Chapter 13

It's been a few weeks since I last talked to Ethan. He ignores me at school again, and although I'm sad, I feel a lot better and it's easier to manage now that I know it wasn't his choice.

I've also been hanging out with Dylan a lot, he gets along well with Callie, Lorena, and Cameron so we've all been going out together often. I think Lorena likes him, but I'm not sure and I haven't been bothered to ask.

As more and more time passes, I start to feel uneasy about Ethan. I wonder if he really has a plan or he's just winging it. Sometimes he comes to school with bruises and it worries me. I tried to talk to him about it one day but he just completely ignored me, like he usually does. Like he's 'supposed to' I guess.

"Hey, let's go to the party tonight." Callie says. We're all in our dorm right now. And by all I mean the three of us who actually live here, plus Dylan and Cameron.

"Hell yeah, I'm down." Dylan agrees.

"Me too!" Lorena immediately says after hearing Dylan's response.

"Do I have to?" I whine. I don't want to go out. I want to stay inside and relax.

"Yup. Or we'll kidnap you and force you to go." Cameron laughs.

"As if you havent done that already." I grumble, making everyone except Dylan laugh.

I suddenly start to feel feint for the billionth time in these past few days, and then the feeling of bile slowly starts to rise up my throat. I cover my mouth, my friends looking at me weirdly as I jump up and run to the bathroom, emptying the contents of my stomach into the toilet. I feel someone come behind me and tie up my hair, while someone else rubs my back. When I'm done, I flush the toilet and collapse onto the floor, trying to regain my breath. I look up at Lorena and Callie who were consoling me and smile a bit at them.

"God bless you guys." I say, earning a chuckle from Lorena. Callie, on the other hand, just looks at me with a concerned expression.

"You have been really sick lately. And you've been throwing up for the past week. Are you okay? Have you come down with something?" Callie pushes the back of her hand up against my forehead. "You're warm."

"I'm warm because I just threw up and it felt like the circulation was cut off from my entire body." I laugh, standing up and beginning to brush my teeth.

"Maybe she's pregnant." Lorena teases, laughing.

"She's on birth control." Callie rolls her eyes, crossing her arms. "Maybe you should go to the doctor, they can prescribe medication or something."

"I don't think it's anything to worry about. It'll probably go away by itself." I shrug, rinsing the toothpaste out of my mouth.

"It's been going on for how long now?" Callie raises her eyebrows. "Either we're kidnapping you and taking you to the doctors, we force you to take a pregnancy test, or we kidnap you and take you to the partyyyyy!" This makes Lorena laugh.

"None. I'm fine guys, seriously." I shake my head, walking out of the bathroom and laying on my bed.

"You okay?" Cameron asks me, I just nod.

There's no way I'm going to the doctors, it's just unnecessary, I don't want to go to the party, and I'm not pregnant...right? Right. There's no way. When I was at home for three weeks after I got back from Italy, I had my period. Well...not really. I spotted. But that counts as a period, I hope. The more I think about it, the more I realize the possibility of me being pregnant is high. Then I remember what an actual idiot I am.

"Oh my god I'm fucking pregnant." I quickly sit up. "I'm fucking pregnant." I repeat, looking at Callie and Lorena. They just look at me like I'm crazy.

"You're on birth control. That prevents most pregnancies." Callie raises her eyebrow at me. I burst out crying, putting my head in my hands.

"I forgot to bring it with me when Ethan and I left for break. We said we were going to try to buy some the day we landed but I completely forgot." I say, sobbing. "I didn't take it that whole time."

Silence. Nobody says anything as I cry into my hands. How fucking stupid am I? I'm really dumb...maybe I'm not pregnant. Maybe I'm just sick. Yeah, maybe I'm just sick. I try to tell myself this in my head, but deep down I know that I probably am.

"Oh, sweetie." Callie and Lorena both sit on either side of me and hug me, rubbing my back and trying to calm me down.

I hear Callie say something to Cameron but I don't pay attention. Soon, I hear the door of our dorm open and close. I'm not ready to have a kid. I'm 18 for crying out loud!

A wave of tiredness washes over me, and I lay down on my bed.

"Take a nap or something, m'kay? You look like you need some rest." Callie sighs, running her hands through my hair.

"Okay." I say quietly, burying my face into my pillow and trying my best to fall asleep.

~

"I don't know...it's really not our place." I hear in my dream.

"Yeah but, if we don't, do you think she will?" Someone else asks, making me stir in my sleep.

"I think she's waking up."

I realize this isn't my dream and I slowly open my eyes. I look over at Lorena and Callie who are sitting next to my bed.

"Hey sleeping beauty, feel any better?" Lorena asks, smiling at me.

"A little." I admit, rubbing my puffy eyes. "Aren't you guys going to the party?" I ask, seeing that it's almost completely dark outside.

"No, we want to stay in with you. Let's have a girls night." Callie suggests.

That sounds nice.

"But first," her voice gets serious. She reaches behind her and grabs the bag that was hanging on her chair. She pulls out two boxes and hands them to me. Pregnancy tests.

"You should probably know for sure whether or not you're pregnant. Then you can decide what to do from there." Lorena says softly. I sit up and look at the two tests that lay in my hands.

"Okay." I whisper, scared to see the results.

I stand up, going to the bathroom and shutting the door. I just stare at the two tests for a few minutes before following the directions on the back of the box. I place both of them onto a few pieces of toilet paper so it doesn't touch the sink.

I sit on the edge of the bathtub, bouncing my leg up and down as I wait for the results.

"Nova, you good?" I hear Callie's voice from the other side of the door after a while.

"Mhm." I call back. I check my phone, seeing it's time to look at the results.

I stand back up, walking to the counter to read what the two tests say. Both of the answers are the same. I bite the insides of my cheek, not knowing whether or not to be happy or sad. I open the bathroom door, revealing both of my friends standing there, waiting for me.

"So?" Lorena asks, biting her lip.

I can't manage to open my mouth and speak. I just nod.

"You're...pregnant?" Callie asks for confirmation and I nod my head again.

"Congratulations!" They both hug me. I don't have the energy to lift my arms to hug them back. All that's running through my mind is the fact that I'm pregnant.

I take in a shaky breath, feeling tears starting to roll down my cheeks again.

"I don't know what to do." I say, my two friends letting go of me and leading me to my bed.

I lay down, pulling the covers up to my chin.

"That's okay, it's normal. We'll be with you as you try to figure it out. Okay? You're not alone." Callie says, her voice soft.

"My parents are going to kill me. I'm going to be a single mother and I don't even have a job. I feel like my life is going extremely downhill." I close my eyes, wiping the tears that had already fallen onto my cheeks. I don't want to cry anymore. I'm tired of crying.

"There's always other options." Lorena says.

"Like adoption, or..." Callie trails off.

"Getting an abortion." I finish her sentence for her. Callie just nods.

"Are you going to tell Ethan?" Lorena questions me. I look over at her, sighing.

"I don't know...I probably should. I don't want to though. How am I even supposed to talk to him?"

"Just march over to the frat house, dude. I highly doubt he's going to say you can't come in. Especially if you tell him that it's important." Callie tilts her head, looking at me.

"Maybe I'll try tomorrow. I don't want to go over there when there's a party going on." I say.

"Do you want us to go with you?" Lorena offers, I shake my head.

"No, it's fine. I'll go by myself." I decline. "Let's not talk about this. Let's have our girls night." I say, wanting to change the subject.

"Sure." My two friends nod, smiling at me.

For the rest of the night we watched movies, gossiped, and ate a ton of junk food. I had a lot of fun. I was grateful that my friends were taking my mind off of everything.

~

It's now the next morning and I'm getting ready to head to Ethan's house. Callie and Lorena already left the dorm to go to the library to study for finals, I told them that I'll meet them there later.

I'm just about to grab my phone and head out of the dorm when I hear something coming from the door. I look and notice an envelope being slipped in. I wait a couple of minutes to ensure that whoever left it there was gone before I go and pick it up. I flip it over and it has my name written on it.

That's weird.

I open the envelope and pull out the contents.

"You're invited!" The front of it reads in golden letters written in cursive. A frown comes over my face.

What is this?

I open it, and nothing could have prepared me for what I see.

"Together, with our families,

Ethan Agosti and Kaitlyn Miller

Request the pleasure of your company as they marry Saturday, November 21st, at half past 6 o'clock in the evening"

The white paper with a tied, flat bow reads. My eyes run over the words again and again, God knows how many times. Each time I read it I feel a different emotion. Anger, disappointment, regret, disgust, miserable, heartbroken...but right now the most prominent is anger. I grab a box from under my bed, which I had stored extra clothes in, and empty the contents of it on my bed. I quickly throw everything that has anything to do with Ethan in there, including the wedding invitation.

I throw in the gifts he gave me for our anniversary, his clothes I still had, our pictures together, notes and letters that he wrote be before that I had saved. I yank off my necklace with his initial on it and throw it in there as well. Whatever I can find that is his, or has to do with him, goes into the box. Once I'm done, I march out of my dorm and make my way to his frat house.

I'm so pissed.