NEW YORK CITY, NY – KIRSTIN’S LOFT – FEB. 13TH, 2002 – Tuesday

     It was 7 pm. Kirstin had just arrived from her job. She collapsed onto the couch and started crying. She had spent the rest of the previous day just like that too. She was worried with the results she would get on the following day.

     Grace then unlocked the door, entered the loft and saw her friend lying on the couch, crying uncontrollable.

     “K, baby. Please, don’t be like that.” Grace already knew about everything. She had spent the night at Kirstin’s to support her friend and she’d spend that night there as well.

     Kirstin didn’t say a thing. She just placed her head on Grace’s lap and cried. Grace stayed there with her, not saying a thing. It was a tough thing to go through so young. It probably was nothing, but Kirstin had to prepare herself for the worst, being the pessimist she was. She couldn’t find anything good about that. Even if it was an ulcer or gastritis, it was bad. Not equally bad, but it was not good. So she’d suffer either way. And she didn’t want to go through that. She was too young to have an ulcer, gastritis or cancer!

     “K, have you called your parents yet?” Grace asked while brushing a lock of hair away from Kirstin’s face. Kirstin just shook her head “Good. It’s better this way. You should find out what it is first before calling them. You shouldn’t worry them with something that might not even be there.” Grace brushed another lock away from Kirstin’s face and kissed her on the cheek “Everything will be fine. You’ll see.”

NEW YORK CITY, NY – KIRSTIN’S LOFT – FEB. 14TH, 2002 – Wednesday

     Grace left at 8 am because she couldn’t miss class. She had to take the notes for both, her and Kirstin.

     At 10 am, the phone rang.

     “Hello?” Kirstin answered.

     “Hello. Can I please talk to Ms. Addams?” a female voice asked.

     “This is she.” Kirstin frowned.

     “Hello, Ms Addams. This is Dr. Bristow’s secretary. I’ll pass the call to him, is that alright?”

     “Yeah, ok.” Kirstin got more worried. What was it now? What did Dr. Bristow have to say to her that couldn’t wait until their appointment at 2 pm?

     “Hello? Ms. Addams?” an older male voice asked.

     “Yes.”

     “This is Dr. Bristow. How are you, dear?”

 

     It was 11:45 am when Ashley arrived at Kirstin’s loft. He rang the bell and Kirstin ran to open the door to him.

     “Hey.” Ashley greeted, worried.

     “Hey.” Kirstin turned and headed to the leaving room, pacing around it.

     “What’s wrong?” Ashley didn’t like Kirstin’s behavior or look. It seemed like she had been crying the whole day and had just stopped.

     “Dr. Bristow called.” she informed, stopped walking around and looked at Ashley.

     “What? Why?” Ashley trailed to Kirstin “Why did he call if we have an appointment at 2?”

     “He said that way we’d save a trip.”

     “What do you mean?” Ashley asked worried. Kirstin continued to pace around the room. After a few moments in silence, Ashley snapped “What’s going on, Kirstin?”

     “He told me over the phone what I have.” Now it was Ashley’s stomach that was hurting. He had to sit down. She knew what was wrong with her and she wouldn’t tell him already! He had to know! He was suffering too much! Was it cancer? If it was cancer, would she be as calm as she was? But she wasn’t calm. She was more… worried. Not sad. Worried.

     “What is it, Kirstin? What is the fucking problem?” Ashley snapped and stood up “Is it cancer?” Kirstin looked at him with no expression on her face “Is it? If it is, just say it, alright? I can take it!” Ashley let a tear fall down his cheek. Kirstin didn’t notice it, because she turned her back to him before that “Kirstin, for the love of God, what’s going on? You’re killing me here!” Ashley couldn’t take it anymore.

     “It’s not cancer.”

     “So, it’s an ulcer?” Ashley breathed relieved. An ulcer wasn’t such a big deal. His father had an ulcer.

     “No.”

     “Then what is it?” he got worried again.

     “It’s… I… it’s… I don’t know how to say, so I’ll just say it, alright?” Ashley just nodded. He had to know already “It’s… pregnancy.”

     “What?” Ashley didn’t even raise his voice. He couldn’t believe it.

     “I’m pregnant.” Kirstin looked down.

     “Oh, my God!” he then stopped to think “Oh, my God!” he said louder “We weren’t safe the last time we had sex! Oh, my God! How could I have been so stupid? I mean…”

     “Ash?”

     “I was so… surprised at the whole thing that I even forgot to put the condom on and…”

     “Ash?”

     “But, K, I mean…” Ashley got closer to Kirstin “Wow… I… I don’t even know what to say. It’s not something that I was expecting, but…we can…” Ashley walked away from Kirstin “We can do this. I mean. It’s only gonna be born in what? 8 months or so? Until then, the record will be out and I think things are gonna slow down a bit. Things will be easier. If the baby was due to this week, then things would be difficult, but no…” Ashley was now talking more to himself than to Kirstin “We still have 8 months. Everything will be fine. Don’t worry, Kirstin. I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry. We have 8 months.” Ashley got closer and embraced her.

     “No, we don’t.” Kirstin pulled back from him.

     “What do you mean, no we don’t?”

     “We only have 6 months.”

     “6 months? No, that’s not…” Ashley stopped and looked at Kirstin.

     “The baby is not yours. It’s Tom’s.”