Artificial Insemination

Chapter Three

Jen started laughing.

"Wow, you had me worried for a second." She chuckled, covering her mouth as her whole body shook. "You're so funny, Lay. Come on, let's go order."

Layla managed to restrain from banging her forehead against the metal table in exasperation.

"I'm not joking, Jen." She said, shakily. "I'm really pregnant."

Jen was still smiling. "Okay. Who did you sleep with, huh?" She leaned her chin against the palm of her hand. "Was it Geoff? Oh, wait- Tyler? I remember you saying he was a hottie."

"No. No." Layla interrupted quickly, looking around the café. "Gosh, don't speak so loud."

"Well, come on. You're the one who's talking about being pregnant." The smile had dropped off by now. "Are you serious? You had sex before me, of course I'm curious. Did you not use protection or something? How the hell could you be pregnant?"

"Remember I went to the hospital last month? For the testing?"

"Um..."

"For the five hundred pounds? We spent like fifty of it at the arcade the next week."

"Oh yeah, I remember. I forgot all about that." Jen frowned, shuddering dramatically. "Ew. Please, don't tell me you got knocked up by one of the doctors."

Layla couldn't help but roll her eyes. "In some ways, it would be easier if I did." She mumbled. "No, there was a mix up with the testing samples and they accidentally inseminated me."

"I'm finding this hard to believe."

"Well, it's true whether you believe it or not." She snapped, fed up of explaining herself. "If I was joking, I would have told you already."

"Fine, who's the daddy then?"

"A shifter." Layla swallowed, rubbing her head. "His name's Dale."

Layla could see that her friend was creeped out by her words, the girl's face screwing up in what seemed like pain.

"Oh." Jen said, looking down at the table. "How did your parents react?"

"Badly, as expected. Mum says she's taking me to get an abortion on Monday, otherwise she'll kick me out of the house." She deadpanned. "I'm not having the abortion and she'll just have to get over it. I know she'd never kick me out. She's just being dramatic."

Jen looked back up at her, looking less creeped out. "Somehow I knew you wanted to go through with the pregnancy." The girl said, softly. "I know it can't have been an easy decision. Your baby might be a shifter, you know?"

Layla shrugged, feeling a bit defensive.

"I don't care." She told her, wondering if that was completely true. She put a hand over her stomach, still unable to fully comprehend something growing inside her. "It may be human." She paused. "But either way, it's still my baby."

Jen gave a determined nod. "Well then, I'll support you either way."

Grateful smile on her lips, Layla nodded back. "Thanks. I really appreciate that."

They fell into a strange silence.

One that was neither comfortable nor uncomfortable but charged with the knowledge that things between them had irreversibly changed. Layla felt like she had instantly aged ten years.

She looked at her friend and wondered what exactly was going through her head.

Jen had never really had much to say about shifters, but like most humans she knew her opinion of them wasn't that high. She had been fed the same small town gossip of them, had subscribed to a lot of the ideologies of her own parents, and had never spoken up in opposition against their treatment.