“Jack and Wren are here.” Wren is my cousin on my mother’s side, and Jack is her husband and also my cousin, but on my father’s side. It’s confusing as hell. Welcome to my life.
“Is there a way I can get in without them knowing?”
“Come to the ambulance bay and text me when you get here. I’ll have a room waiting. Is there anything I need waiting in it?”
I gulp. “I threw up just now. After not having anything to eat or drink. Not even coffee.”
Another long silence. “I got you. Just text when you get here.”
She disconnects the call, and since I’m nowhere near her hospital, I Uber over there and text as I walk along the hospital toward the back entrance of the ER. Braelyn is here waiting for me, a nervous look on her face.
“I have a room, but things are starting to pick up in there, so we have to move fast. I’m technically on my lunch break, so I shouldn’t be bothered.”
I pull my dark-haired friend in for a hug. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. You have to pee in a cup.”
“Right.” I hiccup a half-sob and swallow it down.
She takes my arm and pulls me inside straight into the bathroom. “Pee and bring it back with you. You know the drill.”
She shuts the door behind me, and I lock myself in, staring down at the small, clear plastic cup in my hand. I might not be pregnant, but in my gut, I know I am. My breasts are a little tender, and I threw up. Then in the Uber over, I realized I was due for my period two weeks after I moved into Micha’s, and I never had it. I remember writing it off as stress at the time.
Now here I am.
I pee into the cup, wash my hands, and open the door to find Braelyn waiting for me.
“When was your last period?” she whispers as we walk down the hall, my head cast down and my body angled toward the wall. I don’t come here often. Hardly ever, actually. But that doesn’t mean someone couldn’t recognize me.
“About two months ago, I think. I’m due this week for it.”
“So, you missed your last?”
I nod as we enter a room, and she closes the glass door and the curtain for privacy. “I thought it was the stress of leaving Josh and trying to crawl out from all of the emotional damage he did. Honestly, I didn’t really track it. I was on the pill forever, but then shortly before I left him, I stopped the pill for that cycle because I kept missing days. I think it was stress. I think Iknew I was going to leave him, and my head was too full. But we used condoms. Every fucking time.”
“Shit, Sky. Okay. Do you want to do the dip, or do you want me to?”
“You.”
“I have three sticks.”
I swallow and sit on one of the chairs in the room instead of the gurney. I don’t want her to have to change the sheets for me, and I can’t handle the notion of being the patient and not the provider.
Braelyn gloves up, and the sticks go in, and then we wait. But it doesn’t take long. The moment the control shows, a second pink line forms immediately below it. On all three sticks.
“Well then.” She disposes of the sticks and her gloves and comes to sit beside me. She takes my hand, and my head falls to her shoulder, and the first of my tears comes.
“I’m pregnant.”
“Do you want to discuss options?”
“I know my options.”
“We can still talk about them if you want. There’s no shame or judgment.”
“Thank you for that. That’s why you’re an incredible nurse. I can’t yet, though.”
“We’re here for you. All of us. No matter what you decide.”
