Page 62 of Demo
“Thanks,” my girl said, blushing.
I watched her dig into the pumpkin pie and take a large bite, rolling her eyes a bit as she enjoyed it. Mom made a mean pumpkin pie. Then I saw Lizzie quickly take a drink of water. Swish it around a little. And take another sip.
“You OK?” I asked her as the others conversed around the table.
She nodded. “Yeah, uh, I think it’s just, maybe the nutmeg? I got, like, a whiff or a bite of um …” She took another sip of water.
“Yeah, my mom has some kind of secret recipe …”
And suddenly, Lizzie jumped up, depositing her napkin on her chair. “I just have to use the restroom.” She darted out of the room. Mom and Bram looked at me as Dad held Emily’s attention with some sort of story. I shrugged, wiped my mouth on my napkin and got up to go after her.
I approached the bathroom at the end of the hallway and just as I was about to knock on the closed door, I heard her heave. Barreling into the small space with gaudy floral wallpaper, I closed the door behind me as I saw her, leaning over the toilet, holding her own hair, as she vomited.
“Aw, shit, Lizzie. You OK?”
She looked at me like that was a stupid question, which it was. Then she puked some more.
I took her hair into my hands and held it away from her face as I watched Thanksgiving dinner resurface. Finally finishing, she wiped her mouth with toilet paper, flushed the toilet and closed the lid, then headed over to the sink to wash her mouth out.
“Are you sick?” I asked as she scooted past me. “Did you eat too much?”
Folding her arms over her chest and looking down at the floor, she murmured something.
I heard it. I heard the words, but it took a second for them to fall into correct order in my brain. I took a step back and crossed my own arms over my chest.
Lyzbeth must have taken my silence as an indication that I didn’t hear her, so she repeated herself. “I’m pregnant, Knox.”
I nodded, my eyes focusing on one of the little flowers on the wallpaper. It had what looked like a little pocket of pollen or seeds in the middle. Something a bee might try and feed off of.
“Knox?”
“Yeah,” I blew out a breath. “I’m here. I’m just … Just give me a second.”
Now she nodded. “Yep,” she popped the “p” sound. “Take your time. It’s kind of a big one, so just, go ahead and digest that a little bit.”
Pregnant. With child. My child. I’m 24 and she’s … I don’t even know. I think she’s younger than me by a year. She just graduated so … “How old are you?” I asked, which got me a scrupulous look. “Never mind. Not important,” I waved my hand through the air. “Sorry, I’m just processing here.”
“I get it,” she said, leaning back against the wall. “Carry on.”
She’s pregnant. She doesn’t look pregnant. Suddenly I was staring at her. Don’t they say your boobs get bigger when you’re pregnant? They don’t look bigger. Neither does her stomach. Wait, I think that happens later.
“Stop it,” she bit out and I snapped my eyes up to hers. “Stop looking at my body. You can’t tell. It’s too early.”
“Right.” I ran a hand through my hair and put my other on my hip. “But today, you said nothing fit.”
“I’m just bloated. I mean, I guess that could be because of the pregnancy, but it’s not like a baby bump or anything. I haven’t even been to the doctor yet.”
“Oh. Oh! So, you don’t know for sure,” I exclaimed.
“The tests said so.”
“Tests? How many tests?” I asked.
“Seven.”
“Seven! Wow. Seven. That’s a lot of tests.”
“Yep. All positive.”
