Page 80 of Absorbed

“The sex, it was consensual?”

Stacey looked at her lap, but nodded.

“Is important that you know, you never have to do a thing you never wanna do.” The nurse’s voice was serious and her face was somber. “No man, no woman, no parent, teacher, boyfriend, doctor. No one can make you do nothing you no wanna do. An I don’t mean just sex. Understand?”

Stacey nodded.

“How you hurt your foot?”

“I was at a party last night. Drinking. I tripped in a gopher hole.”

“You was drinking alcohol when you had sex?”

Stacey shook her head.

“What about the boy? He had sex before?”

Stacey nodded. “I think so.”

“How many partners him have? You know? Him ever test yet?”

Stacey shrugged.

“You know anything else that might transmit disease? Oral sex? Shared needles?”

Stacey thought of Pedro living with HIV onThe Real World.Despite taking health class and attending school assemblies about AIDS, most of what Stacey understood about STDs was from MTV. She shook her head. “Nothing.”

The nurse scribbled notes on the paperwork and flipped the page. “Says here you last period was eleven days ago.”

Stacey nodded.

The nurse closed the chart and folded her hands on top it. “Sorry, is probably too soon to tell if you pregnant. Too soon too to know if you catch STDs.”

Stacey felt her stomach drop.

“We can do tests to be sure, but…you likely need to come back. Most of the test accurate two weeks post encounter. Some twenty-eight days. You can always do a pregnancy test at home end of next week. Come back here for the other tests in a month.”

Stacey sucked in her bottom lip, her eyes welling up.

“I know that not what you wanna hear. Sorry, gal. We’ll get yuh on the pill today though. Get you some condoms. Do what we can. How that sound?”

Stacey nodded.

“Now, show me you foot, baby gal.”

By 9:50, Stacey had provided urine and blood for the various tests. The nurse assured Stacey that her ankle wasn’t broken, just twisted, and told her to elevate, ice it, and do minimal physical activity for the next few days. Planned Parenthood would call with test results in a couple of hours, but Stacey should be prepared to test again in a few weeks to be certain she was really in the clear.

Stacey and her mom walked out together, ducking through the picket line.

In the car, Stacey’s mom’s jaw ticked as she buckled her seatbelt. She glared in the rearview mirror at the women with the signs who were shouting at the van. She held her hand on the horn, startling the women. They jumped backward. The van’s tires screeched as she whipped the car out of the parking lot.

While her mom drove, Stacey stared anxiously out the window chewing on her thumbnail. “I’m so sorry.”

“This is going to be a long few weeks for us both.” After a minute of silence, her mom asked, “Do you think there’s any chance Jessie has…would he get tested?”

Stacey shrugged. She never imagined she would be dealing with any of this. She always thought she would be in a relationship and know everything about the person she lost her virginity to. “After everything I said last night, I don’t know how I could ever face him again.”

“Well, you work together…facing him seems inevitable.”

---