Evan Buckley is tapping his fingers anxiously across the steering wheel of his girlfriend’s car. She had walked into the drugstore on the edge of Philadelphia ten minutes ago. It’s a Tuesday, and they should be in chemistry class with the rest of Junior year but they ditched school to drive the two hours to Philadelphia so they could get the test without anyone recognizing them.
Evan’s just grateful his parents are at some teacher conference in Baltimore for the week and wouldn’t notice his tardiness at school.
The car door opens and closes in quick succession. He looks over to the passenger seat to find Anna staring through the windshield. She’s chewing the inside of her cheek, a habit she does when she’s nervous.
“Did you get it?” His voice cracks at the end, he feels like he might vomit from not knowing.
Her eyes flit from the windshield and meet his, “Yeah.” Her voice is soft and scratchy, her hands twisting the paper bag in her hands, “I took it, but it says we need to wait five minutes.”
He swallows and gives a short nod, lost for words.
“Can we maybe go to a park and wait? I don’t want to be here anymore.” Her voice is becomes more fragile as she finishes her request, she sniffs as her eyes flit away from his.
He finds himself nodding and pulling out of the drugstore. Anna is quiet in the passenger seat as he navigates them to the park they passed on their way to the drugstore. He parks in the shade, facing away from the people strolling the park.
They sit in silence, not saying a word. The digital clock on the radio changes the hour, and soon, it’s been far more then five minutes and neither of them have moved to open the paper bag Anna holds.
Anxiety builds in Evan’s chest, making its way to his throat, threatening to bubble over. “I’m, do you… should I…” he starts, his voice soft and quiet as if he spoke any louder what they fear will come true.
She shakes her head, “um, no, no… I can do it.” He nods and watches her unravel the mess the paper bag has turned into. She reaches in and pulls out the box, checks the instructions again, until finally, a white stick is in her shaking hand.
He holds his breath as she reads the result, relief starts to flood into him when she has no reaction. Until suddenly, as if a damn breaks, she’s sobbing and wailing.
Evan grabs for the stick and instructions, reading them twice to make sure he understands how to read it when, with the sound of Anna’s cries echoing in his head, he looks at the stick and takes in the two solid pink lines.
Suddenly, her cries and sobs are muffled, and all he can hear is static as he stares at the damning two lines.
Or; Buck got his high school girlfriend pregnant. Buck, only knowing his family is a mess and really that’s gotta be his fault, doesn’t want to be a dad. His girlfriend is in an equally bad place, and doesn’t want to be a mom. They somehow manage to hide the pregnancy from everyone and his girlfriend ends up placing the kid up for adoption. It goes well, and the two teenagers are able to put it past them with no one the wiser until an almost 16 year old girl shows up wanting Buck to sign her emancipation papers to make her legally an adult and taken out of the foster system.
