Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Nick opened the door in his boxers. “Hey, angel. What’s wrong?” He pulled her into a hug, knowing what she was going to say.
“Nick, I think I’m-” She choked up and couldn’t finish the sentence.
“I know, sweetie, I know. Just let me get dressed, and we’ll go find out.” He grabbed her hand and led her into the room. Quickly, he pulled on some jeans and a tee shirt. “Ready?”
“Yeah, I am. Thanks, Nick,” Christine whispered.
The drive was silent until they arrived at the clinic. They went inside, and Christine had the test done. The results would be back in a few minutes. Nick squeezed her hand. “Are you nervous?”
She looked at him and nodded. Truthfully, she was terrified. She knew that if she were pregnant, her parents would cut off communications. This moment could destroy her life.
“Christine Sullivan?” the receptionist called. “Your results are in.” Christine and Nick stood up, and the woman led them to a room where the doctor was waiting. It was a different doctor than the one who did the test.
“Hello. I’m Dr. Joseph. You must be Christine, and you are…” he looked at Nick.
“I’m Nick,” he replied. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Dr. Joseph nodded and motioned for them to sit down. “We got the results back. They’re positive.”
Christine struggled to hold her chin up as tears stung her eyelids. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, we’re sure. You’re pregnant.” Dr. Joseph paused, sensing the disappointment in the room. “Do you have any idea what you’re going to do with the baby?”
Christine knew she couldn’t say anything without bursting into tears, so Nick spoke up for her. “We hadn’t really discussed that, doctor. We don’t know.” He looked at his girlfriend and squeezed her shoulder.
“All right. Here’s some literature that might help you make your decision,” the doctor said, handing them some pamphlets. He looked sympathetically in Christine’s direction. “Try to have a good day.”
“Thank you,” Nick and Christine said. They stood up and left the clinic.
Nick let her into the car and cleared his throat, waiting for her to talk. He didn’t know what to say. When she didn’t speak up, he broke the silence. “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. I-” she stopped suddenly, pondering something. “I think I’m going to have to get an abortion.”
“What?” Nick exclaimed.
“I know. I don’t want to, either, but what choice do we have?”
“We have lots of choices, Chris. We can keep the baby-”
“We can keep the baby? That’s insane! I’m seventeen, Nick. I’m not capable of caring for a child. You’re always busy with the Backstreet Boys, and the media would destroy you. Keeping this baby is not an option.”
“Okay, fine, then. We can give it up for adoption.”
Christine shook her head. “People would still know it was your baby, and you’d get busted for it. I’m a minor. Besides, that would ruin my career. I wouldn’t be able to dance until I had it, and then after that, I’d have to get back into shape. And then my parents would find out, too. They’re going to kill me!”
“Oh, so are you saying that we should kill the baby because it would ruin our careers? Isn’t that a little extreme? And about your parents, they’re going to find out anyway. Just sit down and talk to them. Explain what happened.”
“You don’t know my parents, Nick. They won’t understand. I can’t tell them about this. They’ll never forgive me!”
“Maybe you should have thought of that before we had sex,” Nick muttered.
Christine’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”
Nick’s eyes widened when he realized what he had said. “Chris, honey, I’m sorry. Please-”
Christine interrupted him. “Maybe you’ve forgotten. I was drunk. I had no idea what I was doing. You fucking took advantage of me. You knew about everything I’ve been through with guys. You knew how scared I was of relationships. You knew I couldn’t make a sensible decision, but you went ahead and slept with me anyways.”
“Chris, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”
“Yeah, well, you did.”
Nick tore his eyes away from her now tear-stained face. God, how could he have said something so stupid? He wasn’t very good at this relationship thing, first taking advantage of her, now making insensitive remarks when she needed him to lean on. “You can have an abortion,” he said, trying to make her feel better. Unfortunately, it only made her angrier.
“Thanks for your permission,” she said sarcastically. “I can’t believe you.”
“Look, I didn’t mean to say what I did. I wasn’t thinking. You don’t need to be such a bitch about it!” This time, he wasn’t so sorry he said it.
“God! How can you do this to me after all that I’ve been through?”
“You know what?” Nick spat as he pulled up to the hotel. “I think you’re using this whole thing. Everything that’s happened to you in the past is now just your tool to make people feel bad for you; a sob story. You are a melodramatic little-” He stopped himself before he said anything else he would regret, but Christine wanted to hear what he had to say.
“I’m a melodramatic little what?”
“Nothing.”
“No, Nick, I think you have something to say. What is it?”
Nick hesitated, but then finished his sentence. “Fine. You want to know? You’re a melodramatic little slut. You threw yourself at me that night we were at the club. You were all over me. It was impossible for me not to sleep with you, the way you were acting!”
Christine gasped and got out of the car, making Nick feel bad again. As she walked away, he called after her, “Chris, baby, angel, wait! I didn’t mean it! Please, come back!” Needless to say, she didn’t turn around. Instead, she went upstairs to find her room empty. Sandra was out for the day. Christine didn’t mind. Sighing, she dialed Katelyn’s phone number.
“Hi, this is Kate,” Katelyn greeted.
“Kat?” Christine whimpered.
“Teeny, what’s wrong?”
“Nick and I got into a fight and I never want to see him again!”
“Whoa, whoa, slow down. What happened?”
Christine sniffled. “He took me to the doctor and we found out I’m pregnant.” She paused to let Katelyn react.
“Oh, my God, sweetie, are you all right?”
“No, of course not! Mom and Dad are going to kill me!”
“What are you going to do with the baby?”
“That’s where Nick and I disagree. We got in the car and he asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I have no choice but to get an abortion. He said we couldn’t kill a baby to save ourselves. I told him my parents would kill me, and he said I should have thought of that before we had sex.”
“What? That asshole! You were drunk! You couldn’t think straight!”
“That’s what I told him. He said he was sorry, and he didn’t mean it, and then he told me I could have an abortion if I wanted to, and I sarcastically thanked him for his permission, so he called me a bitch. I asked him how he could do this to me after everything I’ve been through, and he told me I was using Jeff as a sob story.”
“He did not!” Katelyn said in awe.
“Yes, he did. Then we argued some more and he said I was a melodramatic little slut,” she sobbed. “He said…that I threw myself at him, and with the way I was acting, it was impossible for him not to sleep with me.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Katelyn exclaimed. She was disgusted that someone whom Christine loved so much could be such a jerk.
“No, I’m serious. I wish I were kidding!” Christine replied.
“I’m going to call him and tell him exactly what I think of him right now,” Katelyn promised.
“No, Kate, don’t! I don’t want to ruin our relationship.”
“Okay, now you’ve really got to be joking. He ruined your relationship! He is an insensitive bastard! He doesn’t deserve you!”
“I threw myself at him!”
“You don’t even know that! You can’t remember anything! He’s lying, because I know you, and even if you were drunk, you would never, ever act like a slut. Besides, you didn’t know what you were doing.”
There was a knock on the door. “Kat, I gotta go. I’ll call you later. If you want to call Nick, go ahead.”
“Believe me, I will!”
Christine hung up and looked out the peephole to see Brian. She opened the door and let him in. “Did Nick tell you everything?”
“Yeah, he did. I can’t believe he could do something like that to you, Chrissie,” Brian said softly, pulling her into his arms.
Christine buried her face in his chest and sobbed. “Everything is going wrong! Brian, what am I going to do? My parents are going to kill me when they find out I’m pregnant, and Nick doesn’t want me to get an abortion.”
Brian pulled away and looked into her eyes. “Forget what Nick wants. He’s not the one who’ll have to carry it for nine months.”
“He’s still the father. I can’t just go ahead and do this if he doesn’t want me to,” Christine said.
“Hmm. I guess you’re right. You’ll have to talk to him, then,” Brian said.
“I never want to see him again, Brian,” Christine whimpered.
Brian stroked her hair. “It’ll be all right, Chrissie. It’ll be fine.”
Christine looked up into his eyes and he wiped a tear from her cheek. She was so beautiful, even when she was crying. No, you can’t fall for her again. He closed his eyes and tried to think of Katelyn, but her face was overshadowed by Christine’s in his mind. He couldn’t resist it anymore. He kissed her.
What is he doing? Christine was taken by surprise, but something in her didn’t want to pull away. It was the vengeful part of her. Yes, this was her chance. Nick hurts me, I hurt him right back. She continued kissing Brian and pushed him onto the bed.