To Write Love On Her Arms (COMPLETE!:)

Chapter 19

Casen

I stood outside the front entrance of the school by the steps, fidgety and anxious while I waited for Abby to appear.

For once, I was grateful that Coach Reen kept Ethan a few minutes after class to discuss workout drills or most recently college options. He had to make a decision by the end of this week or else he lost his full ride scholarship. We were supposed to talk about it before he officially made his decision. But right now, I wasn’t really worried about what school he would be going to just that Abby got here before he did.

When I spotted Abby coming out the doors, I rushed over to her. "Do you have them?" I asked her anxiously.

She jumped in surprise. "Whoa, hey there. Yeah I've got them. Are you sure about this though, Casen?" she asked, digging into her large tote bag to pull out a small cloth pouch that I knew contained the leftover EPTs from when Abby had had a pregnancy scare after Jerry.

She held them out to me and I practically snatched them from her hands to quickly shove them into my backpack. "I'm several weeks later," I whispered quietly. "I have an irregular period, but I just want to make sure. Please don't tell Ethan, okay?" Ever since the miscarriage those few years back, I hadn’t had a regular period. And there’d been times where I’d had such excruciating pain, I’d ended up spending the day curled up in the nurse’s office or at home in my bed, depending on what day it fell on.

Still, I needed to be sure. I kept track of when it should happen even if it was irregular.

She nodded, looking troubled. “Well I guess it’s a good thing I had a couple left over then, huh? But who would have thought that you and my brother would do it. Maybe it’s because he’s my brother, but gross.”

I managed a smile and a hoarse chuckle. “He is my boyfriend after all,” I told her.

“Still, ew. Anyway, here comes the soon to hopefully not be dad, good luck.” She gave my hand a quick, reassuring squeeze before she sauntered off.

Ethan appeared beside me a moment later with his usual charming smile on his face. “Hey there,” he greeted me, “What was Abby doing over here?”

“Hey, Ethan. And nothing really. She ran into me on her way out and decided to keep me company until you got here.” The lie slipped easily from between my lips. Not willing to contemplate on whether or not it was a good thing that I could lie so easily to Ethan, I plastered a smile on my face as we started walking in the direction of the trail.

Other than the break from “intimate touches” that we’d both agreed upon, things were almost back to normal between us. With this possible new development, however, I didn’t know how much longer things would last if they did.

I hoped to whatever god or goddess might exist that this was just my period being irregular again and I was just being extremely paranoid. Even the thought that I could possibly be pregnant again was enough to cause me to break out into a cold sweat. I started chewing my lip nervously.

“You alright, Case?”

“Huh?” Ethan’s question roused me from my thoughts, making me blink in confusion.

“You’re really quiet. Everything okay?”

“Oh…Yeah. I’m just tired and I haven’t been feeling very good today.” Well, it wasn’t a total lie anyway. I really didn’t feel good, but he didn’t need to know the reasons.

Ethan frowned. “What’s wrong?” Without waiting for an answer, he stopped us and placed the back of his hand against my forehead to check my temperature. “You are a little warm…summer cold maybe?”