"Go to a party with me," Ava insisted after we packed up our stuff and threw our bags over our shoulders. It was a long day full of droning lectures and I was ready to get home. My peppy blonde best friend was not helping my situation by inviting me to a party I didn't want to go to. Ava was gorgeous with blonde hair and blue eyes and I was completely jealous. I had green eyes, sure, but blue eyes were so pretty.

"No way," I commented. "I've been nauseous all day."

"That's like the hundredth day in a row," she murmured with a frown. "I'm starting to think you're lying."

"I'm not!"

"Please come with me."

"No."

"Please."

"No."

"El."

"Av."

"It's been three months since we've been to a party," Ava moaned, stomping her foot like a child as we made our way towards the dorm. "I want to go to a party!"

I shook my head furiously, running a hand through my brown hair softly. "No way."

"Hey El! Hey Ava!" Rebecca called as we walked past her and her group of friends. We waved back politely before we entered our building. It was pretty big and had nice plush seating in the lobby, but no one ever used it.

"You got laid last time, how can you still have a negative view of parties?" Ava murmured as we waltzed into the elevator.

I shrugged, pressing the button to our floor. We lived in a dorm building with five floors and we were at the top. We had the option to walk up the stairs, of course, but there was no way I was doing that. I'd felt nauseous all day; I chalked it up to food poisoning. "I don't feel well, and besides, you can feel free to go."

"I don't wanna leave you alone."

The elevator dinged and we walked off, heading towards our dorm room. The two of us had been best friends since we were assigned to be each others roommates in freshman year and I couldn't ask for a better friend. She was always there for me when I needed her. It helped she introduced me to her brother, I got two best friends for the price of one.

It got annoying hanging out with him in public, though. People always assumed we were dating because of the way our friendship was. I'd put my feet in his lap, or he'd draw circles on my legs, or he'd give me his jacket when it was cold. We were purely just friends, though, and no one seemed to understand that. He had a girlfriend of three years, and I was far from interested. She didn't mind, because she knew I wasn't a threat.

Ava unlocked our door, grumbling about how much of a party pooper I was but I was too busy throwing a hand over my mouth. I saw her brother and my other best friend, Seth, and his girlfriend Lacey sitting on the couch watching our TV and I waved at them as I threw my bag on the recliner. They waved back, hardly sparing me a glance. I went to my favorite place in the world - the fridge, and grabbed out a jar of pickles. I wasn't normally a fan, but I had a huge craving for them for some reason.

After sitting on the couch and tucking into the jar of pickles, I glanced up to see the concerned looks of my friends. I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You never eat pickles," Seth commented with a sigh. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," I defended with a frown, shaking my head.

"I thought you were nauseous," Ava mumbled.

I nodded. "I was, now I'm hungry."

My three friends shared concerned glances before looking back at me curiously. Their eyes weren't really on me, though - their eyes were staring straight at my stomach. I followed their gaze to see if I had something on my shirt but saw nothing, so I self consciously adjusted my shirt. "What?"

"Eating foods you never eat?" Lacey proposed, crossing her legs over one another.

"Nauseous..." Seth added slowly.

"Sleeping more," Ava continued.

"I sleep all the time, anyway," I pointed out and the three nodded.

"But you never skip schoolwork to sleep, El," Lacey murmured with a frown. "You're behind in three classes now."

"You've been getting nauseous a lot, El. Way more than normal, what the heck? Have you had sex recently?" Lacey questioned and I laughed.

"No, I haven't had sex since that party three months ago."

"Have you had a period since then?" Ava asked throwing me for a loop.

"Uh, yeah."

"Take a test," Seth suggested with furrowed eyebrows. I scoffed at his accusation and he added, "I'm serious. Take a test."

"A pregnancy test?" I stressed.

"No, a history test," Ava mumbled sarcastically. "Obviously a pregnancy test."

"I've gotten periods!" I yelled defensively, cradling my jar of pickles. "And I haven't gotten fat. There's no way. I haven't felt any baby in there," I murmured, pointing to my stomach.

"Have you ever even taken a sex ed class?" Lacey asked rhetorically with a head shake. "You don't start showing until closer to four months. If you had sex three months ago, you'd be like twelve weeks, not far enough to show and definitely not far enough to feel the baby."

"And the periods?" I shot back, knowing I had them there. Except apparently, I didn't.

"My mom got periods the entire time she was pregnant with me, El," Ava pointed out with a frown.

"No, I refuse to waste my time taking a pregnancy test. It's gonna be negative and I have more important things to do."

My friends still looked concerned so I let out one more scoff, standing up and taking my pickles with me. We lived in a suite dorm, so we each had a room and a living area, and I was going to my room. I refused to listen to this anymore.

"Wait!" Seth called out, causing me to swiftly turn on my heel and send him a heated glare. "If you take the test, I'll buy your groceries for a week!"

I raised an eyebrow. Now that was a tempting offer. Being a college student wasn't easy, but being a college student using student loans and working part time to buy groceries and other necessities was even harder. If I could get him to buy my groceries, maybe I could buy a new movie or something for once. I mulled over it, moving my head side to side before countering. "Four."

"Two."

"Three."

"Two and a half."

"Two and five days."

He scoffed, breathing out an unbelieving laugh. "Did you really go up by one day?"

I hugged my pickles to myself and jutted my chin out proudly. "I sure did."

"Just do it, babe," Lacey encouraged with a sigh. "She needs to take it."

"Fine," Seth grumbled, shaking his head. "But you're taking it now."

"Then you can start buying my groceries now," I informed him with a wicked grin. "Now I have a craving for lasagna."

"Kill me," Seth murmured to himself and Ava shot out of her seat. She took the pickles from me, setting them on the counter gingerly before pulling me towards the bathroom. I knew she had a stash of everything related to sex; condoms, plan B pills and pregnancy tests. She was promiscuous by nature and she wanted to be prepared for anything. Her dad was a gynecologist and delivered babies for a living so of course she'd be ready for anything.

Ava crouched down, rifling through the basket she kept in the cabinet under the sink in our conjoined bathroom before pulling out a pregnancy test box. There were two, and she told me to take both before excusing herself from the bathroom.

I sighed irritatedly, unwrapping the box from the plastic and ripping it open carelessly. The crinkling from the plastic was grating my nerves and I found myself grinding my teeth in annoyance as I threw it into our little trashcan. I dumped the tests onto the counter and unwrapped them from their plastic, and already this was becoming tedious.

Why should the box and the test be in plastic? Save the world? Never heard of it.

 After staring at the tests with a blank look on my face for a few minutes, I flipped the box over to read the directions. I wasn't an idiot, but I'd never had to take a pregnancy test so sue me for not being a master. After learning of my directions on peeing on the stupid plastic stick for five seconds and waiting on the results, I followed them. Thankfully she'd given me the digital one that read pregnant or not pregnant because the concept of trying to figure out if a line or not was annoying.

After peeing on the test I capped it, setting it on the counter and wiping myself up. I washed my hands, staring into the mirror to see my sunken in features and frowned. I had dark bags under my eyes and looked like I hadn't gotten any sleep, yet it was all I'd been doing recently. There was a soft knock on the door, and I opened it to reveal my friends standing there with nervous looks.

"Well?" Lacey questioned timidly.

I shrugged. "I dunno, I just took it."

"You've been in here for five minutes," Ava pointed out before slipping past me into the bathroom.

I shrugged, waving towards the test that was abandoned on the counter. "I had to read the directions."

"You had to read the directions?" Seth asked disbelievingly with a scoff.

"Oh, I'm sorry I don't take pregnancy tests in my free times, Seth."

"I'm a guy and I know how to take a pregnancy test!"

"Well congratulations to you, Seth! How far along are you?"

"Uh, I think the question is, how far along are you?" Ava murmured and I turned on my heel to cuss her out until I saw her peering at the stick with a sickly pale face. I felt my sneer that had been directed at Seth drop and grabbed the test from my best friend, taking a scared look.

Pregnant.

Then I dropped the test with shaky hands and ran the hell outta there.