Fourteen and Pregnant

Cutter

Me and Jess decided that we would meet in the food court at the mall. She was already sitting down and waiting for me when I got there.

“Hey Jess. How are you?” I asked.

“I’m alright… How are you?” She said, looking kinda sad.

“I’m good… Well, I’m as good as I can be for a pregnant person.”

She smiled. “Do you wanna get something to eat?”

“Yeah, I haven’t eaten all day, I’m starving!”

We went up and ordered our food. There wasn’t a line which was nice.

“I’ll have a cheeseburger and fries.” I said.

“I’ll have the same.”

“Ok. Is this together?” The cashier asked.

“Yes.” Jess said.

“Ok. We’ll bring it to you when it’s ready.”

“Thanks.” Jess said.

“You didn’t have to buy mine.”

“It’s ok. I wanted to.”

“Ok.”

It only took about 5 minutes for the food to come out.

“Do you need a fork or napkin or something?” I asked.

“Uhm, I’ll have a fork and some ketchup. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Oh, I guess I should probably have a napkin too.”

I laughed. “Ok.”

I got the things we needed and went back to the table. I gave Jess her ketchup and napkin and when I handed her her fork, it slipped out of her hand and fell onto the floor.

“Oops.” She said.

She bent over and got it, but her bracelet fell off. When she leaned back up, I looked at her wrist and saw cuts.

“Jess, are you ok?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

“No you’re not fine. You have cuts on your wrist. What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Uhm… Nothing just don’t worry about it.”

“No, I need to worry about it. There’s obviously something wrong.”

Jess was the type who would never give out information about herself to anyone, not even her parents, so I knew it would be hard for her to tell me what was wrong.

She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know. I’m just sick of my life.”

“Why?”

“I feel like nobody cares about me anymore. Before you got pregnant we were great friends, but after that, we hardly ever talked so then I started talking to Rebecca and she got pregnant and quit talking to me. Everybody’s getting pregnant and leaving me.”

“Jess, I’m sorry. I was just so caught up in everything that I kinda forgot about everyone except me, John, and the babies.”

“I know, but it still hurts. I don’t have friends like you do. I don’t have a boyfriend like you do. I’m just sick of being alone.”

“I’m really sorry. I never knew that not talking to you would hurt you as much as it did.”

I felt really bad, like her cutting herself was all my fault.

“Yeah, well it did.” She got up, threw her napkin on the table and walked out.