“Hey, wake up,” I heard someone snap, and someone was suddenly kicking my bed.

I rolled over to see Zach staring down at me. I only glanced at him and then groaned before turning back over. “I don’t want to talk to you,” I told him grouchily.

I could tell he rolled his eyes, even though I wasn’t facing him. “Get up, Maxxy.”

“The last time you woke me up I almost died!”

“Me waking you up had nothing to do with you going out into that blizzard!” Zach nearly shouted, and I could tell that he was frustrated with me. “And anyway, it was Kate that woke you up! I was just in the room!”

“Therefore, it is your fault as well,” I grumbled, still not turning toward him.

I heard Zach nearly growl. “Johnny was in here too, you know. And Aveline.”

I felt my stomach twist and turn at the mention of my boyfriend. My boyfriend that said he loved me only a week before. I had been trying my best to avoid him throughout the week, and had been acting awkward whenever I was with him. He luckily didn’t notice, but I knew that he would sooner or later.

“You got quiet, which means you’re thinking about Johnny,” Zach sighed, still not leaving my room as he stood above me. “It’s not that hard to tell someone you love them, you know. You just have to say it.”

“Oh, yeah?” I practically burst, sitting up from my bed and glaring at him now. “It might be easy for you to say you love someone, but it’s not easy for me! We’re two different people, Zach. You can do things with any girl and it won’t mean anything to you at all. I’m not like that. Well, except when it comes to you, but that’s only because I know you have no feelings for me whatsoever.”

Zach rolled his eyes again. “You’re overthinking it. Just tell him you love him. If you find out that you don’t, just break up with him later or just fall in love with him as time goes on. You’re freaking out over nothing. Just tell him.”

“It’s not that easy!” I shouted now.

When he suddenly sat down right next to me, I was surprised, I was so surprised that I couldn’t even react and push off my bed and out of my room.

His hand moved to cup my cheek, and I stayed silent throughout this entire ordeal. The smartest thing I could have done was stay quiet.

“I love you,” he whispered, surprising me greatly.

I didn’t know what I was supposed to say at first. I felt my cheeks burn, and I was sure my whole face was growing red. This wasn’t something I ever expected to come from Zachary Deveraux’s mouth.

When he snorted and turned away from me, I knew what he had done. He had just shown me how easy it was to tell someone that you loved them.

“Your face is so red!” he laughed as he now stood up from my bed. “Did you think I was actually being serious? Even after I told you that it’s easy to tell someone you love them? You really are gullible!”

“You’re horrible,” I muttered, rubbing at my cheek, as if that was going to get it to cool down.

Zach laughed again, winking at me. “I’m not gonna lose this game, Maxxy.”

I glared up at him. “And neither am I, Blanche.”

As his eyebrows furrowed at the nickname, I couldn’t help but wonder how long this game was going to go on for. We were both so determined to win. If no one lost, how was it ever going to end?

“Why did you even wake me up this early?” I demanded now, finally looking over at the clock to see that it was nine o’clock in the morning. “It’s Saturday.”

“You have a guest,” he grinned, motioning over to the door. I now looked over to see the bright red hair of my best friend, but she looked different than usual.

Kate was usually so bubbly and happy, but now she was gloomy and sad. Zach noticed this, and he left the room without another word, which I wasn’t expecting from him. But whatever, as long as he was gone.

“Maxynn…” Kate breathed, taking another step into my room and shutting the door behind him. “I need to talk to you about something really, really important.”

I blinked at her. “Okay…”

“And it’s something you can’t tell anyone,” she gulped now, and I was really scared now.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, my eyebrows furrow at her in worry. “Are you okay, Kate?”

“Maxynn,” Kate squeaked, looking absolutely terrified. I bit the inside of my lip, afraid of what she was about to say to me. “I think… I think I might be pregnant, Maxynn.”

My jaw dropped as far as it could go, and I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to say to her. The last thing I expected her to say was something like this. I expected her to say that she was the one that set fire to my house more than this.

“Well…” I swallowed, unsure of what to do. What did they do in the movies when things like this happened? “How late are you?”

“Really, really late,” she sniffed, and I knew she was going to start crying soon. “You know how I have irregular periods, so I didn’t even think about it at first, but it’s been such a long time… I can’t even remember when my last period was, but I know that it’s been more than three months.”

I gulped. “Oh, no.”

“But I didn’t even throw up… very much,” she muttered, crossing her arms over her stomach uncomfortably. “I thought you threw up a lot more when you were pregnant, so I just thought I was sick for a little while. I don’t know how far along I am or anything…”

“Whose is it?” I had to ask, honestly not knowing how many people it could have been. I knew that she had been with Logan, but I didn’t know if she was ever with anyone else.

She wiped at her eyes. “Logan’s, of course.”

We both just stood there for a few moments, neither of us knowing what we were supposed to do or say. Why did something like this have to happen to her?

“How about we go to the convenience store and buy a pregnancy test?” I suggested, trying my best to smile at her. “Then we’ll come back and you can take the test here. Okay?”

Kate smiled at me, her eyes still filled with tears. “Okay. That sounds good.”

We both hurried down the stairs, and I hoped that we would go unnoticed by Zach and Ethan, who were both sitting on the couch downstairs, watching TV.

“Hey!” Zach called out when he saw us, and it made me nearly jump out of my skin. “Where are you two going?”

“The convenience store,” I gulped, even though this wasn’t a lie at all. “We need to pick up some… things.”

“Can you get us some things?” Zach asked, barely even looking from the TV. zX

“Fine,” I sighed, brushing my hair out of my face as Kate waited anxiously by the front door. ‘What do you want?”

“Candy,” he answered, surprising me. When he saw the look I was giving him, he made a face. “What?”

“Nothing,” I excused, waving my hand in front of my face. “You just don’t seem like the kind of kid that likes candy. Or anything, really.”

Ethan’s face now went back to the flat look it almost always was. “Just go get my candy.”

“And condoms,” Zach added without even looking away from the TV.

He laughed when he saw the disgusted face I made, as if it was actually funny. How strange would I look buying a pregnancy test and condoms? Pregnancy was the biggest condom out there!

I left the house before Zach could say anything else, knowing that it would just make everything worse. I drove us to the convenience store in Kate’s car, since she seemed way too scared to do anything, especially driving. It made me wonder how she was coming over here.

When we got to the convenience store, I decided to buy the candy before the pregnancy test. I realized that I didn’t even know the kind of candy that Ethan even liked, so I ended up pretty much picking everything that was in the store.

After I had picked the candy out, we went to the aisle that sold pregnancy tests. Kate was shaking the entire time, and I felt absolutely horrible for her. What was she going to do if the test turned out positive?

“This one looks the most accurate out of all of them,” I told Kate once I picked it up, both of us ignoring the looks we got from passing people. “I say we just get this one and get out of here before people start thinking things.”

Kate blanched as we headed toward the checkout counter. “Too late for that, Maxynn. People are already thinking things.”

I shrugged. “Ah, screw them.”

Right before we could get into line, Kate froze. I turned toward her in confusion, only to see that she was shaking.

“Kate?” I asked. “Are you okay?”

“I can’t buy this,” she squeaked, thrusting the pregnancy test into my hands. “Please, can you buy it for me? I’m sorry to ask this of you, but… I just, I can’t!”

I smiled at my best friend sadly. “It’s fine, Kate. I’ll buy it for you.”

And I did, because that was what best friends did. They helped out their best friend when they were in need, no matter what it was. So when Kate quickly scampered out of the store and back to her car, I wasn’t angry with her. I understood.

The cashier gave me a pointed look as she scanned the test, and I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t for me, but for a friend. But I already knew that there was no way in hell that she’d believe me, since that was the one excuse that was overused more than anything.

“It’s sad, really,” the cashier sighed as she stuffed all the candy into a large plastic bag and then the pregnancy test in a small, brown paper bag. “Girls your age getting pregnant. How are you ever going to take care of a baby at this age? It’s sad, really.”

“For your information,” I snapped, grabbing the bags from her grasp after I had given her the money to pay for it. “This isn’t for me, it’s for my friend. Not that it’s any of your business anyway, you old hag.”

The cashier’s eyes widened at me. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” I spat, the glare on my face didn’t disappear. I looked down at her hand to see that she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, though she had to have been at least in her thirties. “At least my friend and I have guys in our lives that could get us pregnant. We won’t grow up to be an ugly, lonely old bitch like you.”

“Why, you little--” she started, about to come around the corner until a hand shot in front of her, stopping her from coming anywhere near me. I turned to see the familiar face of Elizabeth, who was now glaring at the cashier.

“You know,” she started, her face cold, which I wasn’t used to. “You shouldn’t judge a person when you know nothing about them. When she said that pregnancy test was for a friend, she was telling the truth. It’s for me.”

The cashier looked Elizabeth up and down, obviously noticing that she was actually old enough to have a baby without it being bad.

“Whatever,” she snuffed, taking a step back and flipping her hair at me. “She’s probably just a slut anyway.”

And for some reason, her calling me this hurt. In a way, she was right. I was a slut for doing things with Zach while dating Johnny. Though she didn’t know this, I did. And the guilt was still eating away at me.

“Come on,” Elizabeth sighed, placing her hand on my shoulder and turning me away as the cashier turned toward the next customer. “We don’t need to deal with lonely old women.”

We left the store before the ugly bitch could say anything back to us, and I couldn’t have been more thankful to Elizabeth for saving me. If it wasn’t for her, I’d probably be in the middle of a physical fight with that cashier.

“I have to ask,” Elizabeth said as we both stood in the parking lot. “It is Johnny’s or Zach’s?”

I wasn’t able to respond for a second, because at first I didn’t even know what she was talking about. I then remember the pregnancy test I had just bought, and I nearly dropped everything I was holding.

“No, no! It’s not for me!” I nearly shrieked, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. “When I said it’s for a friend, it really is for a friend! I swear, I’ve done nothing at all to even have the possibility of being pregnant!”

Elizabeth blinked. “Really?”

“If I thought I was pregnant, I would tell you,” I sighed, knowing that it was the truth. “I denied it to that cashier because she’s a stranger. You would probably be one of the first people I would tell.”

Elizabeth smiled at me. “Well, that’s nice to know.”

“So, are you going home?” I asked her, taking a step toward Kate’s car.

“No, I have a class I need to get to,” she smiled with a shake of her head, also taking a step away from me. “I came here to get a drink, but I’m afraid I might be late if I don’t go now. I’ll see you back at home, okay?”

I smiled at her. “Okay.”

I didn’t understand why the Deveraux brothers were so obnoxious when their sister was so nice. Maybe it was because they were boys and she was a girl? That was the only thing that I could think of. They really weren’t that different, besides their attitudes and gender.

Kate was waiting in the passenger’s seat of her car once I finally got back. She was completely silent all the way back to my house, and I didn’t say anything to her because I knew she didn’t want to speak.

When we walked into the house, Zach hopped up from the couch and walked right over to us. I glanced down at the paper bag in terror, not knowing what I was supposed to do with it when he was so close. I just had to act calm!

“Did you get what we asked for?” Zach asked, hopping up from his seat on the couch and heading over towards us. He looked at the two bags in my hands, the small brown paper bag holding the pregnancy test, and the large plastic one filled with candy.

“I got what Ethan asked for,” I answered, shoving the gigantic bag into his chest. He took it from me, looking down at it completely dumbfounded. “And I didn’t buy your stupid condoms because that’s disgusting and I’d probably get some that are too big for you.”

Zach glared at me for calling him small, but he then grinned and winked at me. “Believe me, nothing can be too big for me.”

“Oh, gross,” I gagged, pushing the bag into his chest once again. “Just give Ethan the candy and stop talking about disgusting things like that. And yeah, I know I got a lot. I figured you could have some, too. I didn’t really know what you guys like.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Ethan said quickly, suddenly right beside us and swiping the large bag of candy from his brother’s grasp. He muttered a thank you to me before shuffling back over to the couch.

I couldn’t help but smile at him a little. At least I got a thank you from him.

“Here, take it and go upstairs, okay?” I smiled at Kate now, not wanting it to look like anything was wrong as I handed her the smaller paper bag.

Kate nodded, snatching the bag from me and hurrying up the stairs. I then turned toward Zach, who was eyeing me suspiciously, and I sucked in a nervous breath. He didn’t suspect anything, did he?

“What’s in the bag?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowing at me.

“Tampons,” I blurted without even thinking. Zach made a face at me, and I let out a breath because I knew he believed me. “It’s that time of the month, you know.”

He turned away from me now, waving his hand to get me to stop talking. “I really don’t need to hear about blood coming out of you, unless it’s fatal.”

I heard Ethan gag from the living room, his mouth full of candy as he said, “Even if it is fatal, don’t tell us!”

I rolled my eyes at the two Deveraux brother’s before hurrying my way up the stairs and into my room, where I knew Kate would be waiting for me. Honestly, I was worried for her. She had always said that she wanted to have a baby once she got out of high school, but she wasn’t even out of high school yet. She’d most likely have the baby before we graduated, if she decided to keep it.

“You ready?” I asked her once I stepped into my room. She had already taken the test out of the box, and now she was staring down at it and breathing heavily. “Kate?”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” she nodded, standing up from her sitting position on my bed and into the bathroom down the hall. I stood in my doorway, where I could see the bathroom door, and I waited. This was something that was going to change her life forever, even if she wasn’t pregnant. This was something that was hard to get through.

I let out a sigh, leaning against the door frame with my arms crossed as I continued to wait. No matter what that test said, I was going to support Kate. No matter what it said, I was never going to leave my best friend’s side.

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This story is so going to be the death of me.

I know this chapter is short, but eh, I still kind of like it. x)

I love all the Deveraux's so much. Even those two obnoxious brothers. xD

This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! <3