnancy tests, hardly even getting the silly thing out of the box in time. Cynthia looked around the pharmacy for any kind of prenatal vitamins and minerals that could be good for the young girl. At this point, it was in her best interest to consume everything she could find.

Vita came out of the restroom later looking solemn. She held up the two sticks confirming that she was indeed having a child that she neither wanted nor knew anything about raising. Cynthia couldn't help but think back to this moment in her life nearly a decade ago. Her reaction was quite different.  

It brought a smile to her lips, the small mark that indicated that her life would be changing forever. She closed her eyes and silently thanked God for the miracle he had given her. She set the test back on the box with a smile.

"Hunny," she cried as she finished washing her hands.

She found him in the kitchen, doing the Sunday crossword with a pair of dark reading glasses. He was so handsome when he was focused. His eyes raised for a moment and met hers with a smile.

"You sound like a woman with good news. Did we get the dinner reservations after all?"

Cynthia shook her head. "Babe, we're having a baby."

His face lit up and he dropped the paper only to replace it with the body of his wife and his tiny unborn child. He kissed her on the lips, thankful that their prayers had been answered and they were judged worthy to be parents.

Cynthia handed Vita a bag of vitamins that she had gathered throughout the store.

"I can't believe my luck," Vita muttered. This simply wasn't fair. Things like this weren't supposed to happen to girls like her. Maybe the problem was that she wasn't the girl she used to be and this was life's way of showing her that it was all fair-game now. Every twisted scenario she had fought to avoid.