Her lips tingle for two hours straight. She knows this because when Ricky walked up to her doorstep it was 7:59, when they kissed each other it was 8:00, and when Ben calls and makes her forget the magic, its 10:00.

She wonders if Ricky's lips tingled too.

Once upon a time last year, there would have been no doubt in her mind. Once upon a time last year, Adrian Lee was assured in her sexiness. There wasn't a boy in her school that she couldn't have if she wanted him. Now she's pregnant. It's one word that changes everything.

Now she second guesses everything. Once upon a time last year, if a boy's eyes trailed after her, it meant he was eying her up. Now Adrian hunches into herself and tries to blend in, because if eyes are trailing after her, what they're really thinking is, so this is the slut that got herself in trouble.

It doesn't matter to them that she wasn't really a slut last year, hasn't really been a slut since she met Grace Bowman and dated—really dated, not just fucked—Ricky Underwood. Now that she's in trouble, she's just a lesson to all the girls who aren't.

She's angry at Ben for destroying the fragile thread of the evening she and Ricky just shared. It was going well. They were talking, laughing a little, remembering. His eyes grazed her figure, and Adrian let herself believe that he was admiring her, not the baby bump that didn't even exist yet. If Ben hadn't called, they would have kissed again. Maybe made out; maybe had sex. (The hot obgyn told her that it was safe to have sex during the first trimester, anyway.)

And thinking about that, Adrian feels the passion of love. It's a feeling she hasn't felt in far too long: the feeling of being swept away on an uncontrollable, exciting tide that she can't escape and doesn't want to anyway. She's felt te passion of hate, at least of intense dislike, too much in the past couple weeks. For Ben for having no spine; for her father for wanting her to marry; for Ricky for not speaking to her. Feeling something so pure and uncomplicated frees her, in a way.

"Baby," she murmurs, still sitting on her chair in the kitchen where just a few short minutes ago she was with Ricky, "You're making things a lot harder for your mama." With the very tips of her fingers, she caresses her flat stomach lightly. Is it her imagination, or can she feel a slight hardness right in the middle, the beginning of the bump to come?

It's easy for Adrian in this moment. Easy for her to imagine the life growing inside of her; easy for her to imagine the life she wants so badly with Ricky. Easy for her to dismiss her lies to Ben, even the fib she told Ricky in the one glance where she pretended she didn't feel anything.

She knows the easy won't come again for a while, so while it lasts tonight, Adrian curls around her baby on the hard kitchen chair, wearing Ricky's kisses like a blanket.


Let me just say. Tonight's episode. WIN! I was SO excited to FINALLY get some fantastic Radrian for this season. Hope this story was enjoyed, and even if it wasn't, I'd love to hear any thoughts :)