I roll out of bed the next morning around 10. Mom's already gone to spend the day with her girlfriends. I make my way to the kitchen and dig through the refrigerator. I'm about to put bread into the toaster when a familiar feeling hits.

"Shit. Not again," I groan. I run to the bathroom and hurl. I cradle my head in my hands and think about when this started. "It had to be the vaccine."

I crawl to my bedroom and pull my cell phone out of my shorts pocket, scrolling through my recent calls until I hit the doctor's office number.

Rrrriiinnnnnggggg.

"Hello, this is Debbie with Dr. Neeson's office, how may I help you?"

"Hi, Debbie," I say, "this is Ronnie Reid. I think that vaccine did something to me. It's nothing serious but I want it to go away as soon as possible."

There was a short pause and then Debbie answered, "I'll let the doctor know to expect you. See you at eleven." Click.

My head drops into my palm as I check on my phone what time it is.

10:38.

I set my phone down for about two seconds when I hear it vibrate against the coffee table. I pick it up to see who it is. I groan. Beautiful.

Jason.

I'm tempted to ignore it, but even I know he'll come in if I don't answer.

"Hello?" I answer, making the annoyance in my voice obvious.

"Hey, are you home?" Jason asks.

I roll my eyes, "Yeah, why?"

"I wanna spend some time with you. I'm outside. Come down."

I move to the window and look out. Jason's there, leaning against a Ferrari that can only be Bruce's.

"I have a doctor's appointment in twenty minutes," I say drily.

"I'll drive you."

There's no point in arguing with him. I can't think of a way out anyway.

"I'll be right down." I throw on shorts and a tank again, grab my phone and keys and lock up behind me. Jason's already in the driver's seat. When I enter the car, I say, "Before you ask, it's the Neeson office."

Jason nods and drives. After a short silence, Jason decides to start a conversation.

"I'm sorry about yesterday."

Looking out the window, I sigh, "It's okay. I get it. You're at Roy's beck and call."

"Hey, it was nothing like that," Jason contradicts me. "He needed me."

Are you serious? I explode.

"I need you!" I yell at him. "Roy had you for three months! I have you for a few days and you waste it on them!"

Jason throws me a disbelieving look. "I'm sorry, but–" He pauses. "Wait, what do you mean 'them'?"

I consider playing it off, slip of the tongue kind of thing, but no. He deserves this.

"I know, Jason. I know it wasn't just you and Roy for the past three months. I know about Kory."

Jason's head whips towards me. "How do you know about Kory?"

I shake my head, "It doesn't matter who told me. All that matters is that they obviously care about me more than you."

"Tim," Jason growls. To me, he says, "I do care about you, Ronnie! You weren't supposed to be told."

"I'm glad Tim told me. I'd still be in the dark if he didn't."

Realizing that I wasn't backing down, Jason tries a different approach. "Look, Kory and I–"

"Don't play it off as 'we're just friends and I was worried you'd be upset.' I know you and her did the 'horizontal tango.'" I wanna slap myself for using Kim's old nickname for it.

Confusion crosses Jason's face. "What?"

I scoff. Louder, I say, "I know you had sex with her!" I cross my arms and go back to looking out the window.

Jason sighs. "Look, Ronnie. Yes, we had sex. But it was recreational. There was no emotion involved. I understand–"

"No, you don't!" I yell. "I'm not oblivious, Jason. I know people have sex all the time. But I was raised to believe that only people who truly love each other have sex. It's not a 'recreational' activity. Hearing that you treat it that way makes me wonder what the hell you want with me!"

Jason slams on the brakes and the car comes to a halt. I'm about to yell at him again, but then I realize he stopped in front of my doctor's office.

Looking me in the eye, Jason says slowly, "Ronnie, you are not Kory. You mean more than the world to me. I would never – ever – think of doing anything that you would never want to do. I would never use you in that way. Just holding you is enough for me." He runs his hands through his hair. "I understand that you're hurt and it's justified. I lied to you so you wouldn't ask questions about Kory and think I was going behind your back. Which I guess I ended up doing that anyway by lying to you." Jason takes my hand. "I love you, Ronnie. And… I'm sorry."

I don't want to forgive him, but I could see the honesty shining through his eyes.

"I love you, too." I whisper, tears filling up my eyes. Jason brings me closes and kisses me.

I laugh and say, "I need to go."

"I'll see you in a little bit."

I give him one last kiss and exit the car. What a ride. Once inside, I check in and am immediately ushered into the same room as last time. The same blond nurse is waiting for me. I don't remember if she mentioned her name last time.

"Hello, Ronnie." Again, the nurse is overly joyful. "Why don't you sit down and tell me what's wrong?"

I sit on the examination table. "Um, well, I've been getting sick. A lot. It hits me first thing in the morning, but then I'm fine. Except one time – the first time – I was sick after smelling cigar smoke."

The nurse writes that down and asks, "Anything else?"

I bite my bottom lip, "Well, it's probably not worth mentioning, but… I've been having weird cravings."

She urges me on. "Like…"

"I hate garlic, but yesterday I had it in my eggs for breakfast and loved it. Before that I ate half a tub of Blue Bell ice cream."

"Ronnie," the nurse looks at me, "is it possible that you might be pregnant?"

I laugh. Hard. Apparently, today revolves around sex.

"No," I finally answer. "Not unless I'm the virgin Mary incarnate."

"Okay, then. I'm going to take your blood so we can run some tests." After she gets two vials of my blood, she leaves me to wait.

Fifteen minutes into my waiting, Jason calls.

"Hey, how's the appointment going?" he asks.

"They're running blood tests right now to see if my vaccine has been making me sick."

"Sounds interesting," Jason says sarcastically. "I'm on my way back. I'll wait with you."

I smile. "Okay, I'll see you soon."

"I love you."

I love hearing that. I'm going to have to get used to it. "I love you, too."

I replaced my phone into my pocket just as the nurse comes back in with a beige folder. I'm guessing the results are inside the folder.

The nurse smiles at me. "Congratulations!" This is when I expect her to say, "Nothing's wrong, just a side effect we can easily fix!" Instead, she says, "You're pregnant."

"Excuse me?" If she's joking, this isn't funny.

"You're pregnant. And before you ask, I ran the test three times."

Two men enter the room and one of them is holding a syringe full of a clear liquid.

"Careful," the nurse says, "don't hurt the baby."

The men grab me and I struggle, kicking and punching when I could. The syringe is plunged into my neck and I lose consciousness.