I was way too busy pushing the incident out of my mind to worry about getting pregnant. It wasn't even a possibility. At least not in my head

I didn't tell anyone what had happened to me either. It was the last thing I wanted to do. Cato's dad was the head of the small district 12 Police Department, and the moment he hears, everything would be blamed on me. Mom was a nurse, she would know if her daughter came into the only hospital in town crying rape.

So I kept my mouth shut.

I set the third positive pregnancy test on the bathroom counter when my phone ran and everything changed. His was the last voice I wanted to hear. Cato's father informed me of the car crash on the freeway, and my mother was dead on arrival.

I'm given sole custody of Prim, in the event of Mom's death, given Dad had died when we were little. I was the only family she has around. I don't know what would've happened to her if I wasn't eighteen.

Gale is the first phone call I make, he shows up at my door step in mere minutes and his large arms wrap around me. I don't say a word about the pregnancy tests but I cry about that too. Prim gets off the bus 12 minutes later, Gale is the one to tell her, he's also the one to hold her as she cries herself to sleep, and he carries her to bed. He seems to be the only one really here for her. He's the only one here for me.

I cry through Mom's funeral for myself too not knowing what I should do. I can't get an abortion, consciously I can't, I just…can't. Irrationally, I love my child already, even though it came from a monster. I sleep with my hands on my stomach, Gale sleeps on the couch for my sake.

On the fourth night, when I'm sick of hiding, and pretending to sleep, I throw my covers to the side and trek to the pull out couch where Gale stares at the ceiling. I curl up against his side.

A week ago it would have been weird for me to do this but something has definitely changed. Gale and I have always been completely platonic; in my head nothing can change that.

I know I have to tell him, I feel like he knows I'm hiding something from him too, I hate it. I take a deep breath, sit up and look at my best friend.

"Gale?"

"Yeah Catnip?"

"Do you remember that party I went to after I graduated?" The one you warned me not to go to?

He nods his head.

I fight the lump in my throat. "Cato Jipping kept bugging me at the party and I tried to ignore him, but he was really rough and it was …crowded…and loud...and um…" I lean forward and sob into Gale's shoulder. I can tell when I sit up he knows what had happened but he doesn't want to believe it.

"Kat, what happened?"

"He raped me?" I say unsure of myself and wiping tears away from my face.

Gale pulls me in and wraps his arms around me tighter than he has all week. He kisses the top of my head, and rocks me, and sobs with me. When I regain my strengths I look up at the only person left I had to rely on and mouth the two words that scare me the most.

"I'm Pregnant."