Donovan (Face-Off 3)

“I’ve got you covered,” I say, confident. “Do you need me to hold your hair or anything?”

“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.” Her voice is so raspy and raw that I bet her throat hurts when she speaks.

When Kennedy opens the door, I’m waiting for her on the other side with my back pressed against the wall, our purses dangling from my arm and her laptop bag slung over my shoulder.

“What about our table?” She asks bu

t looks as though she could care less at this point.

“I let a group of girls have it. We need to get you back to my place stat.”

Kennedy walks over to the sink, slaps some water on her face, and washes her hands, staring into the mirror in horror. Her skin has a yellowish tint, and I’m sure she’s thinking about how she looks like fucking death.

“That was so weird,” I say, adjusting the strap on my shoulder, laughing. “One minute you were fine, and the next you turned into the Exorcist.”

And why am I laughing? What the fuck is wrong with me? My friend just puked up her guts, apparently sick from something, and I’m getting a kick out of it. I must be losing my damn mind. Ever since I met Carter, I am going batshit crazy.

She cups her hands together and fills them with water to splash on her face one last time. “Shut up. It’s not funny. I just hurled up everything I have eaten for the last day, and I am not in the mood right now.”

I lift a strand of blonde hair from her face and push it behind her ear. “Did you eat something bad this morning?”

“No, the cake is the first thing I have eaten all day. Tyler had a workout with his trainer this morning, and I forgot to eat since he wasn’t around.”

“You’re not…” I bite down on my bottom lip, unsure why I am even drawing this conclusion. But there’s the what if lingering in the back of my head.

I don’t even have to finish the thought before Kennedy realizes where I was going with this conversation.

“No.” Her tone lacks confidence. “Tyler and I stopped using condoms a while ago, but I am on birth control. It’s…no—”

“Babe, it’s okay if you are preggers. You’re both adults.” I run my hand down her back to soothe her except this talk seems to be putting her more on edge.

“I’m telling you, Syd, there’s no way I am pregnant.”

“Because you are on birth control? While it may be super useful most of the time, it can fail.”

Taking her purse from my arm, she slips it onto her forearm and reaches inside to retrieve the empty birth control pill packet. When she opens the pack, one last pill in the row above the sugar pills is left. Did she mix them up with the real medicine?

“Fuck,” she mutters to herself under my breath.

I take the pills from her hand, feigning a smile for her benefit that she sees right through. “You will be okay. No matter what, I am here for you and Tyler will be as well.”

“I have to call Tyler,” she tells me as we exit the restroom. “He is going to freak out.”

“Maybe not. For all you know, Tyler wants kids. Besides, you could be fine.”

I take the lead, keeping my fingers crossed for Kennedy as we stroll through the café and out the front door in complete silence. This cannot be happening. Saying a silent prayer for Kennedy, I keep my thoughts and words to myself and hold out hope that we can resolve this with a pregnancy test. I hope the odds work in her favor; otherwise, I will be an aunt and Kennedy…a mom. The idea both excites and terrifies me at the same time. So, I can only imagine how Kennedy feels right now.

On our way to my apartment, we stopped by the pharmacy and bought three pregnancy tests—because one did not feel like enough at the time. You can never have enough when you’re in crisis mode. What if one is wrong? We need to be sure before Kennedy runs back home to have a talk with Tyler. Either way, she has to tell him, which kind of sucks, because he might end up going ballistic.

As I unbox all three tests, Kennedy waits on the toilet for me to hand them over. I insisted I do this with her, regardless of how awkward it is for me to stand here as I give her the sticks. She needs me now more than ever. Because what if she’s pregnant?

Kennedy pees on each stick and sets them on the counter next to her. I cannot even imagine how afraid and scared she must be for both Tyler and her and what effect it might have on their relationship as we wait for the results.

Kennedy holds her breath, sinking her elbows into her thighs and glancing over at me as we wait for the tests to change color. This is the longest three minutes of both of our lives. Now, I want to vomit. But I need to give Kennedy some words of encouragement to calm her down.

“It’s going to be okay, babe.” I sit on the floor next to her and rub my hand down her forearm. “No matter what the tests say, you have Tyler and me. You have your family. We will all be here to support you. If it’s Tyler you’re worried about, he’s a grown man who can handle it.”

“We haven’t been together long enough for us to be thinking about having children.” She shakes her head, frustrated and irritated with herself. “As much as we have sex, we were running through condoms every other day, and with my irregular periods, I was already on the pill, so I didn’t think anything of it. I never mess up like this. How did I not see that I was taking the wrong pills?”