Perfectly Toxic (Sterling Shore 9)

“Bella?” Allie says, returning her gaze to me. “Bella, what the hell?”

I grab her wrists as she continues to cup my face. “Allie, you have to do something for me.”

“Okay,” she says, worried.

“I need you to go to the store.”

Chapter 53

BELLA

Allie returns within ten minutes with a bag full of those dreaded tests. I don’t know why I needed her to buy so many, because I know I can’t possibly be preg—

I can’t even think the word, let alone say it.

I snatch a test out of the bag, and Brin sits down on the edge of the window seat—a bathroom with a window seat?—while I tear into the box.

Allie takes a seat beside her, and I shakily assume the position and pee on the stick while drinking a bottle of water. When I feel the stick is sufficiently saturated, I cut off my stream, ready to save it for later if necessary.

Then… we wait. While we’re waiting—because the suspense is killing me as much as the deafening silence in the bathroom—I decide to pee on a different kind of test. And then I pee on another. And another. And another. Until my bladder shrinks back in fear and I’ve taken five tests in total.

The first one is finished, and Allie, bless her, takes it like I didn’t just pee all over it, and reads the back of the box to instruct her.

I’d chew on my nails, but I haven’t washed my hands yet.

Allie’s eyes widen, and she looks at me with so much pity that I know what she’s going to say. But she’s wrong.

“Bella, it says you’re pr—”

“No,” I interrupt. Hell, I can’t even hear the word. “Read another one,” I tell her while chugging yet another bottle of water. Brin was gracious enough to bring several bottles in here without me even requesting it.

“Why the hell is everyone hiding in here?” Ruby’s voice has us all screaming like we’re all in a horror film, and her eyes widen as she jumps back, startled.

She clutches her chest like we scared her as much as she scared us.

“Holy shit. What the hell?” she asks. Bo walks in behind her with wide eyes.

“Why is everyone screaming?”

Just great. Now I have a bigger audience.

“Are those a bunch of pregnancy tests?” Bo asks, confused as she points to the mess of boxes on the countertop.

“Um… You guys in a pact or something?” Ruby adds while gesturing at Allie, Brin, and me.

Allie curses, and I groan.

“Just Bella,” Brin tells them, and Ruby and Bo look at me with the same pity Allie just did.

I don’t need pity, because there’s no way I’m baking a bun. My oven can’t be that hot.

“What does that one say?” I ask Allie, prompting her to stop being distracted.

She reads the back of the box, and her mouth tenses into a thin line.

No freaking way is that one wrong too. Did she buy a bunch of expired tests or something?

“Bella, it’s—”