~*1 month later*~

"Fuck" was all Adrienne could think that morning. Fuck, she burnt her egg omlette. Fuck, her favorite sneakers were eaten by the ever-growing mass of dirty clothes in her room. Fuck, she only has time to take a 10 minuete shower and no blow drying. Fuck, she's throwing up every morning and none of her jeans fit and she knew why; why couldn't she tell anyone?

Devon arrived at her door just as Rina found a pair of pants that actually fit her in her room; a pair of stretch green cargos that she hadn't worn in about a year. "Rina?" Devon called from the living room as her white skater sneaks inched her way in from the door. Rina's ears shot up at the sound. "Just a second," she managed to shout, her voice overshadowing her sobs. Cocoa looked up at her worried, brushing his body against her leg. She glanced down and smiled, remembering the day Chris got her Cocoa. She gathered her composure, brushing the freshly-placed tears from her cheeks and walked into the living room.

"Are you OK?" Devon asked curiously as Rina bent down for her bag.

"Yeah, yeah," Rina assured her, pushing her damp curls behind her neck. She fished through her bag for the house key. "I think I have that bug that's going around."

"A bug's going around?" Devon pushed, bending down to pet an awaiting Cocoa.

"Where we going for lunch?" Rina asked, trying to causally ignore Devon's question.

"Where do I practically live?!" Devon implored, excitement tinting her voice.

"I guess we're off to Olive Garden," Rina summerized, grabbing her jean jacket and bolting out the door.

"So you and Danny seem to be getting pretty close, Nessa," Devon hinted, twirling her straw in her shirley temple.

"Yes," Vanessa replied with a smirk, "That would be a correct statement. It's been about 3 months since we started dating. It's been really..." The 411 of Vanessa's love life was cut short as Adrienne looked hazily at her water. Almost like a convultion, she groped her stomach and mouth at the same time in slight agony. Her eyes buldged and her mouth was pulled into a tight frown.

"Excuse me," Adrienne gasped through her hands as she sprinted from the table toward the bathroom.

The silence was ripped apart by Vanessa's reply of "Yeeeeeah."

"She says she has a bug," Devon replied nonchalantly, fondling her salad with her fork. "But no one's sick around...I mean, not THAT sick."

"Than what's wrong?" Vanessa pondered, her eyes intensely fixed at the bathroom as she sipped her Coke. Vanessa's eyes wondered back to Devon's, their brains sharing the same thought. It was an unspoken possibility.

"How can that be?" Vanessa whispered forcefully. "I mean...I didn't know she..."

"Now, we shouldn't jump to conclusions, but she's been sick for a few weeks now," Devon whispered back, chomping away at her salad. "But if it's true, I hope it wasn't with some callous jerk."

"But who could it have been with?!" Vanessa asked as she saw Adrienne lethargically stroll from the bathroom. She whiped her itchy, red eyes with the back of her hand as she plopped down between them. "Got the flu?" Vanessa asked softly, brushing back Adrienne's beautiful hair.

"Something like that," Adrienne replied, fatigue scratching her vocal chords and taking a gulp of her water. Vanessa and Devon glanced over Rina's head and they tossed back and forth gazes of concern.

Screams speared through the stickly-sweet air as the chords for 'Let's Get Funky Tonight' soared through the room. Heads, hands and signs jolted through the air chaotically as the guys did what they love. Vanessa, Adrienne and Devon were 4th row, so they received a few waves and smiles from the guys directly.

"We've got to do this more often," Devon shouted gleefully to Adrienne and Vanessa over the hammering music.

"They're some hot stuff," Vanessa smiled, "But not as hot as Danny, of course."

"Girls," Adrienne moaned, her stomach starting to erupt again. "I gotta..." Before she could finish, she was halfway out of the auditorium, her legs traveling faster than a freight train to the bathroom.

"She better tell us," Devon told Vanessa, her voice fluent with anger. Vanessa nodded in agreement as they weaved their way through the hormone-driven fans.

A few seconds after Vanessa and Devon stepped foot into the lemon-scented bathroom, Adrienne appeared out of the middle stall, her head sagging involuntarily. Vanessa shuffled over to Adrienne, holding back her hair as water was thrown onto her milky complextion. Adrienne peered up at Vanessa, then turned her head away as tears permeated her light brown eyes. Devon's raging attitude towards Adrienne began to slip away as does mud. She briskly walked over to her friends, brushing back her blond locks fustratively. Silence overcame words untill Vanessa whispered something as she smudged away salty water from Adrienne's face. "Who's it is?"

"It's...it's...Chris's," Rina choked out, rubbing her nose.

Devon took a step back to catch her stolen breath as Vanessa looked up into the cloudy mirror dumfounded. "Really?" Vanessa urged.

"God!" Adrienne screamed at herself, tugging away from Vanessa. "I'm so stupid! I mean...we were so stupid! Irresponsible, Dumb..."

"Calm down, Ri," Vanessa told her quietly. Adrienne's face was blanketed with her hands as she tried to collect her thoughts. Through her fingers, she peered at Devon's returned hardhearted posture, leaning against an unoccupied stall with hands folded.

"Don't you have anything to say?" Adrienne implored, just waiting for a smart-ass remark to send her over the edge.

"I think you've said enough," Devon replied casually, nodding her head. Adrienne didn't know how to respond. Vanessa stood uncomfortably between them, some sort of hard-shell indifference radiating through her like a laser.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Devon demanded, walking briskly to Adrienne's side.

"This isn't something you go running to the papers about," Adrienne informed her with a slight chuckle.

"So I guess you kept this secret to yourself? For how long?" Devon implored aggressively, her eyes narrowing to Rina's.

"I told Danny that Chris and I had sex..."

"Ain't that rich?!" Devon yelled laughing, slapping her knee in disbelief. The flames were wavering furiously in her pupils. "We've been friends for so long! God damn it...I told you EVERYTHING! Everything that went on with me. This is just too much. I can't believe..."

"Stop," Vanessa demanded, slipping out of her composed character and in between the heated two. Her arms separated the two with mighty authority. "Can we focus?! Adrienne has a baby growing inside of her and bickering isn't going to help." Vanessa turned her head to Adrienne, strands of black hair flying free from her ponytail. "Does Chris know?"

Adrienne swivled her head away, tears building swiftly. She muttered hurtfully, "No...I'm petrified. That's all...I...I can say. I'm fucking petrified to tell him."