Perfect Christmas [2016 Edition]

5. Alex

[ A L E X ]

      I've manage to set the last plate down on the table when Cara comes rushing towards me, her eyes wide-eyed and panicky. She tugs on my arm, hard. "We need to talk," she says, her voice sharp. "Now."

    "Uh," I say, "okay."

    I let her lead me to one of the dozen rooms in this mansion. When she shuts the door behind her, she leans against it and exhales deeply.

    "What's going on?" I ask her, crossing my arms across my chest. Worry starts to grip me. "Cara?"

    Her eyes hold mine for a heartbeat longer before she slides her hand in the pocket of her jeans to take out something. A stick.

    A pregnancy test. And a very positive one at that.

    "Oh my god!" I shriek, my hands flying over to my mouth. Excitement thrums inside of me, ready to burst. "You're pregnant! Oh my god!"

    "No!" She whisper-shouts. "It's not mine!"

    "It's not?" I say, blinking, letting my hands drop to the either side of me. "Then why are you holding it?"

    "Because it's yours!" She thrusts the thing at me. "I found it in the washroom just now. It's yours."

    Wait, what?

    I'm pretty sure that if I took a pregnancy test, I would remember it.

    "What are you talking about? No, it isn't," I say. "It's not mine. I didn't take a pregnancy test."

    "You didn't?" Cara asks, surprise lining her hazel eyes. "But you went into the washroom before me!"

    "So what?" I ask her, choking on a laugh. "That doesn't mean it's mine. I haven't taken a pregnancy test in forever."

    She pauses for a while.

    "You want to take one now? Maybe after all that loving you did with Daniel..."

    "Cara," I say, sitting her down on the edge of the bed. Grabbing a piece of tissue from the tissue box situated on top of the desk beside the bed, I use it to take the pregnancy test from her and wrap the tissue around it. "Okay, first off, you can't get pregnant that fast. Second of all, I'm taking the pill so I highly doubt I'll get pregnant anyway, nor do I want to now. And third, how on earth did you even find this?" I wave the tissue-covered stick in front of her.

    "It was just sitting there in the trash can," she says, her hands placed flat on both of her thighs. She bites her lip, her eyes trained on her hands. "I happened to look inside."

    "And you just...took it?" I wince. "You do realize that someone peed on it right?"

    She stares at me. A second. Two. And then, looks at her hands. "Okay, yeah. I totally need to get back in there to wash my hands."

    "Uh huh. You totally do."

    "But I'm too excited." She bounces on the bed, her grin stretching wide across her face. "If it's not either of us that's pregnant, some other girl out there is! We have go out there and ask—" She jumps off the bed but I gently push her down.

    "No way," I tell her sternly. "We're not asking them, Cara."

    "Why not?" Cara pouts at me like an angry child.

    "Because I don't think that's very fair," I say. "I mean, what if that girl didn't want anyone to know yet? I don't want to ruin that. It's her secret to tell, and she should tell it at her own time."