I felt demoralized and scared as I walked out of there. Piper, of course, was waiting to hear how things had gone. She could probably tell how terrible it was from the look on my face, and she wisely didn’t ask.
“I need to sneak out of here early,” I told her miserably, shaking my head. I thought of how much fun I had been having prior to getting sick that morning. If only I could go back to that.
I wanted to stick it out to the end of the day. We were due for some more camp shenanigans that afternoon before heading out. What was I rushing back to, anyway? Reality and finding out that I might actually be pregnant. And then what, confronting Jayson? Nine months of misery, or whatever remained of those nine months? Sleepless nights, probably having to move back home and forget about my dreams for good?
Couldn’t I just have one more day of fun before I needed to deal with all of that? Now that the seeds of doubt had been planted in my brain, though, they were impossible to forget.
Piper held out her keys to me. “I’ll get a ride home with someone,” she said. “I’ll even bring your things if you need.”
I frowned, chewing at my lower lip. “I already screwed up with the bosses,” I said. “I don’t want them to think I’m the kind of person who runs away from their responsibilities.”
Piper shrugged. “I’ll tell them you had a family emergency,” she said. “If you want, I’ll tell them you found out about it right before you went in there and that’s why you were so rattled. It’s technically true, isn’t it?”
I sighed. “I guess so,” I said. I didn’t resist as she pulled me into a hug. God, at least I had a friend like her, even if it might not last once I had the kid. If only we’d had a little more time to cement our friendship before we got to that point.
“Get out of here,” Piper said.
“Thanks,” I said, already thinking ahead to what I needed to do to get out of there. I had driven to the office and then carpooled up here with Piper and some of the other girls. “I’ll leave your car at work and your keys in the top drawer of your desk. I can take my own car home from there.”
She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. Just let me know how it goes. If you’re not, you know, I’ll bring over a bottle of wine. And if you are, then your favorite ice cream. I promise.”
I laughed in spite of myself. “Thanks,” I repeated. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
My hands were shaking as I climbed into her car. It took me two tries to get the key into the ignition, and I wondered if it was even safe for me to drive at the moment. I couldn’t head back out there into the camp, though. I had to get out of here. I had to know.
I stopped at the first drugstore I saw on the way back, grabbing a pregnancy test and paying for it without looking the cashier in the eye. I headed into the drugstore bathroom and took the test right then and there, not able to wait any longer. The two minutes it took for the results to show on the stick seemed like an eternity.
I stared down at the thing for a long moment, my heart stopping and the air rushing out of me.
Positive.
I really was pregnant. Piper had been right. My stomach churned with worry, and I sank down to a seat on the lid of the toilet.
Pregnant. Fuck. What the hell was I going to do now?
21
Jayson
It had been far too long since I’d seen Leah. I’d gotten used to being near her so frequently, and those two weeks left me missing her. The gap her absence left in my day had me looking forward to when she would be back from wherever she’d gone. It was a strange realization. I wasn’t used to having that sort of attachment to anyone. The guys in my band were one thing, but there weren’t times during the day when I thought about them or wondered what they were doing when I wasn’t with them.
Not like with Leah. I thought about her all day when she was gone. Just going about my life throwing laundry in to wash or warming up leftover pizza to eat standing over the sink, I’d find myself thinking about her. My mind wandered to our time together, to the sound of her laugh and the smell of her skin. A few times I heard something and wanted to tell her about it. I almost couldn’t believe it had been two damn weeks. I needed to see her and could hardly wait for her to get back.