Page 148 of Made in Love and Blood

“A little two-sided, don’t you think?” she asked.

“That I don’t want a child between us to be a regret of yours in ten years when you finally have the foresight and understanding of what it made you miss out on?” he asked back. “And it’s not even a thing right now, Frankie. It can take days for sperm to get to the egg, and days for the egg to get fertilized and implant. Despite popular belief, the learning part of school was not where I fucking struggled. I picked up everything. So, we’re sitting here talking about a hypothetical baby that isn’t even a thing right now. It’s nothing.”

“Even if it’s a clump of cells, it’s not nothing.”

He couldn’t wrap his mind around that. “Why, because it’s yours?”

“And yours,” she shot back hotly. “It would be yours, too. That means something.”

“Yeah, that I should have a say.”

“No, that’s not what it means. It means something to me that it’s yours, but it makes no difference on whether you get to tell me what to do about it.”

“And yet,” he returned quietly, “you took the pill.”

Frankie sniffled hard and wiped at her cheek with the back of her hand. No tears came, but he could tell she fought them back. “Because you’re right, and I hate that.”

He chewed on his inner cheek. “I am sorry.”

“This is the one time you get a say,” she whispered.

Nico nodded. “All right, and there won’t be another. There will never be a reason we need to do this again together, okay? I promise.”

Frankie scoffed. “Come on, Nico. Condoms break; pills get missed.”

“Are you on the pill?”

“No. Not for two years. Kinda pointless when you have three periods a year that are spotty at best.”

“If we’re fucking, it’s not pointless. Get back on it. I’ll always have rubbers. And I want you to go see somebody about the period thing.”

“Stop it, I get enough of that from my dad and Carina.”

“Good thing. I’m joining the annoying chorus, too. Go to a doctor, Frankie.”

Her pretty eyes rolled. “Been to doctors, thanks, that’s why I know what it is and that it’ll come back once I’m up to weight, and things are normal,” she muttered. “Like stress. Which you are not helping right now.”

“That’s unfair.”

She sniffled again. “Yeah, that was kinda mean. I’m sorry.”

“But we won’t have to do this again, I mean it.”

“Shouldn’t have needed to this time,” she argued. “You can’t sit there and tell me you wanna be together in fifty years, and have kids, and marry me, and then follow it up by shoving Plan B in my face, Nico. It’s a slap in the face. That probably would have felt better, honestly.”

“You’re eighteen, Frankie.”

“So what?”

She said that now, but life didn’t see reason. It didn’t care like she did.

“All right, whatever. Second pill is your choice. We don’t gotta talk about it. I said my peace; you took the first one. Follow up with me or don’t on the other. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said softly, but she wouldn’t look at him.

Nico sighed heavily. “Look at me.”

She did.