Part Forty-Two

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Daphne's POV

I stared at Timmi in complete shock and horror, I hoped that it wasn't close to what I was thinking. What could she be doing with a pregnancy test strip? I thought to myself, but deep down I knew the answer to that question.

"Daph! You could have knocked before coming in, you scared me." Timmi retorted, I couldn't believe that was her excuse.

"Excuse me...I don't remember ever having to knock before coming into your room, so, why should today be any different?" I picked up the strip and walked to stand by the edge of her bed.

I dangled the thin white paper-like material before her, quickly retracting it before she could grasp on to it.
"Care to explain Tims, what are you doing with a pregnancy test strip?"

She rolled her eyes at me and moved further away, towards the door to the bathroom. I rolled my eyes back at her retreated figure, then I made myself comfortable on her bed. The mattress was just the right amount of comfy and soft, two pillows made of fuzzy material were placed at the head of the medium-sized bed. I mentally made the measurements, my own bed was a little bigger than Tim's, but hers was way softer.

"I believe I asked a question, se o n ko mi loju bi?"

"It's not like that Daph..." She mumbled and turned to face me.

"Then tell me why you have a strip with you, you surely can't be experimenting anything that isn't pregnancy with this?" I accused, trying to stop myself from screaming and pulling at her shoulders to get the truth out of her.

"Alright. Listen you're my best friend and I don't want you to hate me after this," she exhaled and continued "I think I'm pregnant."

I was lost for words, it was as though the words that wanted to leave my mouth got swallowed in immediately. I felt my mouth hanging open at her confession, my neck region and armpits started to feel damp as a result of perspiration. If she wanted to pull an ‘April fool's day’ joke on me, then she was almost succeeding. A 'pregnancy status' was no joke, especially for a seventeen-year-old female. I stared at the expression on her face, she seemed every bit serious.

I chuckled nervously to lighten the tension in the room, "You're obviously fooling me, just tell me it's a joke so we can get on to important things, I left from a really far place to come here." I admonished, getting fed up with the dramas that have been brewing since today.
First was my mother and the Esan family, now I have to deal with my best friend. I just hope what she's saying was in no way true.

"I'm really serious, and you're not helping matters by mocking me you know," she snapped. I felt bad for finding humour in what she said, if this was truly a big deal for her, then I needed to be her support system.

"Alright relax," I tried to calm her nerves, while mine was building up slowly "umm...have you gone through with the test already?"

She nodded sideways—meaning no.

"Okay, but how can you be certain it's a pregnancy?"

"I had sex, unprotected sex," she rushed the words, looking down at her fingers.

My forehead creased in confusion, I was appalled that she would take such risk, but I'm aware it wasn't the first time she had sex. She answered my next question with her next words.

"And I haven't seen my period since last month." she concluded.

I closed my eyes and formed a tight fist, preventing myself from pulling at the hair of the girl I called my best friend. I wanted so badly to hurl at her and ask her why she was that careless, and who was responsible for her nonchalant attitude. Instead I decided to be calm about it, we weren't sure if she was pregnant or not, there was no reason for alarm.

"Okay umm... Here's what we're going to do, since you've already bought the strip and you haven't used it yet, you're going to pee and then insert the strip. Whatever comes of the result, we'll take it up from there." I couldn't believe I was acting calm about the whole thing when I wanted to scream in frustration and pull off the clothes that was starting to stick to my damp body. The air-conditioner in the room did little to help.

Tims stood up and collected the strip with shaky hands, she headed into the bathroom while I waited behind for her. To keep my mind off things, I let my eyes wander to the decorations in the room. Before long, I heard the sound of flushing, she must be done with the toilet.

She sat beside me, after she told me that she couldn't wait to see the results. We waited for five minutes before I stood to go and check the result. It wasn't easy but I tried to put a bold front, someone had to be strong in times like this. As I got closer to the bathroom, I could hear my heart beating loudly against my chest, or it could be my imagination.

....

"Listen, we'll just have a blood test done, to be completely certain. Most times a 'urine test' isn't accurate." I tried to convince my best friend, cause she was finding it difficult to agree with me after we saw the result of the PT in her room.

We had to be sneaky about leaving the house, we were standing outside Lockmore's Diagnostics - where we planned to have a blood confirmatory test. After we made the necessary payment and a blood sample was taken from her, we waited at the reception for about one hour before her name was called for her result.

'POSITIVE', was the word boldly inscribed on the paper. Our whole world came crumbling down. It's true that Timmi has had sex previously, but her rendezvous has never led to a baby bump until now. I was not only confused, but angry as well, angry that she had gotten herself into this.

"The next step is to know how old the pregnancy is, when did you have... I meant to say, when did it happen?" I corrected the sentence. Being careful not to hurt her feelings more than she was already hurt.

"Early this year, I think around March, I can't really remember." She managed to mumble an answer.

"We have to do an ultrasound to know how old the pregnancy is_"

"I'm going to abort the baby." She blurted, successfully cutting me off.

"What?!" I was flabbergasted, I knew it would eventually come to this but I thought she would think everything through first. Like the risks involved.

The ultrasound indicated that she was six weeks pregnant with an active cyesis. We asked the doctor few sensitive questions mostly about if it's the right time to have the baby aborted, some which she carefully avoided. She also tried to know a little fact about our personal lives, but Timmi just told lies after lies. It was already so late by the time the ordeal was over, and I saw over eight missed calls from my mother.

I went back home after I managed to get Tims to calm down and I promised her that I'll help her through this, even if it means an abortion. As I walked into the living room, I met Bella slowly chewing on something on her plate, she was seated on one of the dinning chairs. Miriam and Kachi seemed to be kicking it off with some discussion they were engrossed in, on the loveseat sofa in the living room.

"Where are you coming back from?" Mother's voice suddenly sounded from the kitchen door, halting my steps.

"I was at Timmi's house," I simply replied.

"And why didn't you think to go see her before we left the estate?"

I remained mute at her last question, I was emotionally drained and didn't have the strength to exchange words with her.

"Did you not see my calls?"

"My phone was in silent mode, I didn't hear it ring."

"Go upstairs and change if you want, then come and eat. We'll talk about this later." She instructed, but I know my mom too well to know that she would definitely get over it by then.

"I think I have a headache, I'll take paracetamol and sleep it off. I might come down a bit later." I answered and continued my way up to Bella's room since she had no other questions for me.

There was no need to wait and be told to sleep in Bella's room, cause I know that's where I'll be sleeping. Our parents were real bent on making us to get along.

But I doubt their efforts would be successful.

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Okay, so I updated again in one week. Thumbs up to me.

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