Did You Know?

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

            After I cooled down a bit, I took Nat by the shoulders and led her to her bed. She sat down gently and I began to pace around the room. Nat Pregnant? Natalie Mia Evans…pregnant? How could this be?

“Okay Natalie. You are going to tell me everything. Got it?” She nodded I sighed.

“Just…start from the beginning. How did you find out?”

“Well, ya know on Monday, you guys asked me what was wrong.” I just nodded.

“Well, I didn’t know at the time what was wrong, but I just wasn’t feeling right. Not sick, just not right. So I went home and I told my mom. She asked me when the last time I was on my period. She thought that was the cause of it, but I never felt this way before.” She took a deep breath and kept going. “I went upstairs to my room and checked on the calendar and it said I skipped a month. I told my mom and she came back with a pregnancy test.”

Tears welled up in her eyes and I hugged her. “It was positive.”

“Nat, how do you know for sure? I mean, maybe it was a fluke.” I said hopefully. It had happened to my mom, so why can’t it happen to Nat? I watched Nat go into her bathroom and come back with an armful of tests. She laid them, face up on the bed.

“Positive, positive, positive, positive… It just doesn’t stop! I think I’m pregnant, Riley.” Her expression was blank. I looked at all of them and noticed one negative. “Nat?”

“That’s only one, Riley. Look at all the others. Besides, my mom said its negative ‘cause I took it too many times.” I heard the frustration in her voice. “I just don’t know what to do! My parents are really disappointed in me, but at least their supportive. They keep reminding me that everything will be okay and they are going to help me take care of it. I’m just glad they aren’t going to kill me.”

“So, you’re keeping the baby?” I asked. Of course she was, this was Nat.

“Yeah.”

“Well, um, who’s the father?”

Nat looked hurt and whispered, “ I’m so, so sorry Riley. I really am.” Tears silently ran down her cheeks and she wiped them away.

“Why are you sorry? Is it about the daddy? Just tell me, Natalie.”

She mumbled a name and her cheeks turned a rosy pink. “Excuse me? Who?” I asked again.

“Ezra.”

I choked. It must’ve been my spit or something. Nat pounded on my back.

“What! Ezra! Ezra as in my older brother?!” I screeched. This couldn’t be happening. Nat was just going to laugh it off and tell me it was someone else. Better yet, she’ll tell me she wasn’t pregnant sixteen year old at all and she stole her mom’s old pregnancy test. But then I saw her nod her head.

“Nat! What in the world! Why him? Of all people, why HIM?”

“One thing led to another, okay? I’m sorry!” She started to cry and I wanted to smack her and comfort her at the same time.

“Okay Nat. I got to go. But, I’ll come back tomorrow. Do you want me to, um, tell the others? It might make it easier.”

“Okay.” She squeaked. We hugged good-bye and I raced home.

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            “Ezra Cameron Betz, what have you done?”  I screamed as soon as I walked into the door. My parents were off on a business trip and they thought me and Ezra were responsible on our own for a few weeks. As if. But they did that a lot, so we were used to it. I ran around the house trying to find my seventeen year-old brother. I found him on the couch in the living room, texting. His brown hair was flipped over one of his green eyes. We shared those features. We both had the brown hair from our dad and the green eyes from our mom.

“Ezra!” I growled. When he didn’t respond, I grabbed hold of his phone and flung it across the room. He looked up at me with an angry expression.

“Hey! How would you like it if I did that to your phone, huh?”

“Ezra just shut up. We have a problem, here. You got Natalie pregnant!” I screamed at him and his eyes widened.

“Oh no. Your little friend?” I nodded and Ezra cussed. “What are mom and dad going to say? How is she? How far along? Is she going to keep it? Oh no, I can’t just leave her on her own! But, I don’t even like her!”

I groaned. I always knew he’d been a player, but with my best friend? “You mean to tell me you just had to go at it with my best friend?”

Ezra blushed. “Well, we at a party and were dared to kiss, and I thought, well I’ve done it with a lot of these girls so why not her. And then, yeah.” I waited.

“Fine, maybe I had a drink.”

I waited. “Okay, I had like, five. Happy?” Ezra got off the couch and sighed. “What is wrong with me? I’m sorry sis.” He smiled weakly.

“Thanks, but I’m not the one you should be saying that to.”

He sighed and trudged toward the door. Before he turned the knob, I called out, “Ezra?”

He returned and I gave him a nice, long hug. He squeezed me back, then left.