No Strings Attached

Part 11-Two Pink Lines

Thursday August 29th
Riley's POV

Since last Friday, Lucas and I had barely spoken, just our occasional glances in the halls or minor social interactions with Farkle, Zay, and Maya. Somehow this felt like the longest weak of my life. My headaches were getting worse especially with all the stress in class making it almost impossible to keep anything down.

I woke up Thursday morning relieved the week was nearing its end. I still woke up feeling groggy and to make matters worse, my period was a week late. As I got out of bed and stepped in the shower, I felt nauseous again and began to wonder if this was something else.
No, it couldn't be...could it?

I didn't want to take any chances so I asked my mom if I could stop at the drug store after school to pick up some advil for my headache.

Ding! I looked down to see a text from Maya.
"Hey, be there in 10"

I finished gathering my books and bag then sat down preparing for breakfast. Maya came in with her usual enterance and we hugged.
"Morning, Peaches!"
"Morning, Riles!"
"Breakfast is served girls." said my mom.
"Thanks, Mrs.Matthews."
"Maya, you know you can call me Topanga." She said with a smile.
"I know" Maya cleaned her plate and I ate all my body could handle.
"Sure you don't want more, sweetheart?"
"That's okay mom." I get up from my seat and hug her goodbye.
"Don't forget me!" Auggie says
"Never!" I hold out my arms and he attempts to tackle me. Maya and I begin our walk to the subway.
"Oh, after school wanna help me shop for a gift for Lucas? I know it's last minute but our anniversary is tomorrow and I want to give him something special. My palms get sweaty again and I wipe them off on my jeans.
"Sorry, Peaches, I can't today." I pause for a second and continue my lame excuse, "I have a big test in math tomorrow and it's what gets me to stay in the honors level course."

"There you go being the beautiful genius again! I'll just have to pick something extra special then." I hate lying to her. She's my best friend, my sister. And carrying these secrets from her is killing me.

The day carries on but I can barely focus. After my dad finishes teaching, he pulls me aside.
"You feeling okay, Riley? You seemed really distracted. Did something happen?"

I cross my arms trying to hide my shakiness. "Yeah, I'm feeling okay. Just feeling tired. I didn't sleep great last night." There I go with another lie.

"Okay, hun. I'll see you at home." He smiles and sends me off to Pre-Calc. I feel like the whole world is staring at me with a giant poster saying "I slept with my best friends boyfriend!" In all reality, no one cared or even knew. Once the endless school day released me at 3, I went straight to the drug store. "I can't believe I'm doing this." I said to myself.

I grabbed some advil, a box of tampons, some gum, and a first response test. It felt like the cashier was both judgemental and do confused. Truthfully, she didn't care about the items, just the $20 I handed her. I went straight home and into my room.

I took out the test, dipped it, and left it on my bathroom sink for what felt like the longest 5 minutes of my life. I downed two Advils and a whole bottle of water. I felt restless. I jumped when I heard the timer sound. "Okay.." I picked up the test and-

Oh my god. Two bright pink lines sat in the stick. I dropped it on the floor and tears began to fall. A million emotions flooded me at once. How could I let this happen? I can't believe I did this to Farkle, to Maya...what will I tell Lucas?