Meet Me Halfway

Chapter 2

September 1992

Her eyes fluttered open at the sound of her alarm clock blaring at 7:00am in the morning.

The start of junior year had finally arrived and she couldn't be more apathetic, but not apathetic enough to not plan out her outfit.

She had laid it out on a chair the night before so it was ready to wear. A purple mesh shirt with black jeans and leather ankle boots, the perfect back to school outfit if she did say so herself.

Well as long as her jeans still fit her. Over the coming weeks she had noticed her stomach getting a little plumper, but she didn't think much of it, she had been eating nothing but junk food all summer anyway.

She was desperately craving a cigarette. She pulled one out of the box and sparked it up, blowing the smoke out of her bedroom window and glaring at the trailer opposite hers, the one where FP lived.

She hadn't spoken to him since their dalliance six weeks ago, and to be honest she had no intention to. He had pissed her off to the point of no return.

She flicks the remainder of the cigarette outside, closes her window and proceeds to get dressed, and as suspected, her jeans don't fit the same way, but they still do just about, so she doesn't see any harm.

She exit her bedroom and walked down the hall to find her cheery father in the kitchen preparing breakfast.

"Hey kiddo!" He greets as he prepares the scrambled eggs on the fryer.

"Hey Dad." Alice greets quietly as she sits at the table.

He must've got in late last night whilst she was asleep. He was a truck driver so he worked long hours driving in and out of state, which normally required leaving Alice alone for long periods of time.

"So, you ready for your first day of Junior year?" He questions, pausing his cooking at the same time and getting ready to put it all on a plate.

Alice tips her head to the side and brings her knee up to her chest. She just shrugs her shoulders, not really having much of an answer.

"I guess." She mumbled.

He puts her food into a plate and proceeds to bring it over.

Suddenly, the odour from the freshly prepared eggs hitting her nostrils caused her stomach to turn and her throat to suddenly tighten.

She covered her mouth instantly and ran towards to bathroom. The kitchen sink would've been a safer bet but she didn't want to gross out her Dad.

She released the contents of her stomach into the toilet and wipes her mouth when she's done, closing the lid and sitting up on it after flushing.

This has never happened before, she thought to herself. Was she sick? Did she just not like eggs any more? She couldn't think for the life of her what was wrong and she sat there going over all the possibilities as her eyes wandered to different sections of the room.

Then her eyes landed upon her box of tampons, and it hit her. She hasn't used them in a while.

Surely it can't be what she's thinking. It would explain the sudden weight gain, the vomiting at the smell of eggs and the late period, she knows deep down there's a strong chance she has a bun in the oven, but she dismisses it and exits the bathroom in a hurry, meeting her father on the other side of the door.

"Allie, you okay?"

"Uhm, yeah, just a little nauseous. First day back nerves, that's all." She lies as she walks past him to the front door.

"Well honey if you're sick you shouldn't be going into school to begin with." Her father advised. He had always been super protective of his daughter, ever since her mother had walked out on them when she was 3.

"I can't miss my first day back Dad. I promise, if I feel worse, I'll just come home at lunch." She promised him.

"Are you sure?" He asked as he walked towards her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I promise." She kisses his cheek and proceeded to leave.

"I love you!" Her father yelled out. She turned back around and smiled. "Love you too."

As she made her way to school that morning, walking from the Southside to the North, all she could think about was the possibility of her being with child.

All that ran through her mind was her age, baby names, getting sicker, getting fatter, getting swollen feet, her future. She had totally screwed up this time.

In her neighbourhood, the concept of being 16 and pregnant wasn't foreign in the slightest. She'd known more teen moms than she could count, her mother included, who had her when she was 17, and she again could be carrying on that tradition. Just another statistic she thought to herself as she strolled further down the road.

Another thing she thought to herself was her Dad. What was he going to think? What was he going to say? She knew he'd probably hit the roof and disappointing him was her biggest fear.

"Fuck this." She thought to herself as she approached the neighbourhood drug store. She needed to know for sure, as soon as possible.

She entered the establishment. It was early in the morning so customers were lacking, which she was grateful for. She didn't need anybody knowing exactly what she was about to purchase and then the whole town knowing the next minute.

Up and down the isles she went until she stumbled upon the feminine hygiene isle. Right at on the bottom shelf was where they were stacked, plenty of pregnancy tests, different brands, different colours.

She didn't necessarily care which brand she got, as long as it revealed whether she was pregnant or not she couldn't care less. She picked up one of the cheapest tests on the rack and walked over to the cashier desk in a hurry. She was already running late for school and she wanted to get this over and done with.

The cashier looked at her sympathetically as he bagged up the item, which Alice found insulting. She didn't need anybody's sympathy or sadness. She snatched the test off the counter and immediately stormed out. Riverdale High was just down the block.

She approached the school, seeing everybody practically salivating at the idea of being back for Junior year, which she couldn't understand. It was just another day of shitty school.

She approached the main stairs, ready to go the bathrooms to do what she needed to do until a car with a certain bulldog in the passenger seat pulled up, catching her attention.

And in the drivers seat? Gladys Gallagher, one of the schools chief River Vixens. She stepped out of the vehicle and walked around to the other side, meeting FP and pulling him in for a kiss, which he seemed to enjoy, earning chants and wolf whistles from the other bulldogs over in the corner and a few River Vixens. She had heard they'd gotten together some point in the summer.

Alice watched on as he basked in all the praise and BMOC glory from half the school. This act of his irritated her to no end. If only his little ass kissers knew the truth. Honestly who does he think he is, she thought to herself. Her stomach was sensitive enough so she didn't need to see anymore of this.

She entered the girls bathroom, thank God there was only one inhabitant, Hermione Gomez, the meek Catholic girl who barely spoke and kept herself to herself, not because she hated everyone like Alice, but because she was way to shy to ever start a conversation with anybody.

She ignored the girl stood by the mirror and entered the cubicle, immediately locking it and doing her business.

3 minutes the box said. 3 minutes is what it took for her to find out if she was totally screwed or not. She didn't have a watch on her and just decided to sing a song in her head to time it.

She chants Madonna's Into the Groove silently to herself, the song is roughly four minutes so she knows it's a safe bet.

Coming to the final lyric, she slowly turns the test over in her hands, shaking and breathing heavily as she does.

And there it is, the two bold lines on the stick glaring right back at her.