Chapter I

She's been crying in the bathroom for the last thirty minutes. Her parents are both working, will be for another few hours still, and she's glad for that. She should be in school herself right now, but her teacher had sent her to the nurse's office, who in turn had sent her home, two hours ago.

Sharon had been feeling strange the last few weeks, but she chalked it up to stress, being in her senior year of high school and having already applied to several universities. She's been a straight-A student all her life, her parents pushing her into law school, and she would have objected if she really didn't love the idea of becoming a top lawyer and, maybe one day, follow in her father's footsteps and becoming a highly recommended judge. She'd always dreamed of her own law firm, partnering with her now ex-boyfriend. This leaves her with just enough free time to enjoy the occasional outing with her best friend and the boy she thought she'd be with forever.

And it certainly doesn't leave her enough time to be sick, which is why she ignored it and pulled through regular school hours, after school activities and late night study sessions, until she almost had thrown up in English class today. That's when she admitted, that she might actually need a break.

The school nurse had taken one glance at her, determined that she looked like she was coming down with something, and then proceeded to supply her with some tissues and a slip permitting her to go home and rest. When she'd left the office, Sharon almost fainted. When she visibly gagged at the smell of the tea the nurse provided her with, the woman raised some questions Sharon hadn't even thought about until then. Another half hour later they parted ways with the nurse telling her she's not allowed to hand out pregnancy tests but she'd highly recommend she'd buy one. Sharon exited the school looking worse than she had just an hour ago.

She sat in her car for another fifteen minutes, sobbing. She didn't even know yet, if she was indeed pregnant, but the possibility alone was enough to make her cry. And then, suddenly, her head hit the steering wheel and uncontrolled laughter spilled out of her mouth. The whole situation was ridiculous. Five weeks ago, had this question been brought up, she'd have laughed out loud, because to get pregnant, you need to have sex – and between her catholic upbringing and her little free time sex was one of the last things on her mind. Then this one night happened, where she said screw it because she has been going out with Jackson Raydor for four years, she was desperately in love with him and they had already made plans for the future – marriage, jobs, kids, a house and the dog.

Their relationship had been perfect from the start. He had transferred to their school four and a half years ago and they'd hit it off in one of their first English classes together. She hasn't had that many friends in school back then, Andrea, her best friend being a year younger than her and therefore not attending classes with her, and so she had been pleasantly surprised, when the cute new guy chatted her up. They'd gotten to know each other, hanging out in a group of four in the beginning – Andrea and Andrew Flynn, a guy Sharon had been going to school with for years but never talked to, Jack had become friends with pretty quickly, being included, too. After Jack, who was a great people social person, gathered more friends, their group expanded by quite a few people. Sharon hadn't really hated it, but she couldn't deny that she had been a little disappointed that he seemed to only see her as a friend. Flynn had flirted with her some, never really seriously though, but she hadn't been interested in him like she'd been in Jack.

The day Jack had finally asked her out on an official date she had been over the moon, spending the majority of her Friday evening in her room talking to Andrea on the phone, and come ten in the morning on Saturday, the two girls went over every item of clothing in Sharon's closet to find the perfect outfit for her date that night. Their date had gone so much better than she had even expected and by the end of the night, she had a second official date the following Saturday.

While he had wanted to be a gentleman, she had kissed him on the second date. They hadn't even made it to the movies, when she'd stopped him with their entwined hands and leaned up to connect their lips. He'd been her first kiss, even her first boyfriend, and though she always wanted to do things slow with her first boyfriend, she felt like their second official date wasn't their second date at all. With them spending all their time together anyway, this could easily count as date number ten anyway.

She had been attracted to him right from the moment she saw him, and at the time they started dating, she thought it couldn't get any better than this – her first crush turned into her first boyfriend turned into her first kiss. With her fourteen years of age, she was naive enough to imagine a life with him, but not stupid enough, to actually believe it would happen. Even after he'd told her he loved her first and him being completely accepting of the fact, that she wanted to wait until marriage before they slept together, and though she'd been crazy in love with him, she'd been waiting for the other shoe to drop in the far back of her mind. It wasn't until their three year anniversary that he not quite proposed to her but promised he would marry her some day if she let him, that she finally started to believe they would be together in their sixties, watching the grand kids chase the dog through the backyard.

On their four year anniversary five weeks ago, she'd thrown caution to the wind and told him, that she didn't want to wait anymore. He'd been good about it, considerate, asking her more than once, if she was sure, because he wanted her, but he was okay with waiting because he loved her and he didn't want to push her. But she'd assured him, because at this point, she still believed he actually did love her. They had been together for four years, so she knew, that there had been a time where he really did, but the day she stumbled upon him sucking face with the bitchy blonde from their history class, she also realized, that the last time he'd told her that, it probably was a lie. She'd dumped him on the spot, too angry to talk about things – not that there actually had been something to talk about, she'd caught him red handed - and she hasn't really talked to him since. And if that hadn't been bad enough already, he hadn't even put up a fight about the break up, and when, a few days later she confronted him about the rumors she heard that the busty blonde wasn't the only one he cheated on her with he had denied all of it – even the one she caught him making out with. It had been Andy who, after Jack had started bragging, finally confirmed that all those rumors were true. Andrea had volunteered to pick up her things at his house and dropped off his in turn; in school she simply tried to ignore him.

So, it had happened exactly once, and of course they used protection, she wasn't stupid, but as she had been reminded in the last hour, it's not science and can fail, once in a freaking while.

It took her another fifteen minutes of almost hysterical laughing about her situation, before she put her car in drive and left the school parking lot. On her way home, she stopped by a pharmacy where she knew nobody knew her and bought a pregnancy test. The more time she had to think about it, the more she was sure it was wasted money, because she knew the result was going to be positive, but she needed to see it.

Once home, she locked herself in the upstairs bathroom, took another five minutes to decide to take the test, and then paced the floor until she could get the result. It's what she had expected, two thin lines staring back at her, and that's when she had started crying again.

When the tears finally start to cease, she pushes herself off the floor. She takes the little plastic stick and drops it into the garbage, stashing it at the bottom under a lot of toilet paper, then she checks her appearance in the mirror. She looks terrible, but a look at her watch tells her, it's late enough to call Andrea over (who can see her like that), but early enough that her parents won't be home for a while yet (who under no circumstances can see her like that).

Wiping her face with a wet towel to appear at least a little bit alive, Sharon leaves the bathroom in search for the backpack she'd lost somewhere in the hall earlier. Retrieving her phone, she opens her speed dial memory and selects her best friend's number. Andrea picks up during the first ring.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Well, hello to you, too" Sharon jokes,does a pretty good job at hiding she had been crying. At least she hopes she does. She can hear the worry in her friend's voice.

"Don't give me that" Andrea fires back, angrily. "I've called ten times in the last two hours. Andy said you left early because you weren't feeling well, and normally you let me know when you won't make it to the coffee shop after school. I was worried" Sharon let's her ramble on for a moment more, before she interrupts.

"I asked Andy to tell you I won't make it, I wasn't really up for conversation earlier, I'm sorry. But I'm calling now, to tell you to get over here if you want to know what's going on. I desperately need someone to talk to" They are still friends with Andy, after he decided their friendship was more important to him than the friendship of a pathetic liar and cheater.

"That sounds serious" Andrea half jokes.

"It is" Sharon's not joking at all.

"I'll be there in fifteen" With that, she hangs up, and Sharon's glad, because she feels another wave of tears coming, and she doesn't want to cry over the phone. It's bad enough she'll be doing that in person again soon.

Thirteen minutes later she opens the door for Andrea, who immediately pulls her into a hug after noticing the red puffy eyes and the tear streaked face. Andrea pushes the door closed with her foot and steers her friend, still wrapped up in each other's arms, towards the couch. When the blonde tries to pull away and push Sharon to sit down, she shakes her head.

"Not here" She takes her friend's hand and pulls her up the stairs into her room. Sharon's too afraid her parents could get home early and this is a conversation she doesn't want them to overhear. She knows, she has to tell them soon anyway, but today is not that day. Andrea just stares at her friend's red locks but follows her willingly. This has to be more serious than she'd anticipated.

Once in her room, Sharon collapses face down onto her bed, hiding her face in the pillows and wordlessly gestured in the direction of her nightstand. She had dug the positive pregnancy test back out of the trash, and that's what Andrea's staring at in disbelief when Sharon lifts her head from the mattress.

"Honey..." She doesn't really know what to say in that moment. She wants to ask if that is what she thinks it is, but that's stupid, because of course it is what she thinks it is. She wants to ask if this is real or a joke, but that's stupid, too, because of course it's real, Sharon wouldn't joke about that. She wants to say she's sorry, but that's even more stupid, because it's not her fault. So she takes a moment to gather her thoughts and thinks about what to say, but Sharon beats her to it.

"Yea..." She answers Andrea's two unspoken questions. "And I have no idea how to deal with it" She breaks down crying again.

It's the truth. Sharon O'Dwyer had ever been the girl that kept a clear head, always knew what to do in every situation. Until now – and that scares her shitless. She knows, had known from the moment the school nurse put the thought into her head, that she would be having the baby, that abortion was something, she would never consider. But that leaves her with so many other unanswered questions and so many things to do and take care of she doesn't even want to think about right now. She knows, she has to step up and be the responsible adult her parents raised her to be, but for the moment all she wants to do is be the irresponsible child that got knocked up by her cheating boyfriend.

"Shhh..." Andrea flops onto the bed next to her, her arms coming to wrap around Sharon's small frame immediately, and she pushes dark curls away so she can look at her friend. "I won't tell you that everything will be alright, because I know what you're afraid of, and I can't promise your parents won't flip or that Jack will take responsibility. But what I can promise you, is that no matter what happens – what you decide to do – you will always have me. I won't let you do this alone."

"Thank you" the brunet mumbles into her pillows. That's why Sharon loves Andrea; the blonde doesn't sugar coat anything, and deep down, Sharon thinks that this is exactly what she needed right now. "What am I going to tell my parents" Sharon goes on, flipping onto her back. "They raised me to wait until marriage and what do I do?! I not only sleep with the cheater, I also get pregnant."

The blonde tangles their hands on Sharon's stomach. "We'll figure it out, don't worry."

"They'll kill me" Sharon whines. She's definitely not back into the responsible adult stage.

"They won't. They might disown you though" Andrea tries to lighten the mood, but the glare she receives tells her, that Sharon is definitely not in the 'joking about it' stage either. "All jokes aside, you know I'm here for you, and whatever comes, we will figure it out. We always do"

"Thank you" it's all she has to say, again. She knows it's probably not nearly enough, but it had to do for the moment, until she finds the better words.

They lay there for a long while, both processing, what the day had brought them so far. Andrea's playing with their joined hands every once in awhile, while Sharon is wiping at the occasional tear, both of them brooding in silence – until Andrea finally breaks it.

"You wanna talk about Jack?"

"No" It's the first thing, Sharon has been completely sure of today.

Andrea stays with her for another two hours, and eventually, Sharon starts talking about Jack and the baby and what she is going to do about all of it - at least the parts she has already figured out, or isn't too scared to approach.

"I'm going to tell him" Sharon eventually says, breaking the silence that had once again crept over them. She turns onto her side again, lets their entangled fingers rest onto her hip because she isn't brave enough to lose contact with her best friend all together. She needs it for that conversation. With a heavy sigh, she continues. "He's an asshole, he won't take responsibility. He will either ignore me forever and deny it's his or he will try to talk me into getting rid of it. But I'm going to tell him."

"So I'm guessing you will not be getting rid of it?" Andrea hadn't thought so. She had known Sharon for almost all her life, she knows, that even if for no other reason than that, her friend had been raised way too catholic to abort a child – no matter the circumstances in which she had come to get pregnant. Still, after sitting here and consoling her over a pregnancy that clearly shows that she hadn't taken everything her parents had taught her to heart, Andrea thinks the question is justified.

Another long exhale, but this time she sounds more confident in what she is saying. "No, I couldn't do that." A tear escapes her eye again, but it is just this one and she is glad for that – she doesn't need another breakdown right now. "I still have no idea what I'm going to do, when they get here, though – but I guess I have some more time to figure that out"

"I hate to bring this up honey, but when are you going to tell your parents?" The question had been on Sharon's mind since she had left the nurse|s office – and she still has no answer to it. She had, for the briefest of moments, thought about just running away so she would not have to face them at all, but that's not her. Granted, ending up pregnant and alone with eighteen isn't either, but still.

"Never?" She tries a small smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. At the look Andrea gives her, she relents however. "Okay, I know never isn't an option. I will tell them soon, just not today, I need to process this for myself first." What she really means, is that she's afraid. Afraid of this whole situation, afraid of Jack's and her parent's reaction and afraid, what other people will think of her now. She had always been the good girl, had never done anything wrong – at least nothing that would shine a bad light on their family – so she has no idea what the hell she is supposed to do now."Could we not tell anyone else though? Especially not Andy?!"

"Sharon..." It's her decision, when and who to tell about her pregnancy, Andrea knows that, but Andy still is their friend and after everything he had done for them – mainly defend Sharon's honor in front of Jack and cut ties with the cheater after being attached at the hip for years – Andrea feels like he deserves to know.

"I'm not not telling him, Andrea" They know each other long enough to know what the other is trying to say, without actually expressing it. "I just want my parents to know first, and maybe even Jack – though the jury's still out on that one." She frowns at the mention of his name. She would have loved to never have to use it again. "And I definitely don't want to just call him up and spring this on him. I need time to think about how to approach this with him ,too."

"You know, he will be there for you, too, right?" First, Andrea had liked to joke that Andy had a crush on her, with all the friendly teasing and flirting. Then Sharon had started dating Jack and though they had continued with their light banter, he had never made any move on her. Andrea had taken this as a sign, that she had been mistaken, or that he was at least a loyal enough friend to both of them, to not get into their perfect relationship. He had turned out to be a pretty perfect best friend still.

"I do"

Andrea then frees her fingers out of Sharon's death grip and pulls the distraught girl back into a hug, where she cries for another hour until she hears her parent's car park in the driveway up front.

Andrea stays for dinner, doesn't even have the option of saying no - Sharon's mother had seen the other girl's shoes by the front door and promptly set another plate out on the table. She doesn't tell her parents that she had gotten home sick from school because when they arrive home from work, she would have been out of school anyway. She pulls herself together, makes herself look presentable and joins them for dinner – and when the smell of the dish soap her mother uses to hand-wash the utensils that won't fit into the dishwasher makes her nauseous enough to throw up, the girls excuse herself to study, the lie rolling off her tongue like she had practiced it more than once before.

The next day, Sharon goes back to school, like nothing happened. It's way too early to tell anyone about the pregnancy, and while she can still hide it, she plans on doing exactly that. She meets up with Andrea and Andy at her locker twenty minutes before school starts, like every day - and Andrea does her best not to let through that she knows something she isn't allowed to share. When they part to start their first lesson of the day - Andrea heading to biology, Andy and Sharon heading to french - their usual plan to study and catch up after school at the favorite coffee shop back in place.

Back home, after a long day at school, where she had been hiding from Jack more than any other day, she has a brief internal discussion about telling her parents about the baby now, but she chickens out the moment she enters the kitchen to help her mother prepare dinner. Two hours later, Andy picks her up for a movie, after which the two meet up with Andrea again for some ice cream, before the girls have their weekly sleepover. This time, they'll stay at Sharon's, which gives her the opportunity to come clean to her parents, and not be alone when doing it.

When, on Saturday morning, Sharon walks into their kitchen, where her parents are just finishing breakfast, Andrea's hand clasped tightly in her's, looking extremely nervous, they know immediately that something is wrong.

"Mom, Dad, can we talk for a moment?" She leans against the kitchen counter, staring intently at the hole in her sock, where a flash of red nail polish is shining through. There had been a moment, where she had thought about just blurting it out, and hoping not to be killed on the spot. She'd decided against it.

"Sure" Her mother answers, sharing a worried glance with her husband. "What's wrong?"

"It's not wrong, technically" Sharon stalls, because for all her bravado when she took Andrea's hand and all but pulled her into the kitchen to finally get this over with, she's scared shitless to actually say the words out loud right now.

A squeeze to their joined hands makes her look up from the floor. "Why don't you just tell them, honey" It's not a question, and it doesn't leave any room for negotiation.

Andrea had been like the O'Dwyer's second daughter, from the moment she had been born - they had known her parents since college - and so no one objects to her being part of this seemingly serious family discussion.

"I'm pregnant" She rips it off like a band-aid, hoping the worst had been over with. She goes back to study her toenail, so she only hears her mother inhale deeply, before letting it out in a slow exhale.

"No, you're not" To her surprise, though, it's her father who finds his voice first. "We raised you better than this"

Her head snaps up at this and she fixes her father with a hard stare and speaks out through gritted teeth "What do you mean, I'm not?"

"I simply refuse to believe that. I knew we should have forbidden you to go out with that Raydor boy" Her parents have never been incredibly fond of Jack. They hadn't exactly hated him, and after four years together, he was at their house for dinner more often than he had been at his own, but there always had been this underlying animosity. Her mother had, more than once tried to tell her that she didn't think Jack was good enough for her - and in the end, when Sharon had cried her eyes out on her mother's shoulder the day she'd caught him cheating, her mother had been kind enough not to point that out to her.

"It is Jack's, is it?" Sharon's hand around Andrea's tightens in anger at her mother's question.

"Of course it's Jack's! Who do you think I am?"

"I don't know" Her father exclaims. "You certainly aren't the girl we thought you were!" When she hadn't been leaning against the counter, Sharon is sure she would have lost her footing. She knows, she had screwed up, but this is a bit hard.

"That's enough!" For a moment, Sharon breathes a sigh of relief, her hand loosening around Andrea's. And then her mother continues. "We can still fix this" She immediately knows, what her mother wants to get at, and by the arm that snug around her waist, Andrea does, too.

"You're right" Her father gets up from the table at that, pacing the kitchen floor for a whole minute. Then he fixes his daughter with a look that leaves no room for interpretation. "On Monday, we will make you an appointment at a clinic a few towns over and we will never talk about this again." As an afterthought, he adds "Who else knows about this already?"

This time, despite the solid presence behind her, Sharon sags a little, if not for her best friend at her side, she might had even hit the floor. "No" It's not as determined as she intends it to be, to her own ears it sounds fragile and so quiet that she is surprised somebody actually heard her.

"Excuse me?!" Her mother gets in, before she is interrupted by her husband yet again. She buries her face in her hands, inhales deeply for a long minute to push back the tears and anger she's feeling and the she hefts her eyes back onto her husband, listening intently on how he is going to deal with this situation.

"Do you know what this does to my reputation as a judge? To your mother's reputation?" He sits himself down again, takes his wife's hand in his own. Sharon sees her mother wipe at a few tears, but she can't bring herself to care.

"This is all you care about? Your reputation?! I can't believe this" Sharon brushes away tears of her own now. Andrea tightens her hold around her, giving her all the support she can give in this moment. "I know, this is not what you wanted from me, hell, it's not what I wanted for myself, but this will not be fixed with an abortion. You always taught me that and now, that it's not fitting in with your perfect life, suddenly it's okay?!" She wants to stop right there, but a sudden burst of courage has her mouth open again before she can stop herself. "I will have this baby and there's nothing you can do about it. And quite honestly, I don't care."

With that, she stalks out of the kitchen on shaky legs, pulling Andrea along with her. She only lets go of her friend's hand when they reach her bedroom. There she pulls her suitcase out of her closet, stuffs it with enough clothes to not have go home until she is able to face her mom and dad again. On the way out the door, she grabs her backpack and her toiletries out of the bathroom.

"If you can't find it in you to support me here, then I don't want to see you again." Sharon enters the kitchen again, expects to cry saying those words, but she's so pissed off at that moment, that tears are the last thing showing on her face. "I'll be staying with Andrea for a while" She then proclaims. She doesn't even wait for a response.

"You support this Andrea?" Is the last thing she hears, before leaving the house and waiting for her best friend in her car. But by the way Andrea doesn't even need a full minute before she follows Sharon out the door, the answer is pretty obvious.

She had known, telling her parents wouldn't be easy. She had anticipated some harsh words, yelling and disappointment, but what she had not been prepared for, was her parents flat out refusing to support her decision to have the baby.

Once at Andrea's, they don't make it very far into the house, before Sharon breaks down, and now, she's curled up on Andrea's couch, pillow squashed to her chest, while her head, resting on the armrest, is turned towards the cheesy romance movie playing on TV. Andrea's hand is absently stroking through red hair, down her back and back up again, the movie forgotten as her complete and utter attention is on her upset best friend. At least she had stopped crying for the moment. A tub of ice cream is melting on the coffee table and her suitcase is standing in the corner.

The blonde tried to talk her friend out off the sappy rom-com, because she still believes, that it's the last thing she needs right now, but Sharon wouldn't have it. She had always been able to best shut her brain up, and the world out, by predicting the outcome of every such movie after first being introduced to the two main protagonists. This is followed by complaining that she's been right when one of the scenes she's described come on screen. It's brain numbing, and she loves it.

Still, Andrea doesn't think two people falling in love and ending up the perfect couple by the end of the movie is the best cure for a girl whose life just fell apart under her feet.

But Sharon needs something brain numbing right now because she doesn't want to start thinking about moving out of her childhood home altogether, because that ultimately meant she would not be mending fences with her parents any time soon. She remembers her mother telling her how hard it had been to find out she was pregnant with Sharon and not have her own mother there to help and guide her and, no matter what horrible things she had thrown their way during their rather heated argument, Sharon doesn't want that. No matter what she ends up doing – giving the child up for adoption or raising it herself – she wants her mother there. And if she decides on the latter, she doesn't want to one day tell her son or daughter the same story.

Sharon doesn't even realize when the cheesy romance ended and her favorite scary movie came on, but when Andrea reaches over to grab the remote and turn the TV off, the brunette stops her. The younger girl sits back, taking back up the task of stroking a comfortable hand down the length of her friend's back. She knows, she's probably not supposed to indulge this behavior, but after the day Sharon had, it's okay for her to wallow in self-pity for a while longer.

It's a pretty hot Saturday and her parents are out on their weekly date night/day. Andy had called earlier to ask if they were up for ice cream in the park and some swimming by the closed off lake, where technically nobody was allowed to swim, let alone linger around. Andrea had come up with a pretty good, believable lie, telling him flat out that they were spending their weekend out of town at her aunt's house, looking after some nieces and nephews she doesn't have. The girls just have to hope now, that Andy won't run into any of their parents, or they would have a hell of a lot of explaining to do. And honestly, the last thing Sharon needs right now, is more drama to end her already fucked up day.

When the second movie ends, and Sharon finally realizes, that the sun is gradually setting, she turns onto her back on the couch, staring up at Andrea. She is about to ask, again, if it's really okay for her to stay, but her friend's look shuts her up. She knows she doesn't ever have to ask.

The girls meet Andrea's parents at the front door on their way to bed and Sharon again feels like she should say something, ask for permission to stay, but it's them, who stop her from voicing her thoughts, too.

They may have been best friends with Sharon's parents since they started college, but that doesn't mean they have to like everything they did and said. And they had made it abundantly clear, that they did not condone their behavior towards Sharon. This night, Sharon goes to bed with the promise to be able to stay as long as she wants to.