Adrian Lee looked up towards the blank, white sky and breathed deeply. All she could smell was car exhaust. Up ahead she saw her condo, as ugly as ever. It was Monday afternoon, her least favorite day. She had just driven home from school, where she was a junior in high school.
She sighed and walked across the parking lot towards the building. Once inside, she took off her leather jacket and boots. Her mother wasn't home as usual; she was a flight attendant and had to work all the time. Her father was at work but he should be here soon.
Adrian was in a bad mood. First, she was furious with Amy Jergons who had called her a slut five times that day. Second, her boyfriend Ricky never had time for her anymore; he was always over at Amy's house with his son John. Third, Adrian's father was trying to get her to apologize to Amy, even though Amy was the one who called her a slut. And finally, she thought she might be pregnant.
Furiously, she ripped a pregnancy test out of her bag and stormed off to her bathroom. She felt like beating someone up. Five minutes later she was staring down at two vertical lines in the window of the pregnancy test.
"What…what do two lines mean?" she said out loud. She grabbed the directions and learned that it meant she was if fact, pregnant. She muttered a few swear words in Spanish and chucked it in the trashcan.
She heard a door opening and then closing. Her father was here. She didn't want to talk to him, needed time to think. But she couldn't act like a little baby who ran from her responsibilities, so she forced herself to go out there and tell him.
He was standing by the counter flipping through a newspaper. He glanced up when she came in to the room.
"Hello Adrian," he said briefly.
"Hey Reuben," she muttered back flatly.
"Is Ricky coming over tonight?" he asked, not looking up from the paper.
"Uh…no," she said. But then she changed to a more serious tone and said, "Look, I have something to tell you and you're going to flip but I need to tell you."
Her father looked up from the newspaper, "I'm listening," he said.
Adrian swallowed and said, "I…Uh…well I…It's just…" she decided to be more subtle, "You, know they say birth control is only ninety nine percent effective," then she glanced down at her still flat stomach.
Her father's eyes grew wide. "Are you saying…"he didn't finish his sentence.
"Yeah", Adrian said. She tried to hug her dad but he stepped out of the way. Adrian looked at him, confused.
"Adrian." He said slowly, "I think I need some time to give this a little thought."
"Oh. Okay," she said a little hurt.
He nodded and walked out of the condo. Just then Adrian's cell phone rang in her pocket. She answered it already knowing who it would be.
"Hi Ricky. You can't come over tonight, I have to study."
"Come on. You can take one night off from studying." He replied in his confident tone.
"No. I can't. I've got a big test tomorrow."
"Is your mom or Reuben there?" Ricky asked, ignoring what she had just said.
"No, my mom's flying and Reuben just left but I just told you I couldn't. And it's not like you can't find some other girl to go over there," Adrian said harshly.
"Yeah but I want you." He said.
"Oh give me a break Ricky," Adrian said getting annoyed, "I said no okay?"
"Fine," he said, "Goodnight."
Adrian flipped her phone shut and put it back in her pocket. She didn't know why she was being difficult with Ricky. Maybe it was the mood swings kicking in.
She hadn't quite gotten used to the idea that she was actually pregnant. It was like she expected to wake up from a bad dream or something. I can't believe this, her inner voice said.
Meanwhile Ricky was sitting on his bed looking around. What do I do now? He asked in his head. Across town Adrian was asking herself the same thing, but in a very different way.