Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard

Author:M-E Girard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

UPSTAIRS, I FIGURE OUT THE BATHROOM IS THE one door that’s closed. It’s right past the room I’m assuming is Olivia’s, because of the purple-everything inside. A couple knocks on the bathroom door, and she opens it. Seeing her with tears in her eyes is starting to feel regular. I wonder what she was like, before Colby.

“Can we just not talk about him from now on?” I ask. “He turns me into a jerk, and I’m not like that. I don’t want to be like that.”

“How can we not talk about him? He’s the one thing we have in common. The only reason we’re even hanging out right now,” she says. “You feel sorry for me.”

“Yeah, I guess I do. Because all this sucks,” I say, pointing to her stomach, and it’s like I’m suddenly hit in the face with reality: right now, this very second, there’s a baby inside Olivia’s stomach. There’s no forgetting about Colby for her, because he’s always there. “Are you going to have the baby?”

She shakes her head, but I’m sure a yes is going to come out of her mouth. “No. I’m not.”

She stands there in the doorway of the bathroom, staring back at me. Her eyes are dry now, and when I look down at her stomach, I still can’t see anything there. Did she lie? Was it a lie this entire time?

“Then what’s going on?” I ask.

“I’ve been thinking about something for the last couple weeks,” she says after a deep breath. “But now I have to stop thinking about it and actually do it.”

“Do what?”

She walks past me, heading for the purple bedroom. She sits on the edge of the bed, and I stand just past the doorway, watching her. My heart won’t stop freaking out and knocking against my ribs.

I have to ask. “Did you lie? Did you make it up just to try to keep him around?”

Her face tells me what I need to know. It’s not a lie.

“I wish you were my friend, Pen,” she says.

“Why?”

“Because then I could ask you to come with me, and you’d probably say yes,” she says.

There’s a little white chair tucked under this desk to my left. There’s a sweater or something folded over the back of it. I pull the chair out and sit, careful not to knock the sweater off. Olivia’s eyes are almost screaming at me to help her. No one’s ever needed my help. Not for real.

“You’re getting an abortion?” I say.

“Yes.”

“Because of Colby?”

She shakes her head no.

“But—I mean, that’s a big deal. What about, like, adoption? Or having it?”

“I thought about all that.” She closes her eyes like she’s giving herself a little refresher. “I just need someone to come with me to Crestonvale, wait for me, and ride home with me.”

It sounds easy. Not a big deal at all. Except it’s an abortion. There’s no pressing Pause and going back to the last checkpoint once you realized you messed up.

“Did you, you know, talk to someone about it all?”

“I talked to a counselor at the clinic twice.

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