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She noticed a couple texts. One from Stacey and one from Jessica. They were both concerned about her. She ignored Stacey’s for now but answered Jessica’s. She told Jessica she was fine. Jessica answered her telling her she was glad and asked if she wanted company later.
Thinking about it, Elizabeth agreed, thinking it might be a good thing to have a friend over, and right now, Jessica was the closest thing she had to a friend.
When she reached the kitchen, Elizabeth made herself a cup of coffee, put some bread in the toaster, grabbed a banana, then spread some peanut butter on her freshly toasted bread.
She took her breakfast to the next room to enjoy the quiet sanctuary. She sat in a comfortable chair in the small sunroom off the kitchen. This is where she liked to sit to relax and think, and that is just how she intended to spend her day.
The sunroom looked out on their back yard and had a perfect view of nature. Colorful trees, grass, her mom’s garden, bird feeders, and a bird bath made the yard welcoming. Sitting here in the sunroom, with the floor-to-ceiling windows, brought the outside in.
Her mind quickly wandered to school, and the year she had just completed. She and Trina enjoyed partying hard. They were both strong students who focused hard all week, so they decided that they deserved to have fun on the weekends.
Parties were plentiful, alcohol and pot were non-stop, and guys were in and out of their beds. Brady with her, and Trent with Trina, but there were occasionally others.
Elizabeth started thinking about the last few months of school. All those weekends leading up to the end of the school year, or at least the few details she could remember about the weekends. Her mind was a black blur of music, drinking, and Brady.
The more she thought about the past years at college, the more she thought about Brady. They knew each other from the very beginning of freshman year. They met at the freshman round-up held by the student council each year.
He and his roommate, Trent, decided to pledge a fraternity. They invited Trina and her to a party. They partied together ever since.
Placing her hand over her currently flat stomach, she closed her eyes and thought about what the doctor said. She was approximately thirteen weeks pregnant. When she thought backward, she realized she became pregnant in February. Yes, there were a lot parties, but luckily for once, she hadn’t slept with many guys that month.
There is a life growing inside her, a life she did not want, and didn’t even consider possible. A great despair set over her and she rested her head back on the couch. Even looking outside at the pleasant, sunny, day where the beginnings of summer surrounded nature, and cardinals flew in excited circle around the bird feeder, Elizabeth could not feel at peace.
Opening her computer, she searched for the only thing she could think of as a solution—The closest Planned Parenthood office. Taking a deep breath, she started to search the internet. Finally, she found the phone number she was looking for.
Stacey was in her kitchen enjoying her day off from the hospital. It’s days like these that she really enjoyed her nursing job. Everyone else was at work, her house was quiet because her brother was one of those normal people with normal Monday through Friday eight-to-five jobs, so she had the house to herself.
As she sat in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal and checking her social media and email, her mind kept wandering back to last night and her argument with Jacob.
She hated being mad at him. She should never have pushed the whole Kristen thing. Her thoughts of him and Kristen always get the best of her. They are the two people she loves most in the world.
In a perfect world, getting them together would be awesome. They could all be a family. She also knew that wouldn’t work out because Kristen is too self-centered for her brother; Jacob did have feelings for Jessica, and he feels like that relationship was messed up because of Kristen. He made bad choices, but Kristen made sure that it was messed up for good.
Stacey knows her brother, and she can tell he is already starting to have feelings for Elizabeth. She can see why. She seems smart and has her head on straight. She has goals and seems to know what she wants out of life, but most important to her brother, she goes to church. That is the number one priority for him. That is where he met Jessica after all.
Stacey finished her bowl of cereal and wandered outside to check their mail. She waved to Mrs. Parks as she backed out of the driveway and yelled across the yard to her.
“Good morning, Mrs. Parks. How is Elizabeth doing this morning?”
“She seems tired, but okay. She just got up. Feel free to go and say hi. I’m sure she would appreciate it.” Mrs. Parks continued onto the road, waved, and pulled away.
Stacey walked back into her house and laid the mail—mostly bills and junk—on the counter so her brother could see it as soon as he got home from work.
Checking her phone, she noticed that Elizabeth did not answer her text from earlier this morning, but decided she would go say hi anyway.
Elizabeth was in the sitting room off the kitchen, relaxing with her legs over the arm of a plush chair, her eyes closed, and her earbuds in her ears. Music relaxed her, so she was listening and zoned out when Stacey entered her house and found her in the sunroom by the kitchen.
“Hey, Elizabeth. I knocked and knocked. No one answered, but I thought I would come check on you. Your mom told me you were going to be home all day. I hope I didn’t bother you.” Not getting any reaction, Stacey tapped Elizabeth’s foot, and sat down in the empty chair.
Slightly startled, Elizabeth sat up quickly, and snatched her earbuds out of her ears. That small act of moving quickly caused her to be a little lightheaded and dizzy, so she placed her hand on the side of her head, and her elbows on her knees. She held her head steady and looked at Stacey with a shocked look on her face.
“Sorry,” Stacey said with concern. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” Putting her hand out to her new friend, she continued, “Are you feeling alright?”
“Yes, really I’m fine. I just moved too quickly and got a little lightheaded.” Looking up at Stacey with a smile, Elizabeth tried to reassure the girl across from her. “What brings you over?”
Stacey looked around the room, taking in her surroundings. She couldn’t help but notice how tidy and organized everything was in the house. The sun coming in from the large floor-to-ceiling windows gave a very open and airy presence to the room.
“This is a great room,” Stacey exclaimed looking around admiring what she saw. “Anyway, I just came to check on you. Jacob and I were worried. What did the doctor say?”
