“I need you to do something for me,” I said.
“I need you to let me sleep,” he mumbled in response.
“Oh, trust me, you’re gonna want to hear this.”
My friend was not a morning person, but hewascurious, and so he poked his head out from under the covers. “What do I wanna hear?”
I sat at the edge of his bed. “I got sick again this morning.”
He tilted his head at me, sleep still lingering on his features. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“I think I need to take a pregnancy test.” I hated saying the words, but I loved the look they invoked on Nick’s face. For a second, he only stared at me, brain processing. Then sleep fell off him entirely and his eyes went wide.
“You what?”
“I need to take a pregnancy test,” I repeated as calmly as I could.
He sat up. “Seriously? You’re not fucking with me?”
I gave him a smile. “Wish I was.”
“Okay.” He rubbed his eyes as if that would help him make more sense of the situation. Then he looked at me again. “You’re pregnant?”
“I might be.” Really, I couldn’t blame him for the disbelief in his voice. I didn’t want this to be true either. It was going to make things so fucking complicated.
“Shit, man.”
“Right.”
“Is it…?”
“Well, I haven’t had sex with anyone since Oceanport.” That should be enough information to answer the question he didn’t know how to ask.
“Shit, man.”
“You said that already.”
He only looked at me as if he was wondering how I could be so calm. I wasn’t, really. On the inside, I wasflipping out, but if I let any of that out, I would lose it.
“I need you to buy me a test,” I said.
He blinked. “You want me to do it?”
“I don’t want this all over the media tomorrow.”
“No, of course not.” He rubbed his eyes again. “Okay. Let me just get dressed.” He stood. “Jesus Christ, I can’t believe you’re carrying my cousin’s baby.”
“I might not be.”
“But you could be!” he said as he walked to his closet. “Like, holy shit. Itoldyou this was a bad idea.”
I licked my lips. “So you think it would be horrible if I was pregnant.”
“I didn’t say that!”
“You kinda did.”
“Well, I didn’t mean it that way! Get out, I’m getting dressed.” He grabbed a shirt out of the closet and flung it at me.