Circles

Chapter Forty Three

            “Liz, you have to go! Get up!” I yell.

            “No! I am not getting out of this bed, and I am not going to this appointment!” Liz screams back.

            Cody walks into the bedroom and gives me a look. “Why won’t she get up? She has an appointment.”

            “I know she has an appointment, that’s why I’m trying to get her up!”

            “I am not getting up! Go away!” Liz yells.

            “She’s in a terrible mood,” I say quietly to Cody.

            “You don’t say.”

            “Liz, come on. You know you have to go,” I say flatly.

            “Why? Why do I have to go? The baby’s going to come whether or not I go to these stupid things,” she mumbles into her pillow.

            “It’s to make sure it’s healthy,” Cody says. “Don’t you want to make sure it’s healthy? And that you’re healthy?”

            She sits up slowly. “I don’t feel good. I don’t want to.”

            “You have to,” I say sternly. “Get up.”

            She groans. “Fine. Fine. I’ll go.”

            Cody and I stand in the hallway while we wait for Liz to get dressed.

            “Do you know what’s bothering her?” I ask.

            “She’s just generally uncomfortable,” Cody says. “She’s gaining weight, her boobs hurt, she’s throwing up, and she’s nervous about it all. Not a good combination.”

            “No, definitely not,” I say.

            “She keeps asking me if she’s showing,” he says. “She’s definitely starting to, but I’m afraid to say anything.”

            “Well, it’s inevitable,” I say. “She can hide it pretty easily now with loose clothes, but in two or three weeks, forget it. It’s going to happen.”

            “Yeah,” he says, nodding.

            Liz opens the door. “Let’s go,” she says with a glare.

            We walk to the bus stop and get on board, sitting in the back like we always do.

            “Can you believe Mike is still with the police?” Liz asks as we pull away from the bus stop.

            “It’s crazy,” I say. “I don’t think they always take them for questioning the same day, so that might be part of it, but still. A week is a long time to go through all of that.”

            “I heard that they have some pretty awful ways of getting people to tell them stuff,” Cody says.

            “What do you think they do?” Liz asks.

            “Well, this one guy from my parent’s Circle went in for questioning once, and he wouldn’t talk for days. He came home covered in marks and bruises and stuff. He didn’t speak for a week when he got home,” Cody says. “It was scary.”

            “Wow,” I say.

            “What was he being questioned about?” Liz asks.