Twist (Off Balance 4)

"What if I am?" I was only seventeen. I couldn’t get pregnant.

"I'd say I wouldn't be surprised. Kova is a freak in the sheets, and from what you've told me, you're just as bad."

"Avery! You're not helping."

"What? I'm being serious. It's kinda sexy and hot, but at the same time you guys are both nymphos. It's a good thing you don't live together. I think you'd guys fuck each other to death. Doesn't your vagina ever hurt?"

I shook my head. "What? No. I mean, at first, yes. Sometimes? If you're trying to take my mind off the terror that's consuming me, it's not working."

"I'm not. I was just curious."

I groaned and made sure she heard it. "I'm freaking out over the possibility that I could be pregnant, and you're asking about my vagina. Really, Ave?"

"Bad timing?"

"I know no form of birth control is one hundred percent, and considering how intense our sex is and how much we have at one time, maybe I didn't take the pills early eno—"

I froze mid-sentence. Had I taken them early enough? Had I taken enough? My mind raced through the brain fog back to the first time we had sex again. I blinked a few times trying to remember when it hit me… It was when I had carved an A into his chest during the hurricane, and again a couple of days later.

Tears instantly filled my eyes, but I pushed them back. No, I wouldn’t get emotional just yet because I was fairly certain I took the pills within the correct time frame and I wasn't pregnant. Kova would've made sure of that.

Sitting up, I moved my hair off my neck and hunched over to hold my stomach. I was going to be sick and this time it was due to the reality of the situation and nothing else. There was an old wives tale that floated around Florida that women got pregnant during hurricanes. Now my mind was overthinking stupid thoughts and actually considering them.

"Ria?" she joked, to which I actually chuckled sadly. I forgot she would pretend to say my nickname the way Kova did. "What is it?"

Deep breathing, I dropped my head into my palm. "What if I am pregnant? A baby, Avery? I could never admit Kova was the father—he'd go to jail. No, I take that back. He wouldn’t make it to jail. My dad would slaughter him first and no one would find his body, then my child would grow up asking me who it's daddy is."

For once, Avery was quiet.

"Yeah, you're fucked. Let's hope it's negative."

Fifty-Six

"What the fuck do I buy?" I whispered into the phone. Wide eyes scanned the assortment of colorful boxes. "There's a million of them. Do they all work?"

"Yeah, they all work, but you can buy a few of them to be sure."

"Oh." I hadn't even thought of that. "There are two in a pack."

"Buy three of the two-packs."

"What? Why do I need six tests?"

"Because if you are pregnant, you're going to be in shock and think the test is broken. You'll end up peeing on all of them."

My eyes scanned the boxes. Some had an automatic reading, some detected a pregnancy in five days, some seven. "You're probably right. But let's not say the P word anymore."

"I honestly don't know how I'm friends with you."

"I had a period, though," I said, still in denial.

Trying to steady my nerves, I reached for one of the tests Avery named.

"You can still bleed and be pregnant in the beginning. It’s called spotting. A lot of people mistake it for a period."

"Oh." I grabbed one more box and then turned out of the aisle. Head down, I counted the tiles as I walked quickly to the front to pay. "Would it be weird if I peed on one here?"

"I mean, is that where you want to learn you're carrying a future Olympian?"