Young Writers Society

Rhys pushed the plunger down slowly, letting out a long sigh as he did so. He hadn't shot up enough to get to a pleasurable high, just enough to make him feel his usual state of normalcy and to stave off the dopesickness. He got to his feet, pulling on a hoodie that hung over his skinny frame - he was losing weight again - before leaving his room and closing the door behind him. He shuffled out of the apartment, into the elevator, and eventually out to the parking lot where Leah and the Subaru were waiting.

"Hey," she said, flashing him a smile as he got in and gesturing to the cupholder in the console between them. "Got you a coffee."

He picked it up, hesitating a bit. "Thanks."

"Figured it might make this thing between us easier," she shrugged, reversing out of the parking space. She was wearing very large, round sunglasses and her lipstick today was a velvety purple, which contrasted nicely with her skin tone. Rhys took a drink of his coffee, lighting a cigarette as he stared out of the window.

The 'clinic' was actually a Planned Parenthood, located at the corner of Coven and Hispana, nestled in a quieter area of the city where it was protected from anti-abortion protesters. Leah parked the Subaru a few spots down from the door in the mostly empty parking lot. Rhys was halfway through his cigarette, taking a drink of his coffee as he stared at the building. He hated it on principle.

"Do you want me to go in with you?" Leah asked, watching him. Rhys finished his coffee and took a long drag off his cigarette, exhaling the smoke slowly as he opened the door. He got out without response, rolling his eyes to himself when Leah followed. He dropped his cigarette butt, crushing it with the heel of his boot as he walked inside and to the front desk.

"I need an STI screening, please," he told the nurse at the desk behind the glass. She nodded, took his legal name and date of birth, then handed him the standard intake sheets to fill out. He took a seat in the waiting room, crossed one leg over the other, and began on the paperwork as Leah took a seat beside him.

Rhys frowned at some of the questions. When his last period was an expected one - one he had to think about, as it had been a while, and his periods had been irregular since he started having them - but the question about how many sexual partners he'd had in his life time made him sigh. He finished the paperwork and returned it to the front desk.

The door to the right of the desk opened a few minutes later as a nurse stepped out and called, "Rhys?"

Rhys got to his feet and followed the nurse to the exam room. It was a pretty straightforward procedure.

"We can give you the results from the blood test in about an hour and then we can call you with the results from the urine test," the nurse said, taking the specimen cup from Rhys as he left the bathroom. Rhys nodded, returning to the exam room where he would have his blood drawn.

He and Leah went to grab food and returned to the clinic roughly an hour later for Rhys to get his results. He was led back to the same exam room with the same nurse.

"Good news is your STI screenings came back negative," she said, peering at the paper through the thick lenses of her glasses. "But you tested positive for cocaine, which is concerning."

Rhys sighed, preparing himself for the talk about how using drugs was dangerous. Instead, something in the nurse's face shifted as she stared at him.

"Are you aware that you're pregnant?"

His heart skipped several beats as his brain processed what she had said. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Pregnant," the nurse repeated, not unkindly. "So I take it you didn't know?"

He just stared at her, mouth moving silently. He began to cry, tears spilling over his bottom eyelashes and streaking down his cheeks. The nurse gave him a look of pity, rubbing his back as he broke down into sobs.

"It's okay honey, it happens. There are options."

He sucked in a deep, raggedy breath and wiped his eyes, trying to pull himself together. There was indeed a way to fix this.