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The word clanged in her head.
Pregnancy.
~oOo~
Mom opened her wallet and withdrew a twenty. “Hannah, honey, go get us each a cup of gelato, please. You know our flavors.”
Hannah stared at the bill in their mom’s hand as if it had fangs and hissed. “I don’t want to,” she whined. “I’m fat enough already. And Kelsey isn’t even eating her lunch.” She sent a snarky grin Kelsey’s way and added in a terrible Cockney accent, “How can she have any pudding if she don’t eat her meat?”
Mom’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Do as I say or we’ll march right back to Hot Topic and return everything in your bags. If you don’t want gelato, fine. Just get some for me and your sister.”
They’d been at the mall for a few hours and were laden with bags. There were lots of great sales; Hannah had made out like a bandit at her favorite store.
Kelsey had found some good deals, too, and her mom had bought her a cute pair of earrings and a new bag; as usual, she totally stonewalled the argument that Kelsey was nearly thirty and made a fine income and could therefore afford to buy her own things.
But Kelsey was, to put it mildly, distracted. Her Panda Express cashew chicken tasted gross, which she was beginning to think had nothing to do with the quality of their offerings.
With nothing like the grace of a girl about to get free gelato, Hannah snatched the bill from their mother’s hand and slumped off on her errand.
As soon as she was out of earshot, Mom turned to Kelsey. “Are you pregnant, Kelsey?”
If Kelsey had been eating, she’d have choked. “What?!”
She wasn’t stalling, just absolutely shocked. Four hours ago, she’d had no idea there was even a chance she might be, she didn’t know if she was even now, and her mother could already tell?
“You heard me. Are you pregnant?”
It galled her to have to say it out loud already, when she hadn’t processed the possibility herself yet. But she didn’t like to lie to anybody, certainly not her parents, certainly not her mother, with whom she’d been close from the day of her birth.
She turned to make sure Hannah hadn’t sneaked back. She was in line for gelato, her arms crossed and her hip popped like she was disgusted with the world.
Facing her mother again, she said, “I don’t know. I was supposed to get my period yesterday and didn’t. I just figured that out this morning.”
Mom sighed. “And no sign of it coming? No feeling?”
Kelsey shook her head, which made her mother sigh louder.
She didn’t know what to say. Weirdly, her greatest impulse was to apologize, but that was dumb.
“Okay. After lunch we’re going to the pharmacy, and you’re going to take a test. Today. While we’re out.”
Wow, did she ever not want to do that while she was with her mother. And her sister! “No, Mom, I—”
“Yes. Don’t put it off, pix. Get the answer, so you can stop worrying andknow.” She reached out and took Kelsey’s hand. “You and Dex, you’re good?”
“Yeah, we are. We’re great. But it’s only been a month. It’s too soon.” Suddenly, it seemed super important they have that talk and make some official decisions about the future.
“Does that mean you don’t want to keep it? If you are pregnant.”
Again, Kelsey looked for Hannah. She was one person back from the counter. “I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking about thisat alluntil this morning.”
“But you want to have kids.”
“You know I do.”
“And Dex?”
“I don’t know. We’ve only been together since Christmas, Mom! We haven’t talked about the future at all yet.”
