Playing The Bad Boy

Chapter Twelve

Aniyah’s POV

It had been two weeks since my illness and six weeks since the party. I had ended up being absent for four days as the fever ravished me. Bea had been an angel, taking care of me each night, making sure I ate and drank enough. Pixie and Molly came over when I started to feel better, keeping me company for a little while before my roommate bustled them out, insisting I needed to rest.

The only lingering effects of the virus were I still had the occasional queasy stomach and had needed to rush to the bathroom once or twice to be sick. I didn’t think I could still be contagious, and I usually felt fine after I vomited, so I didn’t think I needed to take more time off.

Sitting in the library, I was crouched over my books, trying to work on a project we had been set when the chair across from me scraped back and the familiar huff of my best friend reached my ears.

‘Bad meeting?’ I asked, not looking up.

‘the worst’ Bea grumbled, pulling out her own books, ‘Prof said I can’t listen to music in his class anymore, that its disrespectful to his teaching’ she mimicked as she rolled her eyes. 'I know more about this than he does, what does he think I’m going to learn?’

I suppressed a smile, ‘you did say you wanted to have a full college experience’ I pointed out, ‘doesn’t that include the mind-numbing pain of listening to lectures?’

My best friend grumbled under her breath at my words, ‘it wouldn’t be so bad, but Aunt Flo came to visit this morning’ she growled, sharpening her pencil that she had just pulled out aggressively.

‘Your Aunt is here?’ I asked, finally looking up, ‘don’t you like her?’

Bea stared at me, her mouth slack before shaking her head, ‘no, Aunt Flo? The red river? My period?’ she explained in a low voice.

My face turned crimson as I suddenly grasped what she was saying, ‘the cramps are a b***h’ she continued, returning to her complaint.

Across from her, though, my pen had stilled over the page as my mind started to work overtime. Bea had her period . . I hadn’t though . . not since before the party . . .’

‘Fuuuuuuck’ I hissed, bile rising in my throat as I started to panic.

‘You OK?’ Bea asked as I suddenly started to throw my things into my bag, fear washing over me.

‘Aniyah?’ Bea whisper yelled as she stood up, throwing her own things into her bag and rushing after me as I ran from the library, taking the stairs down to the ground floor two at a time.

Nooooo, I couldn’t be! I’m eighteen! I’ve only had s*x once and I can’t even remember it!

Grabbing my elbow, Bea pulled me to a stop, swinging me around to face her, concern in her eyes. ‘Aniyah?’ she asked questioningly, ‘what’s the matter?’

I gulped, glancing around to make sure no-one was near us, ‘uhh . . I’m . .’ I cleared my throat, trying to make my mouth work, ‘I’m . . late’ I whispered.

‘For class? We don’t have a . . ‘Bea started in confusion.

I shook my head wildly, fixing her with a pained stare, ‘no, I’M late.’

My best friend’s eyes widened in shock before she gripped my hand and dragged me through the college toward the parking lot.

‘Where are we going?’ I huffed as I hurried to keep up with her.

‘To a pharmacy’ my best friend replied curtly.

I tried to slow her down, scraping my heels along the ground, ‘no’ I squeaked, ‘no, I’m not ready, it might be a mistake, maybe I’m just out of sync because I was ill’ I protested desperately.

Stopping, Bea rounded on me, her gaze stern, ‘if it is, then the test will be negative’ she replied forcefully. ‘But if you don’t find out, it’s going to hang over your head, panicking you.’

I licked my suddenly parched lips, ‘what if it’s positive?’ I whispered.

Bea gave me a small smile, ‘then you have me to help you for the next nine months and that little one will have a kick ass auntie once he or she gets here.’

My bottom lip quivered at her words as I tightened my grip on her hand, nodding quickly.

Starting to move again, Bea dragged me across the parking lot and toward a gorgeous sky blue convertible. Fishing in her pocket, she pulled out a set of keys and pressed her thumb to the fob, the car’s lights flashing as it unlocked.

‘This is your car?’ I shrieked, momentarily forgetting why we were driving anywhere right now as I took in the stunning vehicle in front of us.

Bea shrugged, ‘sixteenth birthday present from daddy’ she replied indifferently, ‘he had it shipped up here a few weeks ago for me when I complained that I couldn’t get around anywhere.’

Ushering me toward the passenger side, she pulled open the driver’s door and slid inside, adjusting the seat with a scowl as I climbed in beside her.

‘Damn driver’ she grumbled, ‘he moved my seat when he delivered it. I hate people messing with my seat! It’ll take me ages to get it back as I like it.’

Giving up on the levers, she pulled on her seatbelt and started the engine. Backing out of her space, she drove slowly through the parking lot until she reached the exit and pulled onto the highway.

Beside her, I leaned back against the headrest, my mind rushing through every outcome as I bit down on my thumb nail nervously. My mama was going to kill me, she had been so strict and I’d managed to screw up everything we had worked for in the first week of college.

I thought about mama’s three jobs, the way she set aside money from each pay check for my schooling needs, determined that I would have a better start than she did. I felt like I had just thrown all her sacrifices in her face. What about my siblings? They looked up to me. Would they look at me the same? Would they be embarrassed to have a pregnant teenage sister?

‘Aniyah’ Bea called out beside me, pulling me from my thoughts, ‘stop it.’

I glanced over at her, as she turned to face me quickly, ‘stop thinking the worse, you haven’t even taken a test yet, it could just be a false alarm.’

I swallowed thickly as I nodded, yeah, she was right, what did they say? Don’t worry until you have something to worry about.

Taking a deep breath, I relaxed my body, staring out of the windscreen as we drove toward the closest pharmacy and pulled into the car park.

Sliding out, I waited for Bea before we linked arms and headed inside, searching for the family planning section.

‘It’s over there’ my roommate whispered, pointing discretely to our left. Nodding dumbly, I let her pull me over to the row, smothering a hysterical laugh as we passed the condoms. Yeah, I could have done with those six weeks ago.

We stood in front of the pregnancy tests, my eyes widening at the sheer number of different types. Which did I choose? Was one more reliable than the others? Beside me, Bea picked up a box, reading the information, ‘this one has a display that says pregnant or not pregnant’ she read out loud. Glancing up at me she shrugged, ‘that would mean we couldn’t read it wrong but it is twenty five dollars.’ Picking up another, she frowned, ‘this one has two lines, one for not, two for pregnant, and it’s fifteen.’

I couldn’t digest what she was saying. Standing in front of the shelves, it suddenly hit me just how real this was. These tiny sticks held my life in their hand, whichever one I picked had the ability to ruin my future.

‘What about this one? Plus sign for yes, a minus sign for no?’ Bea asked, waving a bright blue and pink box under my nose.

I turned my fear filled gaze to my friend, ‘I don’t know’ I whispered, ‘I don’t know which to get. What if I get a false positive, what if I get a false negative!’ I knew I was working myself up again, but panic was swallowing me.

Watching me for a second, Bea grabbed one of each that she had looked at and dragged me to the self service machines, scanning them quickly and throwing them into a bag before tapping her card.

Picking up the bag in one hand, she slid her other into mine and pulled me from the store, back toward her car.

Neither of us spoke on the ride back to our dorm. My gaze was stuck on the plastic bag that my friend had shoved into my lap to hold. My fingers gripped the handles tightly until we rolled into a space and Bea turned to me, gently uncurling my hands from the bag so she could take it from me.

‘I feel like I’m going to be sick’ I whimpered, not even moving to take off my seatbelt. Peering over at her, my lip trembled, ‘is that bad? That’s bad, isn’t it? I wouldn’t feel sick if it . . if I . . ‘

Bea grabbed my hand with her free one, squeezing it, ‘all that means is that you are scared’ she replied firmly. Releasing me, she jumped out of the car, rounding the bonnet and opening my door to help me out.

Together, we headed back up to our room, trying to avoid the other girls on our floor until we burst into our dorm and shut the door.

‘So’ Bea sighed, ‘how do you want to do this?’

I raised an eyebrow as she elaborated impatiently, ‘you know, do you want to take the tests in the bathroom, or do you want to pee in something, and we’ll do the tests in here?’

I looked around us, ‘what would we use to do the test here?’ I mumbled.

Bea glanced over our desks before dropping her gaze to the bin and pulling out the empty yogurt pot that she had eaten earlier.

‘Here’ she said, holding it out, ‘wash it out in the sink and then pee in it.’

I wrinkled my nose as I took it gingerly, ‘that doesn’t sound very hygienic’ I muttered.

Bea rolled her eyes, ‘do you want to do it in the bathroom where anyone could walk in on you?’ she demanded.

Hesitating, I dropped the pot back in the bin, ‘give me the tests’ I whispered, holding out my hand.

Silently, Bea pulled the three boxes out of the bag and handed them to me. Quickly, I grabbed my washbag, emptying out the contents on to my bed and shoving the three tests inside before walking out of our room and hurrying to the bathroom. Once inside, I locked myself into one of the stalls and pulled out each box, ripping them open and taking the sticks out of their protective packaging.

Pulling out the instructions for each one, I read them quickly before pulling down my jeans and sitting on the toilet. Peeing on three sticks is not an easy task, especially when you have a severe case of stage fright, and your body is trying to act like a camel.

When I was done, I shoved each stick back into its box and stored them in my wash bag. Pulling my jeans up, I quickly checked the time on my phone before heading out to wash my hands.

Once back in our room, Bea and I pulled the three tests out of their boxes, laying them on top of a tissue on my desk as we sat side by side, staring at what would determine the next stage of my life.

Bea checked her phone every few seconds as we sat in silence, the only sounds were our heavy breathing as we watched the minutes tick by painfully slowly.

‘It’s time’ Bea whispered, gripping my hand as we stood up together and moved toward the table. Standing over the tests, my heart stopped beating for a second. In front of me, all I could see were the three screens on the tests.