19 & Pregnant (BOOK 1)

Chapter 12

LIV

I sat in my class, hardly focusing as I thought about all the work I had to get done that weekend. My English professor was going on and on about the importance of MLA, which a bunch of my classmates apparently didn't understand.

"If I don't see your name, my name, and the course name, you've done something wrong. This is the age of the internet, don't you-"

And blah, blah, blah.

Class was done at this point, so this felt more like an attempt to make us stay the whole time allotted. I could empathize with my professor, though. So if I were him, I'd just call out the students that didn't listen, and let the rest of us go about our days.

Yana, another one of my best friends, turned to me with a smirk on her face. "Let's just go. This man is turning red at this point, who knows how long he's gonna talk for?"

"You know he says that we have to stay the whole time, otherwise our attendance won't count," I reminded her, to which she rolled her eyes.

"Look," she nodded towards our professor, "he's not even looking at us right now. Let's dip."

I was about to protest again, but she was already pulling me up from my seat and pushing me out the back door. Yana closed the door softly behind us, "wow, perfect escape."

"Good job," I said, kind of giving her some credit for that. I could have waited, but I was glad to be finally leaving the lecture hall. Sometimes, I forgot that I was housing a growing human in my uterus. But my stomach, loud and angry, quickly reminded me. I hadn't eaten for hours, which was probably fine, but it didn't feel fine.

I was about to say something about eating for two, when I remembered I hadn't told Yana yet. I'd been so busy for the past months, we only saw each other at University. She didn't seem bothered, but that was only because she was so considerate. She was two years older than me at twenty-two, and we met when I was in grade 10. I didn't think we'd do all four years of Uni together, until she told me that she'd be taking two years off to make 'as much money as possible'. We talked all the time, and I had apologized for us not hanging out, but she said she understood that I had other things to do. Myra, on the other hand, was very much bothered even though she knew what was going on.

She texted me a few days earlier, immediately complaining and assumed I was with Rob. When I told her I was at home trying to finish one of my final essays, she called over and over to apologize. Meanwhile, I still haven't gotten an explanation about what she's been doing, and why she and Ryan disappeared at the club months ago.

Yana put her arm around my shoulder, "you okay?"

I nodded, quickly, "yeah, I'm completely fine. Why?"

She smiled at me, "you were frowning pretty intensely over there."

My hands went to my mouth. I didn't even know I was making any kind of face, which seemed to be a thing I did all the time. I kind of hated that people could tell what I was thinking just by looking at my face. It was like I was an open book, whether I liked it or not.

I was about to apologize to her when she spoke, "why don't you come to my place? We can get some boba and takeout, and I'll tell you about this guy I've been seeing."

"You've been seeing someone," I gasped, then immediately felt a pang of guilt.

'I've been seeing someone.'

Yana went on, not noticing my inner conflict, "yeah, I'll tell you everything."

******

I took a long sip of my honeydew boba tea, savoring the taste and texture of the bubbles. After stopping to get boba, getting takeout, and then swinging by the grocery store, we'd finally made it back to Yana's apartment. "Mm, okay, now spill the beans about this guy you're seeing."