“Oh, dear God,” Lauren says under her breath.
The kids come barreling downstairs, yelling for grandma and grandpa.
“Hey, Austin,” my father greets him, hitting him on the back. “How are you, son? Should we be expecting any penises today?” He laughs as he comes to me to give me a side hug. “Hey, beautiful girl,” he whispers.
“Kaleigh, you look like death,” my mother remarks while she comes to hug me and then Lauren. “Austin, it’s good to see you, without, you know.” She motions her hands into the shape of a penis in the air.
“That was a fun time,” Noah says into his cup, smiling, while Austin and Lauren just glare at him.
“I don’t feel good,” I say as I get up to go to the bathroom.
I go upstairs to the bathroom in my room. When I walk in it looks so empty, no clothes thrown around, no empty glasses by the bed, just still air. I look at the nightstand and see a box of tampons there. I walk over to the box, taking one out. “When was my last period?” I say to myself and the walls. I start counting down in my head and my eyes open wide. “Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” I say, running to my desk and opening the drawer. I grab the pregnancy test that I got as a gag gift for my last birthday. It was in the basket of single girl’s survival basket along with condoms that are long gone.
“This is not happening right now. It can’t be happening,” I say as I walk out and go to the bathroom, hiding the test under my shirt. I open the box and take out the instructions. Opening the test, I get it ready to pee on. I pull down my pants and grab the test while I sit down. I sit here with my hand between my legs, waiting for pee to come out. “Great, I get a shy bladder now, today of all days.”
I sit here, thinking of lakes, and water, and waves and still nothing. I get up a bit, leaning over, and open the water tap. Maybe if I hear the water running my bladder might work. I don’t know how long I’m actually here for. It feels like forever, an hour, maybe two but actually a couple of minutes when finally pee starts to come out and I miss the test completely, wetting all over my hand. I stop and look through my legs and aim it for the stream of pee.
Getting up, I put the test on the counter and clean myself up and wash my hands. I grab the pee stick, wetting my hands again and watch it while I say a prayer. I watch one line turn a bright blue, so I grab the box, reading to see what that means. “Not pregnant.” I smile and look down again and see that another line is coming through, faint at first, almost like it isn’t there and then turning bright blue. “Oh, fuck,” I say. Maybe it’s broken. Maybe this one is broken. I take another test out. Thank fuck they got me the combo pack, and I start the thing again. This time I pee in a matter of seconds. I put it down and watch it, the first line appearing right away and then the second line coming brighter this time. “Oh my God.” I pick them both up and stare down at them. I wrap them both in toilet paper and I’m putting them in the box when Rachel knocks on the door, scaring me so much I drop the box right into the garbage.
“Auntie Kay, I got to tinkle,” she says softly.
So I open the door and let her come in. I look at myself in the mirror, seeing if maybe you can tell what is going on. Will people be able to tell I’m pregnant by looking at me?
I walk into the kitchen right when I hear my mother saying, “Maybe you caught Kaleigh’s bug.” My head snaps to Lauren as I see frustration on her face.
“I think lunch is ready.” Austin heads to the stove. “Kaleigh, we made you some tofu stuff that Lauren found in the freezer. I made sure to put it in another pan.”
“Awww, so you forgive me for tricking you into drinking breast milk?” I ask him with a smile, trying to act normal when all I want to do is go back upstairs and stare at the tests again.
Lauren grabs the side dishes that have been warming in the oven with the roast, while Austin grabs the roast. My father grabs drinks from the fridge, and my mother calls the kids. Noah walks over to the wine fridge, grabbing two bottles.
We make our way to the dining room. Gabe runs in, while Austin puts the roast down. Rachel comes into the room, banging two white things together. “Tap, tap, tap!” she shouts. “Click, click, click.”