Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 258(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 258(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
“Dean, it’s me,” I say into the phone. “Again. Call me, please. I need to hear your voice. I miss you.”
I hang up and then place Mr. Hopper’s order. Staring down at the screen, my heart slams into my ribcage when it lights up with a new text message. But my excitement slowly dissipates when I see it’s from Silvia instead of Dean.
Where are you? I whisper to myself. Why aren’t you answering my calls?
Dean promised to call me every single day. I’m not normally so needy, but anymore, I feel like I’m in physical pain. This is what my mother warned me about. Being so far away from Dean is killing me. I never wanted to feel this way about anyone for this reason.
Silvia: I’m in hell.
Kat: So am I.
Silvia: Come save me.
Kat: I wish I could. Dickface is in a shit mood.
Silvia: Can you sneak out?
Kat: No, his food will be here soon.
Silvia: Meet me at the bathroom on the seventeenth floor on your break.
Kat: K. See ya then.
Thirty minutes later, Mr. Hopper’s food arrives. The scent of fried onions fills my nostrils, causing my stomach to turn. Until today, I liked onions. But now, my stomach is revolting, the chunks rising from the back of my throat. After I take the food into Mr. Hopper’s office, I run to the bathroom as if my life depends on it. I’ve always had a weak stomach. My dad thinks it’s because of food poisoning I had as a kid. But this is something else.
I make it to the bathroom without spilling my guts onto the floor. My stomach feels like it’s at war with the rest of my body. After I finish puking, I sink to the floor and wipe my mouth. What the hell is wrong with me? I feel like death, my belly in so much pain I can’t think straight.
I text Silvia, and she appears a few minutes later. She enters the last stall, holding out her hand to help me up. I take it, my body so weak I have to grab her shoulders to regain my balance.
“What happened to you, babe? Did you eat bad fish or something?”
I shake my head. “No, I haven’t eaten all day.”
She holds me at arm’s length, eyeing me suspiciously. “So, what are you throwing up then?”
I shrug off her concern. “What I ate last night, I guess. That and a lot of coffee and water.”
“Have you been crying?” She swipes my cheek with her fingers.
“Yeah.” I sigh. “It’s like I’m falling apart. First, I start crying because Mr. Hopper throws a menu at me, and then the smell of onions from his lunch made me sick.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “That’s weird, don’t you think?”
I roll my shoulders. “No, I’m stressed out. I’m not sleeping. Dean’s been MIA for the last few days. He’s so hard to get a hold of now.”
“Do you have your period?”
“Nope.”
Her curious look grows more serious. “We normally get our periods at the same time. So, that means you’re late. I just finished mine. When was the last time you had yours?”
“Umm… Maybe at the end of June or sometime in July. I’m not sure. It’s not that big of a deal. I’ve gone months without getting my period.”
“Yeah, but you weren’t having sex back then,” she points out.
My eyes widen when I realize where she’s going with this.
I shake my head. “No, it’s not possible. We used a condom.”
Her eyebrow raises. “Every time?”
I nod, sure of the answer until I stop myself. “No, not when we were in the tub together.”
She blows out a breath of air that I can feel on my cheek. “Oh, babe, no. Please tell me you didn’t let him…”
“We were talking about our future, and I don’t know… it just happened. I wasn’t thinking.”
“He must not have either,” she says under her breath.
We stare at each other in horror. My stomach churns again, and this time for a different reason.
“There’s no way,” I mutter. “Not with the first guy I had sex with.”
“It happens to girls all the time, Kat.”
My chest fills with panic, the air sucked from my lungs. I press my palm to the cold concrete wall, attempting to catch my breath. “No, no, no…”
Silvia hugs me to calm my nerves. “You have to take a pregnancy test. It might be nothing. Just bad timing. But you have to know either way.”
“Okay,” I whisper. “But I think I’m gonna pass out.”
“You have five minutes before Mr. Hopper sends someone to look for you.”
“Fuck,” I groan. “I forgot all about that asshole. I hate this job. I don’t want to go back. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation. It’s the stress, right?”
She gives me a hopeful smile, but it looks forced. “Sure, maybe. We’ll go to the drug store after work and find out what’s going on with you.”