The chapter you've all been waiting for...

chapter 10- Negatively Positive

The next month had continued to play out in the same way- ignored calls; texts no contact what so ever. Joey was pretty sure she'd received the text message as she was virtually acting as if he didn't exist. At least before they could manage a few words, and could bear to be in the same room, but now, not even a smile if they passed in the corridor. It was pretty frustrating on both parts, but even more so to Joey, who couldn't pin point her recent mood change.

Unknown to him though, Lauren hadn't actually looked at the text message, too absorbed in other things. She'd simply moved all text's and calls from Joey to a folder on her phone that she didn't have to look at. That week at school was the last week of term before Christmas, most of their projects had been finished and they were now doing prep for their exams in January. Business class had finished a week ago so they were allowed to use the common room when that lesson was time tabled. It had been a surprise to both the teacher, and Lauren and Joey when the two of them had scored the top grade on their combined project. How they'd managed it when they were hardly talking was completely beyond them, according to their teacher it was one of the best projects he'd seen in some times and the two of them made a team.

The common room was currently empty other than Lauren and another girl. She'd taken time in her free session to do some last minuet prep for her art Project. The door opened disrupting her peace and in came the football team, loud and rowdy. Joey was first in, his laughter ceasing when he saw her.

"Sorry… we can go somewhere else" her turned to walk out and Lauren decided to be the grown up, had it really got to the stage where they could stand to even be in the same room as each other?"

"It's fine…I'm nearly done, we can't not be in the same room ever again can we ?"

"Ye suppose not" He replied. The lads all filtered in and started a game of snooker, Lauren remaining fixed to the book of her art work. She could feel joey's eyes on her the entire time, I made her smirk slightly, knowing she was still having this effect on him gave her some sense of power, however small it may have been.

"Oh Miss Mathews…" Lauren sprung to her feet, walking towards her art tutor. "Can I give you this now so I don't have to come in for Friday's session… it's all complete and signed, ready to go."

"Of course you can, that's fantastic thank you, oh and I have your assessment from the 3rd on my desk it was very good I must say" The teacher stood awaiting a response but didn't get one.

Lauren remained still, feeling the colour drain from her already pale face, her mind focused solely on the one thing her teacher had said.

"Lauren?"

She fidgeted with her fingers nervously bringing her nails to her mouth. Her narrowed eyes stared at Joey, not like she knew she was doing it though. "What date did you say that assessment was, Miss?"

"The 3rd of December" Miss Mathews replied with a smile, completely unaware she'd just set dread running through her young student. "Are you ok Lauren?"

"I…I need to go" she grabbed her stuff in a hurry and fled out the room, joey watching each move with great intensity. She felt the sickness rising in her throat as she walked away, just aimlessly walking, as long as she wasn't around him she didn't care.

Suddenly she was home, the house thankfully empty. She couldn't think straight, the nerves building by the second. She reached her room and started the search for what she needed- knowing she'd got one if not a couple somewhere buried deep in the bottom of her cupboard. Fishing through the piles of junk, she found what she was after. Immediately puling the first response kit from the packet she read the instructions, she wasn't sure why though, how many way were there to pee on a stick? Luckily the tests were still in date, which saved a rather embarrassing trip to the shop like she'd the first time.

The tests were what she'd brought at the end of the last summer, having being a few days late, she'd gone into extreme panic mode and brought several testing kits, obviously they were negative, this time she wasn't sure the result would be the same.

Closing on the toilet seat she placed the two tests on it, face up, so the result would be seen straight away. All she had to do then was wait the three torturous minuets to get her answer. Her phone buzzed a few seconds later with a text.

Hope you're ok, you didn't look it earlier – J

She sighed reading his message; he had no right to be worried about her, well in three minutes maybe he would have. It was in that second something caught her eye, the little icon; that told her she had 23 unread messages and 12 answer phone messages all from Joey. She opened the first message and read it through: Because you won't talk to me…this is the only way I can tell you and you really need to know. I found the condom we used Lo, It had split babe. We need to talk about this. Please. J

It took the entire three minutes to read to the messages over and over and listen to the voice mails. By then Lauren was in complete shock. The rest of the messages read virtually the same as she flicked through them. Why the hell hadn't she listened to him? She might not have been in this mess right now.

Beeping from the alarm signalled the results were in so to speak. Without looking she quickly turned them over so she couldn't see what it said. Her eyes were glued to the tiny white stick, that little thing would be telling her if her life had just taken a drastic turn for the worse or if it was to stay as it was. In that second she was wishing so badly, regardless of how crap it had been the last few months, that it stayed exactly how it was.

She waited another 30 seconds before she'd mustered enough courage to lift the first test. She prayed that it would just be a stupid mistake, that it was something to laugh about when the result came back negative. With shaking hands she turned it over.

"FUCK"

There it was, written clear as day - Pregnant 6-8 weeks.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck"

No. it couldn't be happening maybe she had peed on it wrong. Maybe she was the one percentage who got a wrong result? It was wishful thinking to say the least. She turned the other test over and broke down, seeing exactly the same result as the pervious test- Pregnant. When she'd asked Joey to make her visible, she didn't exactly have this in mind.

She sank to the bathroom floor and crouched in the corner, her head falling back against the cold tiling. She'd hoped she would never be one of those girls who had got into those situations, but there she was, sobbing her heart out over her own irresponsible mistake, 16 and pregnant. The front door opened shortly after, the sound of heels clicking about.

Lauren made sure to control the sobs that vibrated through her, just so she didn't have to face her Mum. So instead, she sat crying in silence. The tests falling from her hands, hitting the tiles as she buried her face in her hands and cried until there was nothing left.

By the time she'd calmed down, it was around 5pm. She'd been crying for a whole 4 hours and the worst of it was, the whole family were home, and no one had noticed she wasn't there. The bathroom was starting to become a little cold now, but she didn't want to leave, not yet because at that moment it was only her and the four walls of the bathroom that knew she was pregnant. She swiped at her eyes and removed her clothes, deciding a shower might help to calm her. Shoving the tests in her draw below the sink she went by the old saying, out of sight out of mind. If only it were that simple.

The warm droplets formed steam as she stood there without moving at all, the voices banging in her head. They said the same thing; over and over again, how much more could she fuck up her life. She scrubbed at her skin, she felt dirty somehow. She scrubbed and scrubbed until it became too painful. Her skin felt like it was burning as the water hit down on her, her body feeling shaky and weak slid down the tiles and to the floor.

*JL*JL*JL*

"Lauren… Lauren what are you doing?" Tanya rushed into the bathroom with Max, somehow having broken down the door. "Lauren…Darling can you hear me?... Max get a towel" Tanya leaned into the shower and turned off the now freezing water. She swaddled her fragile daughter into the large towel and continued to try and wake her. "Oh god… Lauren, It's Mum, wake up for me sweetheart?" Tanya was now sitting on the floor of the shower Lauren in her arms.

Lauren was in such a world of her own that she hadn't realised just how long she had been sat there shaking. She was only snapped out of it when the water was turned off and she felt the thick towel around her. She couldn't open her eyes though, she didn't want to; instead she simple let her body be cradled like a small scared child. Finally she opened them and saw she was in her Mum's arms still sitting in the shower. It had only been a minuet, if that, that she'd been out of it.

"Oh Lauren… thank god! Baby what happened ay?" Lauren felt her Mum's lips against her head and took a deep ragged breath as she was gently rocked against her Mother's body.

"Shower too hot…" Lauren breathed out, trying to stop more tears.

"Silly girl ay…" for once Lauren noticed her parents actually seemed concerned, her father was on the phone to the doctor presumably and her Mum was truly taking care of her. "Come on darling" She pulled Lauren up off the floor and led her across the landing into her room, Lauren was slightly unsteady on her feet, a little dazed about what was happened. Tanya could see how blank her daughter's face was. Void of any emotions. Her eyes were glassed over completely; nothing was giving away any clue to the situation Lauren was in.

Once they got into the room Tanya rummaged through the cupboards looking for some clean pyjamas, whilst Lauren changed into some clean underwear. She stood in front of the tall mirror in her room looking at her reflection. With a flick of her wrist she let the towel drop and there in the mirror looking back at her was the thin fragile looking girl, pale skin and flat stomach, no evidence of a baby there.

"Darling what are you doing?" Tanya stood behind her daughter in the mirror, watching as Lauren stood static, her eyes just looking absently at her own reflection. "Come let's get you changed".

Lauren sat on her bed, in a daze, just letting her Mum dress her and dry her hair. There was no emotion there, nothing but blank stares. "All done sweetie".

"Thanks Mum." Tanya looked up at her and gently pushed her hair away from her face, the action made Lauren cry though. She wanted so much to be able to talk about what she was feeling, but she couldn't.

"Lauren…talk to me darling please…" she shook her head and lay down "I'm your Mum Lauren, You know I Love you" Lauren nodded. "Alright baby…get some sleep". Tanya left the room and gently closed the door behind her.

"She alright?" Max was standing there with Oscar, a look of fear on his face. Seeing his eldest daughter looking so fragile, seemed to have kicked him to his senses.

"I don't know Max she doesn't seem herself, it's like shes not there" she rubbed her hand across her forehead "What did the doctor say?"

"He said it was probably the heat of the shower… but, if it happens again we're to call him and he'll come out to us"

Lauren listened to the conversation, more tears falling with every word said… she was completely lost in her own body, but it wasn't just her any more, she'd got another life in her. She flicked trough her phone wanting to talk to him. Needing to, but she couldn't. She was completely on her own in this.

Surprise ? back tomorrow xxx