"POSITIVE"

"Wake up! Oh god, wake up now!"
I open my eyes and hear Christina groan in time to the loud banging that's going on.

"Is that our door?" she asks.
"If it is, I'm going to kill whoever is on the other side of it," I say, looking at the 6:38 on my clock.
"Tris? Christina? Please! It's an emergency."

Christina throws her covers off and heads to the bathroom while I get up and get the door. I whip it open to a frazzled looking Marlene, who pushes her way in.

"Oh, god. What happened? Who's hurt?" I say, taking in her appearance and the time and putting two and two together.
"Me," she says, and I let out a loud, somewhat relieved, breath.

Christina flops back into her bed and pulls the covers over her head while I make a trip to the bathroom. I hear another knock and a voice say "I got here as fast as I could. What's wrong?" I wash my hands and open the door to see Shauna consoling a crying Marlene, and Christina who's now sitting up and staring on with wide eyes. I raise an eyebrow at her, but she just shrugs. We both pile onto my bed and hover over Marlene, waiting for her to calm down and tell us what's going on.

"Mar," Shauna eventually says, "You need to tell us why you got everyone up at this god forsaken hour and made me drive over here." She fishes around in her purse before pulling something out and thrusting it towards Christina.

"Whoa!" Christina says, eyes large as she hops off the bed, hands up in defense. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes!" Marlene shouts, another bout of crying taking over. I look over at Shauna who's eyes are just as wide and lean over to get a better look.

It's a pregnancy test.

And it's positive.

"Uriah. Valentines," she wails through her tears. "Stupid. We were stupid!"
"Okay, okay, okay. Just calm down," Shauna says. "Are you sure? I mean, there are such things as false positives and missing periods for no reason, Mar. Is this the only one you've taken?" She nods. "Okay. Then first things first, we need to get another test. A different brand. Chris?"
"Yeah," she says. "I'll buy like 3. Just let me get dressed."
"I'm gonna go get you some water so you can chug it," I say. "And then I'll go with you Chris. Shauna?"
"I got it," she says. "Just hurry."

I run to the vending machine in the common room and get two bottles of water, slipping on some boots and a hoodie over my pajamas when I get back.

"Well, I have to say, I didn't envision my Sunday starting out with a trip to buy pregnancy tests," Christina says as we walk into a grocery store.
"Right? Maybe while we're here we should grab an industrial size box of condoms too," I say, thinking of the couple of times Tobias and I weren't exactly safe either. "And maybe a few extra pregnancy tests, because now I'm paranoid."
"You too? I thought it was just me," Christina says, laughing.

We stare at the pregnancy tests and pick four different brands, each one a multi-pack, before shuffling down the aisle and grabbing a few different packs of condoms. It's early, so luckily there's only a few random people in the store besides the cashiers. We throw everything on the conveyor belt —as well as two bottles of water— and and I see the lady look at the items, look up at us, then back down at the items.

"Isn't it a little late for this?" she says, swiping the first box of condoms.
"Isn't it about time you minded your own business?" Christina says, leveling the woman with a glare. I felt a blush creeping up when I first got up here, but now I'm just as pissed as Christina. Who the hell is this woman to judge us?

We throw some cash down and snatch our change back. I hand Chris a water, and open my own, chugging it as we walk to her car.

"Got it," Christina says as we walk through the door.
"Thank god. Between nerves and the water I drank, I'm about to piss myself," Marlene says.
"Here," I say, handing her one of the foam coffee cups I snagged from the lounge on the way back. "Pee in this."
"Ew! Is it clean?"
"Yes, Mar. You can dip the stick in it. That way, you can take more than one test right now."
"Oh I know. It's still gross." She takes the cup from me and runs to our bathroom.

"This, is a lot of tests. And condoms," Shauna says as she looks through the bag.
"We're paranoid," Christina answers.
"Oh good. So I'll just take one of these then," she says, pulling a box out and opening it.

We stare at each other while we wait for Marlene. This all feels surreal. I mean, it was bound to happen to one of us one day, I just didn't think that day would be so soon. I expected a few weddings first or in the very least college graduation before this was on the table. I don't have to use the bathroom yet, and neither does Chris, so we just open the boxes and lay out three tests, reading the instructions that came in each one.

"I never thought you guys would be hovering over a cup of my pee," Marlene says as we crowd in our small bathroom, "But thank you."
"You're welcome," Shauna says.
"Okay, they all say you leave it in the urine for twenty seconds and then pull it out, and wait for two minutes." Christina says. "Anyone got a timer?"
"I do," I say, grabbing my phone.

We time it perfectly —not wanting to run the risk of screwing up— and replace the cap, setting it down on the counter. We do the same thing with the other two brands, and silently stare at each other as we all sit on my bed for two minutes. Now I can feel my nerves setting in, and it's not even my test. My phone buzzes— times up. We all look at Marlene who looks like she might puke. She stands slowly, and walks into the bathroom.

"Uhh, guys?" she calls out nervously from the bathroom, "I…umm…help?" Christina and Shauna practically mow each other over to get into the bathroom first. The digital one says 'not pregnant' and one of the regular ones is definitely a negative, while the last one looks like it could maybe-kinda-sorta-possibly be positive. Maybe. If the lightings just right.

"Mar, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say these are all negative," Shauna says. "But we can do another one later, and another one tomorrow. We have a ton of tests."
"Dammit. I'm gonna be a huge ball of nerves the whole time. And how am I gonna face Uriah?"
"How were you gonna face him if they came back positive?"

I look at Chris who looks at Marlene. "Shauna's right," she says. "Even if it ends up that you're not pregnant, you should at least make sure he knows this happened. Scare some sense into that boy." I nod.

I love Uriah, I do, but he can be a little too much at times. Everything is alway a joke and a good time and a permanent smile on his face. Sometimes I wonder if anything bad has ever happened to him, the way he's so happy all the time. But this is a huge reality check. Not saying he still can't have fun, it just feels like he's more…immature than the rest of us.

"I gotta go now," Shauna says.
"Me too. Damn nerves," Christina says. I just laugh.
"Here. Might as well make it a party," I say, handing them each a cup.

"Mar, did you miss your period?" Chris asks while we wait our turn.
"No." I look at Chris who looks back at me with an eyebrow raised. I just shrug.

"Then, why did you think you were pregnant?"
"It was just, really, really light, and I know that can be a sign. I still don't know how that one was so perfectly positive."
"There has to be a reason," I say. "Did you pee on it? The stick I mean."
"No. I put it in the cup, like we did."
"Did you follow the instructions?" Christina asks.
"Well…not exactly."

This is such a Marlene move. I look at Christina who's mouth is just hanging open. I know exactly how she feels.

"Marlene!" Christina says.
"What?" Shauna asks as she comes out of the bathroom.
"Mar didn't follow the instructions! What did you do?"
"I left it in there until it turned positive."
"Is that even possible?" I ask. We all look at each other and shrug. Christina goes to the bathroom while I look it up on my phone.

"It says if you leave it in too long, it can create a false positive. Also if it's expired, or sometimes it can just be a defective one. Was it old?"
"No. Bought it last night."
"Well, it has to be either a defective one, or user error," I say, shooting Marlene a look.

I head into the bathroom and pee in my cup now —again, something I didn't think I'd be doing today— and call Shauna and Christina in to take out tests. We cap them and set the timer, waiting for what feels like the longest two minutes of my life.

"What if one of us is pregnant?" Christina asks.
"Oh shut up. That is basically asking for it. Bad juju," Shauna says. "Besides. We've all been safe..ish. We're just being paranoid." My phones timer goes off. I don't know why I'm so nervous. I mean, there's zero indication that I could possibly be pregnant. Still, I squint my eyes, hoping to not see a little plus sign.

"Negative!" Christina shouts. I look over at hers and look at mine, and breathe a sigh of relief that they're identical.
"Same," I say. We both look over at Shauna, who's eyes are wide. Christina leans forward and I see her look between the test and Shauna quickly.

"Holy shit! It's positive!"

A/N:

SONG: Queen - Under Pressure

Fun fact: I used the word pee way too many times in this chapter.

Thanks again for all the favs and great reviews. You guys really are the best!