The Secret I Tried to Keep

Chapter 8

Aria and Cassie looked at each other before they watched me look inside the brown bag. I looked inside to see a few boxes of pregnancy tests. My eyes widened as I looked back at them, accidentally dropping the bag in the process.

"You can't be serious?! I'm not pregnant!" I said. Their faces said otherwise. I was beginning to freak out. I wasn't on birth control because my mother deemed it as an excuse for whores to have sex and not deal with the consequences. Now that I thought about it, I did miss my period. With the nausea and the headaches and dizziness...

"Fine! But I'm only doing it to prove you wrong," I gave in even though I wasn't sure myself.

I sighed and began opening the packages. Aria and Cassie sat on the edge of her bathtub as I took the tests into the toilet room. I took a few of the sticks and did them at the same time. After finishing, I walked out and set them out on the sink. I paced the floor as we waited. Aria and Cassie watched the timer. When the timer went off, we all froze and looked at each other.

"Dria?" Cassie said. I looked at the counter across the room and hesitated. I should go look, but I couldn't. I shook my head as I looked back to them. Aria stood and touched my arm gently.

"I'll do it," she offered. She was the only one brave enough out of us three. "Shit," Aria breathed. I felt my breathing increased as I finally glanced at the four tests.

Two pink lines.

A plus sign.

A happy face.

And two more pink lines...

All positive tests.

Pregnant.

Aria pulled me to sit on the cushioned bench in the bathroom. Cassie handed me a glass of water. I ignored them and stood to start pacing again. This was one test my parents wouldn't want to hear that I passed.

"What am I going to do? I can't have a... I can't be pregnant! My parents are going to kill me! Shit! Shit, shit, shit! Zane is the father." I said as tears started forming in my eyes.

"Okay, Dria, I can see the gears turning in your head and you need to stop it right now. You can not freak out about this. Breathe, okay... just breathe. Let's be rational about this, okay? Let's see... isn't your older sister a baby doctor or something?" she asked. I took a few deep breaths as I nodded.

"She's an obstetrician," I said.

"Okay, good. Are you keeping the baby? Do you trust her?" Aria asked as Cassie rubbed my back. I nodded. "Okay, call her and ask her what you need to do. You need to get a test done by a doctor just to be sure. As far as Zane is concerned, tell him nothing. He would never be there for you or that baby. His head is stuck too far up his ass to see anything but his own shit," Aria said. I took another deep breath before I pulled out my phone and called my older sister. After a few rings, she answered.

"Dr. Fehtra Morrison speaking," she said. I hesitated.

"Fehtra, I need your help," I gave in.

"Chandria? Is that you? What's wrong?" she asked. I hesitated as my eyes went to my friends. They nodded at me encouragingly. They urged me to continue as Aria held my free hand in hers.

"Fehtra... I just took a few pregnancy tests, and I need your help," I admitted. The other line was quiet for a moment before I heard her breath deeply.

"Oh God, Chandria... you're pregnant? How did this happen? Do mamma and Buppie know?" she asked.

"No, they don't know. I'm with some friends right now. The tests could be wrong though, right?" I asked hopefully. She sighed.

"False negatives are very common, but false positives are almost nonexistent. Plus if you took multiple tests, it would've showed the anomaly, but all of them can't be wrong. Okay, do you remember where my office is downtown?" she asked. When Fehtra first got her practice established, the whole family got the grand tour. That was a few years ago, but I still remembered where it was.

"Yes," I said hopefully. Fehtra was going to help.

"Come whenever you can, just let me know ahead of time, but come as soon as possible so we can get this sorted out," she said.

"I think it'll have to be now. I don't know when I'll get another chance," I said honestly.

"Then come now. You have a few hours until the office closes," she said. We said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone. After telling Aria and Cassie what Fehtra said, we were out the door again. I stutter-stepped as I saw Zane leaning against the side of his car. He stood and tried to approach me, but Aria stepped in front of me protectively.

"Get lost, Reeds," she said.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked. I could tell he was getting frustrated. We all kept quiet. I knew Zane deserved to know, but I could barely accept it myself. Plus we could be wrong.

Right?

"Nothing you need to worry yourself about. You would just throw money at it anyway. Isn't that what you do with all your problems?" Cassie said to Zane.

"No! It's not!" he said angrily.

"Seriously Zane, it's not your problem," Aria said as she walked past him. Cassie bumped his shoulder roughly and followed her, leaving me to deal with Zane, but time wasn't something I had a lot of right now.

"Leave me alone, Zane. Do me a favor and never speak to me again... Just leave me alone," I said as I moved past him. According to the rumor mill, Zane was always so careful. He always used protection and he didn't with me. Why? I hesitated before I turned back to him.

"Don't you always use protection?" I blurted. He looked confused before he nodded slowly.

"Yes, I always... wait, I didn't. I didn't with you," he said in realization. I sighed and closed my eyes briefly. I was wasting my time.

"I have to go," I said quickly.

"Dria, wait," he said reaching for me. I moved out of the way of his grasp and walked quickly to the car.