Staring at the naked reflection in the bathroom mirror, she pulled and picked at the extra skin around her stomach. Ashamed of her appearance, she decided to skip breakfast. On the surface she looked fine, but her insecurities and thoughts flooded her mind. She pondered sending a text to him. With him, she has shared herself physically and allowed him to see her body in a way no one else has. He, who had been distant since, still lingered in her mind. She realized it was weeks too late to talk to him. She wasted enough time in the bathroom listening to the birds chirp and letting the sunlight creep through the curtains. Grabbing the closest sweatshirt and flared, ripped jeans, slipping her beat up sneakers on and the girl rushed out the door.

Anxious and painfully shy, the girl knew school was never one of her favorite places. She felt lost in the crowd and unheard in the random conversations that pass by.

“Beth!” one shouted from the crowd. Strange enough, it was him.

“Hey you,” she awkwardly replied. Although she craved his attention, she desperately wanted to avoid the after-conversation. After sex, of course.
“First time was fun. Ready for round two?” he said with a smile. Fun? Not the exact adjective she had in mind, perhaps nerve-wracking, sensational, and/or spontaneous. He stared straight ahead and at perfectly timed intervals looked over his shoulders to scope the halls. Without giving me a chance to answer, he walked toward his friends, “Let me know beautiful!” From feeling invisible to invincible in a nanosecond, the girl’s face fluttered. She knew she shouldn’t let one charming word get to her but she did. Despite the frustration of the obvious embarrassment he had talking to her, she chose to ignore it.
During lunch she looked at her options and listened to her cravings: pickles and pizza and hot soup and fries. Of course she decided to indulge to recover from a conversation that awkward. May and Karen question her strange food choices, but didn’t dwell on it long. May, as usual, grabbed a tuna fish sandwich and Karen tried an egg salad. Beth ate quickly and zoned out from the drama filled conversations her friends shared. All she could think of was the comments he made to her, with the smell of her friend’s lunch lingering in the noise filled cafeteria. They could barely notice the detachment and Beth was right back to being invisible. Suddenly her stomach started to churn. Saliva filled her mouth and she became light headed. Beth was helped to the bathroom. The next thing that became clear was the vomit. Maybe her food choices weren’t so smart.
After the immediate sickness from school, Beth picked up some medicine from the local drug store. Looking down the aisles, she scanned the tampon section and wondered again if she should text him. Next to her she saw a lady in the same aisle with a baby in the cart. She wore a sweatshirt and flared, ripped jeans and old beat up sneakers. Beth secretly watched her groan over the price of diapers. Her baby cried and Beth wished she could too.
No more thinking about the text. She sent it, skipped the tampons, and grabbed a pregnancy test.