I sat on a park bench in what looked like Central Park, New York. It had to have been December because snow was falling hard. The night sky engulfed the air around me, like I was inhaling darkness. I looked down at my mitten-covered hands, snow flakes perching themselves lightly on my fingers. I felt so good, though, so cold. A smile curled on my lips as I closed my eyes.
When I opened them, chaos was swirling around me like the flurries of the snow flakes.
"We need an IV in her, stat!" A woman yelled next to me. A man rushed over, prepping a needle. He looked down at me and noticed the panic in my eyes.
"She's conscious!" He yelled back to the woman. He bent down and got close to my face. "Everything is okay miss, we're taking care of you now."
Taking care of me? Pain punched me in the gut and I screamed in pain.
"Miss, you'll be okay, we're almost at the hospital." The IV was in my arm and what ever pain medication they were giving me kicked in. My stomach pain dulled and I slowed my breathing down. "Medication has kicked in," He informed the head medic. "Miss, on a scale of one to ten, how is your pain?"
I wanted to punch him in the gut with my brass knuckles and ask him about his pain, but decided against it.
"Eight," I replied. "But going down. Thanks."
We pulled into the hospital and they wheeled me into the ER where I underwent CAT scans.
"Are you or have you been pregnant?" The nurse asked.
"Um, no and no." I said, lying in bed.
"Okay, I'm going to do a quick ultra sound to see if we can find anything. If not, we'll have to wait for the CAT scan results to come in and see closer at what we're dealing with."
I exhaled loudly. The nurse pulled up my gown and oozed gel onto my stomach. She turned on her machine and put the ultra sound scanner on the goo. She moved it around and took not of what ever she did or did not see, mumbling some medical mumbo jumbo and saying 'hm' a lot. After about fifteen minutes of machine noise and humming, she printed off the papers and needed, cleaned off my stomach and said she would be right back with my family.
I laid in bed in silence, just thinking about stuff. A knock on the door broke my thoughts. TJ and my mom walked through the door and an overwhelming sensation of emotion hit me like a sack of bricks. I started sobbing when TJ rushed to my side and embraced me. Mom came running up and we all stayed in our small group hug for as long as we could while I cried like a child.
"What did they say?" My mom asked, pulling away.
I shrugged. "Not much. We did a CAT scan and an ultra sound but they didn't tell me anything yet."
"It could be kidney stones," Mom said, folding her arms. "It runs in the family. Kidney problems."
TJ ruffled my hair and gave me a kiss on the forehead. "You'll be okay Sugar," He said. "You're mom's right, it's probably just kidney stones or just really bad gas." He winked. I punched him in the arm and we laughed.
Another knock on the door and my doctor came in. She was tall with long brown hair. I wondered if that's what Gretchen would look like if she pursued being a doctor.
"Miss Spinelli, I'm Dr. Marshall," She said, picking up my chart. Mom and TJ sit down in the guest chairs while the doctor pulls up her chair.
"Am I going to be okay?" I asked off the bat. No need to beat around the bush.
"Well, I just wanted to ask if you've been having these pains before?"
"No, but I have been getting dizzy a lot and nauseous. But I thought it was the stress of graduating."
"Yes, well, congratulations on that, by the way. They were affects of stress, but not from school."
"Well, what then?" Mom asked.
"May I speak to Ashley alone?" The doctor asked, looking uncomfortable.
"But I'm her mother!" Mom protested.
"And Ashley is eighteen, a grown adult. This might be something she needs to talk to me about alone, then consult her loved ones. Please."
"Ashley, what do you want?" Mom and the doctor both look at me.
"I want Mom and TJ here. Please." I said.
"Okay. The results of the ultra sound confirm our medical suspicions that your... pregnant." Dr. Marshall said the word like it was voodoo.
I felt like my heart stopped. I can't be pregnant. I mean, TJ and I always worked to stay safe for these reasons. I'm even taking birth control!
"She's... what?" TJ breathed.
The room was quiet. No one knew what else to say.
Back home, I was laying in bed thinking. I asked the doctor why I didn't get morning sickness or anything. She told me that pregnancy affects people differently and not everyone get's the same symptoms. She told me some woman get no symptoms and find out their pregnant when the end up going into labor.
I rolled onto my back when a knock came to my door.
"Come in," I said.
"Ashley, I wanted to talk to you, mother to daughter," Mom said, stepping into my room.
"Mom-"
"Look, I'm not mad, just, a little disappointed. But we're here for you,"
I sat up and looked at her.
"'We're'? Did you... talk to dad?"
Mom looked down at her hands and sat on the end of the bed.
"I had to tell him sweetie,"
I felt heart broken. Why would she go and tell Dad without talking to me first? We could have done it together... in person!
"Please leave me alone," I whispered, curling into a ball on my bed.
Mom didn't say anything after that and left, leaving me to cry softly.