(UN)Kept Secrets
Prologue:
BPOV
Pregnant. The word was still echoing through my mind hours later. It played on and on but I still couldn't grasp the word or its meaning. Almost zombie like, I trudged into the house. Elena was sitting at the kitchen table, holding a cup of chamomile tea. The white table was a vast contrast from what she was wearing. She hadn't changed out of her black sweat pants or dark grey bath robe but the purple tank top was new. Although it was sad to say, Elena looked like a corpse. Frighteningly thin, ghostly pale and her hair was coming out in patches. Slowly, I climbed the stairs, each stair bringing new understanding to 'fragile'' condition. I barred myself into my room before throwing myself against the bed before I knew it, I was asleep.
But it didn't last long. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him hovering above me, beating me, touching me.
I sprang up huffing and panting. Beads of perspiration covered my brow and goose bumps were plastered all down my body. I called down the stairs to Elena.
"I'm going into the shower; I'll be out in half an hour. When I get out I'll start dinner, we need to talk."
Stripping myself of my clothes, I jogged quickly into the bathroom and closed the door. Searching the room, I noticed Elena did not replace the towels, like she was supposed to. Darting-butt naked- into the hall and around the corner, into the linen closet, I grabbed a towel before heading back. Turning the water on at full blast and cranking the radio up to all, I step into the shower. The pitter patter of the water droplets from the showerhead, somehow, sent me into a trance. Memories flashed through my mind.
Memories of the car accident I was in with my parents. Waking up alone in a hospital room alone, not being able to move because of the cast gripping my leg. My aunt Jenna telling me that my parents didn't make it. Their funeral. The way everyone looked at me when I returned to school. Damon Salvatore, towering over me, beating me. Covered in my blood as he took what he wanted from me and didn't give it a second thought. The look on Edward's face when he found me hours later, laying at the side of the road, my life slipping away. Every day since then, leading up to now.
I suddenly felt like I was underwater. As if I was underwater with someone's hands wrapped around my ankles, dragging me down. And for a few seconds I thought that I was really drowning. And in a split of one of those seconds, I was glad that I was drowning. Glad that I wouldn't have to deal any longer with the cares and troubles of this world. Just for a split second.
Because in the next second- I swear- I felt a light fluttering in my stomach. So slight and unbelievably surreal that I thought I had imagined it. And in that instant, I knew. I knew that I would give this baby the best that I could give it. And that I would love it to the best of my ability.
I also knew, that even though I'd been doing so for the past few months, that I'd have to be there for Elena. I wasn't the only person suffering, she, too, had been through a lot. I'm the older; I'll always protect my baby sister as best I can. I still felt sorry for not being there for her that night I was left for dead.
I guess that's why I'm the older one. I always put Elena above me.
Eventually, I galloped down the stairs. Elena was still sitting there, her feet buckled under her. After pouring myself a cup of tea, I sat two chairs down from Elena. She was daydreaming so I decided to finish my tea off, while she was travelling through never never land. Turning toward her, I manage to shock her out of her trance.
"I went to see today." I had to get this over with. I'd be like ripping a bandage off. Except, instead of ripping it off of a small bruise, you were yanking it off of peeling skin. You might not feel the immediate effects by surely enough; you'd just expose the healing raw cut to the harm of the outside world.
"Oh yeah? What did he say."
"Just that I can return to school."
"He told me that last week."
"I know."
"So you're fine. Everything's okay?"
"Yeah. I'm in perfect health."A pregnant pause enveloped the air. So I began again.
"There is something that I have to tell you though. Um, I'm pregnant."
I'd expected anything but what happened. Elena broke down into a fit of hysterical laughter. Rocking back and forth in the chair, gasping for breath. I didn't know whether to comfort her or call her therapist. The second of which I considered more thoroughly.
At this point, tears were streaming down Elena's eyes. But she managed to choke out two words before lapping back into a frenzy of giggles.
"Me too."She said.