Nicole sat at the edge of the couch; she held a glass of water in her hand and never looked away from Jessi's unconscious figure. Stephen leaned against the doorway of the living room as Kyle and Josh sat on the steps with Lori behind them on a higher one.

"What happened?" Lori asked as she let her head drop into her hands.

"She couldn't sleep – so we just decided we'd go out for a run and –"Kyle still couldn't make sense of it. His own head was jumbled together, he was concerned and worried for Jessi, but at the same time he knew she was going to be okay, because if she wasn't going to be alright…. Then he might just have to hurt someone, and Josh was the closest.

"So you two just decided to go for a run? I don't buy it," Josh said in his usual cocky and sarcastic voice.

"Josh," Lori scolded him as she punched him in the arm. "Stop being so insensitive," she ordered of him. "Jessi could be really sick," she thought out loud, and she started to worry, too.

"Was she okay when you guys were out?" Nicole asked as Stephen took her place on the couch. "Was she acting strange at all?"

"Uh, we are talking about Jessi, here," Josh had to say. "Sorry, Kyle," he said quietly as he looked down.

"Well," Lori started as she began to play with her fingers. "It was pretty normal, I mean, Jessi seemed a little out of it, but I assumed it was because she just never went shopping and wasn't sure what to do. You know how it is, she's never been there, so I just figured –"Lori was starting to really feel guilty here, she just assumed Jessi's innocence was at play, nothing too serious. "I didn't think –"Her voice broke and Kyle's comforting arms rubbed her back as he tried to soothe her.

"Its okay, Lori, everything's okay."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Lori bugged Jessi for the fifteenth time that day, and fifteen is the actual number. Jessi's been keeping count, and Jessi couldn't help but feel agitated and annoyed at Lori's persistence, but at the same time she remembers Kyle's words from earlier.

"She's being such a pain," Jessi complained to Kyle as they walked into school together. "Every other second, are you sure you're okay? I said I was okay, already, why doesn't anyone believe me?!"

"She just cares, you and Lori are friends, whether you like it or not," Kyle told her and now those words are ringing around in Jessi's head. Friends. Friends. Friends. Friends. Friends. Friends….

Jessi's head was hurting now.

"I'm fine, Lori," she replied for the fifteenth time this day as she came back to the present. It was their lunch hour and nothing looked appetizing.

"Are you sure? You don't look so good," Lori observed as she took in Jessi's paleness and how sick she looked.

"Yeah, I'm –"she started to see the shapes again, and her stomach was doing cartwheels. Her head jerking back, she could feel the sickness in her throat and she ran out of there into the bathroom.

"Jessi!" Lori yelled and ran after her.

"Okay, I got the slushy, warm baked cookies, and –"Hillary said and then added the last ingredient for Jessi, "something to pee on."

"She's not pregnant, Hillary," Lori defended as she leaned back against the bathroom stall.

"Well of course not, Kyle's the most innocent and non hormonal boyfriend in the universe, it was just a thought. You know, for you and Mark once you guys get to that stage –"Hillary said in her sing song voice.

"No, no, no and no!" Lori said, utterly disgusted now. "Put that back," Lori said as she pushed away that little stick Hillary held out.

"Fine," Hillary said with a pout and then pounded on the bathroom stall. "Come out little girl, we have food!" Then she heard Jessi throw up. "Or not," Hillary said in a smaller voice.

"She's not feeling good."

"That's obvious," Hillary said. "Okay, well I'm hungry and missing out on lunch," so Hillary slid the bag under the door.

Jessi was tired, and she really wasn't feeling good but at the same time she was so hungry…. Her hands went greedily to the bag, but she didn't want anything to do with the slushy, but those warm cookies went down her throat easily. Then the bell rang, Jessi's hands clutched the brown bag and stuffed it into her book bag.

Though she didn't get a chance to get to class, someone had called Nicole and she was there to take Jessi home.

"I called Maria, she knows you're going to be home early today and that you're not feeling so well," Nicole explained. "Do you need help getting up to the apartment?"

"No, I'm fine, Nicole," Jessi told her as her hand clung to the door. "Thanks anyway," she said and walked out of the car into the apartment building. She let her body flop down on the bed and let herself sleep for a while.

It was a long corridor of doors, a hallway that never ended and never begun and Jessi frantically tried to open each door. She pulled, tugged, kicked, and punched against the doors in frustration because they wouldn't open. None of them would open and Jessi would try as hard as she could, as hard as her body and mind would let her.

Then one of the doors opened.

It was a bathroom and in Jessi's hands was the pregnancy test Hillary had gotten earlier and it held all the answers.