The Good Life

Izzy

I woke up to the feeling that I was going to throw up again. I don't understand, I felt so much better yesterday evening. I went to my bathroom and leaned over the toilet and threw up almost everything I ate yesterday night. I guess I still had that stomach bug.

I called Papa on my cellphone because I felt too nauseous to go down stairs and talk to him.

"Hello?" He sounded confused, but I knew he was awake because he always got up when Daddy got up for work.

"Papa I don't feel good again." I whined.

"Hold on I'll be right up." He said and hung up.

I flushed the toilet and went back to my bed, waiting for him to come in. A minute later he walked in and placed his hand on my forehead. "You don't feel warm. Are you sure you're not trying to skip out on going to school." He asked.

"I can throw up again if you want." I said sarcastically. I could feel that any minute now I was going to be sick again.

"No no I believe you. I'll just tell Alex to stop by the office and tell them you won't be going today." He said.

"Thank you Papa."

"You're welcome. Just lay back down and rest for a little. I'll come get you up in a few hours." He turned off my lights on his way out.

I attempted to lay down but as soon as I did I felt like throwing up again. I got up and made another trip to the bathroom.

***

I woke up three hours later and saw a note on my nightstand. It was from Papa and it said he was gone to have lunch with Alan. Apparently he tried to wake me up but I was practically dead, and he left money on my nightstand in case I wanted to go get something to eat. I don't remember Papa trying to wake me up I must have been in a deep sleep.

I checked my phone to see I had messages from my friends checking on me. I texted Lynn and told her I was sick again and she quickly texted me back.

To Izzy:
You're throwing up again? I thought you said you felt better yesterday night?

To Lynn:
I did feel better. Idk why I felt sick again all of a sudden.

To Izzy:
That's weird that it keeps coming and going away.

To Lynn:
Yeah but I actually feel better now than I did when I first woke up.

To Izzy:
...I'll be over in a few when I get out of class for lunch.

To Lynn:
Ohkay

I sometimes hate texting cause you can't gage someone's emotions from it. I felt like something was off, but I could have just been paranoid.

I went into the kitchen to find something to eat, but nothing sounded good. I tried to eat some Doritos but when I opened the bag the smell made me feel like throwing up. I settled for a cup of crushed ice.

The doorbell rang a while later I knew it had to be Lynn. I opened the door for her and Justin was standing right behind her. "Why did you bring him with you?" I asked, stepping aside to let them in.

"He was the only one I could trust to buy this since I couldn't bring myself to do it. Plus he'll do anything when he's high." She reached in the Walgreens bag he was holding and pulled out a pregnancy test.

"What are you doing with that?" I asked shocked.

"I bought it for you. You need to check and make sure this isn't the reason you've been feeling so sick." She said. I stared at her trying to understand if she was serious or not. "I'm not a fucking idiot I know you slept with Vic." She added. I sighed acknowledging that she was right, but knew I wasn't pregnant. I just had a stomach virus.

"Okay I did and I'm sorry, but I'm one-hundred percent sure I'm not pregnant." I pushed the test away from me. I walked up to my room and they followed. She still tried to hand the test to me though.

"Just take it to prove to her you're not pregnant." Justin said as he laid down on my bed.
"But I'm not!" I said becoming annoyed.

"Then prove it." Lynn raised an eyebrow at me.

I looked down at the box and sighed as I opened it. I took the stupid test out and threw the box on the bed next to Justin.

"We'll be right here waiting for you to finish." I heard Lynn say as I walked to my bathroom.
I pulled down my pants, sat on the toilet, and began to pee on the stupid stick. When I finished I sat the stick on the counter and washed my hands as I waited for it to show negative.

"How long does it take to finish?" I yelled through my bathroom door.

"The box says two minutes." Justin yelled.

"Great." I mumbled to myself. I played with my fingers until my two minutes were up. I took a quick glance down at the test only seeing one dark pink line. I exhaled in relief and opened the bathroom door with the test in hand.

"How many lines?" Lynn asked worriedly.

"One! Here take it." I tried to hand her the stick.

"Ew No! Throw it away! I don't want you pee stick!" She scolded me.

"I can't throw it away here. If my parents see this, even with it being negative, they'll kill me because it means I've had sex." I told her.

"Just give it here." Justin said. I handed him the stick and grabbed my phone off my nightstand.

"Well at least we know it's not that. I was honestly worried you were pregnant." Lynn told me.

"Yeah I was kind of afraid it would show positive there for a second." I chuckled.

"It looks broken." Justin said holding the test still.

"What do you mean?" Lynn asked him.

"Look there's one line here and then there's a really faded line right next to it." He held up the test to Lynn and I. Lynn looked at me with her eyes wide open in shock.

"What?" I asked her.

"Izzy! That's two lines!!" She yelled.

"What? No! There's one bold line and the other one is like really light. I think Justin's right, it's just broken." I said and she shook her head.

"The box says if two lines show up it means positive. Izzy you're pregnant." She said in a solemn tone.

"It has to be a mistake. Vic and I used protection. There's literally no way I can be pregnant... At least I think we did." I tried to remember that night, but I couldn't remember the details. Now I began to panic.

"Condoms can break." Lynn stated.

"I know that, but I just can't be..." I couldn't even say the word anymore. It was making me start to feel light headed.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but I think you should tell your parents. Or at least just Jack for now." Lynn suggested.

"I would rather stab myself in the heart than tell either one of my parents I might be pregnant." I said.

"I'm with Izzy. Alex would flip shit if he found out she was pregnant and Jack probably would too." Justin said. "Here's what we should do. We'll get you a ticket to Mexico and you can just run away from home and start fresh over there."

"Justin hush." Lynn said to him. "And Izzy I don't think this is a 'might be' situation anymore. You are pregnant."

"But I can't be!" Warm tears began to fall down my face. "What about Vic? How am I supposed to tell him this?"

"Come sit down and try to relax. It'll all be okay." Lynn said as she began to rub my back. "And Vic will understand. He knows that pregnancy is a possibility when having sex." I could barely understand what she was saying now because I was crying so hard. Not only did I ruin my own life, but I ruined Vic's and I let my parents down. They did all they could to make sure I would turn out alright and I had to screw everything up. Plus what am I supposed to do with a baby? I can't take care of myself so how am I supposed to take care of a smaller needier human. God why am I so stupid?

We all heard the garage door open and close a few minutes later. Justin hurried and put the pregnancy test and box back in the Walgreens bag and they both got up to leave.

"You're leaving me?" I sniffed.

"Yeah it's time for us to get back, plus you need to talk to him alone about this. Just remember to relax! Everything will be okay I promise!" She said.

"Yeah you got this!" Justin said encouraging.

"Easy for you two to say, you both aren't about to be shunned from you families." I pouted.

"Izzy?" I heard Papa say as he climbed the stairs.

I quickly wiped at me eyes and answered, "In here!"

"Hi Mr. Gaskarth!" I heard Lynn and Justin greet Papa from the stairs.

"Hi! Are you two leaving?" He asked.

"Yeah it's getting late and we have to go back to school." Justin said.

"Alright I'll see you two later."

Seconds later he walked into my room and his face fell. "Honey, have you been crying?" He wiped a few more tears from my eyes. I wanted to lie but it was evident that I was just crying.

"Um yeah. I just...I found out...that I...I didn't do so well on my history test." I lied. He looked at me confused because I've never cried over grades, but he believed me.

"It's okay, you'll just have to work a little bit harder on the next test. I can help you study or I can get you an actual tutor if you want." He sat down on my bed next to me. I really felt bad about lying now.

"No I should be fine I just didn't study as hard as I could have. But thanks Papa." I said.

"Of course! You don't seem sick anymore, do you feel better?" He kissed me on the forehead.
"I actually feel worse." I finally told the truth about something.

"Oh no! I'm going to make you a doctor’s appointment really quick." He got up and left before I could protest. If I go to the doctor they'll for sure tell him since I'm under eighteen. I have to tell him before the doctor does. Maybe Lynn was right I should tell Papa first and he can maybe help me against Daddy's wrath. I'm going to do it the second Papa walks back into my room I'm going to just say it.

I sat on my bed trying to regulate my breathing for a few minutes and Papa walked back in.
"Your doctor can't see you until Monday but I can take you to a clinic if you feel like you can't wait that long." Papa said as he walked back in.

I really tried to tell him but I froze with my mouth open, not able to form the words.
"Do you want to go to a Care Now clinic?" He asked slowly.

"...No no I can wait til Monday." I answered. So much for telling the truth.

"Okay well I'll be downstairs. You should lay down because you seem kind of out of it. Just call me if you need anything."

"Thank you Papa." I mumbled. He left my room and I grabbed my phone. Maybe I just needed to take baby steps and talk to Vic about this first.

To Vic:
Hey can you talk right now?

It took him ten minutes to acknowledge my text with a phone call.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hi who are you and what would you like with Vic?" A random girl said. She was trying to sound polite, but failed.

"Um that's between Vic and me. Who are you? Why do you have his phone?" I asked.

"I'm Danielle...his girlfriend and I would appreciate if you didn't call his phone again." She told me.
My eyes immediately began to water again once hearing that, but I didn't want her to know that I was hurt. "Tell Vic that I hope he burns in the deepest pits of hell." I said and hung up.

I laid down and pushed my face into my pillow so I could cry the pain away. Now I'm really alone.

Notes

I had this whole thing planned out. I was supposed to surprise you all with Izzy being pregnant but Nooooo you all had to figure it out anyways. You guys ruin everything fun Lmao!!