Chapter 11: What?
It had been two weeks since Manny and Chris were "together," and they had been getting closer every minute. No one could separate them and they had both decided not to have sex again for a long time. The first time was special and good enough for the time being, they agreed.
Emma, however, was a completely different story all together. She spent almost every night with Craig. She even slept over his house one night and got in major trouble with Spike and Snake when they caught her sneaking back in. Manny was worried about her. It wasn't like Emma to be so reckless. She knew it had to be Craig brainwashing her or something.
On Monday morning, Manny was in the kitchen eating breakfast with the whole family. Jason placed a steaming pile of pancakes in front of her.
"Mmm, they smell so good!" Manny said, complimenting him. Then she felt the need to excuse herself. She ran to the bathroom just in time to throw up in the toilet.
"Manny, are you okay?" Heather asked, appearing in the doorway.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It must have been something I ate last night. Chris and I went to that new seafood restaurant," she explained.
"Do you still feel sick? Maybe you should stay home from school," Heather said.
"Only if Chris can stay home with me," Manny joked. When Heather answered her with a blank look, she said, "I'm only joking. I'm fine. Plus, I have a MI presentation so I can't stay home anyway. Manny returned to the table and ate her pancakes. When she was finished, she hurried down to her room to get her backpack. "I gotta go now. Chris and I are going to practice our presentation before school starts," she said when she came back upstairs.
She gave everyone a hug and a kiss on the cheek before saying goodbye and leaving. Chris picked her up in his silver pickup truck. "Hey babe," she said, getting in. He said hi back and she kissed him on the lips. They made their way to DCS, ready for another boring day. Or so they thought…
In Media Immersions, Chris and Manny's presentation was going smoothly. When they neared the end, Manny suddenly covered her mouth and ran from the room. "Manny!" Chris called after her, but she didn't stop. He followed her and left a confused Mr. Simpson behind.
Manny was headed for the girls' washroom. She flung the door open and threw herself into the first stall. Chris could hear her puking and he ran in after her. Luckily for him, Manny was the only one in there. Chris found the stall she was in. He held back her hair while she threw up one more time. He also rubbed her back to try and comfort her a little.
Manny felt so sick that she didn't want to talk about it. She rinsed her mouth out in the sink and walked back to class, Chris' arm around her the whole way. No one asked any questions, not even the teacher. Quite a few people were suspicious; especially Mr. Simpson, but no one uttered a single word.
When it was time for lunch, Manny sat at her usual table with Emma, Chris, and JT. She didn't eat anything because she was afraid she would only throw it up later. When there was about ten minutes left to eat, Chris went over to Marco's table to talk with him. As soon as he left, Manny turned towards Emma.
"Want to come to the washroom with me? I have to pee," she said.
"No thanks, I'll just stay here and finish my sandwich," Emma replied.
"You can finish it after Em! I really need to talk to you," she whispered the second part in her ear.
"Sure, I forgot that I have to pee too. We'll be right back JT," she told him.
"What? You mean I'm not invited?" he joked.
"No!" both girls said at the same time.
In the washroom, Manny pushed open the doors to all of the stalls, making sure no one was in there to eavesdrop on their conversation. Emma was fixing her hair in the mirror. "So what did you want to talk to me about?" she asked Manny.
"Well, I'm not sure how to put this so I'm just going to say it. I'm a week and a half late," Manny blurted out.
"WHAT?" Emma yelled in disbelief.
"And I've been throwing up for no reason. At first, I thought it was seafood from last night. But I don't feel sick in between puking each time," she explained.
"But I thought you and Chris only had sex once…and you used a condom," Emma said.
"We did. But they are not 100 percent effective. I guess we are in that1 percentof people that it doesn't work for," Manny said. She couldn't tell Emma about Craig and Mr. Oleander. At least not now. She didn't want to tell anyone ever, but she knew that if the baby wasn't Chris' (it most likely wasn't) she'd have to tell eventually. So she knew that she had to tell Chris before she told Emma.
"Have you told Chris yet? Manny this is so exciting! We're having kids at the same time!" Emma squealed.
"No I haven't told him, I'm going to wait until I know for sure. But what do you mean? You aren't making sense," Manny told her.
"Well, I guess this is the right time to tell you that I'm five days late. And I'm never late, you know?" Emma explained.
"Oh man, this is so crazy. I can't believe this is happening to me. And it's happening to you at the same time," Manny said and sighed.
"This doesn't have to be a bad thing," Emma pointed out. I know we're young, but if we're both pregnant, the babies will be born in the summer. And giving birth to the child of the man you love is a miracle," she said dreamily.
"You love Craig?" Manny asked. "Don't get mad, it just seems like all he wants is sex. He doesn't sit with you at lunch, he rarely talks to you, and you two barely ever go out to the movies or anything.
"Of course I love him and he loves me. He told me. So what if we don't go to the stupid movies. We make love almost every night and our love has created a child. It's natural."
"Whatever. I think we need to find out after school today. We should go to the store and get some tests. Do you have any allowance money left?" she asked.
"Yeah, I have 20," Emma said.
"Good. Now let's get back to lunch before JT comes to look for us." The two girls headed back to lunch, one incredibly excited, and the other, terribly upset.
When school ended, Manny told Chris she was going to hang out with Emma for the night. He kissed her goodbye, and the girls walked to the nearest drugstore. They found the aisle that had condoms and pregnancy tests.
"These things cost a fortune!" Emma exclaimed. The cheapest test cost 12.99.
"It doesn't matter Em. This is really important."
"I guess you're right," Emma said. They each picked the test that cost 15 because it was a better quality one, and then made their way to the cash register. The clerk stared at them and raised his eyebrows when they put the pregnancy tests on the counter.
"Both of our moms think they're pregnant! Isn't that great?" Manny lied, hoping he would believe her. He just shrugged his shoulders and rang up their purchase. They paid him and got out of there as fast as they could.
When they got back to Manny's house, Heather had gotten home from work early and picked the kids up from daycare. They were all sitting in the living room watching Sesame Street. "What did you two get at the store?" Heather asked.
"It's just girl stuff," Manny replied, and they both hurried into the kitchen. Emma went into the bathroom with the bag while Manny waited in the kitchen. A minute later, Emma came out and quickly went downstairs, careful not to drop the test. Manny then went into the bathroom and got the remaining pregnancy test kit out of the bag. She peed on the stick and was about to leave the bathroom when there was a knock on the door.
"What are you two doing?" Heather asked from the other side of the door.
"We both had to pee!" Manny replied.
"You know there's more than one bathroom right?" she questioned.
"Yeah, but it doesn't matter now, we both went. I didn't feel like going upstairs," Manny lied. They couldn't walk past the living room with used pregnancy tests in their hands.
"Okay, whatever," Heather said and walked back into the living room. Manny breathed a sigh of relief and exited the bathroom, running downstairs as Emma had a minute ago. She had her test in one hand, and the boxes in the other. She couldn't leave them in the bathroom for anyone to see. She put her pregnancy test on her desk to wait. Emma had placed hers on top of Manny's dresser.
"I'm so scared Em," Manny told her best friend.
"Don't worry Manny, no matter what, it's going to be alright. We have each other to get us through this," Emma reassured her. The next five minutes was the longest five minutes of both of their lives. Emma's test results appeared before Manny's. When Emma finally looked at the little stick that would decide her fate, she began to cry.
"What is it Em? Tell me," Manny said, anxiously.
"I'm…I'm not pregnant," Emma bawled. "I guess it is better this way. Craig and I can always have kids later." She sighed. "I just got so excited that we might become moms together. Manny sat in silence for the next minute. If Emma wasn't pregnant, then maybe she wasn't either. Of course, Emma hadn't been throwing up randomly.
When Manny looked at her watch again it was time to look. She walked over to her desk and looked down slowly. Tears began to fall down her cheeks and she didn't say a word.
"What does it say Manny? It is positive or negative?" she asked.
"It's…"
A/N: Hah! I figured this would be a good time to stop the chapter…it'll keep you wondering.
