Kinda Unedited.
She had two days to prove to her parents that she was serious about going through with the pregnancy.
The two of them were adamant that she was getting the abortion.
No matter what.
Mostly, it was her mother who was pressing the matter however her dad had staunchly agreed with the woman. He wasn't happy when he heard Layla's plan.
In fact, he was so angry that he had bottled up and refused to say another word to the girl.
Layla was just happy that he hadn't sent her to her bedroom like she was some sort of petulant teenager- or grounded her. Really though, she spent most of her time in her room anyway so it wouldn't have made that much of a difference.
When the tension in the house got too heavy, she sent a message to Jen, asking if the girl wanted to meet up at their regular place.
There was a little coffee shop, only a ten minute walk from both of their houses, which was not only convenient in terms of distance, but was also surprisingly cheap. It wasn't particularly appealing to look at, or even sit inside for long periods of time, but it did good coffee at a decent price so Layla didn't think she could demand anything more.
Although, she supposed she should lay off on the coffee now that she was pregnant. She didn't know if she was allowed to drink the stuff with a baby in her belly and would rather play it safe for the time being.
At least until she could go back to the hospital and have a proper check up.
Monday. She thought. I just have to get to Monday.
She hoped that by then, her parents would have calmed down enough to support her in the journey. They could make an appointment to go back to the hospital, she could get scanned and checked and figure out how she was going to make all of this work.
No more than five minutes later, her phone was buzzing with Jen's affirmative answer.
She slipped on a pair of comfortable shoes and gave a shout to her parents that she was meeting up with her friend before yanking on a jacket and leaving the house.
The air outside had a slight chill to it, yet instead of turning back around to get a thicker jacket, she pressed through the breeze and sped to the café before her back started aching again.
It felt like she was in an alternate reality as she walked into the small shop, heard the jangle of the bell and sat in her regular seat.
It felt anything but normal even though she had done the same routine hundreds of times before.
Eventually Jen arrived, smiling as she pushed through the door and made a beeline to Layla.
"Hiya." The girl said cheerily, leaning across to give Layla a quick hug. Then, she looked at the empty table in front of them and raised her eyebrows. "Were you waiting for me before you ordered?"
Layla shook her head and gave a tiny smile. "I'm not having a coffee today, Jen."
"Right..." Jen drawled, flicking her bleached platinum hair over her shoulder and sitting down slowly. "Are you feeling okay?"
Picking at the sleeve of her jacket suddenly seemed like the most exciting thing in the world. "Not really." She'd been hoping that she'd at least have thirty minutes to relax before having to drop the bombshell but her plans had been ruined. With a sharp exhale, she couldn't find a better way to break the news than to simply say, "I'm pregnant."
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.
Nobody wanted to be labeled as a werewolf sympathiser.
Jen finally smiled again although it wasn't as carefree as before. "So, what does Dale look like?" She asked, a glint in her eyes as she fell into the familiarity of simple boy talk.
Layla could feel her hands get a bit hot. "Don't think I'm weird for saying this, okay?" She didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "But he's gorgeous. He's got super dark hair that's kind of faded at the back and falls into his eyes at the front. And he's like, super manly too. So tall and muscular and-" She cut herself off with a miserable sigh.
Jen giggled. "Sounds like you have a crush."
"Don't even get me started." Layla groaned, looking at her friend with frantic eyes. "Of all the shifters in this damn town, it had to be the one that looks like sex on legs who thinks the bumbling ginger is his mate."
"Wait- what?"
"Yeah." She sighed. "Apparently, he thinks I'm his mate because I'm pregnant with his baby. He went all weird and cuddly, talking about protecting me and the pup." She didn't mention the fact that she could have stayed in his arms forever, or the fact that she didn't actually find it that weird at the time. In fact, it had felt like the most natural thing in the world while it was happening. "The worst part about it is that he has a girlfriend. I can't even think about him without feeling guilty."
Jen whistled, looking pensive. "Well, if it's worth anything: I don't think he sounds too bad. At least you don't feel like he's dangerous, right?"
"My mum's probably more dangerous than he is." She muttered, rolling her eyes with a snort. "I'm telling you, that woman's crazy if she thinks threatening me will make me change my mind."
"Totally."
Things weren't any less crazy when she got home later that afternoon.
Rather, her mother stressed again that she was incredibly serious about having the pregnancy terminated.
There was nothing Layla could say to make the woman budge on her point so she stormed up to her room and stayed there for the rest of the night.
---
She was woken up by the feeling of intense nausea, barely making it to the toilet in time before violently spewing out the miniscule contents of her stomach.
She didn't feel much better after she was done retching and lay against the cold tiled floor for a while, listening to the sounds of movement from downstairs until she gathered enough energy to shower and brush her teeth.
Eating was a sad affair.
Nobody had bothered to cook breakfast so she was forced to scavenge around in the cupboards for something to eat, shovel it down her throat and then forcibly will away the urge to vomit it all back up again.
Thankfully lunch and dinner were prepared, but even then, the eating was accompanied by an angry silence. Her dad still wasn't talking to her and her mother's replies were bitter and sarcastic, followed by the reminder that they would be going back down to the hospital the next day.
Layla stopped trying to make conversation and so the rest of the day passed by uneventfully.
It was spent rotating between her phone and laptop, periodically cycling through every social media sight known to man before settling down to watch a movie. Things, that at one point had been able to keep her content for hours, were suddenly more of a chore than a delight.
She was bored.
It was like there were a million other things she could have been doing; all of them out of reach.
Increasingly, she found herself looking at the reflection in her full length mirror, staring at her flat stomach and trying to catalog it into something that made sense. Besides feeling bloated and tired, she didn't actually look any different. She was still pale and ginger with tiny breasts and virtually non-existent hips.
She didn't look pregnant but she guessed that she wasn't that ugly; so that was a plus.
Her thoughts also veered in the direction of Dale a lot.
She wondered if he was thinking about the baby.
If he wanted her to have the abortion.
If he was concerned about her well being.
If he had told his girlfriend about her.
She thought back to his words, how he had told her that he would protect her and the baby and hugged her as if he could shield her from the world.
She wanted to believe him.
When she was swaddled back under her blankets, moonlight streaming through the window and casting a gentle glow over her bed, she decided it was time to stop putting of the inevitable.
Reaching over the side of her bed to her desk, she messily swept her hand around the expanse of the smooth wood until she found what she was looking for, picking up her phone and unlocking it with a flick of her index finger.
Mentally pep talking herself, she navigated to her contact list and found the name she was looking for.
Hi, Dale. It's Layla. She typed before she lost her nerve. Just so you know, I've decided to keep the baby.