Sweet Child O' Mine

Grace couldn't open her eyes. She already knew once she opened her eye's she would regret it. Julia believed in having all natural light, she didn't own curtains or blinds. She knew the sun was lurking right outside her closed eyelids. She didn't realize the weight of something across her side until she came fully out of her drunken stupor. She realized that it was indeed not bright in the room she was and she also realized she wasn't at her best friends apartment. Grace's eyes shot wide open, it was dark in the room. She could see tiny bits of lights from the under the door and around the window. Band posters were plastered all over the walls and an acoustic guitar sat in the corner by a dresser. She could see the out line of clothes all over the floor.

Grace shivered lightly, finally noticing she wasn't dressed underneath the blanket. She couldn't deny how comfy she felt. Her back was pressed against someones chest and his arm was holding her tight against him, his face snug in the crease of her neck. Memories started flooding in from the party. The band, John O', dancing, making out on the dance floor, challenging some of John's friends to an epic battle of one on one beer pong and then it went fuzzy. She never has done this before, sleeping around wasn't her thing. She'd ever only been in a bed with two other people and she was in a long-term relationship with both of them. The body behind her stirred a little.

“Good morning, sweetheart.” A raspy voice whispered in her ear.
“Good morning, John.” She whispered back.
“Let's get dressed and I'll drive you to your car.” He let go of his grasp on her and climbed out of the bed, leaving her under the blanket.
She didn't watch as he got dressed, instead she slowly rose with the blanket still wrapped around her and managed to get dressed underneath it.

“No need to be shy, sweetheart, I already saw it all.” He chuckled lightly.

Grace blushed a deep red.

“I don't normally do these kind of things.” She shyly said, more to herself than him
“I know, you kept saying that last night.”

She blushed even harder.

She followed him silently out of his room. They stepped down the stairs into the living room, where his band mates, Kennedy, Jared, Garrett and Pat were all sitting around the coffee table with bowls of cereal watching Saturday morning cartoons.

“Good morning!” Kennedy said cheerfully.

Grace gave a small smile, “Morning.”

“I'll be back in a little bit, I'm gonna take Grace to her car.”

They all mumbled something along the lines of 'Okay'.

The car ride was silent except for the radio playing in the background.

“You're awfully quite.” John said out of nowhere.
“I'm just a bit shy.” She stated.
“You weren't last night.”
“You met, Drunk Grace,” She sighed. “She's different than Sober Grace.”
“Oh, alter ego much?” They both laughed lightly.

He pulled to a stop by Julia's dorm.

“Well here you go, sweetheart.” He said smiling.

Grace turned to say good bye, but John O' brought his hand to her face and pulled her in for a kiss.
“See you at another party, maybe?” He asked.
“I don't think so.”

She exited his car and waved good bye. He pulled away as soon as she was on the sidewalk. Grace didn't know how to feel. Regret washed over her feelings. She felt like all the other drunken sluts, wearing yesterday's clothes and smelling like last nights mistakes. She couldn't believe how drunk she got and that she actually had a one night stand.

Grace made it home in less than twenty minutes. She walked through her house, straight to her room and grabbed her pajamas off the bed. She decided that she was gonna take a shower and stay in all day working on her Music Theory project.

Three Weeks Later

Grace woke up randomly with an overwhelming nauseous feeling. Her mouth became drier and drier and she could feel it coming from the pit of her stomach. She dashed to the bathroom and made it right in time to empty her stomach contents into the porcelain bowl. She sat up and grabbed some toilet paper, wiping off her mouth she threw the toilet paper into the bowl and flushed it. She stood up and looked in the mirror. Her apartment was still dark, which mean't it had to be early in the morning. She brushed her teeth and went straight back to her room. Grace figured she had some kinda stomach flu and decided she was gonna stay home from her classes. She quickly fell back into a slumber.

“There's a light on in Chicago and I know I should be home.”

Sleepily, Grace grabbed her cell phone from it's place on the nightstand.

“Hel-Hello?” Her voice was full of sleep.
“What the hell are you doing sleeping?” Her best friend yelled into the phone.
“I'm not coming today, I think I caught that flu thing that's been going around.” Grace sat up in her bed.
“Fiiiine!” Julia whined.
“Sorry!”
“No you're not, but I'll bring you soup later.”
“Sounds good, bye Julia.”
“Peace.”

Grace felt fine when she got out of her bed. Beethoven was doing his normal, following her every footstep. She grabbed a can of dog food from the counter, popped it open and fed her furry four-legged child. Her eye's instantly locked onto the calendar, hanging off her fridge. She noticed that were the black dot was, there wasn't a red dot to follow. She always kept track of her cycles. A black dot mean't that was the date she should get it and when she got it, she'd mark a red dot underneath the black one. The black dot was a week ago. Grace couldn't believe it, how did she not know she had missed her period? Grace's breathing picked up and she could barely stand. She felt sick to her stomach and weak to her knees. She slid against the counter till she hit the floor, holding her knees to her chest.

“Why? Why me? WHY ME?” She yelled the last part.

She thought to her that it could just be a fluke, maybe she counted wrong. She quickly stood up and counted the days from the end of her last one to the black dot. 28 days. She wasn't wrong on her markings.

She through on a hoodie and her slippers and ran to her car. She pulled out of her parking lot and made it to the closest Walgreens within minutes. She grabbed three different pregnancy tests and took them to the counter. The elder lady who was cashiering gave her a once over and smiled sympathetically.

“$24.13, sweetheart.” The elder lady said.

Grace's mind filled with thoughts of the party and John. She could still hear his voice, “Good morning, sweetheart”. She handed the lady exact change and made a run out of the store.

She pulled her phone out and dialed Julia's number. Julia picked up on the second ring.

“What?”
“Get over, asap, emergency!” Grace said with urgency.
“What's wrong, Grace?” Julia was worried, the tone in her voice said it all.
“Julia, I might be pregnant.” Grace started to tear up, instantly at what she had finally soaked in.

Grace waited patiently for her best friend to arrive at her house. When she heard knocking, she practically tripped herself to get to the door.

“I'm here, Momma Julia's here.” She pulled Grace into a tight hug.
“I wanna take these and get them over with.”

Grace pee'd on the three different plastic sticks. They were all up to five minute waiting time, Grace watched every tick of the clock. It was probably the worst and longest five minutes of her life.

“Time's up, Grace.” Julia sighed.