Sierra looked over at the paper bag. “What's that?” she asked.
“Just – personal items.”
“Like tampons?” she asked.
“Yes, like tampons,” I said, shooting her a look.
Nick covered his ears and groaned. “La la la la, I don't need to hear this.”
“Those must be some pretty big tampons to be in a bag that large.”
She was looking at Nick, taunting him instead of me. She stuck out her tongue at our brother, and he responded by throwing a napkin at her. Sierra tossed her handful of beans at him, which caused mom to intervene.
As mom was tending to the other two, I slipped away into the bathroom. Locking the door behind me, I opened up the paper bag.
The first thing I pulled out were the ovulation kits. I opened the packaging and started reading the directions, my head spinning as I tried to take it all in. There were directions for tracking your menstrual cycle that only added to my confusion, and I tried to think back to my last period. I counted the days and was in the middle of figuring out when I'd be able to start testing when a knock came at the door.
“I have to go pee, sis.” It was Sierra.
“Use the other bathroom,” I said.
“Nick is in there,” she said.
I groaned, not even close to finished reading everything. I put everything back inside the back, and then realized, I had nowhere to hide it.
Sierra knocked again. “Please, hurry.”
I threw the bag under the sink, hiding it there for the moment. But, I knew I'd have to find somewhere better than that. The trouble was, there was no place in the house for me to hide anything. We were all crowded in there, no personal space whatsoever.
She was about to knock again when I threw open the door.
“Thank you!”
She rushed inside and locked the door behind her. All I could do was wait.
My family wasn't going to make this easy to hide, that much was certain.
~ooo000ooo~
First thing, after everyone left for school and work, I hurried over to Raya's place. She lived in a trendy studio apartment in West Hollywood – paid for by her parents, of course. I knocked on her door, and half expected her not to answer since it was before ten in the morning and she was likely still asleep. She surprised me, though, and answered the door with a smile on her face. The strong smell of marijuana wafted into the hallway from inside.
“Whoa, someone's getting an early start,” I said.
“More like I haven't gone to bed yet,” she laughed. “What's up?”
She opened the door, and I stepped inside. The place was small – like the size of most people's closets. But, I would have killed to even have an apartment like that all to myself.
Raya looked at the bag in my hand and grinned, “Please tell me you brought something to eat, I'm starving,” she said. “Donuts, right? Or cupcakes? Please tell me you brought cupcakes.”
“Sorry, no food in here, just boring pregnancy shit,” I said, holding the bag open to show her.
Raya pouted and flopped on her lime green couch. I sat down on the floor across from her, crossing my legs, since there were no other seats in the place. The couch doubled as her bed, since it folded out like a futon. For now, though, it was just a regular old couch and there was only enough room for one.
“So, you're really going through with it, huh?” she said.
“Yeah, looks like it. I signed a contract and everything,” I said. “I just need a place to stash this stuff so my parents can't find it.”
“So you want to leave it over here?” she asked. “But don't you need it?”