Page 11 of Home Run

“Does anything hurt? Any tenderness?”

I shook my head again. “No, nothing out of the ordinary. I’m about to get my period, so I feel a bit gross, and all the usual stuff that comes with it.” I glanced down at my chest, where my tee was definitely stretched tighter than usual.

“When did you last have your period?”

I shrugged, because I couldn’t actually remember. It wasn’t that long ago, but I knew it had been since school broke for the summer because Radley and I had been at a baseball game when it happened. And we hadn’t been to many games while our end-of-year exams were happening. “Last month, I guess.”

“And the last time you had sex?”

Ohgod. I knew exactly how long it had been.

Tanner flashed into my head. The feel of him inside me, the smell of him, the sensation of his skin slicking against mine. It was exactly what had been happening since he’d walked out of my dorm room. I’d wake up from dreams about him—all too real dreams—of his blue eyes boring into mine, my hands gripped in his fist, his lips teasing at mine.

Six weeks, one day, fourteen hours, and twenty-seven minutes. Give or take.

I prayed my cheeks weren’t burning red. “Maybe a couple of months ago. Six weeks tops.”

“Okay.” She finished typing up her notes and opened her drawer. “I’m going to get you to hop onto the bed, but first go and pee in this.”

I frowned. What did I need to pee into a cup for if I had food poisoning? But I took it and did it anyway, then handed it back to her. Thanks to the carton of orange juice I’d had on the way here, it wasn’t too much of a hardship.

“Okay, hop up onto the bed and lie down,” she ordered. “I’m going to feel your belly for tenderness, so let me know if anything hurts.”

I stared up at the spotlights on the ceiling as she began pressing down on my stomach. If I hadn’t just peed, Iwould definitely need to pee now. I’d need to pee again before I left.

“Is that tender?” Doctor Scott asked when I pulled a face as her hands hovered over my lower abdomen.

“Not really, the pressure just felt a little more intense there than everywhere else.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything else, instead, she turned to the countertop where she’d placed my jar of pee and a pregnancy test I hadn’t noticed before. A momentary panic crashed through me, but then she tossed it into the trash and poured the pee down the sink.

“Come and sit down again,” she said as she removed her gloves and washed her hands. “When did you say you started feeling sick?”

“Couple of weeks ago,” I replied. “My mom thinks it was bad shrimp.”

“It’s not the shrimp.”I knew it.But then Doctor Scott angled her chair to look directly at me, and this small, tiny, insignificant movement was enough to bring me out in a cold sweat. “You’re pregnant.”

Immediately, my eardrums were pierced with a deafening ringing, followed by a loud buzzing. “What?”

“You’re pregnant.”

“No. I havefood poisoning,” I assured her. “I can’t be pregnant, I take birth control.”

She was wrong. I knew she was wrong. Maybe there’d been two jars of pee and she’d tested someone else’s. Or the pregnancy test had been defective. Yes, that was more likely. I’d do another; after all that prodding I needed to pee again anyway.

Doctor Scott glanced back at the computer screen. “The antibiotics I prescribed for the chest infection you contracted—that was the end of your school year in May, yes? Did you use extra protection when you were having intercourse during that time?”

The ringing got louder. My entire face burned hot. The room began spinning.

Tanner and I hadn’t used extra protection. I told him we didn’t need it. I’d forgotten about the antibiotics, I’d stopped taking them a couple of weeks earlier.

I’d told him we didn’t need protection.

“I can’t be pregnant,” I whispered, it was the only volume I could manage. “Please check again.” I held my hand out. “Give me another pot to pee in. Please, Doctor Scott.”

She sighed but opened her drawer and handed me a pot. Once again I trundled into the bathroom next door, squatted over the toilet seat, and squeezed all the pee I could get out while trying to get none on me. Doctor Scott was waiting for me by the door, three pregnancy tests in her hand.

“Here you are.”

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