Page 13 of Zone Protection

I move over to stand next to her, and she sets the coffee in front of me on the counter. I grab a stevia from the jar next to the coffee maker and rip it open and drop it in my mug, followed by my creamer.

“Em, that stuff is so gross. How can you drink that? It’s not even sweet.” She scrunches her nose.

“You know I’m lactose intolerant, and the artificial sweeteners in some of the creamers are so bad for you.” I bump her hip with mine.

“I will gladly take my artificial sweeteners over that. Yuck.”

She takes her coffee mug, I raise mine, and we clink mugs.

“What do you have going on today?” I ask her.

She takes a sip then sets down her mug. “I’m gonna drink my coffee, and then I’m going to go to the gym for a bit. You know I’m trying to work on my swing, and Coach told me to do some strength training with the medicine ball. After that, I’ll probably come home and get ready for the week. Do you want to come to the gym with me?”

“No, I think I should probably sit out today and get some more rest. I can’t miss class this week, so I’ll stick around here and get ahead of some of my homework. I am hungry though. Should we go grab something or make something here?” Mystomach is rumbling, which is a good sign since I haven’t been able to eat much this week.

“I’m just going to have some yogurt and granola before I head out. Plus, I’m broke until my parents add more money to my account next week.” She laughs.

I set my mug down and walk back over to the refrigerator. I put the creamer back and grab the yogurt for Livi. When I set it on the counter and open it, my stomach rolls. “Urgh. I was going to have some with you, but I think it’s spoiled. Does it smell weird to you?”

She pulls it over to her and leans down to smell it. “Nope, smells fine to me. Do you think it’s still that bug you caught?”

“I don’t know. Might have to go to the clinic if it doesn’t feel better by tomorrow.” I put my hand on my stomach and rub in a circle.

“Yeah, it’s not like you to be sick like this.” She walks over to the pantry and grabs the granola, comes back out, then pulls a bowl from the cabinet. “Maybe you should just try eating some of the granola without the yogurt, just to get something in your stomach. Do you want a bowl?”

Nodding, I say, “Let me try that and see if it helps.”

She hands me my bowl first, then finishes hers by adding the yogurt. As she does that, I walk around the counter, coffee in hand, and sit at the four-top table we have in our little kitchen nook.

I’m picking at the granola, and the smell doesn’t seem to bother me, so I take a bite. But when Livi comes to sit next to me, I smell the yogurt again, and I jump up, barely making it to the sink to puke.

There’s nothing in my stomach to bring up, so I’m really just heaving. I feel Livi’s hand on my back, rubbing it in circles.

“Babe, I’m starting to get worried about you. Are you running a fever or anything, or is it just the stomach and dizziness?” She reaches over and turns on the sink to rinse out the bile I threw up.

I shake my head in reply. After a few deep breaths, I lean into the water and pull some into my mouth. I gargle and spit it out in the sink.

“So, um, question then. When was your last period? Because I just had mine and I feel like we all usually sync up, but I don’t remember you saying anything about it.” She drops her hand from my back.

I close my eyes and think about when my last cycle was. I had to go off the pill last spring because I kept getting migraines, no matter which one they switched me to. I tried keeping track using one of those apps on my phone, but my cycle was irregular for a while, so it was difficult to keep the timing accurate.

Livi gets up from the table and walks over toward the coffee machine, where she left her phone. She walks back over and lays it in front of me with the Calendar app open. “I think you should try to figure it out.”

There’s no way I’ve missed my period. I take her phone in my hand and start scrolling through the calendar, thinking back to when I last remember having it. Between school and golf, it’s honestly slipped my mind. It’s one of those things that I don’t really think about until I actually get it.

It’s late October now, so I scroll back to September, and … nope. Go back to August. I do remember having a period in August, right before we went to California for our first tournament of the fall season. So, I’m only … shit. I’m nearly eight weeks late.

“Em, how late?” Livi puts her hand on top of my hand that’s now resting on the table.

“Umm …” I swallow hard.

My stomach rumbles again, and I drop her phone on the table and rush to the sink. I heave once, twice. This can’t be possible. I haven’t even been to any parties or even around any guys since—fuck. The end of August was when I hooked up with Archie freaking Griffith.

I turn on the water and cup my hand, filling it with the coolwater coming out of the faucet. I take a drink and rinse out my mouth again. I put my hands back under the faucet and splash my face with water. I can’t even bring myself to say in my mind what I suspect has happened.

Livi comes over to me at the sink and puts her hand on my back again. “Babe, I think we should go to the store.”

Tears start pooling in my eyes. There’s no way this could be happening. I’ll lose my scholarship. Not to mention med school. And my parents. They will … I don’t even know what they’ll say.

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