Everything In Between (COMPLETED)

BEFORE || Walk The Line

I felt eyes on me from every direction, lingering just a second to long to be wandering. Ashley stood with the two boxes of pregnancy tests in her right hand, lips pursed as she scrolled through her phone with her left. She was either oblivious to the eyes that trailed our every move, or she had grown so used to them that she pretended to be. Catching me shifting uncomfortably in her peripheral, she tucked the phone into the back pocket of her jeans so all that was visible was the top of her obnoxiously glittery pink IPhone case. She extended her right arm and draped it over my shoulder so her red acrylics were digging into my own, then with a quick tug, pulled me against her side.

"Chill, babe." she whispered, and for reassurance added, "Everything is going to be fine."

I didn't bother to lift my head and look at her, but shrugged her arm off despite it being a comforting gesture.

It was easy for her to be so carefree about the situation. She wasn't the one who'd spent more time over the toilet seat than her classes the last two weeks. She wasn't praying to God every second of standing in this line under the intensity of disapproving looks that only one line showed up on those tests.

A clearing of a throat brought me back down to Earth, and I finally lifted my head and threw a look over my shoulder to find a middle aged man with a bored expression making a gesture ahead of us. I quickly turned to find Ash had moved ahead to the cashier and was making small talk with the woman. The cashier, who seconds ago had resembled an old hag with her nasty remarks and dark, beady eyes, was grinning and responding to my best friend with a spark igniting in those dead eyes.

Ashley had that effect on everyone she met. The ability to completely wrap them around her perfectly manicured finger with a pretty smile and even prettier words. It wasn't something that'd come to her naturally, but a product of her parents divorcing when she was eleven and having to learn to sweet talk both sides to get what she wanted. It just gradually extended to people outside of our little circle, and at some point she became one with the ability.

"Earth to Harley." my best friend's nails danced across a coffee cup inches from my face. "Come on. We need to go do this. I have to be at work at six."

I nodded, following after her without a word until we'd reached her Nissan Sentra. I climbed in the passenger seat with no desire to conversate. Unfortunately Ashley didn't catch the drift and broke the silence.

"Look, I don't think sitting here and wallowing in the uncertainty is going to do you any good, Har." she stated with a softness in her tone. One that she only used in my presence. "What we need to do is figure out who the Daddy might potentially be if the tests are positive. If they aren't, we're scheduling you a Sex Ed class somewhere and buying you a closet full of condoms."

A smile pulled at the right side of my mouth as she started the car. Her fingers tapped the steering wheel, her words mouthing the lyrics to the overplayed Taylor Swift blasting through the speakers. Fortunately, she took my silence as an opportunity to change the subject and direct it on herself.

Guilt gnawed at me as I started to disassociate listening to her complain about her crappy manager. I'd spent the last fifteen years being Ashley's ear and the only person in her life that didn't fall victim to her charm. I told her how it was and vice versa. I always believed it was what kept us friends for so long, how different we were, but also how willing we'd be to take a bullet for one another.

Watching the trees blur into a mess of green as tears started to surface, my best friend's voice became a dull background noise, lost somewhere in the melody of the pop song. Because I knew that this was different. This wasn't a mistake that'd be fixed with a batting of lashes and sweet talking.

If I was pregnant, not even Ashley Cooper could prevent the extent in which my life was going to change.

*

I kept my face buried between my hands as Ashley hummed along to the music blasting from the tiny little speaker propped against the assortment of perfume lining her bathroom counter. She was halfway over the sink, applying a fresh coat of cherry red lipstick. Once she'd capped the small tube, she dropped it into her makeup bag, straightening the second her smartwatch started beeping. I swallowed the nausea easing its way up my throat and watched her expression for any change, good or bad, as she extended her hand and pulled the two tests from the edge of the countertop.

"Ash." I whispered, but her name caught in my throat and it came out in a sob.

She remained still and stone faced for a moment before her poker faced melted and she breathed a quiet, "You have so many options, Harley."

I hardly had enough time to stand and turn before I vomited. She walked over and held my hair back in a tight fist with one hand and rubbed my back with the other. She waited until she was sure I was done to flush, then shut the lid and touched one of her fingers to my shoulder.

"Babe, hey, look at me." she touched her index finger to my chin gently and forced my eyes to her. She was a blurred image before me, but she didn't fold as I was, but grasped both my shoulders and stated, "No matter what you choose to do, I will be here to support you through it, Harley. Okay? You're not doing this alone."

I nearly crumbled completely hearing the words. She brushed a few loose strands of my hair out of my eyes and continued, seeing I wasn't going to speak. I couldn't.

"You're eighteen. You're still so young and have so much life left to live." she said, smiling, then louder said, "If you want this baby to be apart of that life, then that's totally okay. If you don't, that's okay too."

As she knelt before me in her uniform, perfectly made up, I knew better than to keep her here when she already had strikes against her. Once she'd left with a promise to be back in a few hours and her mother not caring if I crashed in her room, I forced myself to my feet and made my way to the sink. I grabbed the toothbrush I'd bought for my sleepovers here and gagged the second it was in my mouth. Once I was able to get through brushing and rinsing my mouth, I wandered back into Ash's room and laid on top of the pale pink comforter. My fingers found one of her matching ruffle pillows and I slowly retracted my arm with it and hugged it to my chest.

Finally, my thoughts trekked into forbidden territory, and I thought about the baby's father. My baby's father.

Dalton Ambrose was a hot mess. I'd known that the minute he'd approached me at the frat party Ash had dragged me to two months ago. With his taunting smirks, mess of blonde hair, and piercing green eyes I'd been victim to him before a word had been shared between us. Alcohol thrown into the mix had made me lose all control I'd had and made most of the events that'd followed making out with that hot mess a blur.

We hadn't spoken long enough for me to learn any more than he was a few years older than me and lived with his brother because he was jobless for the time being. I'd never thought him to be any more than a fun night, but I suppose life had other ideas.

I pulled my phone from the end of the bed and rolled on to my back. I searched his name through every social media platform until I found the right guy. There was no mistaking that perfect smile and those emerald eyes. My thumb hovered over the message button, but my index finger ultimately won in the internal confliction on whether to message him or not. Cursing quietly, I forced myself back into the app and pressed on the message.

Holding my breath in anticipating I typed a simple hey before tossing the phone across the bed and burying my face in the pillow, hoping when forced myself upright again this will all have been a nightmare.