Leo nodded slowly. “Okay. Then I need to talk to my boss about a raise.”
For a long, terrible second, Cheryl’s face went completely blank. Then the emotions flickered across it like a storm: shock, anger, disappointment, and finally—settling in like a stone—fear. But not for herself. For Madi. madi collins 18 and pregnant
“So what do you want to do?” he asked, finally meeting her eyes. Leo nodded slowly
The first thought wasn’t fear. It wasn’t sadness. It was a bizarre, clinical realization: I’m going to have to tell my mom. Then the emotions flickered across it like a
The plastic stick on the edge of the sink had two pink lines. Madi Collins stared at them until her vision blurred, as if the lines might rearrange themselves into a single, negative line if she just concentrated hard enough. They didn’t. The cheap linoleum floor of the gas station bathroom felt cold even through the soles of her sneakers. She was eighteen years old, three weeks past high school graduation, and according to this $12 test from the drugstore, her entire future had just split into two distinct paths.
The hard part wasn’t the physical discomfort—the backaches, the swollen ankles, the midnight cravings. The hard part was the quiet. The 2 a.m. moments when she lay awake in the dark, one hand on her belly, and felt the weight of her own childhood ending. She wasn’t a girl anymore. She was someone’s mother.
Cheryl was on the couch, still in her blue scrubs, a glass of cheap red wine on the coaster. She looked up as Madi walked in, her eyes immediately sharpening. A mother’s radar is a terrifying thing.