Out of Order Read Online Free Page B

puke.
    “How else am I going to get guaranteed child support from you for the next twenty years?”
    Ricky turned on her heel and flounced away. Jessa, Kate, and I followed her, holding in laughter.
    “She’s pregnant?” I heard the girlfriend hiss before I was out of earshot. Then the distinctive sound of a slap. “You said you hadn’t slept with her! You said I was your first !”
    We went home after that. By the time we reached Kate’s house, the closest to walk to from the school, Ricky was getting a flurry of angry texts from Mike, most of which involved him giving her money for an abortion.
    “Should I let him pay me off?” Ricky asked mildly. “Or should I go through with my theoretical pregnancy and miscarry instead?”
    “Let him pay you,” Jessa said automatically. “That way you get cash to help pay for your prom dress, and he’ll still think he’s indebted to you.”
    “Wow, I thought you’d go all pro-life on us for even suggesting it,” Kate said. I nodded my agreement.
    “It’s not a real life she’s talking about,” Jessa pointed out. “It’s just a lie—which is still a sin, though I believe it’s justified, considering how much worse he’s done to you.”
    “So if I can have a fake pregnancy, I can have a fake abortion without being smited?”
    “Smote,” Jessa corrected. “And in my opinion, yes.”
    “Sweet.”

April 1st
     
     
    “J UST PEE on the stick,” I said, leaning my head against the wall.
    “What if I miss? What if I pee on my hand ?”
    “Then you wash your hand, nimrod!” Kate yelled. “Just pee!”
    “I can’t! You’re all listening, and there’s too much pressure! My dad’s going to kill me!”
    “There you go,” I said, glaring at Kate. “You made her cry. Good going.”
    “ I made her cry?” Kate said incredulously.
    “Shut up!” Ricky yelled. “Shut up, shut up, shut up! I’m trying to pee .”
    “Just relax,” I said, glancing at my watch. The three of us had been cooped up in the tiny drugstore bathroom for almost twenty minutes. The sunny yellow tiles and bright fluorescent lights were starting to give me a migraine.
    “I can’t relax. What if it’s positive? My dad’s going to kill me. He’s literally going to murder me, and no one will ever find my body!”
    I tried to picture’s Ricky’s dad’s reaction if he found out she was pregnant. The image of the huge, one-armed war veteran slowly going red in the face until steam blew out his ears was not one I’d share with his terrified daughter.
    “Calm down, we don’t even know if you’re pregnant or not,” Kate said, trying to sound soothing but honestly just failing.
    I’m the supportive one, always have been, always will be. We all have our thing. Ricky is asthmatic, good at math, a loyal follower. Kate is our beautiful rebel, always turning expectations on their heads. Jessa is heir to the kingdom of heaven and a chain of drugstores. And me? I’m the moral support who’s also really good at Trivial Pursuit. Well, sometimes.
    “I’m pregnant, I know I am.”
    When she’d first told us she thought she was pregnant, we’d thought it was a joke. When she started crying, we thought it was an elaborate joke. It had stopped being funny half an hour ago when we stood in front of the pregnancy tests at Fuentes Drugs reading customer reviews and trying to decide which one was best for Ricky to pee on.
    “You don’t know. You might’ve just eaten bad fish or something. There are a billion reasons why someone might throw up, okay?” I pointed out, trying hard not to feel foolish. The Fuentes family ran a clean store, but public bathrooms always gave me the heebie-jeebies.
    “We had unprotected sex, and I’m three days late. I could be a month pregnant by now! Oh God!”
    “Just freaking pee already,” Kate groaned, leaning against the counter. “Please? You can’t know if you are or are not if you don’t freaking pee on the stick .”
    “I can’t pee! I’m too