Taking Chances by Ann Omasta (books for 7th graders .txt) 📕

I went through the next several days in a bit of a haze. I made it to work on time, and I responded appropriately to concerned questions, but I wasn’t fully engaged. I just wanted to curl up in bed and sleep for a week.

When I saw Courtney walk into the shop and Annie step forward, I knew they were staging some sort of intervention. I didn’t want either of them to worry, and I was touched that they both cared so much, but I wasn’t ready to be my usual, perky self. I tried to come up with some words to let them know that I would be okay, but that I needed some time to heal.

“You know we love you.” It was Courtney who spoke. “But you have to snap out of this funk.” She moved to put her arms around both of us and we stood in a three-way hug. The store was empty of customers, so we were able to speak freely.

“Maybe the three of us should have a fun night together. We could rent a movie, order pizza, and drink martinis at my place.” It was Annie’s idea. She turned to Court and asked, “Do you think Joe would give you the evening off?”

“I’m sure I can work it out. I’ll see if one of the other girls can cover my shift. It sounds fun.”

I started to nod in agreement, but all I could think about was that I was suddenly overly warm. Sweat broke out on my lip and my stomach started roiling. I tried to swallow away the nausea, but still knew without a doubt that I was going to vomit. I couldn’t make it to the restroom in the back, so I ran to the trash receptacle behind the counter and retched into that.

Once I was finished, I said, “Sorry you had to witness that. I must be coming down with some kind of flu bug.”

I saw the concerned look that Courtney and Annie shared. Court said gently, “Ab, there aren’t many flu bugs going around right now.”

I wondered what she was getting at as I put a hand to my forehead and said, “Maybe it was something I ate.”

Both of them moved to face me on the other side of the counter. Annie looked at Court before asking delicately, “Is there any chance you could be pregnant?”

I shook my head automatically. “I can’t get pregnant.” It hurt my feelings that they would ask me this, when they both knew how much I had longed for a baby during my marriage.

Courtney talked slowly when she responded, as if speaking to a young child. “You think you can’t get pregnant because it didn’t happen during your marriage to that pinkie-dicked, cheating scumbag.”

“Right.” I drew my words out slowly like she had. “His new woman is pregnant, so I was clearly the one with the fertility problem during our marriage.”

“Unless that skanky ho-bag cheated on him.” Court’s words made my mind reel. I hadn’t considered that possibility.

I shook my head, trying to process. Could I be pregnant? I had been tired and emotional, but I thought it was just due to my love life being in the toilet and possibly a severe case of PMS. Was my period late? I tried to focus on the date and calculate how long it had been since my last menstruation.

“Whoa, whoa, here. Let’s not go jumping to crazy conclusions just because I threw up once.”

They looked at each other, and I could tell they were both thinking the same thing. “Did you use any protection?” It was Annie who voiced the question out loud.

“No, I didn’t think I could get pregnant.” I almost screeched the answer. That was the true answer for why I hadn’t used protection with Seth, but embarrassingly, I had been so hot for Sam that the thought of needing protection hadn’t even crossed my mind before jumping his bones. How could I have been so ridiculously irresponsible?

Suddenly, my stomach sank. If I am indeed pregnant, how will I know who the father is? I voiced the fear aloud. “I slept with identical twins within a week of each other.” The idea made me cringe with shame. I winced, but continued. “If I’m pregnant, one of them is the father and one is the uncle, but how will we determine which is which?”

By the looks on Courtney and Annie’s faces, I could see that I was the last one to come to this realization. For once, Annie was the voice of reason. “Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. You might not even be pregnant, and if you are, they might have some new-fangled paternity testing that will tell you who the father is.”

“They are identical twins. They have identical DNA.” My eyes were open wide as I said the words. I was stunned by my own stupidity. How could I have let this happen?

“They can probably pinpoint the exact time of conception,” Courtney reassured me. “Let’s find out for sure if you’re even pregnant before we go worrying about any kind of paternity testing.”

Her words made sense, but I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I numbly went through the process of buying the test kit at the pharmacy and peeing on the stick, but the little plus sign only verified what I already knew. I was pregnant, and one of the Davis twins was the father, but which one?