First Time for Everything.

It was Monday. Dreaded, dreaded Monday. I knew today I’d have to tell Ethan, and he would probably tell me I was a lying slut, and that would be the end of that. Like Amanda, I would be a single mother.

I stood in front of my mirror, looking at my appearance.

“I guess I’m pretty,” I muttered to myself. My hair was short; it was in need of a dye job. The last time it had been dyed it was jet black. Now it was black with splotches of brown in it. It looked alright for me. I knew I was pretty, I had been told all of my life I was pretty, but like most girls my age, insecurity is a bitch.

A knock on my door startled me and Amanda walked in, “you ready to go?” she asked.

I nodded and grabbed my backpack from the floor. It seemed heavier than usual.

Amanda usually drove me and Abigail to school. I was usually the one to get dropped off first because the high school took in way earlier than the middle school, but instead, I was going in late today. Somehow Amanda managed to get me an appointment. It was so that if Ethan accused me of lying, I would have proof.

Abigail and I climbed into Amanda’s car. I had to strap Matthew into his car seat. He was such a cute baby with wispy blond hair and bright blue eyes. I remember his father, Adam, coming over every now and again when Amanda was pregnant with him. He cooed and grabbed a lock of my hair, trying to chew on it.

“Matthew, stop!” I chided him, pulling his hand away and popping it gently. He began to cry. I didn’t know what to do; his cries were getting louder and louder. My head began to hurt and my ears began to ring.

Amanda opened the car door on the side he was on and popped a pacifier in his mouth. His cries diminished into whimpers.

“It’s okay Alex, just next time he begins to cry, pop a paci in his mouth. He needs to cry anyways; kid is spoiled rotten. Abigail, get in the backseat.”

Abigail mumbled something about how it wasn’t fair to sit in the backseat next to a drooling baby. I couldn’t help but sigh and be nervous. My hands were shaking as I got into the car and buckled my seat belt.

I knew today would be an adventure.



Abigail was dropped off and Matthew had also been dropped off at his daycare. It was silent in the car, and Amanda was the one who broke it.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Nervous.” I replied.

“I understand,” she began, “I felt the same with Matthew, but I think you’ll be alright. You’re a smart girl, I just hope you won’t fuck up royally like I did,”

I chuckled nervously at Amanda’s remark. She was right; she had fucked up horribly when she was pregnant with Matthew. She drank and partied before she knew she was pregnant, so we were all extremely lucky when Matthew came along. He had been a healthy baby, even though he was four weeks premature.

“Just please, whatever you do Alex, don’t give your baby a name that begins with A. Mom and Dad wanted me to give Matthew a weird name, I think it was Augustus or some shit.”

“You mean like Augustus Caesar? Ruler of Rome in twenty-seven B.C.?” I asked.

“Yeah, him,” Amanda laughed. “I was never good at history or anything, but I loved English class. Holy shit, give me a book and I’d be done with it in a day and I could probably write a better summary than the author himself could.”

I laughed at Amanda. It was true. I remember Mom and Dad yelling at her because she never made above a C in History or Math, but always made an A in English class. I was always the overachiever and now when Abigail made below a B, our parents would chastise her, asking her why couldn’t she be more like me.

I knew that was going to change soon.



We pulled up in the parking lot. That’s when I began to get worse. My legs seemed to turn to jelly.

Amanda looked at me, “you ready?” she asked.

I nodded, even though I was nowhere near ready for this. I swallowed the lump that had appeared in my throat, and walked with Amanda into the office.

Inside was a small waiting room with about six or seven chairs. There was another woman who was pretty far along in her pregnancy, and us. Amanda walked up to the receptionist and told her my name. I had to sign forms and papers and so much other stuff it made my head spin.

We waited. A nurse came in and called the other woman in. I noticed she had trouble getting up from her seat and waddled as she walked. Would that be me? I could only hope not.

“Alexandria Bunch?” another nurse called me this time. Amanda nudged my arm and told me she’d be out here waiting. I walked into the back with the nurse. She led me into a room that had a scale and a blood pressure cuff.

“Alright Alex, I want you to take off your shoes and stand on this scale, then we’re going to take your blood pressure and I’m going to ask you some questions, okay?”

I nodded and slipped off my shoes, standing on the scale. 105.6 the scale read.

I sat down in the chair and let the nurse attach the cuff on my arm. It squeezed and slowly let go, the nurse marked my number down on a sheet of paper, and the questions began.

“Okay Alex, when was your last menstrual date?”

I sat in a stump for a second; I couldn’t remember when I last had my period. I knew I had only missed one.

“Uhm, I had my last one around the middle of July,” I muttered softly, the nurse wrote it down.

“Are you on any type of birth control?”

“No.”

“Are you drinking alcohol currently or on any drugs?”

“No ma’am, I am not.”

“Are you experiencing any depression, suicidal thoughts or thoughts of hurting yourself or others?”

“No.”

“You’re here because you need a confirmation of pregnancy, right? I spoke with your sister over the phone. We had her here when she was expecting with her little boy.”

“Yes ma’am. I took a drugstore test, and it came back positive. I just need to know if it’s true or not.”

“Okay.” She smiled at me and reshuffled the papers, “this is going to be a form of all your sexual interactions, you can fill it out and then go across the hall and pee in a little cup for me, and then you go into room ten, okay?”

She handed me the papers, I nodded and quickly began filling them out as she walked out of the room. There were so many questions asking about my sexual health. It seemed a bit ridiculous.

Once I was done, I left the stack of papers on the table and walked into the bathroom. They had a cup sitting on the sink with my name, birth-date and a couple of other things. I did my business and put it in the little metal door thing.

I was nervous to know my results.



I was sitting in the room, waiting for the doctor to come in. A knock startled me and I managed to get a “come in!” out.

In walked a doctor. She had short cropped brown hair with blond highlights and wore thick framed glasses. She smiled at me and I noticed how bad her dental hygiene was.

“Hi Alex,” she said, looking at the folder she was carrying. She looked through my files and found the one she wanted.

“According to this, you’re about eight weeks along,”

My eyes went wide, I was that far along? Holy shit.

“But that’s okay,” the doctor reassured me. “I’m going to prescribe you some prenatal vitamins. Do you want an ultrasound before you leave here today?”

“Sure.” I gave her a small smile.

“Okay, get up here and lift your shirt up to your breast. I’ll be back in a second.”

I did as I was told, and it seemed like forever before she came back. She was pushing a weird looking machine. She grabbed a tube of gel and squirted some on my belly. I jumped, it was pretty cold.

The doctor chuckled and pressed the transducer down on my stomach. Up on the machine, a grainy image was shown. It was in black and white and in the center was a blob.

“There’s your baby.” The doctor smiled and pointed at the blob. “Would you like to hear its heartbeat?”

I nodded and the doctor clicked something, and a whoosh, whoosh sound was heard. I felt tears begin to well up in my eyes, although they didn’t spill.

“I’m going to print you off a picture; the receptionist will have it up front. Get yourself cleaned up and what pharmacy should I send your prescription to?”

“CVS,” I told her. She handed me some paper towels and I cleaned off my stomach.

I couldn’t believe that little blob was inside of me, and it was mine.