The French Way by Mary Wright

Author:Mary Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, lesbian, lesbian love, fiction love, fiction ebook, lesbian book, lesbian author, fiction woman
Publisher: Sapphire Books Publishing , LLC

Chapter Nineteen

What Will Everyone Think?

I strode nervously up the brick-lined path to Natalie’s door and rang the doorbell. A girl in pigtails and jeans opened the door.

“Is Natalie home?”

“Just a minute,” she said and walked over to the staircase. “Natalie! You have a visitor!” she shouted then stood aside watching.

Natalie came down and stared at me. I could see in her sharp eyes that she understood in a moment why I was there, though she pretended not to. Natalie doesn’t miss a trick; her brain is so fast. She didn’t look pleased.

“Hi,” I said.

“Wolnak.” She came forward and put her mouth close to my ear, her long blond hair brushing my cheek. “What the fuck are you doing here?” She straightened up and addressed the pigtailed girl. “This is my friend from home, Sophie.”

The girl said, “Hi.”

Natalie smiled nervously. “Come on up to my room.”

I followed her up the staircase. “I have a roommate,” said Natalie. “She’s not here right now.” We sat down on Natalie’s bed, covered in the bright red-and-yellow quilt I remembered from her room at home.

“You could at least pretend to be happy to see me,” I said tersely.

“I’m surprised, that’s all. What’s going on? What are you doing here?”

I sighed. “Well, you remember the incident on the beach at Montpellier?”

“You’re pregnant.”

“Yeah, and I didn’t know where else to go.”

“Jesus, Wolnak. I’m just getting settled in! It’s not that I wouldn’t be glad to see you normally.” She stared at me with large frightened eyes. She was twisting a lock of hair between her fingers. During our travels in Scotland we had stopped using last names, but now Natalie had started it again. “What the hell is everyone going to think?”

I let out my breath. “They’ll think you have a friend staying for a few days, Cummings,” I said, emphasizing the name. “Is that against the rules?”

“Yes, actually. But people do have friends over. They just don’t tell the matron. There’s a girl who’s away for a week. She had to go to a funeral in Scotland. You can have her room. So what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to have an abortion.”

“I don’t believe in abortion.”

“You don’t? But you’re into women’s lib.”

“So? I just think it’s wrong.”

“Well, it’s right for me. I couldn’t handle a pregnancy, not like this, not now. I was going to ask you to lend me the money.”

“I can’t help you. I can’t do it,” she said firmly.

“It’s just that there’s been a strike in France and I didn’t get my first check in the mail. You remember Mom and Dad are sending me my money every month?”

“Yeah. So, why didn’t you call them?”

I was silent for a moment. “I don’t want them to know.”

Natalie smiled for the first time. “They’ll freak out, right?”

“Right.” I smiled, too. It was funny in an awful way.

“You have to tell them, Sophie. They’re your parents.”

“But I’m an adult.”

“Are you? Well, I’m not lending you the money, so you have to call them. You should have done it right away.

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