8 Months

“You got coffee without me?” Molly said with sadness seeping through her voice.

“Don’t worry we’ll go and get some more later!” I reassured her. “Did you get the stuff?”

“Yes I did,” she said, holding up a Walmart bag. “You ready to do this?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I told her, tossing my cigarette away. She did the same. “Lets go get this over with.” We both walked towards my house making small talk. We quickly headed to my basement where we knew we wouldn’t be bothered by anyone.

“Okay,” Molly said as she scooted in my tiny bathroom. “I got four different types of pregnancy tests.”

“Why’d you get four different kinds?” I questioned my best friend.

“Well what if one lies, one is positive, one is negative or one says read the manual, you never know!”

I stared at her with a dumbfounded look, “You do have a point. Lets get this over with.”

After I peed on eight different sticks, having to wait like five minutes all together, we decided to have a quick cigarette to pass the time. We both sat on the concrete stairs outside that led into my basement. We both were on our phones making small talk here and there. There was a lot of tension, making it hard to think.

Dave: Hey it’s Dave :)

Dave: Is this Dove?

Me: Heyy!! Yeahh it’s me, sorry I was just talking to my friend.

Dave: It’s ok beautiful, what r u two up to?

I looked up at my friend and saw her just standing there smoking a cigarette, mumbling something about who did what and what bitch wore what.

Me: We’re just having a cigarette you??

Dave: Same here, I’m so exhausted from work.

Me: Aww I’m sorry hun. What do you do for work???

“Hey,” Molly said breaking me out of my train of thought.

“What’s up girl?” I said flicking my cigarette.

“You know I’ll be there for you, no matter what happens right?”

“I know you will be girly. I just know that I won’t tell this guy or Jared, whoevers it is, about the baby-if I am pregnant. I don’t want anyone thinking I need their support at all, which I don’t,” I told her with confidence.

“I know girl,” she said as she put out her cigarette. “You know me, your family and my family will all be there for you if you are.”

“I know and that’s why you’re my person,” I told her.

“God, you got to love Greys Anatomy quotes,” she said with a laugh. “I’m going to have one more before we go in to see your fate.”

“Chain smoking like s mother fucker!”

“Damn right!”

Dave: I work at a Pep Boys as a mechanic. What about u?

Me: Well currently I don’t have a job but I am looking for one. That’s cool! I could always use someone to fix my car lol jk.

Dave: Haha its not the glamorous trust me. Hmm, maybe I could but it might cost ya!

Me: Well I would make you a good home cooked meal. I’m a pretty good cook.

Dave: Well u definitely got my attention Ms. Dove. A good home cooked meal is a definite way to my heart.

Me: I’m winning already!! Well that’s definitely good to know!!!

Dave: Yes it is. I’m a pretty good cook as well.

Maybe one day we can have a cook off.

Me: I would definitely like that!

“Molly you ready?” I asked my best friend, knowing she probably wasn’t.

“I’m ready but are you ready?” She asked me.

“I’m ready as I’ll ever be. Lets go see if I’m a mommy or not!” I said with fake excitement.

We walked back into the small bathroom to see if my fate was sealed or not.

“Here goes nothing,” I said as I picked up the first stick up, negative. I picked up another one and it was also negative. One by one as I picked them up, they all said negative. “Well it looks like I’m not going to be a mommy!”

“That’s awesome!” Molly cheered quietly, knowing my parents were upstairs sleeping. “Even though, you would have been a pretty great momma.”

“I know I would be but I know that I wouldn’t be able to raise a kid right now even if I wanted to. I have no job, I live with my parents, and I’m still in school. I wouldn’t want my kid to suffer because of me,” I told her.

“I know girly. How do you think I felt, trying not to get pregnant during high school? I didn’t want to end up like my mother and dropping out,” Molly said bitterly. I knew she wasn’t mad at me but mostly mad at her birth mom Laura.

“Plus mom and dad would have killed you if you did get knocked up,” I said jokingly.

“This is also true,” she laughed. My phone started buzzing, which made her glance down at it. “Look at you miss popular. Who’s that?”

“This guy that I met off of Plenty of Fish. His name is Dave. Want to see a picture?”

“Sure,” she said, even though she sounded unsure. I went to his page and I showed her his pictures and she definitely agreed with me. “He’s so hot!”

“Right? Like I just don’t understand why someone that good looking is single.”

“I don’t know, maybe he’s a serial killer,” Molly sad sarcastically.

“A hot serial killer,” I joked back. “Well our show is about to start in like twenty minutes, do you want to go have one more cigarette and we’ll go watch it.”

“You know I don’t pass up a cigarette,” Molly said laughing a little. We put all the sticks in the Walmart bag and tied it up tight. Molly was going to toss it out the window when she was on her way home.

We went back to the same area as before, taking the same positions. I checked my phone and I saw that Dave had texted me twice.

Dave: I wouldn’t mind cooking for a cute girl like yourself.

Dave: So tell me a little about yourself Dove.

Me: What would you like to know?

Dave: Idk anything! Like how did u get ur name, fav color, why’d you pick medical social work, what are you looking for on here-anything!

“I hate having to explain myself to people. I feel like I say the wrong things,” I told Molly as we both took a drag of our cigarettes.

“So do I, I can never tell what I should say or not say!”

Me: Well my name came from my hippie parents. They thought Dove symbolized something of beauty and peace. My favorite color is yellow. I’ve always wanted to help people, that’s why I picked social work and my favorite animal is the otter. How about yourself?

“Did you finally figure out what to say?”

“Yeah I’m just waiting for him to reply back now,” I said as I put out my cigarette and got ready to go inside to watch our show American Horror Story. We had weekly date nights, where we would go to each other’s houses and watch the show together.

Throughout the show, I would text Dave back and forth. I liked the idea of him a little bit more but I was not trying to get too attached so quickly. For all I know he could break it off with me tomorrow and I would never talk to him again.

After the show, I saw Molly out and told her I would text her tomorrow. We said our goodbyes and I went up back to my room. I plopped down on my bed and opened a new message from Dave.

Dave: Beautiful, u should send me a picture of u.

Me: Okayy, only if you send me one back.

I sent him what I thought was a decent good photo of myself, trying to keep everything PG as possible. Within in a few moments he sent me one back and oh my god! Even though he wasn’t the same in the pictures on his profile, he still looked fucking gorgeous.

Me: Wow you’re so cute!

Dave: I could say the same thing about u. I can’t believe ur single.

Me: I could say the same thing about you lol.

Dave: Can I be honest with u?

Me: Yes of course, what’s up?

Dave: Ur pic kind of turned me on.

Me: Seriously?

Dave: Seriously lol. I can’t help it. I like what I like.

I had to reread that a few times before I could reply back to him. I was definitely blushing hard from his comment. Did he know that I wasn’t a gorgeous model?

Dave: Can I call u?

Me: Yeahh sure you can.

As soon as I sent that he called me right away. I answered it quicker than I intended to.

“Hey beautiful Dove,” he said, his voice had a sexy husky tone to it and I know I was in trouble.