Page 5 of Abby

After a nap, I snack on a couple of saltines and decide to call my sister, Riley, for advice. Riley is laid back but realistic. She won’t sugar coat anything, but she won’t judge either. I punch in the number and wait for her to answer.

“Yo,” Riley chirps into the phone. I can hear rock music blaring in the background.

“Riley,” I say. My voice is still rough from crying, and the line immediately goes quiet.

“Abs,” she says, concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Does something have to be wrong to call my big sister?” I laugh and wince at the halfhearted, stressed sound.

“What’s happened?” Straight to the point, then. This is why I called her, after all.

“I have a problem. I’m… Riley, I’m pregnant.”

There’s a pause on Riley’s end. “Shit. Shit, Abs, what are you going to do? I didn’t even know you had a boyfriend! What does he say about this?”

“I haven’t told him yet. I just found out yesterday. We’ve only been together for a month, Ri. What am I supposed to do? I like him. I can’t…” My voice breaks, and I swallow hard to keep the tears at bay. “I can’t lose him over this, Riley. What do I do?” My breathing picks up, and I sob.

“I’ll be on the next flight out.”

That shocks me out of my mini panic attack.

“What?”

“I’m coming home. You need support; I’m on my way. But Abs, you need to tell him now. Waiting will only make it worse. I’ll see you soon.”

“Thank you, Ri. I love you.”

“Love you too, Abby.”

The line goes dead, and I stare down at my phone for a moment before tapping Jake’s name.

7

Jake

“Hey, babe,” I say when I pick up Abby’s call. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you.”

“Hey, Jake,” she says quietly. Her voice is hoarse, and she sounds exhausted.

“Are you okay? You don’t sound too good.” The line goes quiet, and I hear her exhale shakily. “Abs? What’s going on?”

“Can you come over? We need to talk.” I pause at that, my heart fluttering in my chest.

“Of course, is everything alright?” When she stays silent, I feel my stomach drop. “I’m on my way, babe.” With a quiet okay, she hangs up, and my mind flies into a tailspin of what could be happening. Even though we haven’t been together for long, I already have strong feelings for Abby. I don’t know what I’ll do if she’s not happy with me. It may be too early to say it, but I think I love her. I don’t want things to end. With that in mind, I grab my keys and head out, stopping to grab us a light dinner on the way: Soup and bread from her favorite café.

I take the steps to her apartment two at a time and knock on the door. She looks worse than I thought she would. She’s pale with dark circles under her red, puffy eyes; she’s been crying. I step into the apartment and pull her to me. Her face crumples a bit, and I kiss her gently before leading her to the sofa and placing her dinner on the table. “Eat first, love. Then we can talk, okay?” My gentle demeanor almost seems to hurt her. Her lips tremble a bit, but she grabs a spoon and eats her soup.

We eat in silence. I keep glancing at her out of the corner of my eye, hoping to see some clue as to what she’s thinking, but she just looks tired and sad… A little scared even. Once we finish, she fumbles over what to say. I take her hand and pull her close, tucking her face against my neck.

“Sometimes it’s easier to talk when you don’t feel the other person looking at you.” She bursts into tears. I pull her closer and rub her back, rocking her gently back and forth.

“Abby, what’s wrong, babe?” I kiss the top of her head, “Whatever it is, we’ll work through it. I promise.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry, Jake. I…” She sobs into his neck again. His heart drops.

“Abs, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

“I saw my doctor yesterday,” she whispers against my neck. “My birth control failed, Jake. I’m pregnant.”

---