Again

Chapter 18

Taylor's eyes became wide, immediately, and he had to take a breath to keep himself from shouting.

"I'm sorry, what?!" he asked her in a hushed tone.  He was trying to control his temper, truthfully not knowing what exactly he was mad about.

Kayla didn't speak.  Instead, she lowered her head into her hands and began to cry.  There was a mix of emotions going on inside of her and she felt like she was reaching her breaking point.  There was a part of her that was relived to finally have told someone, and another part of her that felt like finally saying it out loud made it somehow more real.

"Okay, Kayla," Taylor said, regaining his composure and thinking about each word he spoke, "You have to calm down.  I know this is probably a lot but, seriously, take a breath."  He reached out and grabbed her hands, forcing her to look up, tears streaming down her face.  He inhaled an exaggerated breath, and she followed suit.  He repeated his actions until he was somewhat sure she wasn't going to pass out before he spoke again, "Tell me what happened."

"What do you mean?" Kayla screeched out, much louder than she'd intended to.  She caught herself and took another breath, telling herself to speak more quietly. "Don't you know how a person gets pregnant?"

Taylor chuckled, "Obviously.  What I mean is, I thought you and Zac were done.... doing that?"  He knew it was forward of him to assume the father of the child in question was Zac, however he felt he knew Kayla well enough to know he was.

"We were done.  We are done actually, it was just...  I don't know.  We had this long, honest, kind of sad talk one night where I basically told him I was in love with him but that he needed to give himself time to figure out things with Kate, whatever way they end up going, but then I asked him to spend the night with me... I guess one last time?  Anyway, we hadn't had sex for months before that and we haven't since then either so I think it's safe to assume that's when it happened.  Taylor, what am I going to do?  What are we going to do?  We're sixteen!  I know it's too late to think about it now, but we are and we are not ready to be parents.  Either of us!" the tears were starting to flow down Kayla's face again.  She knew that it took two people to make a baby, however in that moment, she felt like it was all her fault.  Zac was doing his best to respect her wishes, and she was the one who pushed.

"We'll do what we always do," Taylor replied, interrupting her thoughts, "We will figure it out.  Now, I am assuming you haven't told Zac since you said earlier what you needed to talk about, you couldn't talk to him about yet?" Kayla nodded.  "Okay, well in the meantime, I promise I won't say anything, but Kayla," he paused and she looked up at him, "You have to tell him soon.  Not only is it the only fair thing to do for him, but also for you.  You didn't do this by yourself, there's no reason for you to be going through this alone.  You guys have decisions to make, and it's best that you make them together.  How far along are you?"

Kayla looked up, trying to count weeks in her head, "I don't know, that was like the end of March, early April sometime.  It was the night we went to the carnival," she said, blushing a little.

"Wait... Kayla, have you gone to the doctor?" he asked, urgently.  Kayla shook her head, no.  Taylor closed his eyes for a moment, taking in a breath, "Then how do you know you're pregnant?"

"I haven't gotten my period since March. It's May and I've had unprotected sex since then," Kayla said, looking at Taylor as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Kayla, being pregnant could be one of many possible reasons why you haven't gotten your period.  It's not necessarily the reason.  Have you taken a test?" he asked.  Again, Kayla shook her head no.  "You need to do that first.  It's up to you whether or not you want to tell Zac before or after you do that.  If it's positive, make a doctor's appointment.  If it's negative, take another one.  If that one is negative, make a doctor's appointment anyway.  Because if you're not pregnant, you still need to figure out why you've been missing your period."  He looked at Kayla, a small smile playing on her lips.  Taylor rolled his eyes, "I've been to a lot of doctor's appointments.  I've heard a thing or two," he said, defending himself.