da's

vealing the sparkling gloo

my jolt back to life?" I said, biting m

every part of my body screamed his name -

that our worlds would never fit?" I wh

e sheet, careful not to wake him

tifacts placed at different corners while grab

back at my handsome stranger to be a forgetting memory. "It's just a fucking one-night stand,

my eyes embraced him for the l

-

ed down by the hopelessness of

fucking hate my life!" I screamed at the top of my lungs,

hat I have foreseen without a job," whi

call for help to save me. "But who the fuck do I

number, when a particular name caught my atten

fie. She was the only one who

held me dear to her heart, but after I refused to quit th

hispered, my fingers halti

ofie." (My voice

a first," she said, her sas

"Are you

"Yeah. What's goi

He slept

ea

"...Wai

"Brad, m

"No.

lat): "My

bulb kept

in and I saw them. She looked rig

Jesus Ch

ring. My whole goddamn life. He fucking

ere are you? I'l

da:

at do you

thing. I can't run or break from this b

ne tighter, nails di

bove a whisper):

ou don't owe

I do. They don't let g

'll hide you. I'll fi

: "I used to think I was fre

): "Please don't

then, before Brad, before the Madame's

head against the soft pillow, allo

-

shake. I'd sit by the window every morning, hoping the world outside might whisper an answer to my confused, collapsing reality

there was

o make me pause. I rubbed my belly absentmindedly, uns

don't try." I muttered under m

ly made it to the sink, slapping a hand over my mouth just in time. The fl

d, gripping the edge of the sink like it

omach into the porcelain basin, my fingers shaking. When it was

just some passing sickness. I couldn't return to that place-not like th

mmered my skin. It shocked the sickness out of my pores, at least fo

ched for a towel. I didn't bother with makeup or anything fancy. My fingers brushed

t in the right places, dark enough

pped

like

matched the th

-

chest, while the hospital ward was too bright, too clean-ever

s between the squares with the smell of antiseptic in the hospital

hope. "God, I can't believe I'm here for a pregnancy test after a stupid ni

ed up. Every passing second stretched like elastic.

oom with a file clutched in her hand. Her face wore a careful expre

hed for the envelope. My mind was racing, conjuring a thousand outcomes-but deep down, some foolish part o

etween my fingers as

iti

My knees buckled, and I collapsed onto the cold tile floor,

? I wanted to scream at myself. After eve

he weight of that single night crashing down like an ava

n-h

so

ame moving toward me from the end of the corridor. Our eyes locked, a

suddenly I was on my feet, storming

at night, aren't you?" his brow

flared w

The sound cracked in

he composed himself. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he snapped,

t you dare act like you have the right to be angry

stunned in

d the paper cle

sked, suspicion cre

I snapped, holding it o

took it. His eyes

mbled, looking up at me lik

ave to. The silence filled

ning, his hand wr

me," he said. His vo

ses and patients whose stares burned into my back. I stumbled to k

sked breathlessly - my he

dn't

ip tig

if I was being rescued-or dr