Untitled (Chapter 1)
Ohhhhh, my God. Layla held the pregnancy test between her thumb and forefinger. She swallowed hard. No way. NO WAY. She shook her head and swallowed again, placing the test on the bathroom counter and turning to sit on the plush lavender toilet seat cover, mouth completely ajar. I do not believe this. Her breath quickened. Wait. Yes I do. You have sex with someone without a condom, you get pregnant. She looked down to the floor and slowly shook her head back and forth yet again. What the hell were you thinking, Layla? You weren't thinking. Vincent. Damn him! She rose from the toilet and walked like a zombie to her bedroom where she sat on the edge of her bed, mouth still open. Realizing she was sitting on the scene of the crime, she jumped off the bed and went to her dresser where she placed both hands to steady herself as her eyes focused on the slightly blistering green paint of the $25 piece of furniture she bought at the funky Village Discount store shortly after moving to Llanview. She felt sick to her stomach. And it wasn't from morning sickness. Well, at least I can be grateful for that. No morning sickness. She sighed and raised her eyes heavenward, taking another deep breath. "Okay," she spoke aloud. "What are you going to do?" God, how she missed her sister. She could really use her right now.
"Oh God." Her sister! She began pacing. What was she thinking? How would she have told her sister about this anyway? Oh, hey Vange. Yeah, so I had comfort sex with Cristian, the guy you were crazy in love with before your daddy issues made you lose your mind, and now I'm pregnant and he's the father. Her mind briefly wandered back to the time Evangeline accused her of sleeping with Cristian at the ski lodge and quickly shook the thought from her head. I thought this kind of thing only happened on soap operas. Tired of pacing, she started to sit back down on her bed but caught herself and instead moved to sit in the green and purple moon chair in front of her window. Hearing the front door open, Layla remembered the positive pregnancy test she left laying on the bathroom counter and ran to grab it before Adriana could find it. Finding it exactly where she left it, she quickly walked back to her bedroom and hid it underneath her lingerie in her top dresser drawer until she could get it out of the apartment without it being seen. Hmpf. Guess I can say goodbye to the lingerie for awhile.
Adriana peeked her head into Layla's bedroom. "Hey girl."
"Hey." Layla breathed a sigh of relief as Adriana quickly found her way into the bathroom and shut the door without another word. "Okay," she spoke quietly to herself. "I need to get out of here and get some air before she notices something's off." Grabbing her purse by her bedroom door on her way out, Layla gave a quick knock on the bathroom door. "Hey. I'm going to run down to Mickey D's and get something to eat. You want anything?" she asked hoping the answer would be negative. She was hungry and needed to think and in a situation like this a girl needs to do that alone.
"No, I'm good. I just ate."
"Okay, I'll be back in a bit. Don't wait up." Grabbing her car keys off the kitchen counter, Layla headed towards the door.
Sitting alone in a corner booth at IHOP--her craving for a McDonald's double cheeseburger having waned--she fiddled with her Vive la French Toast, grateful that the restaurant served breakfast all day long so she could have her favorite meal while she wondered yet again how she ended up pregnant in the middle of October. The Deborah Cox song flashed in her mind: I re-mem-ber, the day in Sep-tem-ber, when we...Fell in love? No. Fell in lust? No, that wasn't it either. Cristian. She sighed as her thoughts continued.
She had to tell him. As much as she wanted to believe the test was wrong, she knew it wasn't. Her period had always brightened her day with its cramps and bloating like clockwork. In her 26 years, minus the ones pre-puberty, she had never missed her period, no matter how stressed she was. Oh, she was definitely pregnant. Probably a good six, seven weeks along. Trying to stave off the panic attack until she went to the doctor for a test to be sure wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. She knew her fate already.
When her period hadn't come with ringing bells, she wouldn't let her mind wander back to that night. She just wouldn't. She knew it had to be stress, even though she wasn't really that stressed. She hadn't seen Vincent in weeks and with his absence came peace. Avoiding the "Your ass is pregnant" thought like the plague, she continued with her daily business with work at Craze, even seeing Cristian on occasion though not as often as before "It" happened, and decided that if her period didn't come when it was due the next time--as if it could just be a freak occurrence that her body decided to give her a break and skip one--she'd buy a pregnancy test. That time came and last night, she bought the most expensive one in the store and promised herself that she'd take it the next day.
So, here she was, sitting in IHOP with some cold french toast, pregnant with Cristian Vega's baby. Cris. Her best friend outside of Evangeline and Adriana. Her sweet and sexy as hell best friend. Her sister's ex-boyfriend. Damn, I really fucked up this time. Her thoughts wandered back to that night...