Yeah-Yeah hits the ball and ran past first and second with ease but just before he's able to touch third, Bertram throws me the ball and I'm able to tag him out.
"Sorry, man." I say.
"Eh, you'll just have to help me get faster." he tells me.
"Sure." I agree. "What's the time, Ham?!" I yell towards home base.
"5:06! We can call it!" he yells back after looking at his phone.
Everybody starts to walk towards the dugout and I grab my hat that I discarded about an hour ago.
"Hey, Lily?" I hear Yeah-Yeah ask.
"Yeah?" I ask in return.
"You mind if I have dinner at yours tonight? Me and my mom got in a fight before I left and I don't wanna go back yet." he explains.
"No, you can come." I tell him. "Fair warning, Kenny and his mom plus Ivy and her parents will be there too."
"Thanks." he says.
"We should probably let her know you'll back late though." I suggest.
"She probably won't notice." he brushes it off.
"Alright."
I really pity the whole the he has with his mom. I don't know where we are on the military school thing but he hasn't said anything to me in a while so I think it's either not happening or she hasn't even told him yet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When we walk into my house we're greeted with the usual site of everyone gathered around the kitchen island. All the adults with some sort of alcoholic beverage of some kind.
Ivy does kind of look off though.
"Hey, guys." Marisa says to the three of us. "You're Alan, right?"
"Yeah, yeah." he says while nodding.
"We call him Yeah-Yeah." Kenny tells her.
"Hey." dad says to us.
"You don't mind that he eats with us right?" I ask him at a volume only he can here.
"No, it's okay. We usually have extra anyway." he tells me.
I see Kenny and Yeah-Yeah looking through our fridge for drinks and am happy with the fact that Yeah-Yeah isn't uncomfortable. I was slightly worried that he would be just based off his situation at home right now.
Plus, this is the first time he's been around my dad since we got back. So when he wasn't a dick. I'll admit it takes some time getting used to.
I go over to Ivy just to see what's up with her.
"You good?" I ask her quietly.
Instead of answering with words, she nods quickly before standing up, grabbing my arm, and dragging me to my room.
When we get there she pushes me in and closes the door behind me.
"I'll take that as a no." I mumble to myself. "What's wrong?"
"Okay." I can see her mentally brace herself. "You remember that date I went on like a week ago?"
"Yeah. "It was just for fun"." I mock before I see her all tense. "Right. Not the time to joke. What about it?"
"When you had sex for the first time... did you think it was a big deal?" she asks.
"No, not really." I admit. "As long as there's protection and both people are okay with it, it doesn't need to be. But that's just my opinion. I know it's a big deal for some people."
"I didn't think my first time would be a big deal either." she agrees.
"Did you have sex with him?" I ask her. "The guy?"
"How did you know?!"
"You started asking me about my first time and used the past tense." I tell her. "What happened, Ivy?"
"You... checked to make sure you weren't pregnant afterwards, right?" she asks.
"Yeah. The day after then a week after just to make sure." I say.
I think I know where this is going but I don't want to assume anything. It's no joking matter what I'm thinking.
"So did I. I checked the day after and..." she drags out, not finishing the sentence.
My face drops and my eyes go wide in shock.
"Oh. My. God." I say slowly.
"What am I gonna do?!" she starts to panic. "You hear about these things happening but I didn't expect it to happen to me! He was wearing a condom. We were careful!"
I walk over to her and put a hand over her mouth to get her to stop rambling.
"Do your parents know?" I ask with a calm tone.
"You're the first." she tells me.
"Then the last thing we need is for them to find out in a way you don't want them to." I tell her. "If you want me to, I'll help you through this whole thing. Even after the pregnancy. I'll be here for the next 18 years if you want me to be."
"Please, please, please." she begs as tears start to fall from her watering eyes.
"Come here." I say and pull her into a hug.
She buries her head in my neck and starts sobbing quietly.
I rub her back and rock her softly to try and calm her down.
"Okay." I say and pull away, keeping my hands on her shoulders and arms. "Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna go to the store and get 3 more tests. False positives happen all the time. Any sort of excuse I could use to explain why I have to go out and get something suddenly?"
"I'm supposed to get my period in a couple days but there's a good chance that's not happening." she says.
"That'll work." I say.
"Can I just stay in here while you're out? I can't be around anyone else right now." she asks.
"Yeah, of course." I say on my way to my bedroom door, grabbing my wallet from my dresser. "I'll be quick."
She nods and I head out.
I get back out towards the kitchen and everyone notices.
"Everything okay?" Darren asks me.
"Yeah. Ivy just got her period and I don't have anything so I gotta go out and get some stuff." I explain.
"Alright. The pizza will be here in 30 minutes or so." he tells me.
"I'll be back!" I call out before I close the door and head to Vincent's.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm in the women's section which is period necessities, women's vitamins, and pregnancy stuff.
I've never really had a pregnancy scare so I don't know which are the most reliable but I figure I should get them from different brands to ensure anything.
The times I tested to make sure I wasn't pregnant a while ago weren't because I was worried that I was it was just more of a precaution. And because I enjoyed what could've caused it so I wanted to make sure I was doing it safely.
"Hey." I hear a voice greet me from the other end of the isle.
The women's isle is on the back wall in the store and this stuff is at the very end of it so I'm kind of tucked away in the corner.
I turn towards the voice and find Benny being the only one there.
"Everything okay?" he asks, not coming up to me but noticing what I'm looking at.
"Hm? Oh. Yeah, everything's fine." I say and turn back at my options.
"Don't hate me for asking this..." he starts
"Then be careful with what you're about to ask." I suggest.
"You aren't... pregnant... are you?" he finishes his thought as he walks to me so he doesn't have to speak loudly.
"No." I answer while shaking my head. "I haven't been doing the activities that requires recently."
I hear him let a sigh of relief so I look at him with narrowed eyes.
"You sound relieved." I point out.
"Oh- uh..."
"Eh, don't worry about it." I tell him. "I would be too."
"So, if you're not, then who's this for?" he asks.
"I don't know if I can say anything. You could probably guess but don't cause I don't want to get in trouble for you knowing before I know you're allowed to know." I explain.
"Okay." he accepts, following my train of thought with no struggle. "You know... if it was you... I'd be there. For whatever you'd need. Anything."
I stare at him in slight awe.
I know it'd kill him if I was pregnant with someone else's baby but him saying that just...
"Thanks, Benny." I say genuinely.
I look back at the variety of tests and remember I told Ivy I'd be quick and have already been here for over 5 minutes.
"Ah, fuck it." I let out before grabbing three random tests and walking up to the cashier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I get back into my room with the bag and close the door behind me.
"You got them?" Ivy asks.
"Yep." I say and go into the bathroom.
She follows me in and closes the door.
"I got 3 different brands just to hear from different sources." I say and take them out of the bag one by one. "I'll give you some privacy."
"What if I don't know what to do?" she stops me from walking out.
"It's peeing on a stick. How complicated can it get?" I ask.
"What if I don't have enough pee?" she asks.
"Hold on. Don't do anything yet." I say before actually walking out and going to the kitchen.
"She okay?" Marisa asks.
"Yeah, she's taking care of everything now." I say.
I grab an old mug that has an angry Donald Duck on it and start to take it back to my room.
"What's that for?" Kenny asks.
"For when I wake up in the middle of the night and want water but don't wanna put in the effort of coming all the way out here to do it." I answer before semi-speed walking back to my room.
I close my bedroom door before rejoining Ivy in my bathroom.
"What do you want me to do?" she asks.
"You're gonna pee in this. I'll even come back in here and dip the sticks if you want me to." I explain. "And don't worry about Donald. He's already pissed off, there's not much more you can do to him."
"Okay." she says.
I hold out the mug for her to take and she does so slowly. I can tell she's scared.
"Hey." I say and she puts her attention back on me. "You're gonna be fine. And I'm here no matter what path you end up going down. Okay?"
She nods before hugging me.
"Thank you." I hear her on the brink of tears.
I pull away and face her.
"You can cry when you find out what's going. No more tears on what could happen." I say and she lets out a laugh.
I walk out and close the door, waiting patiently to be called back in.
I feel my phone buzz in my pocket after sitting down for a couple minutes, signaling someone's texted me.
Benny: I hope everything's okay
I smile at it before replying. I really have missed him.
Me: It will be
"Lil!" Ivy summons me through the door.
I knock on the door softly before she opens in and I see all the tests laid out and turned over meaning she already did it herself.
"That was quick."
"I was focused."
Touché.
I see her phone on the counter as well that was set for 3 minutes about 20 seconds ago.
We sit down on the floor and wait for the timer she set to go off.
"How would you feel if it was positive?" I ask seriously.
"I'm 17, man." she points out.
"Just because it wasn't planned doesn't mean it's something you don't want." I say.
She stays silent for a minute.
"He didn't want to be apart of it." she says. "I told him and he told me he didn't want to be involved. A baby should have a mother and a father."
"No. A baby doesn't need a mother and a father. It needs to be loved and taken care of." I tell her. "If this is something you really want, I'm already counting two people who'd be happy to do both and only 3 people know. You, me, and the douche canoe. Do the math."
She sort of stares out into space for a minute.
"I don't know."
The timer goes off and we both stand up.
I turn it off and she goes to reach for the first test before taking her hand back.
"I can't look. You do it."
She turns away from the counter and I flip over all three of the tests to see they all have the same result.
I grab them and turn to her. Thankfully, they had covers so I won't accidently be touching someone else's urine.
"They're negative." I tell her.
"What?" she asks, sounding surprised and somewhat disappointed. "All of them?"
"Yeah. They're all negative."
"Oh." she says "Well, you know... that's a good thing. I mean, I'm not even a senior in high school. It's good. It's good."
It sounds like she's trying to convince herself more than me.
I hand her a tissue from the counter, noticing the tears starting to form in her eyes.
"God. I can't-... this is stupid. I was never even pregnant and I'm crying over the baby I didn't have to begin with. They're really negative?" she asks, not believing it.
"No. They're positive." I tell her, a smile beginning to grow on my face.
"What? But you just said they-"
"Ivy, they're all positive." I repeat.
"You're sure?" she asks, checking again.
"Well, yeah. I was lying before." I say before handing them to her. "Now you know how you feel about it."
She looks at all of them and begins to do the laughing crying thing. In happiness of course.
"That's fucking risky, dude." she tells me.
I nod in agreement knowing it could've gone in the opposite direction.
"You really wanna do this?" I ask her.
"Yeah." she says confidently and with a smile. "I'm gonna have a baby."