CHATROOM LOVE
Chapter Thirty-Nine
December
22, 2001
Edmonton, AB
"I
don’t know, Rose," Dawn said as they stood outside the Medicentre, bundled
up against the December cold. "I mean, what if this is all in my head?
I’ll look stupid."
"I
don’t think it’s in your head," Rose responded, casting a significant look
at Dawn’s middle.
Dawn
rolled her eyes. "Ha ha. That’s not what I meant and you know it."
She looked at the door of the Medicentre again, then turned to walk away.
"I’m probably not pregnant. Let’s just go home and forget about
this."
Rose
caught her arm before she could leave. "You need to find out for sure.
After all, you told me that you haven’t had your period since October, and
you’ve been having morning sickness, and you’ve been tired more…"
"Yeah,
but…" Dawn sighed. "I’m just scared, Rose. What if I am pregnant?
Then what do I do?"
"First,
you find out if you’re pregnant or not. If you are, then you decide what to do.
If you’re not, you find out what else is making you sick and see if it can be
cured."
Dawn
put her head in her hands and groaned. "Great. Now I have two things to
worry about. First I have to worry about being pregnant, and then I have to
worry about what’s wrong with me if I’m not. I don’t know which is worse."
"Well,
why don’t we go in before we freeze to death out here and it doesn’t matter
what’s wrong with you? Then you can worry about what comes next."
Dawn
wrapped her arms around herself and groaned again, but followed Rose inside.
*****
Dawn
sat nervously next to Rose in the waiting room, tapping her feet so incessantly
that Rose wanted to stomp on them just to get her to stop. It had been almost
two hours since they’d gone inside, and Dawn’s patience had run out long
before.
"Why
does it take so long to get a stupid pregnancy test? At this rate, I’ll have
the baby here in the waiting room if I’m pregnant!"
Rose
rolled her eyes. "I told you we should have gotten here first thing in the
morning. Now we have to wait for all the people who got here before us."
"But
I just need a pregnancy test! How long can it possibly take?"
At that
moment, a nurse stepped into the waiting room. "Dawn Bergen?"
Dawn
froze, her feet going still.
"Get
going," Rose hissed, trying to pull her out of her chair.
"I
changed my mind. I’m not ready yet. Someone else can go in now." Dawn
tried to sit back down.
"You’ve
been complaining about the wait for two hours! Go on!"
"I’m
going to get you for this," Dawn mumbled.
"Get
Tommy first. It’s his fault you’re in this mess."
Dawn
bared her teeth at Rose, trying to look fierce, but wound up looking scared
instead. Rose gave her friend a quick hug.
"Go
on. I’ll wait for you here, and then we can go get some lunch if you’re
hungry."
*****
Dawn
came out forty minutes later, her face pale and her eyes red. Rose got out of
her seat as soon as she saw her.
"You
look awful."
"Thanks."
Dawn ducked her head, looking ready to cry again.
"So…I
take it the test was positive?"
Dawn
nodded. "Yeah. I’m definitely pregnant." She stopped, digging a
kleenex out of her purse. "Rose, what am I going to do?"
Rose
looked at her helplessly. "I don’t know. Have you said anything to Tommy
yet?"
"No…I
wanted to wait until I was sure." She shrugged into her coat, following
Rose towards the parking lot. "What am I supposed to say to him? How am I
supposed to say it?"
"You’ll
have to find a way to tell him…he deserves to know. I mean, he is the baby’s
father."
Dawn
stopped beside Rose’s car, shivering. "Rose…what if he decides to run out
on me? What if he doesn’t want anything to do with me after I tell him?"
"I
don’t think he’ll run out on you, Dawn. We’ve known him since…what…grade 6? He
just doesn’t seem to be the sort of person who’d run out on you."
"I
know, but…this has never happened before. Some guys run out on a girl if she
gets pregnant." Dawn slid into the car, hugging herself tightly.
"If
he does, the rest of us will get him for you. We’ll tell his parents, and
refuse to talk to him or hang out with him…and if that doesn’t work, I’ll beat
him up for you."
Dawn
couldn’t help but smile a little at the thought of Rose trying to beat Tommy
up. "He’d better take responsibility. I don’t want to have to sic you on
him."
Rose
chuckled. "That’s the spirit! Let’s go get something to eat. I’m
starving."
*****
5
minutes later, the girls were sitting at a table in the Moxie's Grill across
the parking lot, perusing the menu and trying to decide what they wanted to
eat. Dawn’s earlier good humour had faded, and she stared, unseeing, at the
menu.
Rose
set her menu down. "I think I’ll have the steak. What are you
having?" She looked at Dawn, who was still staring at her menu, giving no
indication that she’d heard her. "Dawn?" Rose snapped her fingers.
"Earth to Dawn!"
"Huh?"
Dawn set her menu down, not having the least idea what she’d read. "Did
you say something?"
"I
asked what you were having."
"I
don’t know. I’m not far along enough yet to tell."
"Not
the baby. Lunch."
"Oh."
Dawn looked embarrassed. "I don’t know. A burger, I guess."
"Are
you okay?" Rose looked at Dawn sympathetically.
Dawn
looked down. "I don’t know. Not really." She stopped as a server
arrived to take their orders, then continued after she’d left. "Rose, what
am I going to do? I’m only sixteen. I’m not ready for this."
Rose
took a deep breath, fiddling with a packet of sweetener and trying to think of
what to say. "Well, I think you should tell Tommy first, and then your
parents."
Dawn
looked at her like she was crazy. "Tell my parents? They’ll kill me!"
"They’re
going to find out anyway," Rose pointed out, "unless you have an
early abortion. When your middle starts swelling, they’ll know. They’ll
probably take it better if you tell them early than if they find out when your
stomach gets big."
"Rose…I
don’t even know what I’m going to do. I don’t know if I should get an abortion,
or have the baby and put it up for adoption, or keep it…I don’t know!"
"Maybe
you should talk to Tommy and your parents before you make any decisions."
Dawn
put her head in her hands. "How did I get myself into this?"
"Uh…um…I
thought you knew…you know…all that stuff about where babies come from."
Rose replied, letting her words come out slowly. "Sometimes, when a guy
and a girl get together, they--"
"I
know what sex is!" Dawn interrupted.
"I
know you do, I was just teasing!" Rose let out a half-heart laugh.
"How
come you didn’t use birth control?"
"We
did all the other times." Dawn turned bright red, realizing what she’d
just said. "I mean…uh…"
Rose
turned red, too, not sure what to say. She stared at the packet of sweetener,
watching it run out through the hole she’d poked in it. "Uh…I guess you
didn’t this time?"
"Well…um…we
didn’t have it with us." She looked down, staring at the plate of food the
waitress set before her. "It was only once…I didn’t think anything would
happen."
"Remember
what we learned back in health class? All it takes is once."
"I
guess I wasn't paying attention." Dawn put her hand on her stomach.
"Rose…uh…have you and Jack ever…you know…"
Rose
blushed. "No, we haven’t. And I didn’t with Cal, either…even though he
tried to make me."
"You
and Jack are smarter than me and Tommy." Dawn put her face in her hands.
"I feel so stupid. I knew better. I should have said no. I should have
made Tommy go to the concert with you guys…or at least not invited him to lay
down next to me."
"When
are you going to tell him?"
"Probably
when we’re up at Banff. I want to tell him before I tell my parents or
anybody…don’t tell anybody until I’ve told Tommy, okay?"
"I
won’t say anything until you say it’s okay," Rose promised her seriously.