Song Rec': One Last Time — Ariana Grande.
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For the rest of the week, Alan said nothing to me, the least he did was to wave if I walked past him.
Soon, the school's gossip channel started circulating rumours that we've broken up.
I tried to talk to him but he gave flimsy excuses. Was it because of the night we'd spent together? Did I disappoint him?
"Maybe he just wanted to sleep with you and move on." My subconscious mocked.
No, that isn't true. Alan loves me, he said that to me, his actions said the same thing too.
Alan had taken not just my heart but a delicate part of me, and now... silence. This wasn't what the cheesy romance novels prepared me for.
The thoughts swirled in my head, consuming me. I missed him. Desperately. But I told no one, not even Sally, and it was eating me alive.
Eventually, I decided to engage myself in a hobby or two when he said he needed space, so I respected his boundaries as much as I wanted to be there for him. But I still went to his football games and wore his jersey. Trying to keep the rumors at bay.
Weeks turned into a month. The silence between us became deafening, and soon, everyone believed the rumors about our breakup.
Sally returned from Hong Kong, careful not to pry, though I eventually told her about losing my virginity to Alan. She was thrilled for me but furious at him for ignoring me.
I used her company to distract my thoughts even further until, two months causally rolled away.
I had woken up feeling weak and nauseous.
Immediately, I dismissed it as overeating ice-cream and chips with Sally who was still fast asleep on my bed after our sleepover.
My parents had gone for another business trip and would be returning the next week so I begged her to stay until then and she obliged with the determination to make sure I don't text Alan desperately.
I stretched my back weakly with a yawn before opening my window for fresh air. The once pleasing scent of posies from the shrub near my balcony churned my stomach.
I made it to the bathroom in time before throwing up.
When I turned around, Sally was staring at me, her jaw dropped.
"What?" I ask her, flushing the toilet.
"Is everything okay, Elsie?" She asked, stepping into the bathroom.
"Yeah, sure. I just felt sick."
"This happened yesterday too." She pointed out, calling my attention to my vomiting episode the previous day.
I laughed it off, "It's probably food poisoning or something, you're sounding so serious. Chill, I'm fine."
Sally looked at me sharply before whispering, "Did you have your period last month?"
A pin-drop silence. I hadn't noticed. My mind had been too tangled with Alan to even think about it.
"You're pregnant, Elsie." she dropped the bomb.
A cold wave of panic washed over me, my heart racing as Sally's words sank in. "Pregnant?" I repeated, the word feeling foreign and heavy on my tongue.
My stomach twisted painfully, and the nausea I had brushed off earlier surged back with a vengeance.
I ran to the toilet bowl and poured out the rest of the meal in me, my eyes welling up as the reality of her words sank in.
Sally held my hair until I was finished and I sat on the bathtub, too numb to speak. I held my stomach in realisation that I was carrying a little human in me.
"Wait here." Sally said, leaving and returning later with pregnancy test strips, "Now, before you get angry. I sort of noticed something was off so I got these for you." She placed them in my palm and sealed it with my fingers.
"I'll be outside, okay? I hope this isn't true." She whispered, squeezing my knee slightly before leaving the bathroom.
I pulled myself together and did the needful, praying to God that it wasn't true and Sally was just confused since her mother was a gynaecologist. My prayers however came really late when I saw two lines on the strips. It was true.
I fell to the ground as my body trembled. My life, my future—it was over. College, my career, everything my parents had planned for me... gone.
My parents would murder me and throw my corpse away in the middle of the Sahara Desert. What have I done to myself?
Alarmed by the silence, Sally came back in and upon seeing my reaction realisation glistened in her eyes as she embraced me on the wet floor while I cried on her shoulder.
"You have to tell Alan." She finally said, pulling away.
"He won't even talk to me." I croaked, cleaning my tears with the back of my palm.
"He's aware of what he did, you should've checked if he had protection on."
"I was drunk, Sally. Remember?"
"And contraceptives? I'm so sorry,I should've told you when you mentioned it. I foolishly assumed that you already knew,"
"I'm dead. My parents will end me," I cried.
"Calm down, even if he's being a jerk. I know Alan loves you." Sally assured me and rose to her feet. "Come on, get up. You have to tell him first, he should know, he's the father,"
Father? I hadn't even processed that part. I was a mother? The thought terrified me. I had imagined a future with Alan, sure, but not like this. Not now. Not in this disgraceful manner. I've poured dirt on my family's name and Loughtons never played with that.
I somehow pulled myself together, forcing a smile for the rest of the household to avoid suspicion. Heather hadn't been nosy lately, but if she found out, she'd love to rub it in my face. She'd finally have her chance to steal my place as the heiress.
Sally wanted to come along but I asked her to stay back so I could talk more intimately with Alan. Sir Bacchus dropped me off, I noticed that Heather's assigned car wasn't in the garage, it's a good thing that she's not here.
When I arrived at Alan's house, with help of a phone tracking app to get to his location.
I stood there for a moment, perplexed at the structure of the building, it was a small thatched bungalow contrary to what I was expecting since his family's supposedly wealthy.
I told Sir Bacchus to wait in the car and made my way inside, my heart pounding. As I stepped closer, I spotted Heather's car in the driveway. What was she doing here?
The floorboard creaked as I knocked on the door which flung open. My heart raced and I clenched my fists tightly, placing my blue Jordan sneakers into the house with my breath held in.
I looked around the messed up living room loaded with dirty clothes and I caught something peculiar, a black tee shirt that I got for Alan on his birthday. As I bent down to pick it up, I heard him laugh from a room. He was really here but why?
I pushed the bedroom door open and stopped cold.
There, in his arms, was Heather. Both of them half-dressed, wrapped in each other's embrace.