Perfectly Toxic (Sterling Shore 9)

“K

eep reading until you find one that works right,” I interrupt again, still unable to hear a faulty reading.

As I guzzle yet another bottle of water, prepared to piss on however many tests it takes to get an accurate reading, Allie starts reading the next two. Absently, I notice that my hand has stopped bleeding, and I start wiping up some of the smears of blood around the sink.

“Damn it, Bella. They’re all saying the same thing,” she states, sounding distraught.

She shouldn’t be. They’re all just defective.

“Keep reading,” I tell her calmly, pointing to the last one as I clean up the last of the blood.

“Same thing, Bella,” she says as I finally have enough water in my bladder to steamroll through some more tests.

She wisely refrains from saying that blasphemous word that I can’t bear to hear right now, and I get back to work, taking four tests until my bladder dries up again.

“You take one too. It’ll prove these are wrong,” I tell Allie, thrusting a fresh box at her.

“I’ll read the tests,” Ruby offers, walking over to take Allie’s position, while my best friend dutifully takes her spot on the toilet.

I know she loves me if she’s willing to piss on a stick in front of so many people, because Allie isn’t quite as shameless as I am. And she’s as red as a tomato while she does it.

“What do they say?” I ask Ruby, still unable to read any of them for myself.

“Um… They all say you’re pr—”

“Don’t use that word,” I tell her, cutting her off.

She blows out a breath before moving to the sink to wash her hands, and Allie puts her test on the countertop. When hers turns out to be the same, it’ll prove that this is just a bad batch of tests.

“You take one too,” I tell Brin, just to be thorough.

Her eyes widen, but Ruby snatches it away.

“I’ll do it. I’m anal about birth control. I’m sure these are all just wrong,” she says, sounding as though she’s placating me, but I’ll take it.

As Ruby pees on the stick, I wash my hands, ignoring the ever growing tremors that are trying to shake me up. “Not pregnant!” Allie says excitedly, as though she was worried her test would say otherwise. But then her excitement dies as she looks over at me.

“Damn, you must have gotten one that wasn’t defective,” I say on a groan. “I should have taken that one.”

Everyone exchanges a look, but I ignore them as Ruby washes her hands, glancing down as she waits on her test to catch up to ours.

Finally, she looks over at me with a sad, forced smile. “Not pregnant.”

They wait as though they expect an explosive reaction from me, but I roll my eyes. “Shit! You both got the only good tests in the lot. I’ll buy more later. They shouldn’t put that shit on the shelves if it’s so inaccurate,” I tell them, waving it off as I start tossing all the tests in the trash.

When I wash my hands, I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I look back at Allie just as she opens her mouth to speak.

“Don’t,” I caution, shaking my head emphatically. “They’re just wrong. I can’t be. I’m not. Don’t worry. I’ll get some more to prove it later.”

I walk out of the bathroom without another word, determined to find a place that doesn’t sell faulty tests as soon as we leave here. Obviously I’ll wait until Ethan isn’t with me. There’s no need to freak him out when there’s no way I’m possibly that “P” word.

Absolutely no way possible.

Chapter 54

ETHAN

Bella is quiet when we all sit down to eat, and I internally kick myself. Why the fucking hell did I say that shit?