Page 30 of Decidedly With Baby
Sure, easy forhertosay.
“Do you want us to come with you?” Kelsey asked, her voice a blanket of sympathy. Now, if only I could pull it over my head like when I had been little and scared of the boogeyman. Nanna had given me a special blanket that she’d sworn kept all scary monstersaway.
At my nod, they followed me back to my apartment building in Kelsey’s car. While I didn’t wish to find out the truth on my own, I was happy to have a few minutes to myself first to figure out what I would do if the test waspositive.
I mean, other thancry.
Although right now, that sounded like a really goodoption.
By the time I parked my car behind my building, I didn’t have ananswer.
And I still didn’t have an answer when Kelsey and Erin joined me a few minutes later on the frontsteps.
Have you ever visited a foreign country? When you first arrive, you’re faced with the dilemma of understanding the language—even if it’s the same one as your native tongue. If I asked you where I could find a flat, would you know I meant apartment? Between the different foreign customs, the different signs, the different way of life, the different money, and the differences in the language, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and a little bitlost.
That was exactly how I felt once inside my apartment. I had no idea what to do next. I turned to Erin. “Whatnow?”
She smiled softly, her eyes sympathetic. “Unless things have changed since I conceived this one”—she rubbed her stomach like it was a genie in a lamp—“you pee on thestick.”
Sounded like good advice. So why was my body refusing to walk toward the bathroom?Hello, legs? You were working a few minutesago.
I let out a hard breath. “Okay, I can do this.” I must have been convincing enough for my legs. They began moving, with my heart rate racing us to thebathroom.
Inside, I shut the door behind me but didn’t bother to lock it. I opened the box and removed the instructions. My hands shook, making it tough to read the words. But what was there to read? I peed on the stick. It wasn’t rocketscience.
A minute later, I stood at the sink, the peed-on pregnancy test doing its thing on the counter. I washed my hands and bailed from the room faster than an emu being chased by a truck—the test abandoned next to thesink.
And, well, you know the rest. The three of us entered the bathroom. Kelsey picked up the test and gave me the news—sympathy and awe and happiness all shining back at me. “You’re going to have ababy.”
But pregnancy tests weren’t a hundred percent accurate. It said so on the box. They were ninety-nine percent accurate. Which meant one out of a hundred times they werewrong.
So statistically speaking, this could be that one screwed up test—the test that gave the wronganswer.
“It’s wrong,” I said, sounding like a poutingtoddler.
“I can get you another one,” Kelseyoffered.
“That’s okay. I’m positive I’m notpregnant.”
My life as I knew it wasn’tover.
Funny how irony always got the lastlaugh.
11
Holly
What’sthe most frequently cited nightmare that people have? That’s right. It’s the one where you’re speaking in front of a group, in your underwear and only your underwear. It doesn’t matter who’s in the audience, the implication is still there—nothing is more terrifying thanthis.
Except the nightmare had it allwrong.
Because I would’ve rather stood in my lacy black panties and bra in front of my peers than where I was currentlysitting.
“You’re pregnant,” the woman in the white doctor’s coat repeated after I didn’t respond the firsttime.
Those two simple words were like lead cannonballs bouncing around in my stomach. I was going to be sick. As in, puking-out-my-guts sick. I eyed the trashcan, making sure it was within easyreach.
Dr. Sinclair studied me for a moment, possibly waiting for me to come out of my comatose state. After I’d decided five days ago the pregnancy test was indeed faulty, Erin had insisted I double-check with my physician. Better to be safe thansorry.
