Crush (Crash #3)(77)

       
         
       
        

After capping it, Holly set it down on the sink. "We have to wait two minutes."

Two minutes might as well have been two decades. I wanted to sneak a peek just as much as I didn't. Holly hugged me the whole time, rubbing the back of my neck and patting my back. It was moments like these when you were most thankful for your friends, because there was no way I could have made it through this without her.

"Okay, I think it's time," she said, giving my braid one gentle tug.

"Just tell me," I said, closing my eyes. "I can't look."

"All right, Lucy," she said. I heard her pick the stick up from the counter. She barely gasped, but it went off like a foghorn in my ears. "Lucy . . . you're . . ."

I opened my eyes at the last minute. Two pink lines.

"Pregnant."

And then I passed out.



The voices around me sounded like they were coming through a tunnel. They were all echoes. I wanted to open my eyes, but I couldn't. Not because they felt heavy, but more because they felt like they'd been taped closed. I wanted to escape the darkness, but I couldn't.

And then I heard a name. That was all I needed to kick through the darkness.

"We've got to call Jude," a familiar male voice said.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. I'll get my phone."

This was the final push I needed to open my eyes.

"No," I said, my voice breaking. "Don't call him. I'm all right." I was laid out on the couch, and my head was propped up by a couple of pillows.

Holly and Thomas hovered above me, looking down at me like you'd imagine someone would look at a corpse.

"When did you get here, Thomas?" I tried sitting up, but my body wasn't having any of it.

"Just a couple of minutes ago. I was planning on walking Holly to work," he said, kneeling in front of me. "But it's a good thing I was early and I'm used to carrying you around, or else you'd be waking up on the cold bathroom floor right about now." A small smile formed, but it didn't touch his eyes.

"Do you know?" I whispered. I couldn't say the word. I wouldn't even let myself think it, but I could feel the word winding its way through my mind. That was all I saw when I thought about my future.

"Yeah, Lucy," he said, grabbing my hand. "I know. Holly didn't say anything, but it was kind of hard to ignore the positive pregnancy test on the sink."

I bit my lip, hard, hoping it would keep the tears contained. My tried-and-true method was failing me.

Holly knelt next to Thomas. Her eyes were as red as I guessed mine were. She held her phone up. Jude's number was on the screen, along with his picture. "You need to call Jude. He needs to know what's going on so he can be here with you." 

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Not right now."

"Yes. Yes, right now," Holly said, holding the phone out to me. "Listen, Lucy, I know you're scared as shit and confused as all hell, but Jude will help you get through this. You need him to help you get through this. And I know from personal experience that Jude is a good person to lean on in this kind of a situation."

"What kind of a situation is this?" I said, twisting onto my side so I could look at her straight on. "The unplanned-pregnancy situation? Or the I'm-only-twenty-one situation? Maybe the I'm-not-married situation? And let's not forget the my-future-is-ruined situation." I'd been at a loss for words pre – passing out, but now I couldn't seem to say enough.

"Mom?" LJ stuck his head out of the bedroom. "Can I come out yet?"

"No!" Thomas and Holly answered at the same time.

"I'll go hang with the little man," Thomas said, giving my hand a squeeze before pressing a quick kiss to Holly's lips. "You girls don't need me here to offer my nonwisdom anyways."

"Aunt Luce? Are you all right?" LJ's sweet little face was creased with concern.

The answer to that was one I couldn't give a three-year-old, so I lied. "Yeah, LJ. I'm fine, buddy."

"Oh. Lucy?" Thomas stopped abruptly and snapped his fingers. "For what it's worth, I think you'd be one hell of a mom." That same small smile appeared again, but this time it reflected in his eyes as well. Before I could reply, he was ducking inside the bedroom to occupy LJ while Holly and I discussed whatever she was planning on discussing.

The thing was, I wasn't in a talking mood. I needed to process. I needed to think. And then maybe we could discuss.

"What's going on up there, Lucy Larson?" Holly asked, tapping my head.