18 and a Reason to Be Pregnant (#antiwattys2015)

Chapter 5

Jess' POV

"What? Did Emmet make you pregnant?" I ask an excited Waverly, who is still giggling joyously.

She just nods. I go on talking. "Lucky you! At least your parents let you have sex with your boyfriend! I bet I have to be impregnated by a stranger!"

"Not good news at all," she mutters, looking pretty unconvinced. However, I insist, "Not worse than having sex with someone you don't know at all, to end up pregnant. It's an absurdity!"

"Why should it be absurd?" she retorts. "Remember that it's our parents who expect us to have children. Emmet made me pregnant, this is what's bad."

"Yeah, but I will be impregnated by a stranger! That is even worse!" I insist. Though, it seems as a little idea is coming from my little big crazy brain.

I jump in. "Lee, I have an idea!"

"What?" She rolls her eyes, looking pretty annoyed.

"I could go and meet a guy, then we could start a relationship and he could get me pregnant," I say in a rush, without even taking into account that she isn't listening to me at all.

"Waverly Lace! Are you paying attention or what?" I whine.

"Stop whining!" she snaps back.

"Hey hey, what's going on? Are you hormonal or what?" I end up asking, though I regret doing so, because Lee looks very upset. She may be crying soon.

"Oh, darling, don't cry. I am sorry for saying that. I know you're not being like that. You're pregnant!"

She accepts my apologies and then starts humming. Something is going on inside that little wicked brain of hers. When she has an idea, nobody can stop her.

"Jess! What about a dating app?" she jumps on.

"And, so, why should a dating app involve pregnancy?" I stare at her, confused. This time, I failed to catch what she actually intends to say.

"I mean, you find some guys that could be your potential boyfriends. You get to know them better, you choose who's the best and then try to develop a relationship," she explains.

"Do you think it works in a very short time?" I am skeptical about Waverly's resolution. Mom and Dad expect me to become pregnant soon, and I can't waste my time looking for a boyfriend when I know they are gonna find one for me.

However, this is the best solution, at least until they intervene. So, why shouldn't I give it a shot?

"Perfect. I will do that. Naturally, we just have to make sure everything works as we plan. If my parents get to know I've found a good boyfriend and am willing to get pregnant by him, then they would stop putting pressure on me," I conclude, with Waverly nodding in sign of approval.

Naturally, I also have to tell the others, whom I haven't heard from for two days, and, to be honest, this situation is not making things as good as I expected. By the way, I am sure they will support me, and we'll all support each other, even though we may think each other's ideas are weird.

***

Later...

As soon as I'm back home, I don't waste my time and start opening online dating sites and apps. I must make sure to find a good boyfriend by myself, before my parents find someone I may dislike - I have to correct myself: I'll surely dislike who they choose for me.

I immediately find a good free dating app - MateDate - and download it, but not without taking a look at the users' comments. Most of them recommend it, as they rated it five stars out of five, but, naturally, there are people who are less convinced.

However, this won't stop me from trying it out, to see if Waverly's plan works. I open it, only to find out I have to sign up, which means I have to waste my time creating an account, registering and logging in - I really hate these things.

After finishing doing all that boring stuff, I can finally jump to the interesting part, which consists of searching for profiles. Naturally, there are criteria I have to take into account: the guys should be my age - eighteen - or at most one year apart; they must live in the surroundings; and, most importantly, they must be nice, reliable and responsible.

After putting all the required information in the database, I'm more than surprised to find there are dozens of guys who potentially want to know me. I must check that they follow all the criteria, therefore I end up discarding at least ten people because they only follow a part of them - there's even a 23-year-old in the bunch! - as well as two other guys because they have no profile picture, which is important because I need to know who I'm going to talk to.

This is the right time to start checking every single profile's details, to make sure they actually are who they say, though this doesn't necessarily mean they're absolutely truthful. Through this process, I discard four other people, which leaves me with a total of eight profiles left.

Now, here comes the most interesting, as well as the hardest, part of the plan: trying to get to know them better. This is why I'm going to message each of them, possibly starting a conversation and, why not, using my persuasion abilities to have them fall for me. Haha. This plan is contorted, but it may work.

***

About two hours later...

"Jess! Dinner time!" announces Mom, without even suspecting what I've been doing until now. I know she'll get to know that sooner or later, no matter how, though it doesn't seem as things could go differently.

I reach the dining table with a strange smile, which, anyway, my parents fail to notice. Dinner goes on smoothly, which means that, while they just mind their own business talking about stuff I'm absolutely unrelated to, I seem not to be able to think of the plan because I'm distracted by the pointless chatter.

However, as soon as it's over, I can go back to my room undisturbed, and check my phone. To my dismay, I've only received one single message. 'Crap. Something in the plan isn't working. But let's check the reply first.'

I read it carefully. To be honest, I can't believe at all what it says. 'Call me,' followed by a phone number. That's it. At first, I'm a bit hesitant, but then I find the courage to reply.

'Okay. I'll call you.'