What? Pregnant? No wayโฆ It isn't possible. That was the first thought that went through my head. To be pregnant meant you had to have sex. I had never had sex. I looked at the doctor like she was some kind of moron. "Look, I can't be pregnant. I am a virgin." I laughed. The doctor looked at the test results again and then looked back at me with a mix of confusion and calm patience.
"Miss Smith, I know you are young and this is scary for you but please understand. Just because you say you aren't, pregnant doesโt make it true. I check these results over and over again and they prove that you are about two months pregnant".
I stared at her, "Look doc but I am not three years old, and I am seventeen! I know where babies come from. I know that the stalk doesโt drop them off at mammy and daddy's doors. I have never, ever, ever had sex. I would remember something like that" The doctor swiveled around in her chair and looked at my face on. "Sweetheart, have you been to any parties or have you been out drinking with friends?
Because it is possible if you donโt remember something it might have happened then." Amelia sat there looking at the doctor but only seeing a very distant memory. About two months ago her best friend had had a huge party and not many people remembered the next day.
Including Amelia. I could feel the room getting smaller, things were getting blurry and she could feel the perspiration on her skin. Oh, sweet mother; I was pregnant. "Um, wow", was all I said. Of all the things I had thought may have gone on that night, this was not one of them. This was as far away from all of them. I had had sex.
I havenโt been a virgin for over two months and I didn't even know it. Well, not many people could say that, I thought. The look on the doctorโs face was now one of understanding. She reached over and put her hand over Ameliaโs. "Ok, sweetie, you donโt have to be nervous. There are options that youโฆ."
"NO!" I yelled, cutting the doctor off. "No, I donโt want to kill my baby. I screwed up, literally, not her" I finished quietly. The doctor looked at her with a fond smile. "Ok, then. I think that for the time being, you should stay home from school for a few days and think things through. You should let your parents know.
They have been through a pregnancy before and could help a lot" she replied. After getting a prescription for prenatal vitamins, a million pamphlets about teen parenthood and a medical certificate so she could stay home for a few days, I left the doctors and drove the long way home. How do I tell my parents, of all parents that I am pregnant? I thoughtโฆ
well better take a long way home.
***
A few weeks later Amelia still had not told anybody. I was beginning to get used to all the morning sickness and had invested in a few new clothes that would hide my slowly emerging baby bump. It was all beginning to feel very real, and very scary. I was a seventeen-year-old student with a baby due in around thirty weeks or seven and a half months.
My entire savings account totaled $100, I had no idea who the father of my baby was and I had to name a baby!?! The name of my baby would be stuck with us both forever. What if I wanted to name it Gladiator or Lord forbid Berthaโฆ because I was too doped up on the drugs?