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CORINNE LAID ON THE COUCH in Dominique's living room, watching reruns of Good Times as hot tears streamed down her face. It had become constant routine for her to spend her nights like this. She had started organizing and preparing her things for when her new apartment was finally ready. During the process, she had come across a short strip of ultrasounds and a hospital visit summary.
Initially, she had paid no mind to them assuming that they were probably Coriah's old ultrasound, yet as her mother told her to go through all the papers and to get rid of what she didn't need, she realized that that ultrasound and appointment summary was hers.
She had been trying her hardest to pretend that it never happened and now she was obsessing over it. Corinne had read her appointment summary so many times and the more she read it, the more it didn't make sense.
Medically, there was no reason for her to have miscarried. Grateful for her second chance, Corinne still didn't understand why her time had come now instead of eight months ago. Dominique had taken her pain medication and she was out for the night. That was the only reason she wasn't pretending to shower so she could cry in the bathroom.
Midnight would make it officially the day she was expected to become a mother, and instead she was starting over with scarred memories. She wipes her eyes, standing up to go get her best friend a bottle of water so she could take a second dose of antibiotics.
"Nique." Corinne says, opening the pill bottle. "Hmm?" Dominique hums, her arm surrounded by pillows to protect it. "You gotta take your pills. You can go back to sleep after." She begins sitting up prepared to take the pills. "You been crying?" Dominique asks. Her voice was slightly hoarse. "I'm okay." Corinne mumbles, passing her the water bottle quickly after she puts the pills in her mouth.
"What's wrong?" Dominique hands her back the water bottle so she could rub the sleep from the eyes. "Nothing." Corinne softly reassures her trying to stop her from asking her the same question again. "Rin, what's wrong?" Dominique repeats herself only for her to shake her head as a single tear falls. "Come here." Dominique pats the spot next to her making Corinne get into the king sized bed with her. "My niece got you in your feelings?"
"I was supposed to be having my baby today and I'm starting over." Corinne lays her head down on Dominique's uninjured shoulder. "Rin."
"I don't really wanna talk about it but I feel like I have too cause my baby would've been beautiful and he or she" Corinne's voice cracks as she closes her eyes. "I wanna give you a hug so bad." Dominique tells her.
"It's okay." Corinne shakes her head. "It's not okay. Just cause you working on acceptance don't mean it's okay." Dominique was a psych major and unlike Corinne, she knew the five states of grief wasn't always an exact timeline but it was clear that she was in a state of sadness and was working towards acceptance.
Dominique listened to Corinne talk until she eventually fell asleep next to her. She had told her friend everything, holding back on nothing that happened during the last few months of her relationship. Dominique had been up trying to talk herself out of calling Demon and cussing him out.
