Page 263 of Mario

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Not ruin me.

That is dramatic.

Mario is not going to ruin me.

Probably.

My stomach twists.

I close my eyes.

Do not start again.

I cannot do Mario, and Anna, and pregnancy all at once. My brain keeps trying to line them up into one terrible, unsolvable equation, and I cannot let it. I cannot keep asking questions that make me feel like I am falling through the floor.

First, I need more facts.

I have one fact now.

A positive test.

Which is not enough.

False positives happen.

Rarely.

I know that. I looked it up already. Of course I looked it up already, standing barefoot on the bathroom tile with my phone in one hand and the test on the counter.

False positives are uncommon.

Evaporation lines are possible.

User error is possible.

Expired tests are possible.

I checked the expiration date twice.

It is not expired.

I took another one.

Also positive.

That one is in the trash, wrapped in toilet paper.

The third is next to it.

I laugh once.

It comes out thin and ugly, bordering on crazy.

I press my fingers to my eyes until I see sparks.

Okay.

Okay.

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