“Grrrr,” he growled as he nuzzled my chest.
Aubrey: Sleep here tonight?
Aubrey: Need to talk.
Aubrey: Are you coming?
As badly as I wanted Drake right now, I couldn’t abandon my best friend if she needed me, and it sounded like she did. She wouldn’t have asked me to come back if she didn’t.
“Shit,” I swore. “I need to head back to my dorm.”
Drake pulled his head away to look up at me with a frustrated glare. “Fuck. Gimme five minutes.”
I leaned down and gave him a deep, wet kiss before pulling away to stand up. “No can do, dude. It’s gotta be bad for her to send me three texts in a row. Hold on to that thought though. You know I’ll see you tomorrow. And if it isn’t too horrible, maybe I’ll be able to come back later.”
“Fine,” he huffed with an adorable pout on his full lips.
I grabbed my stuff and we headed over to the dorm.
“I’ll text you once I know what’s going on, okay?” I said when we got close to my building.
“Let me know if she needs anything. I’ll run out and grab it for you. No driving your damn car in the snow!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talk to you later,” I said as I left the truck.
When I got to our suite, I found Natalie and Faith waiting for me in the common area. Faith jumped up as I walked in the door and shoved a box of tissues at me.
“Thank God you’re here. She’s a total mess,” she said. “She stormed in about an hour ago and locked herself in your room.”
“She hasn’t come out at all?” I asked, glancing at the closed door.
“No, and we haven’t heard anything other than crying, either,” Natalie answered. “I knocked and asked her if she was okay, but she just screamed at me to go away.”
“She’s been acting kind of strange lately, too. You’ve been pretty busy with Drake, so you might not have noticed. But I don’t think she’s been sleeping very well. I’ve found her in here a few times when I’ve woken up to go to the bathroom,” Faith added.
“Crap. That doesn’t sound good at all. Thanks for waiting to tell me what’s going on,” I told them as I headed towards our door.
“We like Aubrey. We were about to head out, but we didn’t want to leave her until you got here,” Natalie said.
“Yeah, I hope it isn’t anything serious,” Faith chimed in.
“Me too,” I muttered under my breath, knowing that it was very unusual for Aubrey to freak out like this. I knocked on the door lightly. “Aubrey, it’s me. Will you let me in?”
I heard her rush to the door right before it swung open. “Finally!” she shrieked as she pulled me into our room.
“What the hell’s going on, Aubrey?” I asked.
She turned towards me, and I gasped when I saw her face. She was always so put together, but her hair was a mess and mascara was streaked down her cheeks. She really had been crying this whole time.
“I’m scared, Lex,” she whispered.
I walked over to her and pulled her into a hug. “Why? Did someone hurt you?”
“I think I might be pregnant,” she cried, shaking in my arms.
“What?” I gasped.
“I’m late. You know I’m never late—like ever.”
“How late?” I asked.
“Almost a week.”
I pulled away to look into her face. “Aubrey, why didn’t you tell me?”
She shrugged her shoulders and looked down at the floor. “I think I was trying to pretend it wasn’t happening. Lex, what will I do if I’m pregnant? I can’t get an abortion, and I’m so not ready to be a mom. My parents are going to kill me.”
“If you’re pregnant, we’ll figure it out. Your parents might not be happy, but you know they’ll support you. They would never let you go through something like this alone. They love you,” I reminded her.
“I know that, I do. But I just don’t know how I can tell them what’s going on.”
“Have you taken a test yet?”
She shook her head in response. “No. I bought a couple today, but it says they work best first thing in the morning.”
I pulled out my phone and Googled pregnancy tests to get more information. “Okay, it says here that you can still take one now, it’s just less accurate. I think you should do that, and if it’s positive then you’ll know and that part will be over. If it’s negative, then you can take the other one in the morning. Okay?”