The small tube was lying. This is no time for 'congratulations' as the hot pink packaging of the irritating pregnancy test was telling Charlie.

The three tests are laid out in front of Charlie on the counter.

This must be how a criminal feels when they sit in front of a jury screaming 'guilty'. Charlie thinks to herself.

Charlie runs her short fingers through her hair, grabbing at the ends and tugging in stress.

"Charlie? Are you okay?" Charlie hears a voice outside of the bathroom door.

"I'm fine!" She yelled. "Just ... just give me a second."

She paces back and forth, glaring at the pregnancy tests with pure hatred in her eyes. She stops and hesitantly lifts up her shirt and runs her hand across her stomach. Her hand circled the slight bump she thought was due to her eating too many cheeseburgers.

She breathes in deeply and strokes the small hill with her thumb as she slowly let the breath out.

A tear falls down her face as her breathing becomes more frantic and her hands return to pulling her hair. She sinks to the floor and more and more tears fell down her face at an increasing pace.

She doesn't hear when Evan and Fiona opened the door. She doesn't feel Fiona's arms wrap around her.

She could only stare at her stomach.

Minutes later Charlie found herself sitting on the couch, snuggled between Evan and Fiona, wrapped in a thick blanket with a mug of tea in her hands.

Fiona reaches over and grabs Charlie's hand. "No matter what happens, we love you and we will always be here for you. You are not going to be alone. Not ever again."

Charlie nods and sniffs. Evan hands her another tissue which she adds to the mountainous pile on the coffee table in front of them after drenching it in her snot.

Fiona squeezes her shoulder and Charlie responds by leaning her head against the pink-haired girl.

Evan breaks the deafening silence. "Do you have any idea what bastard did this?"

"Evan, stop!" Fiona snaps.

"No. It's okay." Charlie says to Fiona then looks at the floor while talking to Evan. "I know who it is and it was a mistake."

Before he could reply, Charlie gets up from the couch and wipes the snot from her nose. "I-I just need a second to myself."

Fiona and Evan silently nod and let her slip away to her claustrophobic-worthy room.

Charlie snatches up her worn earbuds and quickly stuffs them in her ears.

For the first time, the music doesn't drown out all her problems.

~|/|~

Charlie's mind is full. What was unsaid is overfilling her brain.

She gathers her stuff into her book bag in her room and gains a sad look from Fiona through their adjoined bathroom door.

Evan stops her at the door with a brown paper bag. "You are not skipping breakfast this morning."

She hesitantly takes the bag from him.

"It's from that bakery place you love down the street. I grabbed it while I was on my run this morning."

Charlie smiles. "Thank you, Evan."

Before she could step outside, Evan says, "Do you wanna talk about ... you know..."

Charlie shakes her head and pushes past him.

She is glad that today she only had one class, Music Theory.

As she rides the bus she tries to submerge herself into the music playing loudly in her ears but she found herself being resurfaced with every thump of a faint heartbeat that wasn't hers.

She sits in her regular seat at the front of the class as if her world were not covered in piss.

"Alright assholes, I was out late as the eighth layer of hell last night and I woke up with a tall drink of holy-fuck in my bed who I had to leave for you sorry pricks, so please shut up and listen to the lesson that your parents are probably paying for."

Needless to say, the entrance of Mr. Anders is as usual. He walks in the room with his usual outfit of suspenders and his Taco Tuesday tie despite it being Thursday.

His lesson commences and Charlie's attention faded in and out like a pendulum of reality.

When the words "class dismissed" rings out across the classroom, everyone but the highly distracted Charlie collects their books and leave.

Mr. Anders walks over to Charlie as she slowly gets her things together. "Charlie, what's wrong?"

Charlie gives a simple shrug and stuffs another book into her bag.

"Something's wrong. You weren't writing every single word I said down like you usually do. You hardly touched your paper. Plus I heard your stomach growling from my podium." He raises an eyebrow and leans in closer. "So honey, what's wrong?"

Overwhelmed with emotions, Charlie stops packing up and places a hand on her stomach as she feels her cheeks damped with tears.

Mr. Anders looks down at her slightly raised belly and then back up to her face with wide eyes. "Oh, honey." He pulls her into a deep hug. "How about we go get some food?"

Charlie's stomach answers with a ferocious growl and Mr. Anders laughs.

"Don't you have a hot date back home?" Charlie asks.

Mr. Anders pulls out of the hug. "He and his ridiculously nice ass can wait."

Charlie grimaces as Mr. Anders looks into the distance with a goofy smile.

At the nearby cafe, they sit together as they sip on coffee.

"Charlie, I hate to be blunt, but I have to be. What is your plan?" Mr. Anders says and pulled a flask out of his pocket.

"I don't know," Charlie says. "I hardly have enough money to support myself right now. I don't know what I'm going to do."

Mr. Anders dumps an overwhelming amount of liquor into his coffee. "Don't worry about money. I can help you with that."

"Mr. Anders, I could never-"

"Hush up." He says and takes a swig of the alcoholic coffee. "You're my favorite student."

"You're not supposed to have a favorite."

"Too bad." Mr. Anders reaches over and grabs Charlie's hand. "Sweetie, you are not alone. We will get through this."

Charlie smiles and nods.

When she gets home she sinks onto her bed and rubs her gut.

"We're gonna be fine. We're gonna be just fine."