“I think I’m pregnant.”
“What!”
Dana’s reaction was loud. It was expected, but I gave her the stink eye, and she smiled sheepishly at me.
“Sorry for screaming at you…but seriously, what?”
I sighed. “I didn’t realize it at first with the commotion with our families, but my period is late, and it’s never happened to me before. I wanted to talk to Elijah so that we could talk about things and I could take a test so that we’re sure…”
“There’s no reason to talk to him first just for that,” Dana cut in. “There’s only one way to know for sure. We should go over to the pharmacy for a test, or we could stop by the clinic so they can let you know your…options.”
I frowned at her. I wasn’t entirely sure what she meant by options. If something like abortion and adoption were included, I already knew there was no way I could do that. My mom would never forgive me, and I could never forgive myself. If it had to do with what I was going to do about schooling? I’d hoped to include that in talks with Elijah, but if I could know earlier, then I would rather hear it because I’d been on the verge of panicking by myself.
My biggest problem at the moment was still Elijah. But Dana was right. It wasn’t like I needed his permission or anything to know if something was happening to my body.
I’ll talk to him afterwards, I just had to!
Chapter Twenty-Two
Elijah
I had been in being angry with Sophia, that I forgot it all started with me in the first place. If I never hacked her computer, stole her information and used it so I could trap her, she and I never would have gotten together in the first place. Our reactions to being step-siblings would have been more along the sides of hate than horror. For a moment, because I was irritated, I got so full of myself.
Now, I couldn’t even apologize to her, because after that day, I didn’t see her around anymore. Even when I looked for her in our shared class, or went to find her at any of her classes.
For the whole week, Sophia hadn't been in classes.
“Could something have happened?” I mused to myself in my room.
“Who knows? Maybe she’s trying to get away from you,” Logan replied lazily from behind me.
I whirled around in my chair and scowled at him. “Look who’s talking,” I sneered. “It’s your fault for saying that shit to her.”
He arched an eyebrow at me. “Weren’t you thinking of telling her yourself? So I just helped you out a little.”
“I didn’t need your help,” I hissed.
He shrugged. “You’re probably right, but you were getting annoying.”
Logan went back to playing with his cell. He was leaned back on his pillow, his legs crossed. I frowned, wondering how strange it was to find him in the dorm this early.
“Shouldn’t you be out somewhere? Like, I don’t know, out on a date with your girlfriend?”
He paused, then frowned at me. “Dude, please stay out of my love life, okay? I don’t want you to jinx it as you did yours.”
“Bastard,” I muttered.
He shrugged again. “Better than being you right now.”
I groaned and leaned my head back, closing my eyes. I couldn’t take out my incompetence at Logan, but I was tempted to. Since he and Dana started seeing each other, this was one of the few times he showed up at the dorm. Come to think of it; he’d been coming by frequently this week. I was so preoccupied with my shit that I didn’t notice. I looked up at Logan with a frown, but his bored expression didn’t give anything away.
“Did something happen with Dana?” I asked. And did it have anything to do with Sophia?
Logan sighed and looked up at me. “I don’t know. She’s just been really busy recently, or so she says, so we haven’t hung out much this week.” he frowned at his cell. “I don’t know what she’s busy with. And I know you want to ask, but if it has anything to do with Sophia, I have no idea. Oh, she did mention once that Sophia left school.”
My eyes widened as I leaned forward eagerly. “What do you mean, Sophia left college?”
His eyes met mine, and he looked surprised. “What, you didn’t know?”
I scowled. “How could you not figure out that I didn’t know? I’ve been going around campus looking for her for a damn week! You could have fucking said something.”
“Oh,” he said quietly. “Sorry about that, I kinda forgot until just now. Anyway, she didn’t tell me much about Sophia, but she’s been alone in her dorm, and she hasn’t been letting me visit still, so I figured she needs space? If you want to know something about Sophia, you might as well ask her yourself.”
I had thought of it, but I doubted she’d tell me. It wasn’t like I hadn't tried going to their room before. I either got there when there was no one in, or whoever was inside simply ignored me whenever I knocked. Once, I’d even waited nearly half an hour, only to give up in the end and go back to my dorm.
If I’d known that Sophia wasn’t on campus, I wouldn’t have wasted so much energy.
“Do you want me to call her for you or something?” Logan asked.
I arched an eyebrow at him. He looked excited like he was looking for an excuse to talk to Dana. But, there was no way I was going to help him after what he just pulled.
“Don’t bother,” I said, waving a hand. “She might not even tell me.”
Hell, she probably didn’t want to talk to me if she’d ignored me knocking on her door so many times this week. Besides, Sophia was her friend. Sure, she’d given me dirt on Sophia once, it was her idea for Logan to call me to their room when Sophia left her laptop open that one time, but lately the two of them seemed to be making up. After Sophia slapped me and ran off, Dana even followed her.
I doubted she’d tell me whatever Sophia said to her because I asked her to. Besides, she and I weren’t close. We barely talked, and if not for Logan, and Sophia being angry at me before that, we never would have known about each other.
“What are you even going to tell her once you do meet?” Logan asked, sounding curious. “I mean, you’ve gotta know she hates your guts, right?”
I scowled at him. “Again, this is your fault.”
“No it isn’t,” he said defensively. “Who told you to start picking a fight with a girl, huh? Even worse, she and Dana are friends, so whatever affects her, affects Dana and me too. I didn't want to keep getting dragged down with you. And I decided in the end that you were right, she needed to know. You weren’t going to tell her—”
“I planned to,” I growled. “She was the one that stopped speaking to me, but I had every intention of explaining things to her. I wanted to talk to my dad about it beforehand, but then I show up, and Sophia is there with her mother. What did you think I could have done in that situation, huh?”
Logan didn’t have a thing to say about that. He went back to looking at his cell, and I whirled my seat around to lean against my desk. I had my cell on the table, waiting for a reply from Sophia to my very many messages, but it just sat there, really still. I pushed it around with a finger, brooding.
What if… Sophia never forgave me for this?
Just the thought had a chill going through my chest, making my mood drop even lower. If she refused to talk to me ever again, I wouldn’t be okay with it, though I had to admit I deserved it. I couldn’t help cursing myself for my bad decisions lately.
The first mistake I made, was touching her computer at all. Sure, meeting her on the dating site as her perfect match was the catalyst for her and me getting to know each other better, and drawing closer. I’d thought about it, and I didn’t see how I would have gotten together with Sophia otherwise if it hadn't been for that dating site. Before it, all she cared about was irritating me, and she did it well. The only problem was deciding whether or not it was worth it, knowing she would hate me for it when she found me out.
Mistake number two was not explaining things to her sooner. While we were still good, I should have found some way
to let her know instead of looking for ways to hide. There was no way I could be so meticulous because I wasn’t the kind of guy that was used to pretending to be something I was not. I had known that at some point she’d figure out, me when we were together and me when we were chatting online, it was different. She wasn’t an idiot, after all.
There were plenty more mistakes, but I thought those two were the biggest. Oh, and then getting mad at her for reacting to us being step-siblings in a way I didn’t like. I was supposed to be her boyfriend and I… loved her. I should have been more understanding, not worried about us breaking up before she and I even talked about it.
What’s going on with her, though? I mused to myself, poking at my cell. Sophia wouldn’t just skip school for no reason. She takes her studies more seriously than that. Slowly, as my thoughts shifted, I sat up, thinking. Wait, there couldn’t be something wrong, right?
Shit!