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“Get out of your head,” Joey grunted softly, nose brushing against mine as he pressed another kiss to my lips and pulled me back to the moment. To him. “Stay with me,” he instructed, green eyes locked on mine. “Be here with me.”
“I am,” I whispered. “I’m with you, Joe.”
With my eyes wide open and focused entirely on his, I forced my fears to the back of my mind, letting my body take over the thinking for me as I drowned in my feelings for him.
______________________
Several hours later, long after he had fallen asleep beside me, I slipped out from under his arm and quietly grabbed his hoodie and gray sweatpants from the corner of his room, throwing them on before creeping downstairs, phone in hand.
It was three-thirty in the morning, and his house was in a rare state of silence. I padded into the kitchen and dialed the phone number I knew off by heart, knowing that regardless of the early hour, my call would not be rejected.
“Hello?” my mother’s sleepy voice came down the line. “Aoife love, are you alright?”
“Hi, Mam.” Closing the kitchen door out behind me, I exhaled a shaky breath and leaned against it. “No. I’m not.”
Concern immediately filled her voice when she asked, “Where are you?”
“At Joey’s.”
“Are you alright?” she demanded. “Have you two had a fight?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Nothing like that.”
“Okay.” Relief flooded her voice. “It’s half three in the morning, pet.”
“I know, Mam.” I chewed on my nails anxiously. “I just…” I exhaled a pained breath. “I needed to hear your voice.”
There was a long stretch of silence and I heard the ruffling of bedclothes, followed by footsteps padding. “Okay, I’m in the kitchen alone,” she said a few moments later. “Your father’s upstairs in bed. We can talk.”
Trembling from head to toe, I exhaled a cracked breath. “I don’t know where to start.”
“Start at the beginning.”
“I’m in trouble, Mam.” I heaved out a sob and let my head fall forward. “And I’m really scared.”
“Okay…”
I shook my head, unable to get the words out.
“Aoife.” She sighed heavily down the line, and I could hear the kettle bubbling in the background. “What kind of trouble?”
“The late kind,” I strangled out, lowering myself to the floor, dizzy with anxiety and fear. “I’m late, Mam.”
“Late?”
I nodded weakly. “Late.”
“How late?” she asked evenly. “A few days? A week?”
Shaking, I hooked an arm around my knees and choked out, “Almost thirteen.”
“Thirteen days?”
“Weeks.”
“Jesus Christ.” I heard my mother’s sudden intake of air, and it caused a flurry of panic to skyrocket through me. “Aoife.”
“I didn’t know, okay?” I clenched my eyes shut as I sobbed down the line. “I didn’t realize. I had my last period on the fourteenth of December, and then everything happened between me and Joey, and I just…I lost track, Mam. I had a period at the end of January. Except it wasn’t like a normal period. It was like a little bit of spotting, but I just put it down to hormones, but Casey said that vomiting can affect the pill, and that wasn’t really a period at all and was something called implantation bleeding. I was sick in the new year, Mam. When me and Joe were together? I was really sick for a couple of days, and I’m sorry, Mam. I am so sorry! Please don’t hate me.”
