Tainted Blood (20 page)

There was a drugstore between our apartment complex and Zoey’s place. Carter stopped there on his way and picked up the test. He called Zoey’s cell when he was downstairs and she went down to the street to let him in. I could hear him lecturing her on being so careless as to let something like this happen. When they made it back to Zoey’s room he fell silent and stopped dead in his tracks as Zoey handed me the small, brown paper sack that contained the pregnancy test.

I looked up at him with tears stinging my eyes. I was ninety-nine percent sure that I was going to vomit at any moment.

Zoey looked between the two of us and said in her sweet, caring, Zoey way, “I think you two need to talk. I’ll give you a few minutes alone.” She left, closing the bedroom door behind her.

He stayed where he was when he asked, “You think you’re pregnant?”

I shrugged and shook my head weakly, and a couple of tears spilled over. I wiped feverishly at them.

“I don’t understand, Laney, what’s going on? You and Oliver haven’t, uh, you know, have you?” He’d moved closer to the bed, but he’d only made it part way when I looked up at him and asked, “Did we have sex?”

“What, no!” he was so sure, and then he wasn’t. “I, uh, I don’t think so…” He ran a hand through his messy, sandy-blonde hair, and before he looked at the floor near his feet, I saw his face go pale, the new pink skin of his scar standing out more than usual.

I dropped the bag to the floor and put my face in my hands and I started to cry. Hard. He was supposed to be sure. He was supposed to know and he was supposed to tell me nothing had happened. He sat beside me on the bed and wrapped one arm around me, holding me tight against his side.

He said nothing. Just sat there beside me, letting me cry into my hands. I wiped my nose on the cuff of my long-sleeved shirt and instantly panicked. I was bleeding! I had a bloody nose. I hadn’t had a bloody nose since I was a kid.

When Carter noticed the blood on my sleeve he shouted, “Holy shit, Laney!” He jumped off the bed, flung Zoey’s bedroom door open and rushed out, calling for her. They both rushed back in a moment later. Carter had a whole roll of toilet paper in his hand and began unraveling it as he sat down beside me again.

“Laney, look at you. You’re so upset.” Zoey kneeled down in front of me. Her pretty, dark green skirt spread around her. The color reminded me of Oliver’s eyes and it caused me to fight back a sob. Zoey took some toilet paper from the roll and dabbed at my eyes as Carter unsteadily handed me a wad for my nose. He was freaked out too, and even though it shouldn’t, it made me feel a little better that I wasn’t in this alone.

It didn’t take long for the bleeding to stop, and when it did, I calmed down a bit. Zoey stood, took my hand, and pulled me off the bed. She quietly led me to the bathroom that was just across the hall from her bedroom and she went inside with me, closing the door behind us. I think I might’ve been in shock, I felt numb and terrified. I couldn’t believe that this could be happening.

Zoey took the test out of the
bag,
opened the box, pulled out the instructions, and read them out loud. I didn’t register any of it, not a single word. I couldn’t grasp that all I needed to do was pee on the stick. She watched me for a long moment, and when I did nothing but just stand there with a foreign piece of plastic in my hand that I was supposed to urinate on, she said she’d be right back and stepped out. She returned a moment later with a plastic cup, the party kind that you throw away when you’re done with them. It was blue. And that was all that I could register, the cup was blue.

She snapped her fingers in front of my face to get my attention. It worked.

“You need to either pee on the stick or in the cup and then dip it. Pick one, now,” she said sternly. “Let’s get this over with.” She left me standing alone in the bathroom with a pregnancy test in one hand and a blue party cup in the other.

I was light-headed, on the verge of hyperventilating while we waited. I’d peed on the stick and put the cap on it and handed it to Zoey, who’d been waiting just outside the door. I was sitting on the bed again and Carter was beside me. Zoey had shown him the pictures that were still on her cell while I was in the bathroom. He deleted them once he’d seen all that he needed to see.

“If Oliver is such a techy geek, how did he miss deleting these from your phone?” Carter asked, handing Zoey her phone.

“He was distracted, and
really
angry. He wasn’t thinking straight, he was in a hurry, and I knew that
you
,” she nodded to Carter with an expression that indicated he was stubborn, which was true, “wouldn’t believe it unless you saw them.”

Remembering the pictures, glimpses of that night flashed before me and I suddenly felt like the worst girlfriend in the world, and the fact that I was sitting there waiting for the results of a pregnancy test that did not involve Oliver made me feel even more horrible.
How could I do this to him?
I wouldn’t blame him if he hated me and never spoke to me again. I wouldn’t speak to me ever again either, if it were an option…

Carter kept running his hands through his hair as we waited for the results and finally I snapped at him, “Will you knock it off?” He looked at me in surprise and I turned away because I felt bad for being angry with him. But I needed to be angry with someone other than myself at the moment.

Zoey was reading the directions to the test again and kept glancing between the stick and the paper.

As we waited, and after I’d snapped at him, Carter said, “If it is, if you are, you know… I’ll be there for you.” And my heart pained me. “I’ll take extra shifts at the diner and we’ll make it work…” He trailed off, obviously coming to the realization I’d come to early on. “Oh, shit…Kiera,” he breathed.

“Please, stop,” I pleaded. “Let’s just hope I’m not, okay? That’s all we can do right now.” We shared a glance and I was hoping that’s all we would ever share. No blood, bodily fluids, or kids. Especially kids. I was freaking out inside and shaking so badly, and I remembered that stupid drunken night and how Carter kept laughing when he was nervous. “Why aren’t you laughing?” I asked him.

“Why the hell would I be laughing?” He looked completely appalled.

“You laugh when you’re nervous.”

“Yeah, when I’m nervous, not when I’m scared shitless.” He rubbed his hands on his jeans and looked around the room. “I feel like I’m gonna puke,” he said.

“Join the club,” I responded quietly.

Zoey sighed and we both focused all of our attention on her. “Um, guys,” she said and my stomach turned, “I think…” That was as far as she got
and then
Carter threw up on my shoes.

“Dammit, Carter!” Zoey shouted. “I was just going to say that I think we need a new test. This one isn’t doing anything.” She got up, left the room and returned with cleaning supplies and a garbage bag. Thankfully Zoey’s bedroom had hardwood floors. Unfortunately, my shoes were goners.

I had to leave the room, quickly. Zoey had pulled my shoes off of my feet to wipe them down and I was in her bathroom trying again not to hyperventilate.

“Laney,” Zoey’s voice called from the other side of the bathroom door. I opened it and faced her. “Are you sure you actually peed on the stick?”

I nodded and shrugged. I thought I had but it wasn’t the easiest task, especially when you’re shaking.

She went back to her room to retrieve the pregnancy test and returned to the bathroom with me. She pulled the cap off and looked at me. “Hun, I think you missed.”

Great. I couldn’t even pee on a stick…

She left again and returned with a big glass of water. She handed it to me and I took a deep breath and let it out before downing the entire glass. We waited a few minutes, Zoey running the faucet in the hopes it would help me have to go. Carter tapped on the bathroom door, apologized for throwing up, and asked if we knew anything yet. Finally, after a torturous amount of waiting I had to go and Zoey made me pee in the cup, stepping out while I did.

I sat on the edge of the bathtub when they both came in after I’d set my party cup full of pee on the sink. Carter perched on the rim of the tub beside me and Zoey went to work with the test. After she capped the test, she closed the toilet lid, took a seat and stared at the test, waiting.

Carter took my hand while we waited and when I looked over at him he gave me a smile that was meant to reassure me. It really didn’t. All I could think was that if the test were positive I was going to go straight home, pack my shit, and leave. I’d tell nobody where I was going, I’d just go and leave it all behind because there was no way I could live here, with the people I loved, and see all the pain this would cause, every day. He squeezed my hand when I didn’t smile back.

“Well,” Zoey said. She smiled and I felt my entire body relax. “It’s negative,” she said with relief.

Carter jumped up and shouted, “Yes!” Pumping a fist into the air. “See! I told you you’d have known if we’d done it. I make an impression, if you know what I mean.”

“You’re an idiot,” Zoey told him. “You’re lucky you two didn’t have sex, or if you did, that you didn’t get her pregnant. I imagine Oliver would kill you, no questions asked.”

We all nodded in agreement and I took several shaky breaths of relief. I felt like crying I was so relieved.

“What made you think you were…you know?” Carter asked.

“I got nauseated after we had lunch and Zoey gave me a piece of gum.”

“What kind of gum was it?” He asked as he sat back down beside me.

“I don’t know, something mint.”

“Well, that’s got to be it. You got so sick after you had that peppermint schnapps that it’s probably just your body’s reaction to mint now.” Carter determined.

“He’s probably right,” Zoey added. “Your birthday cake made you nauseas, too, and it was mint.”

“Yeah, I never was able to eat any of it,” I told them. “You know, it’s really messed up that your stupid alcohol experiment caused this aversion,” I said, turning my attention to Carter and glaring at him.

He gave me a guilty grin and shrugged. “It happens.”

“You’re an ass,” I said, trying not to smile.

“Hey, at least I didn’t knock you up.” And as the words came out you could hear the lingering nervousness in his voice.

“Yeah,” I agreed, there was that.

Zoey broke the sudden and uncomfortable silence that had settled in the room. “If anyone ever asks why you bought this test, you just tell them that I had a scare and you were both there for me in my time of need. Got it?” We both nodded. “I’ll take the fall on this one, but don’t either of you forget it.”

We thanked her excessively, and after Zoey loaned me a pair of shoes, we hurried out to my car and hopped inside.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so terrified in my life,” I said.

“Same here!” Carter agreed.

That was saying a lot considering all that we’d both been through in those past few months.

“Carter,” I said, as we headed home.

“Yeah?” From the corner of my vision I could see him looking at me.

I swallowed hard and then asked, “You don’t think we actually did, you know…sleep together, do you?”

“Laney, I think sleeping was all we did do, nothing else.” I breathed a sigh of relief then in a playful tone, he added, “Plus, had we, you know, done it, you’d remember. Like I said, I leave a lasting impression.” He chuckled at himself.

I lightly shook my head and laughed. “You are such a dork.” I glanced over at him and he beamed at me, causing me to laugh harder.

“One more thing, Laney,” he said and I looked over at him. “Let’s take this one to the grave, alright?”

I nodded. Not a problem.

Chapter
11
- My Academic Counselor

Oliver was home when we got there. I was so happy to see him that I actually jumped on him, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.

“Wow! I’ve missed you, too,” he said. He kissed me slow and sweet then I unraveled myself from him. “What have you two been up to?” he asked, and I could have sworn there was some suspicion in his voice.

Carter had gone straight to the kitchen to rummage for food and was only a few feet from us. We both said, “Nothing,” in unison. Oliver gave me a skeptical look, but then he noticed the blood on my sleeve and all of his attention went to finding out what had happened.
I, of course,
left out all details as to what I thought had caused the bloody nose. I simply told him it happened out of nowhere while I was at Zoey’s. By the look on his face it was like he knew I was leaving something out.

“Is that what really happened?” he asked, a bit of doubt in his tone.

“Yeah, why?” I knew my heart was beating too rapidly and I knew he could hear it.

His back straightened and his dark green eyes bore into me, making me seriously uncomfortable. “Anything you want to tell me?”

“No,” I said, and I did my best to keep my voice even and carefree. There was definitely nothing that I
wanted
to tell him.

His eyes narrowed on mine and I couldn’t even hold still. “Do not believe that you can lie to me.”