September 2nd, Present Day
She didn't know how it happened.
The cold ceramic tiles clung to her bare thighs. Her fingers unconsciously tugging at the hem of her shorts. The air was chill, the summer of Retroville coming to an end and discarding the overly hot temperatures. It was September 2nd. The last day of freedom, the last day of summer vacation, the last day before Cindy Vortex entered her senior year of high school.
Kids her age usually live it up on the last day of summer. Parties that last until sunrise, drinking until your body can't take it no more, sex basically anywhere and everywhere, and so much weed just being in the same vicinity would give you a contact high. A teenagers dream, really.
Yet here she was, sitting alone on her bathroom floor.
And she didn't know how it happened.
She had sat like this for over an hour, racking her brain on how this could possibly be happening to her? She didn't understand. She couldn't understand. Cindy Vortex was the smartest girl in Retroville High. Her 4.25 grade average towered over the average teen girls. Cindy Vortex was class president, Prom Queen two years in a row, and had won multiple English and poetry awards. She worked her ass off day and night with piano lessons, choir, karate, she interned at the University of Texas and got the opportunity to travel to Paris for journalism, all by the age of 16. Cindy Vortex was the handcrafted, perfectly sculpted teenager to the public….But none of that mattered. It was all useless to her now. Everything she had worked for, all pointless in an instant.
All because she fell for him.
He clouded her sight, he made her forget about everything that she had worked for, everything that she was told she needed to succeed. He was all she thought about, every second of every day she wanted to be with him. She wanted to lay with him, laugh with him, go on crazy fun adventures with him. He made her feel, he made Cindy Vortex, the queen with a heart made of ice, actually feel.
He made her careless. It was his fault.
No, no, no, Cindy shook her head. She can't just blame him, that would be the easy way out. As much as she would love to blame that arrogant, cocky, sarcastic little asshole, she knew it wouldn't be right.
No. This was happening because she was stupid. This was happening because she fell in love.
Her phone rang beside her, jarring her out of her thoughts. The five minute alarm she had set was up.
She sighed, pushing herself to a stand, her heart beating so loud she could swear it was echoing throughout the room. She closed her eyes and reached forward, her hand gently grasping the white stick that sat upon the bathroom sink. The plastic was cold, she noticed. Not wanting to drag this out any longer the she already had, she opened her eyes forced herself to look.
Two lines. Two pretty pink lines stared back at her, taunting her, she could swear she heard laughing in the distance.
Pregnant. Cindy Vortex was pregnant.
She cried. She cried for god knows how long, standing helplessly in front of her bathroom sink, the test still grasped in her hand. Her tears felt cold, her cheeks red and irritated from the wetness, her eyes puffy. Her mother would be home soon, she remembered. She had to pull it together. She couldn't have her mother asking questions. She needed to go for a walk, she needed to get her head straight, she needed to be anywhere but here, standing her her bathroom crying on the last day of summer vacation with a positive pregnancy test in her hand.
She stormed out of the bathroom abruptly and pushed open her bedroom door. She hid the test in a small wooden box she had gotten from her grandmother, years ago, before she passed. It was a nice box, carved from oak with a gold clasp. Cindy always liked this box, she felt almost guilty for what she was currently using it for.
With a quick push it was buried deep under her bed, surrounded by clothes and other miscellaneous things Cindy had pushed under to keep her room appearing somewhat clean. She pulled up her pale hair into a ponytail and changed from her white pajama shorts to a pair of black jeans. Grabbing her phone and a her favorite blue hoodie she rushed out of the house and into the fresh autumn air.
She had gotten two feet down the sidewalk before she heard his voice.
"Cindy!"
She couldn't turn around. If she turned around she'd see his face, and if she saw his face right now, she'd cry. And if she cried, he would ask why and if she told him…
She couldn't tell him. Not now, anyway. She needed time to think, to prepare, to construct how she was going to break the news to him. She couldn't do that now, not in her current mental state. She needed to get the hell out of here.
But she didn't get very far. It wasn't long before he caught up with her, his hand grabbing her shoulder. She felt his presence and immediately wanted to sink into his arms. He smelled like apple pie, Judy must be baking again, Cindy mused. She didn't even have a chance to prepare herself as he spun her around to face him.
"I've been calling you for the past hour. Where have you been?"
Ignoring you, is what she wanted to say. "I've been sleeping, sorry. I been really tired today." she lied. "I think I might be coming down with something."
His expression softened. His blue eyes melting her ice encased heart. She felt her chest get heavy.
Fuck, she hated when he looked at her like that.
"Are you ok?"
No. She wanted to scream. No, she was not ok, not even in the slightest. And she could already feel the tears begin to build up behind her eyes.
"I'm fine." She breathed. She was trembling. He could tell. He could always tell. Jimmy Neutron was many things, and stupid was not one of them. Especially when it came to her.
"I know you, Cindy." He got closer, his hand still placed on her shoulder. "Tell me what's wrong."
She could have told him. She could have told him right then and there, and just got it over with. But that would have been too easy. She opened her mouth, but no words could flow through. She drew a breath and before she knew it, she was crying.
She was so weak when it came to him.
He didn't say another word. He didn't ask why. He just held her there, standing in the middle of the sidewalk as her tears stained the front of his sweatshirt. The sun dipped just barley behind the horizon, the last day of summer finally coming to a close. Above them, the sky turned a brilliant and vibrant pink.
How fitting.
