“OK, so a nurse will be in to stitch your head in a few minutes. You’ll probably be here for two or three hours,” he said, heading over to the curtain.
I nodded. “Can my boyfriend stay with me?” I asked hopefully as I clung to Liam’s hand. I didn’t want to be in this sterile little place on my own.
“Sure, that’s fine. Just one visitor though, so you might want to tell the crowd asking about you, to go home,” he suggested, chuckling as he left and pulled the curtain back around.
Crowd, what’s that about? I looked at Liam, he smiled. “They all came. I literally had to push Jake out of the ambulance when they said only one person could ride with you,” he said, looking a little guilty about it.
I smiled and squeezed his hand. “Well I’m glad I woke up to you instead of Jake. So thanks.”
He bent his head and kissed me lightly. “I’m glad too.” He sighed. “I’d better go and tell them you’re fine, and that they should go home,” he said, standing up.
“Hurry up though, OK?” I asked, giving him my begging face.
He smiled. “I’ll be as quick as I can,” he promised, kissing my forehead and leaving quickly. I closed my eyes and listened to the noisy ward and waited for him to come back.
Liam was back within five minutes with a pre-packed sandwich and a drink. “Hey, I’m not sure if you’re allowed these yet, so you’ll have to wait until the nurse comes to stitch your head. I didn’t miss that, did I?” he asked worriedly.
“No, you didn’t miss it.” I smiled at how thoughtful he was all the time.
He sat down on the little chair and held my hand. The nurse came in a few minutes later and stitched up my head, apparently, I needed six stitches. I made Liam distract me the whole time, he was actually the best painkiller known to man. Maybe I should try to bottle him somehow, and then sell it. I’d be rich!
Finally, after an hour and a half, the doctor came back. “Hey, so I’ve got your blood test results back and it appears it wasn’t the lack of food that made you pass out,” he said, looking at me seriously. Liam tensed next to me, squeezing my hand, leaning so far forward in his chair that it wouldn’t surprise me if he fell off any second.
“OK, so what was it?” I asked curiously. It couldn’t be anything bad. I was only sixteen for goodness sake, I didn’t smoke, didn’t drink very much, I wasn’t overweight, I exercised regularly. I mean, I shouldn’t be able to get ill, should I?
“You’re pregnant,” he stated.
I burst out laughing. Damn, that was funny, he almost had me there. I shook my head, still chuckling. “Seriously, what was it?”
He looked from me to Liam. “You’re pregnant,” he repeated.
I stopped laughing immediately. I couldn’t be pregnant. No, this was a mistake. “I can’t be, I’m on the pill. I’ve taken it every day; I’ve not missed a single one. I take them at exactly eight o’clock every morning,” I protested, shaking my head, it had to be something else. I looked at Liam; he was looking at the doctor, his mouth hanging open.
“Well, when was your last period?” the doctor asked.
I looked at Liam again. “Two weeks ago. I’m on the pill where you stop taking it for a week, so it was definitely two weeks ago. I’m due to have my next one the week after next,” I said positively.
“And your period, what was it like? As heavy as normal?” the doctor asked, scribbling on his pad again.
As heavy as normal? I thought about it. Actually, it was really light, but that was because I was on the pill, Kate said it made your periods lighter. “It was light but I definitely had one, two weeks ago. I can’t be pregnant,” I said sternly.
“Sometimes you can still have very light periods through pregnancy. It’s called spotting. How long have you been on the pill?” he asked curiously.
“Six weeks,” I replied, quietly.
This couldn’t be right. Please tell me this is some kind of huge mistake, or even one of those hidden camera shows and people are going to jump out and shout ‘Gotcha’ any minute.
“And when you started taking it, did you take it on the first day of your period?” he asked.
I shook my head. “It was a couple of weeks after my period. What difference does that make?” I asked, starting to get nervous.
“Right, well, when you start taking the pill you need to start on the first day of your period and then it will be effective straight away. If you take it within five days, it will be effective after two weeks, but if you start on any other day then you need to start your second packet before it takes effect,” he explained softly.
So that means it didn’t even start to work until two weeks ago when I started my second pack and we had been having unprotected sex the whole time! Liam was still staring at him. He hadn’t said anything at all, I wasn’t even sure if he was breathing. He was sitting so still that it was like he was a statue.
“I’m going to get a portable ultrasound machine and we’ll have a little look, OK?” the doctor suggested, smiling kindly as he disappeared out of the curtain.
“Liam?” I whispered. He was honestly scaring me a little, I’d never seen anyone be so still in my life, it wasn’t natural. He didn’t answer. The doctor came back and I watched as he squirted some gel on my stomach and pressed a little thing that looked like a small microphone to my stomach, rolling it around.
Oh crap, please let this be a mistake.
He stopped, holding it still and nodded. “Yep, definitely pregnant. I’d say from the sizes here, you’re about four, maybe five weeks. You want to see?” he offered, holding the little handset out to me.
“No,” I refused, pushing it away quickly.
I didn’t want to see because then I wouldn’t be able to do what needed to be done. I couldn’t have a baby, we were too young, it would ruin everything. We’d only just got together; there was too much going on. Liam would be leaving me for college soon, we couldn’t have a baby. I wouldn’t ruin Liam’s dreams, he’d always wanted to play hockey and I wouldn’t take that away from him. I couldn’t look at the little handset; I couldn’t see the little baby in there because I needed to stay strong.
“You don’t want to see?” the doctor asked, looking a little confused.
I shook my head. “No. I want an abortion,” I said sternly.
Liam moved. Oh thank God, finally!
“An abortion? What? Why?” he cried, shocked.
I looked at him; he was looking at me, horrified, as if I’d just suggested clubbing a seal or something. “Because it needs to be done,” I said, looking away from his intense stare. I turned to the doctor. “Can I get it done today? What do I need to do?” I asked, nervously.
“Well, there’s two ways; a medical abortion, which is a pill today and tomorrow, which would basically bring on a period. Or there’s a surgical one which would need to be done under general anaesthetic and we would basically remove everything,” he explained in his business like tone.
I cringed. I hated the sound of both of those, but I needed to do this. I couldn’t think of it as a baby, a tiny little Liam, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get rid of it.
“Can you give us a minute?” Liam requested. The doctor nodded and walked out quickly. “Angel, what the hell are you doing?” Liam asked once we were alone. He took my hands, looking at me like I had lost my mind or something.
“Liam, we can’t have a baby! I’m sixteen. You’re going to college. We can’t,” I explained, shaking my head.
He shook his head. “Angel, think about this, please? I love you, you love me. I want us to have kids one day. I mean, shit, this is A LOT sooner than I thought.” He blew out a big breath, running a hand through his hair, nervously.
“Liam, we can’t. You’re going to college in Boston for goodness sake; I can’t raise a baby on my own. Don’t be ridiculous!” I cried, shaking my head. He wasn’t thinking this though properly.
He climbed onto the bed, laying next to me. “Angel, just hear me out, OK?” he pleaded. I nodded and looked at him, unable to see what he could say to make this right. There was nothing he could suggest, there was no other way. “I love you more than anything in the world. Before this happened I was going to reject my scholarship and go to a college here instead,” he started. I opened my mouth to tell him he was being stupid, but he covered my mouth, looking at me pleadingly. “I wanted to ask you to come with me to Boston. But I can’t ask you to move away from your home and Jake and your friends, so I decided to stay here with you instead,” he said, shrugging.
Jeez, he is so damn adorable and sweet and thoughtful. But how the hell does any of this relate to us having a baby, meaning that he probably wouldn’t get to go to college anyway as he’d have to drop out and get a job? I’d have to drop out of school without even graduating.
He smiled as he continued to try and convince me. “We could make this work; I know my mom would help out. I’ll go to college and get a job in the evenings and weekends to earn some money. You’d have to either finish school by correspondence, or we could get a childminder so you could go to school. Or maybe even my mom would do it,” he suggested, looking at me hopefully. “That’s our first baby in there, Angel. That’s a baby that we made together. Can you just think about it, please? It’ll be hard for a little while, but once I get signed by a team, I’ll be able to give you anything you want. Both of you,” he cooed, rubbing his hand over my stomach lightly.
“Liam, I don’t want to ruin your future,” I whispered.
He smiled and kissed me lightly. “Angel, you’re my future,” he countered, slipping his hand under my top, and placing his hand on my stomach.
I looked at his gorgeous face; his blue eyes were sparkling with love as he stroked his hand across my stomach. “I didn’t do this to trap you,” I said nervously.