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Turned out that standing in line at the pharmacy was more nerve-wracking than anything I had ever done in my life.

People in line were looking at me funny when I asked for the morning-after pill, and when they told me to go sit down in the corner of the store to wait until it was my turn, they continued to stare.

Luckily, I didn’t know anyone in the store, until the girl exiting the back with another pharmacy worker walked out.

“Shit, Vespyr?” Nia asked as she noticed me.

“Hi,” I greeted, not feeling like talking to her.

“I thought you moved away. Is Fennec here too?”

“Yes, why?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen him. What are you doing here?”

Probably the same she was.

“Next,” a woman said, looking at me from behind the counter.

Nia immediately realized what I was there for, then she laughed and covered her mouth with her hand.

“No way! Who the hell was brave enough to sleep with you?”

I rolled my eyes at her and got up from my chair to go to the back with the lady, ignoring Nia.

“I have to tell my girls. Oh, man! You needing the morning-after pill is just funny. Are you sure you had sex?”

Frowning, I continued to walk, and once I followed the lady into a separate room, I let out a heavy breath.

“That girl sounds like a bitch,” she said.

The lady was around Mama’s age, and I tried to shake Nia’s words off while I smiled at her.

“You’re Judd’s kid, right? The guy who lives out in the forest?”

I nodded.

“I went to school with him until I moved away, but I came back to Fairbanks after finishing college. He was already gone by then. How’s your mother doing?”

“She’s fine,” I replied, unsure about why she was interested in talking about my family.

She nodded, finally realizing that I wasn’t here to do small talk with her.

“Ever took the morning-after pill?” she asked, and I shook my head.

She continued to ask me specific questions and telling me about the side effects the intake of this pill could have on me, and after I signed a piece of paper, I swallowed it and was already free to leave.

“Wasn’t so bad, hm?”

“No, guess it wasn’t,” I replied with a small smile.

“We get up to twenty girls per day who come in for the morning-after pill. There’s no reason to be ashamed.”

I knew that, but Nia made me feel shame after laughing when she saw me here.

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks for the heads up.”

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