Saving Grace Read Online Free Page B

pulling on my underpants and jeans.
    â€œIt broke.”
    â€œWhat broke? What do you mean?”
    â€œThe condom. It broke.”
    â€œI thought they weren’t supposed to break.”
    â€œYeah, well this one did.” Justin hauled up his pants and fastened his belt.
    I counted back in my head. “It’s probably okay,” I said. “My period’s gonna start in about a week.”
    Justin was pulling his hand back through his hair the way he always did when something was bugging him. “Isn’t there some kind of pill you can get from the doctor?” he said. “That can keep you from getting pregnant?”
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. “Anyway, I can’t go to the doctor. The first thing he’ll dois call my dad.” I put my arms around Justin’s neck. “I’m sure it’ll be okay. I’m really, really regular. You’ll see.”
    And my period started right on time on the fourteenth, though it only lasted a couple of days. Justin and I were super careful after that, but the next month I missed my period altogether, and then a couple of weeks after I should have gotten it, I thought I had the flu. I got up and puked even before I’d washed my hair. It happened the next morning too. The third morning my dad said he was taking me to the clinic because I couldn’t keep missing school.
    The doctor was a woman. Dr. Marriot. She was filling in because Dr. Tracey was away. She had on a long floaty skirt and flat sandals with her white doctor coat, and she reminded me of Ms. Carrington, my art teacher. Except Ms. Carrington usually wore her sandals with socks. The doctor had blue polish on her toes and a silver toe ring.
    I sat up on the table in the examining room while she looked down my throat, felt my neck and listened to me breathe. I told her how I’d heaved, first thing, for the past three mornings. “Are you sexually active, Evie?” she asked.
    I wasn’t sure whether I should tell her. I didn’t want my dad to find out and get Justin into trouble. If it had been Dr. Tracey, I wouldn’t have said a word.
    â€œAnything you say to me stays in this room,” she said when I didn’t answer.
    I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and nodded. She gave me a little bottle and sent me into the bathroom to pee.
    â€œIt has to be a mistake,” I said when she told me I was pregnant. “Because we’ve been super, super careful. Okay, there was that one time last month, but— I mean, I got my period so how could I be pregnant?”
    â€œWas it a normal period?” she asked.
    â€œWell, it was kind of light and it only lasted a couple of days.”
    The doctor explained that what I’d thought was just a short period really hadn’t been one at all.
    â€œWould you like me to tell your father?” she said.
    I nodded. I could have puked right then, but there was nothing left in my stomach.
    Dad didn’t scream at me, which I’d known he wouldn’t do with someone else around, but his face got so red I thought for a second the top of his head would blow off. “How could you have been so goddamn stupid, Evie?” he said finally in a quiet voice. He kept squeezing his hands into fists and then letting go again.
    I didn’t say anything. What could I say?
    The doctor started talking about vitamins and nutrition and stuff like that. “What about an abortion?” my father interrupted.
    â€œIt’s an option,” Dr. Marriot said. “There’d have to be another doctor in agreement.”
    â€œNo,” I shouted. “I’m having my baby.”
    â€œYou’re just a kid yourself,” Dad said. “How the hell can you raise a baby? No. You’re not going to ruin your life over this.”
    â€œI don’t care,” I said. “If you try to make me have an abortion I’ll run away.” My hands were