Chapter 4 (Via Text Message)

    When Will walks into French, I’m so terrified that my pulse quickens and I almost feel like throwing up. I wonder what he thinks when he notices the horrified expression on my face when he looks at me.
    Before I can try to read is face, I turn away, too scared to know.
    When Madam has handed out all the packets, I force myself to focus as I translate sentences, write the captions of pictures, answer questions, conjugate verbs, and fill in blanks.
    I flip my paper over when I’m done and then pass it up to the first person in the row along with everyone’s who sits behind me. We’re free to do what we want after that, but I don’t enter the conversation with my friends. Instead I pull out my phone from my back pocket and hide it as I go to my phonebook and scroll down to M.
    Millie’s in the only number there except for Mom’s and Miles’. I have to quickly look away from Mom‘s. I open a new text message and stare at the blank screen, feeling my heart thump unevenly in my chest and my body grow hot. I have no idea if it’s because I’m about to tell my sister about my little situation or because I can feel Will’s stare practically burning holes.
    Hey, I text, are you at the diner?
    I have to make sure that she isn’t around Mom first and I’m relieved when she texts back less than two minutes later.
    No. @ Mode. Why?
    Mode is the clothing store my sister owns that’s a ten minute walk away from the diner. In my free time when I’m not working at the diner or doing homework, I’m in the studio upstairs helping design clothes with my sister and making samples.
    You’d better sit down.
    My hands begin to sweat and they leave prints on the touch screen of my phone and I send the next message.
    I’m pregnant.
    Two minutes pass by and no reply.
    Three.
    Four.
    Five.
    By the time ten minutes are gone, I’m only the verge of a panic attack. I jump suddenly when my phone vibrates in my lap and I open the text quickly.
    If you’re kidding, this is not funny Roxanne Cardea and if you’re not then we are not discussing this via text message.
    I don’t know what to think or feel or expect. All I know right now is that Millie will probably be expecting me at Mode right after school ends and I’ll have to drop Liam off at the diner first.
    When the bell rings at 12:23 I hurry to meet my friends in the school parking lot. I know I’m stalling as I say goodbye to them. I’m crying too. I know that we’ll see each other and at graduation and over the summer, but we’ll never have a school experience together again. I hug everyone a final time before saying goodbye.
    I feel a little bit sick as we go to pick up Liam and when I drop them off at the diner. “Tell Mom I’m going to Mode for a little bit.” I tell Liam as I let him out then drive the few minutes it takes to get to Millie’s store and then park on the street.
    Music is pounding softly through the speakers in the store. Shawna, Millie’s best friend, is taking inventory and there are only a few people in the shop. Millie is having lunch with her fiancé when the bell tinkles as I open the door.
    “Hey.” Ben says to me. He’s tall, Viking blonde, and has some serious muscles, but it’s kind of funny how to me he just seems like a giant teddy bear. “How was the last day of school?”
    Before I can open my mouth to lie to him, Millie points and says, “Upstairs.”. Her expression is unreadable and I still don’t know what to expect.
    Ben’s look is asking me what I did, but I don’t answer as I follow my sister upstairs.