Emma's POV
Once again, thanks to another boy, one I almost gave my life to, my nudes were floating around.
It was deja vu. I should've seen it all coming. Pictures of Chase with Jessica and then pictures of me and him at the hotel. I shamelessly went through some others social media accounts and even saw pictures I sent to him privately.
I should've known better, I should've seen it coming. Worse still, he didn't even run after me.
"Hey baby." My mom, in one of her very fancy floral outfits, walked in unannounced to my room. I was so grateful I didn't pack any of my clothes to Chase's house. It's been three days since it happened, but it was still the talk of the town, second only to speculations about prom king and Queen.
The or I had planned so carefully for was going to elude me.
There was no way I was setting my feet in school if it wasn't for school.
"Hi, mom." I croaked.
"Come on. What's going on? It cannot possibly be your period." She said, I lied to her that it was just cramps. It was the most plausible excuse I could conjure.
"Patty says you've not even requested any sanitary towels or…" She said,
"I'm not on my period, mom. You got that right. I'm just down." I said.
She paused, and looked at me with a sought frown on her face.
"You don't deem it fit to tell me that? Why did you have to be dishonest about how you felt?" She asked me, tickling my scalp.
"Mom please." I said.
"Am I starting to irritate you?" She asked, feeling insulted.
I couldn't afford to push anyone else away. I had very few people on my side as things stood.
"And where's your ring and necklace been?" She asked, running my hand as if it would make the ring magically appear
"Chase hasn't been by, and you haven't been absent either, is all well with him?" She asked.
"I believe you sleep with his dad and you know him well enough to have helped him purchase his house, surely you can't direct this very important question to any of them." I shit at her and threw the blanket over my face.
"You cannot possibly think I'm that dumb, Emma. That was me trying to ascertain with whom the fault lay. What did he do this time around?" She said, My mom took my foot, put it on her thighs and massaged it with short, light strokes.
It reminded me of day's when it was just me and her.
How little, but drama free my world was.
"Remember how I used to do this for you when you were still a little girl?" my mom asked. I shuddered at the thought of her being a mind reader.
"Yeah." I replied weakly.
"How you loved it so much you'd wash your feet extra hard every night, in anticipation?" She asked again.
All those memories just evoked fresh tears. Tears to mourn the innocent little girl I had once been.
"On days your legs were dirty, and you slept off, I'd wipe the dirt off your feet and still rub them till I felt I had done enough." She continued.
"I remember!" I screamed. "Mom, what's your point?! Cause you seem to like Chase far more than I do." I said. "You talk to him without telling me, y'all did business behind my back and I got to know about it only when it came through. What's your point?!" I said again.
My head was aching so bad. A pain I had been dealing with for three days.
"Emma." She started, "women like us love too hard. You should not beat yourself up over that. I suffered with your dad, but I'd spare you the details like I always had, so you can keep carrying whatever memory of him you have. Your father was no saint, Emma. He made me sleep with his boss for a promotion, and I did it. It's a dumb sacrifice, and that I realized only after I did it, but I did it still. We give parts and parts of us till we have nothing left to share. Don't hate the rest of yourself. You are still my baby girl." My mom's eyes were red, and more watery than I had ever seen.
"Chase is your foot, Emma." My mom continued. "You mold, and mold and mold, everyday to your heart's content. But on days you find the foot dirty, wanting, moldy, you don't leave it, cause Emma, I didn't leave you. Fight, Emma, that's what we do for love." She said, wiping her eyes.
"What if I'm tired of fighting, Mama? Is it so hard to want something true, something that lasts?" I asked. My heart was shattered. Kevin's deal was so little compared to this.
I had made County's gossip news. And like it wasn't bad enough, my nudes from Starry had resurfaced.
Every time I was alone seemed like the perfect moment to end it all.
"We don't not have a say in how it comes, baby girl. What we can control is how it goes. You love Chase, we know you do. If you let your head win your heart, you might live a lifetime stuck in there, and it will be an unhappy one." She said, taking my hands. "This feels quite warm." She commented. "We will continue this talk, Emma. You need to be at a hospital right now."
With that she bolted out and summoned Patty to take me to a car that was already revved, ready to speed off to Mark's family hospital.
We got there in under ten minutes. And I was soon ushered into a room bypassing a short queue.
"I'm afraid we will have to conduct some intrusive tests, are you okay with that, Emma?" The kind doctor asked.
I didn't know whatever that meant, but it sure couldn't be so bad.
I accepted and prepared myself for whatever could've happened.
My mom's phone rang and she excused herself to attend to whoever it was.
The tests were pretty quick, weird and awkward, but quick.
"The results are ready." The doctor announced. "Do we await Mrs Linda or go ahead? You are an adult, therefore you can take the news yourself."
My mom still hadn't come back in, and I was in such a hurry to be away from the white walls and the nauseating antiseptic stench of the hospital.
"Patty, please excuse us." I said. She had been kind to me of late, but that didn't mean I wanted her to know every detail about me.
She went out, and the fear and anticipation heightened.
"You're two weeks pregnant, Emma." The doctor said, "I hope this is a good thing, but in the event that it isn't, we can discuss states where…" It was sensory overload.
My eyes were open, but I had blanked out.
I kept on staring at the doctor, unable to do the one thing I really wanted to do, scream.
The world around me seemed to stop. The muffled sounds that the doctor's voice had reduced to felt like I had been submerged underwater.
It couldn't be real. I blinked rapidly, pinching myself back into reality.
"You must be wrong." I said, finally. He had to be wrong. It was the worst timing ever. When I thought of little Chase in me, my heart clenched. It can't be possible. What was I thinking having unprotected sex with him?!
We had shared some good moments in our very dramatic time together, but we also had bitter fights that made our relationship rocky, capped by the ugly incident that took place three days ago. It was all too shaky to balance the news of a child upon.
Prom was three days away, and while everyone else was busy planning their prom dresses and make up, I was holed up in a doctors office, getting the most shocking, disappointing news of my life.
"Thank you." I croaked finally. "If she does come back up, tell her I discharged myself." I said and wobbled out of the hospital.
I did the walk of shame back to the car with Patty trailing behind me.
The weight of it came pressing on me, amplified even by a crying baby strapped to his mother.
My thoughts raced between how Chase, my mom and even Mark will take the news.
The fear of making them disappointed gnawed at me and made my inside churn.
"Please sit next to me." I begged Patty. She was already making herself comfortable beside the driver in the front. "Stay with me, please."
The father of my child, the man who leaked my pictures. I squeezed my stomach tight, a misguided attempt to stop what I knew was growing in there. It was a cruel world, and I had no intent to let my child go through it.