Chapter 2: Ramifications
Brrring.
Brrring.
Brrring.
Jane Lane sat up in bed at the ringing sound, hit the snooze button on her alarm clock, and laid on her stomach, putting the pillow over her head.
Brrring.
Brrring.
She sat up again. Her sleep-fogged brain told her it was way too early to get up, and she abruptly realized that the noise wasn't her alarm, it was her phone. Blearily, she rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock: it was 6:30 AM. Who could be calling her at this hour?
She picked up the phone. "Yo, this is Jane Lane. Whoever you are, this had better be important because people who wake me up this early get put on my assassin's list."
"Jane?"
"Daria?! Is everything all right? You of all people should know that I don't wake up before 1-"
"Trent left me."
Stunned silence. Jane suddenly couldn't think of anything to say.
"Jane? Are you there?"
Jane shook her head briskly, trying to clear out the last of the brain fog as well as absorb this latest bit of information. "Um, Daria? Are you joking? Because if you are, this really isn't the best time for--"
"No. Trent left me. I'm sitting alone in our house. Would you like to come over? I need to talk to someone."
Jane blinked. Daria was utterly serious. But how could this have happened? Her brain still wasn't registering things completely, but she could tell that Daria needed to talk to someone urgently. If she didn't, she might do something drastic. "Hold on. I'll be right over." Pulling on an outfit and grabbing her car keys, Jane ran out to her car, fervently hoping she was awake enough to drive. The Lane family tendency toward narcolepsy was a legendary thing.
~~~~~~
Daria Morgendorffer Lane hung up the phone and sat on the couch. She was still in shock over what had happened. Trent had left her, and in a way she had no one to blame but herself. But how was she going to deal with this?
Yawning, she lay down on the couch. She had been up early this morning, and it wasn't as if she had had much sleep last night...
~~~~~~~~
She was floating, flying, up in the clouds. She had no worries, no cares, no problems; everything was just wonderful. She remembered feeling like this when Trent proposed to her... where was Trent, anyway?
There. She saw a familiar figure sitting on a cloud with his back to her. Moving at the speed of thought, she sped over to him, wanting to fly into his open arms...but when he turned around, she gasped. It was Tom.
"Daria?" Tom looked at her, hands held out to meet her outstretched arms. She pulled away instinctively. But the way he was looking at her...he loved her...she realized she loved him too. "Daria! Please, let me make you happy..." Slowly, she reached out to him...
"No! Daria, don't! Please, I'm sorry, I don't want to lose you..." Daria turned, and saw Trent standing there, with that look on his face that always made her melt... "Daria, I love you!"
Her mouth started to form the words "I love you" in reply, but then Tom came between them, gazing into her eyes. "Daria. You must choose. We both love you. Daria. Daria? Daria!"
~~~~~~~~
Daria's eyes flew open. That wasn't Tom's voice...Jane's face slowly swam into focus. "Jane?" Her voice was like a croak. She tried to speak, but her throat felt dry as sandpaper. "Water?" she finally managed to get out.
"Sure." Jane went over to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, which Daria took from her gratefully and swallowed in three gulps.
"Thanks."
"No problem." Jane looked at her concernedly. "What were you dreaming about? You were tossing and turning, calling out Trent's name, but then you mentioned Tom, and something about a choice..." A synapse connected in her brain and her face lit up with understanding. "Tom has something to do with this, doesn't he?"
Not trusting herself to speak, Daria nodded.
Jane smirked. "That jerk," she said affectionately. "Over a decade since our big blow-up and he's still messing up your life. He needs a new hobby."
"Yeah." Daria almost smiled. Count on Jane's wacky sense of humor to cheer her up.
"So, what's going on exactly? Give your best friend Jane all the gruesome details. I haven't had a chance to talk to you like this for a while."
Daria thought for a minute, deciding where to begin. "Well, it probably all started with the baby."
Jane remembered. "The one you lost?"
"Yeah. Well, things started going downhill between Trent and me from there. He got wrapped up in his work, and so did I...we didn't even sleep together for over a year. We barely even talked, and he was just indifferent to me most of the time. I tried to talk to him about how things were going, but you know how hard it is for me to talk about stuff like that, and when he wouldn't even try, I just figured, what's the point?"
Jane was puzzled. "I thought you were getting more distant, but I didn't realize how bad things were. Why didn't you tell me you guys were having problems?"
Daria shrugged. "I dunno. I think it was partially because I thought you'd try to go in and fix things for us, and I thought it was my problem. I wanted to solve it myself." She laughed depreciatingly. "Did a wonderful job, too."
"Unfortunately, that does sound like me," Jane said ruefully. "Look how far my whole yenta thing got you guys. Although I don't think I'm going to forgive you for not letting me have the chance to kick some sense into my brother...I still have my old boots, you know. But what happened? I'm assuming something acted as a catalyst. Trent isn't the type to just up and leave for no real reason."
Daria smiled slightly, thinking of the Doc Martens hiding in the back of her own closet. "Well, last night, I wanted to get out of the house, so I went to the grocery store, even though we didn't need anything. And guess who I ran into there."
"Tom." It was a statement, not a question.
"Right. He asked how things were--he really was concerned!--and considering that I was already emotionally fragile that night, I almost broke down right there in the store. He saw that something was the matter and got me out of the store and to his house. And I told him how things were, and he told me that he still cared about me, and, well..."
To Jane's surprise, she saw what was unmistakably a blush creeping up Daria's face as the brown haired girl averted her eyes. Jane raised an eyebrow. "You slept with him, didn't you?"
Daria nodded once more.
Jane suddenly giggled.
Daria looked annoyed. "It isn't really funny."
Jane smirked. "No, I was just thinking, considering it's been over 10 years since you two went out...it sure took you long enough!"
Daria rolled her eyes. "Trust you to find my personal conflicts funny, Jane."
Jane became more serious. "Did you use protection?"
Daria's blush became more pronounced. "Don't you remember what the doctors said? It's not very likely that I could have kids again, Jane."
"Oh. Right. Just trying to look out for my best friend, you know. So what happened with Trent?" Jane tried to keep Daria's embarrassment from becoming any more acute.
"Well, when I came home this morning, it was early. I guess I was half-hoping I could sneak in and claim that I had come home late last night. But when I opened the door, Trent was waiting for me. He had prepared a special dinner the night before, complete with a flower arrangement, for our anniversary. He wanted to try to patch things up...except I never came home."
"Ouch. That must have hurt."
"He told me that when I didn't come home, he realized that he'd been too much of a jerk to fix." Daria's voice almost broke; she was getting to the hard part. "He-he said he still loved me, but that we should separate for awhile. He's staying with Jesse for a month, and he said that he hoped I could find it in my heart to love him again. And then he left."
"Was that when you called me?"
"Well, actually I tried calling Tom first, but he wasn't home yet. Which was understandable, considering that he had just dropped me off a few minutes ago."
"Hmmm. By all rights I should get mad at you for not calling me first, but I suppose I can let it slide this time, considering I haven't been in your life much recently." Jane sighed. "So what are you going to do now?"
Daria proceeded to tell Jane about her dream. "I'm no expert at dream interpretation, but it's pretty obvious what my subconscious is telling me -- I'm going to have to choose one of them or I'll lose them both."
"Hmm." Jane eyed her critically. "So which one do you love?"
Daria shook her head. "I don't know. I was happy with Trent before things started going downhill, but last night with Tom...it was just amazing, you know? But it could have just been a rebound effect from being abstinent for so long."
Jane grinned; she'd had a few of those. "I know what you mean. You're still going to have to choose, though."
"I've decided to procrastinate that choice for now. I need some time to figure out my feelings on the issue."
"Well, it's your life." Jane stretched. "But let me tell you, these types of situations don't usually get any better with time. Quite the opposite." She had to pause as a huge yawn escaped her. "Unfortunately, I'm speaking from experience here."
"Yeah. I know. I won't put it off too long."
"Great." Jane ran her fingers through her short hair, a habit she'd picked up a few years ago. "Would you perhaps like to stay with me for a bit? With all this emotional havoc-wreaking going on in your life, I don't know if you should be left alone."
Daria looked at her gratefully. "Thanks, Jane. I really appreciate it."
"No problemo. I don't want you to get depressed all by yourself and end up slitting your wrists or anything like that. I care about you, and besides, where would I be without your occasional sarcastic view of life? So take your time about this. Follow your heart. Make sure you'll be happy. End mushy best friend crap."
Daria actually did smile that time; briefly, but it was there. "Thanks again. Are you busy today?"
Jane looked at her watch. "Well, I have an art show opening tomorrow night, but otherwise I'm free for the weekend. How about some pizza for breakfast?"
"Sure. Could we bring Tom along?"
Jane smirked. "That'd be great. I haven't had a chance to insult him in years."
Daria felt slightly better. "I knew you'd approve."
~~~~~~~
"So what happened, man?" Jesse was confused; he'd always thought of Trent and Daria as a rock-solid couple, one of the few constants in life. "I mean, why did you leave?"
Trent sighed and massaged his temples gently. Jesse was a good friend, but he could be annoying sometimes, and Trent could feel the beginnings of a tension headache forming. "I don't want to talk about it, Jess. It's between Daria and me."
"Oh. She slept with someone else." Jesse nodded understandingly.
Trent's head snapped up. For someone who was even more oblivious then Trent himself had been as a teenager, Jesse sure was astute sometimes. "What makes you think that?"
Jesse grinned, knowing he had caught Trent off-balance. "I've seen it so many times at work it's not even funny. Whenever a guy's having problems with his girlfriend or wife that he doesn't want to talk about, she's either slept with someone else or moved out. Or both. They don't usually want to talk about it because they're afraid the other guys will get on their backs about not being able to keep a woman satisfied."
Trent started rubbing his temples again. "Well, are you going to get on my back?"
"Nah. It looks like you're already punishing yourself far worse than I ever could."
"Thanks," Trent said dryly. He looked at Jesse for a moment. "Since when did you become this observant? You always were even more oblivious than me."
"I used to be. But when you're in the construction business, you have to be observant about people. If one of the crew isn't working at peak performance, it can cause accidents. And accidents in construction often prove fatal."
Trent nodded, then grimaced as pain shot through his temples. "Do you have any asprin?"
"Sure." Jesse got up from the couch and went to get some. "You know, I happen to know a chick who likes musicians. Maybe you guys could hook up sometime."
"Jesse, I think you're forgetting something. I'm married. Separated, yes, but married. I'm not exactly in a position to consider another relationship at the moment."
"Hey man, who said anything about a girlfriend? She just likes to have fun. And seeing as your wife already did, maybe you should take a turn."
"Maybe. I'll think about it." Trent had no intention of following up on his words; they were more to get Jesse off his back than anything else. He could never really do anything like that to Daria.
Could he?
~~~~~~~
"So Trent left you, huh?" Tom leaned forward, his elbow on the table, cupping his chin in his hand. "I'm sorry to hear it."
"No you aren't." Daria wasn't going to take any B.S. from Tom, no matter how well- meaning. "Inwardly, you're ecstatic. You're just not showing it for my benefit."
Tom laughed. "You know me too well, Daria." He spread his hands on the table, examining his nails. "I'm glad you're staying with Jane, though. You shouldn't be alone with this, and if you were staying with me, I'm sure it would be hard for you to make an objective decision."
Daria looked at him disbelievingly. "Like you really want me to."
Tom shrugged. "Much as I would like you to live with me, you need to make the decision on your own. Otherwise I would just wonder if you only were with me because I happened to be in the right place at the right time."
Daria half-smiled at that. "Some people would say that that's all there is to life."
Tom looked at her intently. "I don't agree. There's plenty more...true love, for one thing."
Daria looked back. "Do you believe in soulmates?"
"I do." His gaze was unwavering.
Daria felt torn. Part of her wanted him to say that they were soulmates, and part of her didn't. She opened her mouth to ask when --
"Pizza, anyone?" Jane had arrived with their order, balancing a pizza in one hand, 3 plates and cups in the other one, as well as a pitcher of root beer on her head.
The charge of the moment was broken as their attention shifted. "Hey, food. Let's eat." Tom grabbed the root beer before Jane's balancing show turned into an impromptu juggling act. "I didn't know you could do that, Jane," he said.
Jane smirked, setting the pizza on the table and putting the plates in front of their places. "A little trick I picked up from my brother. He loves freaking out the resturaunt's staff."
"Oh, is that why he was banned from Pizza Palace? I was wondering," Daria asked as Tom started pouring the root beer. Daria tore the end off the paper cover of her straw and blew into it, hitting Tom squarely on the nose with the rest of the wrapper.
"I didn't know you could do that either, Daria." Tom looked surprised; it wasn't like Daria to do something goofy like that.
"You learn something new every day," Daria said, with a smirk to rival Jane's. "You can thank my best friend for teaching me that."
Jane put on a "Who, me?" expression, and Tom laughed. "All right, all right, I can't compete with the talents of two beautiful women. What say we eat now?"
"Great." Jane grabbed a slice of meat lovers' pizza and sat down. "Yum yum. Processed innards of cows and pigs. Loaded with enough cholesterol for 3 heart attacks."
"Sounds like a typical American lunch." Tom took a slice for himself. "Almost makes me feel like a high-schooler again."
Daria and Jane rolled their eyes simultaneously. "Don't remind me," Jane said. "Sometimes I think Pizza King is the only thing that got me through high school. That and my art and Daria, of course," she amended.
"Nice to know where I sit on your list of priorities, Jane," Daria quipped, taking a bite out of her own slice.
"Anytime." Jane took another bite. "If there's one thing to be said for New York, they sure know how to make good pizza."
~~~~~~~~
Some time and several slices later, the three friends decided to get up and walk around. Jane stopped at an art store, dashing inside with a quick "Be right back" and leaving Tom and Daria on the sidewalk waiting for her.
Tom looked around for something to break the awkward silence. "Nice day."
"Yeah." Daria looked around at the city, or what you could see of it through the haze. "Needs to rain though...keep the smog down."
"Oh that's easy enough to fix. Just take a picnic lunch to a park. Works like a charm." Tom smiled.
Daria raised an eyebrow. "This sounds like the voice of experience talking."
"It is. Myrna used to say that I must have bad picnic karma."
"Really?" Daria looked at him. "Maybe we should try it sometime."
Tom put his hands up in a "warding off" gesture. "Oh no you don't. I've been soaked once too many times on these picnic excursions."
"Oh, but just think, if it doesn't rain you could call Myrna and tell her that the karma was actually hers."
Tom thought about that. "You know, you might be right. How about next Saturday?"
Daria shrugged. "Sure. You bring the lunch, I'll pick the place."
Tom smiled one of his charming smiles at her. "I look forward to it."
Just then Jane came out of the store, carrying no fewer than 4 bags of supplies. "Sorry that took so long, I was out of --" She saw the look on Daria's face. "What?"
"Never mind." Daria looked away. It wasn't Jane's interruption that bothered her, so much as the expression on Jane's face. It was the almost identical to the one that Trent got after coming out of a music store.
~~~~~~~
A week later, Daria was still staying with Jane. Work kept her busy for the most part, but she still enjoyed the time she spent with her friend, whom she hadn't had much contact with in recent past. As Daria opened her eyes on this particular morning, however, Jane wasn't anywhere near as high on her list of priorities as getting to the nearest toilet as quickly as possible.
After most of what was left of last night's dinner had vacated her stomach, Daria rinsed her mouth out and knocked on Jane's door. "Jane?"
After a minute, the door opened, a bleary-eyed Jane standing there. "Daria, it's only 11--you look terrible."
Daria shook her head. "I'm not really feeling well. Would you mind if I canceled our lunch date--" Her eyes widened as the last bit of dinner decided to make an encore appearance, and she ran back to the bathroom.
Jane blinked. She had never known Daria to get sick; she was one of the few people who had been gifted with almost perfect health. She walked over to the bathroom and rapped on the door. "Daria?" The sound of running water was heard, then Daria opened the door. "You most certainly may not cancel our lunch date; however, it seems that it will have to be relocated to here. I believe chicken soup is on the menu."
Daria smiled weakly. "Thank you, Jane."
Jane shrugged it off. "What are friends for? As long as it doesn't involve hiking and singing about some idiot named John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. Or Girl Scouts, for that matter."
Daria laughed softly and made her way back to the couch bed. "I'm afraid I'm going to be taking up your living room today."
"Nah, that's ok. I didn't have any hot dates planned anyway. And my harem's out of town." Jane went into the kitchen to start breakfast/lunch. "Speaking of which, weren't you and Tom going to do something today?"
"Let me think...oh yeah, the picnic. Now I'm going to have to call and cancel. He really must have bad picnic karma."
"Huh?"
"Never mind. I'll explain later." Daria picked up the phone and dialed Tom's number. "Hi, Tom?"
"Daria! Everything all right?" Tom sounded worried.
"Not exactly. I seem to have woken up with a flu bug. Can we reschedule the picnic?"
"Sure. It looks like rain today anyway."
Daria glanced outside at the nearly cloudless sunrise and realized Tom was being nice for her benefit. "Maybe Myrna was right about your karma. Anyway, I'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow."
"All right. Hope you feel better soon."
"Bye." Daria hung up, feeling slightly better.
Jane sauntered in the room, carrying a mug of freshly made chicken soup -- fortunately not on her head this time. "Campbell's Chicken Soup, a la Lane. An old family recipe."
Daria sniffed it. "Isn't chicken soup supposed to be yellow?"
Jane shrugged. "Yellow, orange, what does it matter? Chicken soup is chicken soup."
Daria looked at it distrustfully, but tipped the mug back and drank the entire thing in 3 gulps. "Wha--" She looked around desperately.
"Here." Jane handed her a large glass of water which she had also been carrying. Daria drank the entire thing without stopping. Once she had finished, she turned on Jane.
"What the hell was that? Are you trying to kill me?" Daria's throat was burning.
"Chicken soup with half a bottle of tabasco sauce. Like I said, an old Lane family recipe. The theory is that the tabasco sauce burns all the the cells off the lining of your throat, taking the germs with it. Trent used to feed it to me when I got sick."
"Either that or it motivates the person to get well as quickly as possible." Daria wiped her mouth and then laid back against the pillows. "Geez, Jane, with you as my best friend, I'll be lucky to survive into middle age."
"Sshhh. You'll blow my cover."
~~~~~~~~
Daria was in the middle of an afternoon nap when the doorbell to Jane's apartment rang. Not wanting to disturb Daria, whose sleep seemed fitful enough as it was, Jane tiptoed to the door and opened it. There stood Tom, complete with a bouquet of lavender and light purple roses.
"Hi. I heard someone wasn't feeling well." He spotted Daria. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to disturb her. I'll just leave these here for when she wakes up --"
Just then Daria's eyelids fluttered open. "Tom?" she croaked, then sat up and took a drink from the cup of water on the table next to her.
"Hey Daria. I heard you weren't doing so well, so I brought you these." He held out the flowers.
"Purple roses? Thank you..." Daria's voice trailed off as another image flashed into her mind, one that had been in her dream -- Trent holding a vase of purple roses and saying "Happy Anniversary". Abruptly she didn't feel like talking anymore. She lay down and mumbled something into the pillows. In a moment, she was asleep again.
"She's not doing too well, as you can see," Jane said, smoothing over the awkward moment. "But I'm sure she'll be grateful once she really wakes up."
"I understand. Tell her I love her for me when does." Tom turned and went down the stairs.
~~~~~~~
Trent looked around the pub, following Jesse. It looked pretty normal; there were the drunks, the women fending off advances from said drunks, several groups of friends, a heavy metal band playing in the background...not unlike most of the pubs he'd been in. Not that he'd been in many bars recently; after Mystik Spiral broke up and he got married, he hadn't drunk anything stronger than an occasional beer. Daria hadn't liked it when he drank, and besides, it just killed off brain cells anyway...
"Jesse, my man! How are ya?" A robust, barrel chested man who looked to be in his thirties enthusiastically greeted Jesse and Trent as they sat down at the table. "And you must be Trent! We've heard a lot about you, and any friend of Jesse's is a friend of mine!"
Jesse performed the introductions. "Trent, this is Mitch, a friend of mine from work. Mitch, this is Trent. We go way back."
"Great!" Mitch roared. Trent wondered if the man ever spoke in fewer than 80 decibels. "What do you think of the band, Trent?!"
Trent listened to the bad for a minute...it didn't sound all that different from Mystik Spiral before they broke up. "Not too bad. Sounds a bit like Jesse's and my old band. But I'm sure you've heard all about that."
"Oh yeah! Mystik Spiral! Great name, too bad you didn't make it! But you're doing all right on your own, or so I've heard!!"
Trent winced. After a few years of quiet home living, his eardrums weren't prepared to take this sudden onslaught. "Yeah..." Suddenly he glimpsed a familiar face in the crowd. He leaned over to Jesse. "Do you know who that is?" he asked, pointing to her.
Jesse gave him an odd look. "Don't you remember? That's Myrna. She was at your wedding, man! You know, Tom's wife."
"Oh, right..." Trent's voice trailed off as he watched her dance with a guy. She looked about Janey's age. Native American, slender, quite pretty in fact...
"Yo, Trent! Anyone home?" Jesse brought his attention back to the table, where Mitch was laughing uproariously at some joke the girl next to him had told. "Geez, and they call me a space cadet..."
"Sorry." Trent got up and pushed his chair back; the band had started on a new song and Myrna had gotten rid of her dance partner. He walked over to her, trying to figure out some way to open a conversation without sounding like he was trying to pick her up. "Excuse me..."
"Trent! How's it going? Haven't seen you in years!" She smiled brightly and downed the shot of whiskey she was holding.
"Uh..." Trent was thrown off-balance. To the best of his knowledge, he had only met this woman briefly, and had probably exchanged fewer than five words with her in his life. Was he forgetting something...?
Laughing at his obvious confusion, Myrna explained. "I have an eidetic memory. I never forget a face. If I recall right, we met on your wedding day?"
"Um, yeah." Trent suddenly felt like he was in high-school again. What was it about this woman that made him feel like an awkward teenager? "How's Tom doing?"
"Oh, I divorced him more than a year ago. Things just weren't working out."
Trent stared at her. How could she speak of divorcing someone so casually, as if she was talking about last year's fashion? "Oh...sorry to hear it."
She waved her hands in a dismissive gesture. "Doesn't matter," she said. "Like I said, things weren't working out. Besides, I think he still had feelings for someone else."
"Oh, really?" Trent wasn't completely registering the conversation; for some reason, his head felt like it was stuffed with cotton.
"Yeah, but it doesn't matter. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. Besides, it's fun being single sometimes. More freedom."
Trent pasted a smile on his face, morbidly wondering if these words were foreshadowing his own future. "Cool. I'm glad that you're so happy."
"So how's Daria? Tom mentioned that he wanted to get back in touch with her, but so far as I know he never did."
Taken aback, Trent replied, "Uh, we're...seperated." Funny, how the word suddenly seemed so final when he said it to someone else.
A look of genuine warmth crossed her face. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear it. I hope things work out."
"Thanks." Trent looked at his watch, then remembered that he didn't wear one. He looked at a clock behind the bar; it was nearly midnight. "I'd better go find Jesse before he burns this place down."
She laughed. "Actually, I'll bet that would be an improvement. Here," she scribbled something on a matchbook, "this is my number. Call me up if you want to talk or get together sometime."
"Ok." Trent pocketed the matchbook absent-mindedly, scanning the crowd for his friend. When he caught sight of a (very) drunk Jesse on the verge of starting a fight, he decided it was time to leave. "See you around," he said to Myrna, and hurried in the direction of the raised voices.
~~~~~~~
Daria woke up feeling much better, minus the fact that her throat was as dry as the Sahara. Grabbing the water by her bedside, she downed what was left in a single gulp and went to the kitchen for more. There she found Jane, whipping up another batch of chicken soup.
"Oh, you're awake. Good morning to you."
"Morning?" Daria still wasn't completely awake.
"Well, it's 12:30 AM, so I guess technically it's morning. More soup?"
Daria eyed the soup warily. "No tobasco sauce?"
Jane put on her best angelic smile. "No tobasco sauce. It's even the right color."
"All right." Daria sat down at the table, while Jane grabbed a bowl and ladled some soup into her dish. "God, what a nightmare."
"Care to elaborate?" Jane sat down with her own bowl of soup.
"I don't really remember much. Just something about Trent and I being at a bar, except he went to talk to some other girl. She was really pretty, too. I wanted to stop him and tell him I loved him, but I couldn't move. You know those types of dreams."
"Yeah. Did he leave with her?"
"Not that I recall. I think he ended up looking for Jesse, though I don't completely remember."
"Well, it's not that bad then. Probably just a dream."
"I hope so."
They ate their soup in silence then, aside from an occasional slurp. Jane finally broke it. "So if you don't mind my asking...have you decided what you're going to do when the month is up?"
Daria shook her head slightly. "No. I suppose I could just call him up now and tell him I want a divorce, and the way things are going with Tom, it's beginning to sound like the best option. But--" her voice broke, and she took a deep breath before continuing-- "I just can't bring myself to do it."
Jane nodded, trying to be understanding. Quite frankly, she was jealous of Daria's situation. Hell, she hadn't even loved two men before. Most of her relationships had been the purely physical type, and there was only one she could think of that she had actually believed might have some potential for long-term. But that one hadn't ended very well...irony of ironies, the guy was now involved with Daria's crisis.
~~~~~~~
Two and a half weeks later, Daria was starting to get worried. She still was getting sick in the mornings, and her period was a week late. She had explained the sickness to Jane as the flu, telling her it was probably the stress from her job and her relationships. But... although the doctors had said it was unlikely she would ever become pregnant again, they hadn't told her it was impossible...
Get ahold of yourself, Daria. You don't have to freak until you know for sure. She threw aside the book she was reading; she hadn't been able to concentrate anyway. "Jane?" Daria addressed her friend, who was in the process of painting a still life. "Do you want to go to the drugstore with me?"
"Sure. But what do you need? I thought we already got your flu medicine..." Jane sounded confused.
"No, it's not that. I think-- well, I don't want to say what I think yet, but let's just say I'm going to need some moral support for this trip."
Jane rinsed out her brush. "All right. I'm nearly done with this anyway." She upended the brush in a cup and started putting on her shoes. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but if there's something bothering you, I'd like to know about it. You are my best friend, after all."
"I'd rather show you once I get it."
"Okay." Jane shrugged. It was something of an unspoken agreement they had with other; no prying. They were both private people. She grabbed her car keys. "Let's go."
At the drugstore, Jane waited in the car while Daria got whatever it was that she was going to get. When she came out, Jane thought she looked kind of pale. Rolling down the window, she asked, "So, what did you buy?" Wordlessly, Daria handed her the bag, then went around to the other door and got in the passenger's side.
Jane opened the bag and looked inside. "A pregnancy test kit? But I thought you said--"
"It was unlikely. They didn't say it was impossible."
Jane thought for a moment. It did make sense. Daria's mood swings, the morning sickness, the stress... "Well, let's go try this thing out." She backed out of the space and drove back home.
When they got to Jane's apartment, Daria silently took the bag and went into the bathroom. A few minutes later, Jane rapped on the door. "Well? How did it come out?"
Daria opened the door. Jane was startled; she looked even paler than before. "I'm pregnant, Jane."