Doctor’s Duties by K.C. Crowne

Chapter 26

ABBY

The run from Logan’s house was a blur. Once I was around the corner I rushed back to my car as quickly as I could, climbing in and gunning the engine and getting the hell out of there. But not before firing off a text to Logan letting him know that whatever we had going on, was over.

I wanted to scream; I wanted to cry. And more than that, I wanted to throw up.

At first, I was certain it was just nerves. But as I drove, the urge to throw up grew stronger and stronger until I had to pull over. I did, coming to a stop in the parking lot of a Chick-Fil-A, opening the door, and letting loose with the contents of my stomach.

Once I was done, I gave myself a moment to regain my composure. And once I did, I realized how weird it had been that I’d puked like that out of the blue. I was nervous about what had happened, sure, but I’d never been so scared and freaked out that I’d had to throw up.

I put it out of my head, washing out my mouth with a swig of Fiji water before pulling out of the parking lot. I breathed in and out as I drove home, trying to put the close call out of my head.

It had been stupid, what I’d done. Sure, I was freaked out about Emma Strange’s threat, but that was no excuse to go to Logan’s place before we’d planned to meet. It’d been risky, and I’d nearly blown our secret by doing it.

It was all the more reason to cut this plan short. I’d gotten lucky this time and managed to come up with an excuse to throw off suspicion. But the next time, or the time after that, I wouldn’t be so lucky.

Fifteen minutes later, I was home. I threw open the door, ready to dash into my room and hide out from the world – or at least Logan. But Lexi was lying on the couch dressed in comfy clothes, Netflix on the TV and Chinese food on the table in front of her. The food reminded me of Logan, and I felt sick all over again.

“Whoa,” said Lexi as she sat up, pressing pause on the remote. “You alright?”

“I…I don’t know. I think it’s the food or something. Hold on.” The nausea returned with a vengeance, and I hurried to the bathroom and shut the door, dropping to my knees to let it all out again. This time there was nothing left to throw up but the water I’d drank. When I was done, my stomach ached, and my mouth tasted foul.

“You OK in there?” asked Lexi through the door.

“Fine! Gimme a sec!” I got up and gave my teeth a quick brush before opening the door to see Lexi standing there, a worried look on her face.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “You not feeling well?”

I opened my mouth, ready to tell another lie. But I didn’t want to. There’d been enough deception that day. Not to mention Lexi already knew most of what was going on with the situation between me and Logan.

“It’s Logan…”

She held up her hand. “Say no more. Let me get some wine and you can tell me all about it.”

Wine didn’t sound great right then, it made me a little sick to my stomach to think about, actually, but I kept that to myself as she zipped into the kitchen, returning moments later with a pair of wine glasses and a freshly opened bottle.

“Sit,” she said. “And vent it all out to your favorite cousin.”

She didn’t need to talk me into it. I told her about the new developments with Emma, along with the near disaster at Logan’s place, followed by the text where I ended it all.

“Holy crap,” she said, sitting back with her eyes wide. “That’s…it’s over? You ended it? What did he say in response?”

I took out my phone and checked it again. There was nothing – no text, no call. I showed it to Lexi.

“God, that’s…rough. And now it sounds like you’ve got some insane goth girl trying to get you out of the picture so she can have Logan all to herself.”

“That’s the worst part. It doesn’t matter if Logan and I break things off. All she’ll have to do is go telling people about me and him – if she hasn’t already.”

“And now you’re getting sick.”

“I don’t think it’s sick; more like nerves.”

“So, it just came out of nowhere since you saw Logan and that other professor?”

“I mean, I’ve been feeling queasy for the last few days. But it’s probably just nerves, right? What else could it be?”

Lexi pursed her lips – the telltale sign that there was something wrong.

“Tell me.”

“OK, I don’t want to alarm you. But in the medicine cabinet I have my IBS medication, right?”

“Sure.”

“And it’s right next to your progesterone.”

I didn’t like where she was going with this one bit.

“Now, I’m pretty sure you know that you have to take that every day, right?”

“I do.”

“Do you? Because there are times when I’ll get my IBS meds and your bottle hasn’t moved at all. I know it’s weird to notice, but I do.”

I shifted in my seat, nervous about where this was headed.

“Please don’t tell me you’re saying what I think you’re saying.”

“Well, think about it. You’ve been having sex with Logan. You’ve been missing your birth control. And now you’re feeling sick.”

I had the glass of wine up to my face as she spoke, the smell of the drink bringing on another fresh wave of nausea. I had to put it down fast in order to not have to throw up again.

“It might be nothing,” Lexi tried to reassure me. “But I’m thinking with all you’ve got going on, the last thing you need is a pregnancy scare on top of it. Here —” she got up and hurried into the bathroom. I heard some rummaging, and she returned a few moments later with a small box, which she shoved into my hands. “I had a little, um, thing with some guy from the gallery a few months ago. I got stupid with protection, and I had a little scare. I was negative, but I bought, like, five of these because I wanted to make sure.

I glanced down – it was a pregnancy test.

“They’re really fast now; you just pee on it and you get results in two seconds.”

My heart began to beat faster as I looked at the box.

“There’s no way I’m pregnant…right?”

“I mean, probably not? But you have been having sex. And I’m pretty sure you don’t need to go to med school to know what happens if you do that without protection. So, just get in there and pee on that stick. We’ll know one way or another and then we can go from there.”

I pursed my lips as I looked down at the box once more. Lexi was right, of course – I needed to find out one way or another. I sighed, and with what felt like a stone in my stomach, got up and went back into the bathroom.

“I’m right here!” shouted Lexi as I slowly closed the door. I gave her a weak smile as the door shut.

Once I was alone, I felt, well, alone. Lexi was in the other room, sure, but as of that moment it was me and a pregnancy test and a possible future that was unlike anything I’d ever considered. My life had been, up to that point, centered around my dream of graduating med school and becoming the doctor I’d always imagined myself being.

Logan had changed all that, however. And as I stood with the box in my hand, I was more scared than I’d been in a long time.

I opened the box and took out the test and instructions. They were simple enough – pee on the sensor and wait fifteen seconds. “Positive” meant baby, “negative” meant, well, no baby. I took one last deep breath, as if putting it all off for as long as I could.

I did the deed, and after less than a minute the sensor changed.

Positive.

I stood stunned for several moments, convinced there’d been some mistake.

“Hey, Abs!” shouted Lexi through the door. “I don’t mean to mess up your vibe in there, but what does it say?”

Without a word, I opened the door. Lexi was there, an expectant expression on her face.

I held up the sensor and she craned her neck to get a good look at it.

Positive.

“Ho-ly shit.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.