That weekend though was rough on all of us as Adam ended up getting arrested. Alice came home the same day after work with news that shook the house; she was pregnant. We had to break the news to her that Adam had been arrested and she just collapsed to her knees in absolute distress. I tried to make things better by telling her that we could postpone the wedding, but that just upset her more. The week went by quietly with no news from Adam, but Thursday afternoon we loaded onto a plane to head to Vegas. Alice, although sad, had a glint of happiness in her eyes as we landed in Vegas lights bright. We found our way through the airport and hailed a taxi to the main stretch.

We went to a small casino and bar for the bachelorette party and enjoyed a couple hours of gambling before she presented me with my wedding present which was a beautiful veil that was my mom’s she’d been holding onto. When we were moving out of my apartment she had found it and tucked it away hoping that she would surprise me when I finally got married. After a little bit we decided to head back to the hotel where Alice made a trip to the mini bar. She handed me a bunch of the nips and told me she would pay for it and to have fun. I felt a little weird where she couldn’t drink, but she seemed not to mind as she egged me on. After a few I decided very quickly to go to bed, but still woke up with a headache the next day.

We drove to the chapel on the edge of town and I struggled to get into the $10 wedding I had found a few weeks back. It was an amazing dress, but I think the depression had gotten the best of me. We’d chopped the train off and now the dress was only knee length and the veil added a more formal look to it. I crawled out the limo and walked in to find Jesse in his Sunday best waiting for me without AJ who couldn’t come. I walked up the aisle and took his hand hoping the ceremony would be quick while I tried to fight through my headache. Even still I enjoyed every second of it and traded rings just waiting for the kiss. He kissed me on cue and we ran out the door for the flight we had to catch in the next two hours laughing and kissing stumbling into the limo with Alice behind us.

“Can someone open the door for me?!” Alice screamed. “Hello?” 

“It’s unlocked.” I said. “Just come in, it’s your house too.” 

“I didn’t know. How are you?” 

“Eh, and you?” 

“Better than I was. I guess Adam’s still on waiting on some news.”

“I don’t know yet. I’m supposed to meet AJ. He never showed at the wedding. I think this is the best time to get to know him. I have a month anyway, until I get to go to school. Are you coming back this year?”

“Yep, I am all ready for the year of a lifetime. Are you ready to be in college?” Alice came into my room, but I heard the front door open and shut behind her.

“I don’t really…”

I looked out the bedroom door to see Jesse kissing another girl and having only been married for 2 weeks made it even more distressing. I was pissed beyond belief and walked out to see the girl was Kaila; Adam’s ex. I slapped Jesse across the face and grabbed my car keys charging out the front door. I drove around for a minute before deciding to go somewhere I knew I would regret, but couldn’t think straight enough to go elsewhere. I hadn’t seen Henry for six months, but I felt comfortable in his arms as I told him the event of the last few months breaking down repeatedly. He held me there before he brought me to his bedroom tucking me into his bed and turning on the TV for me

I woke up the next morning in an absolute panic realizing that I was supposed to be with Alice for an appointment that day. I unwrapped Henry’s arm and got up to use the restroom. We hadn’t had sex the night before as I couldn’t live with making that decision. He had left me to my own devices, but after listening to me sob for hours he came in to comfort me. I thanked him one more time and took the highway back as fast as I could. I was crying as I pulled into the driveway until Alice came out and made sure I was okay. We walked in and Jesse was sitting on the couch, no Kaila by his side, but the reek of beer poured from his skin.

“You should probably get a beer and settle on the loveseat.” Alice looked at me. 

“Will you please come to the bedroom with me?”

“Of course.”

I shut the door. “Did you talk to Jesse while I was gone?” 

“It was kind of hard when he was so fucking high he thought I was his mom. Someone gave him some LSD. I’m a little worried because once the LSD wore off, and he saw what he did he hit the bottle. I don’t want him to kill himself. He wanted to explain this to you, but I said it would be better with the fact you’d probably be mad” 

“Did he sleep with the cunt?” 

“I stopped him, and about an hour later the shit wore off.” 

“Why the fuck did he even take the LSD?”

“I think someone may have actually slipped it to him.” 

“Let’s just hope that that’s what happened.” 

We walked out into the living room to find that Jesse wasn’t there, so I took my car out at about 50 to catch him. I hit his sight after about three minutes, and pushed him off to the side laughing to myself that this would be the drama when I married my former science teacher. I took a deep breath and pushed myself to walk over to the car and see him. He had tears streaming down his face, but I didn’t want him to be sad; I wanted him to come back and hang out with me. He rolled down his window for little before we decided to find a place to leave his car, so I could drive him home. We spent the afternoon curled up on the couch talking about everything and trying to fight past this patch we had hit.

A few weeks later when college started things were a little hectic, but everything in my life was in order. Jesse and I had put everything that happened that night behind us and I had finally met AJ which had helped Jesse feel a little better. Adam was still away, but I was hoping things would clear soon so Alice would be okay. I let all of the drama go though as I stood next to Alice in front of Plymouth State University waiting to go to my first class with Professor O’Nald aka AJ. He had agreed to take me on and I was hoping it would keep me at ease over the semester. By the end of the day though no one was going to keep me at ease with the sudden load of stress on my shoulders.

“How was your first day at school?” Jesse kissed me when I walked in.

“Horrible. I threw up on a teacher because his room smelled like farts, and rotten eggs. I later found out he had no sense of smell, and a student set a stink bomb off in his class.” I collapsed on the couch next to him.

“Don’t worry I got kicked out of a class on the first day, for letting one rip. Teacher obviously did not have the same type of humor.” 

“Whatever. I really don’t care what room you will never hear me fart. I only fart in the shower.” 

“And, when you’re getting a midnight snack, when you think no one’s listening, in your sleep, once during very romantic sex, and you ripped quite a few when you stayed after for my class…” 

“Shut the fuck up. Everyone passes gas. Jesus have you heard Alice lately?” 

“She’s pregnant, so what’s your excuse?” 

“I’m a tomboy. Plus you never know. It has been a while since we’ve checked.” 

“About a month and a half ago, so you should take a test. If you aren’t we will have to try harder.” 

I kissed Jesse goodnight and headed for bed. It was already nine and I had to get up at 3:30 to bring Alice to Connecticut before seven. I drove like a maniac so I knew without a doubt we were going to make it. I woke up the next morning on time for once and we headed off for Connecticut. I laughed lightly, as we drove down and she tried to stay awake. At seven exactly we arrived at her cousin’s, let her out, and started north. I stopped in a town in Massachusetts, and grabbed about ten pregnancy tests because you never know what each one’s going to say. I then headed up to Plymouth, and went to my dorm. With my tests at hand I went into the bathroom, and my new friends Ashley and Mary stood there waiting for me to say one of them came out positive.

“I’m going to wait for every test to be done, and then I’m going to go through and check them all at once. What do you think?” 

“I think it would be awesome if you took one when you got up, and when you went to bed, every day for five days.” Mary smiled.

“Too long.” Ashley laughed. “You know nothing virgin Mary. When you get laid I will be there to hear your opinion on this one, one more time. Having sex completely changes your point of view.” 

“Oh, shut up. I have my first college party this Friday. I bet you twenty bucks that I will it lose then.”

         “Cool with me.” Ashley left to head to her boyfriend’s party.

At this point I was already in the stall and had passed three tests to Alice who had shown up a minute earlier. I had seven more to go when the evening rush came in and Alice hid herself in the shower stall to hide from wandering eyes. As they all bustled out of the bathroom to head out to the parties I passed the next seven to her. I dumped the cup, threw it away, and joined the 2 girls on the wall across from the stall. We sat in complete until the alarm went off and we attempted to rush into the stall all at once. I managed to get into the stall first and examined each of the tests while the 2 girls shoved in behind me.

` “All results, but one give the same result.” I looked.

“I know that it’s probably a false negative especially where you used the same cup of urine, but it wouldn’t hurt to go see me Dr. She’ll still be open.” Alice dragged me out of the bathroom.

“Alright, but if the tests come back negative I’m taking a leave.” 

“Just tell them you’re down with the stomach flu. They hate it when you throw up on them.” 

“Ha ha. Very funny. Alright I will have to do this the right way.”  

We got in the Alice’s car and headed over to her doctor who was sitting at her desk drinking coffee. The doctor didn’t seem bothered by our arrival in fact she was actually excited to meet me, and quickly got everything I needed. Alice explained she talked about me a lot, and then booted me into the bathroom. I peed in a cup that doctor dipped a test in and while waiting on the results she did a blood test. The urine test came out positive and while I more than likely was still chose to send out the blood test. After I was done Mary, Alice, and I went to a pizzeria to get a nice large pepperoni pizza. We sat laughing about random stuff then headed back to the dorms. We walked into the room that we shared and all collapsed into our beds tired. 

We talked for a little while before stripping and heading to bed for the night. I climbed into my bunk, but could hear Alice writing so I covered my head with the blanket. My phone beeped, but I was mostly asleep, and too lazy to answer it. My computer beeped which interrupted my attempted sleep again, so I looked at my phone and computer to see messages from my dad. I was supposed to call him yesterday, but was busy and didn’t have a chance. I messaged him back and had a short text conversation, so that I could hopefully get some sleep before class. Jesse had also sent me a message, so I messaged him back telling him that I had big news Wednesday. I was going to leave the big news a surprise for him.

The next morning we woke up, and made a pot of coffee before bolting out the door. Alice and I headed to the same class while Mary headed off to another building for her major. I walked into AJ’s class only to find him in a very emotional conversation with a student. Alice looked at me and kept walking to her seat to give some privacy and I followed suit behind her. The summer semester had pretty much killed a girl and she wouldn’t get the credit, so she was trying to get into ours because the previous teacher was no longer there. AJ attempted to calm her, but she left after a bit.

“Alright. My first few days have been crazy and while I would like to move back home, but I stuck here for the long haul.” He looked at us, “So let’s start with the student who wants to summarize the first 2 chapters of our book.” 

“I will!” A student yelled. “The first two chapters were a well written description, based off of the periodic table, and chemical compounds. It did not cover our favorite things, but lab safety is quite important. Many of the listed…”  

As he dragged on with the almost word for word reading rather than summary I began to fall asleep. I stared out the window across the room and day dreamed about my favorite pastime as the student droned in the background. The feel of the reed along my bottom lip, and the soft metal beneath my fingers was amazing. I drew a picture of my clarinet on my notebook as the kid went on. I also missed my beautiful standup bass, and the piano that sat in the music room waiting to be played every day. I had taken a major interest with chemistry when I was freshman in high school and set my career path onto that interest, but I wondered if it was the right decision. When the teacher released us I had a free period of couple of hours, so I ran to the music hall.

I sat at the piano that sat in the large room that I wasn’t sure if I could use, but wanted to get the twitch in my fingers out. I let the sheet music stream through my head and my fingers tip toe across the keys. I was happy playing until a teacher walked and I went to get, but he told me to sit and play. He wanted to hear me play, so I settled back down and played Beethoven’s Fifth . I was very excited to be sitting in front of the piano being watched and admired for the first time in a few months. The teacher came over and joined me on the piano smiling widely enjoying the duet.

“Now with playing like that I do not understand why I haven’t seen you here.” He flashed me a smile. “I’m Professor Dafin.” 

“I’m a chemistry major, but play many instruments.” I smiled back.

“Instruments? Are you telling me you play more than one instrument this beautifully?” 

“I also play double bass and clarinet. You’d have to judge if I play the others this well.”

“I have a couple you could use. Would you mind playing for me?” 

“Sure. I would love to.” 

He passed me the instruments, and I put the clarinet together. I felt the wood of a new reed against my lips and smiled running through part of the “Rhapsody in Blue” I had learned from a private lesson. He left the room to go into a closet where he pulled out a bass and walked over handing it to me. As I began playing a piece that made him just stare I felt confident that I would impress him, but I was just happy to be able to play. I ended with an improvisation that I had written, and put the bass on the seat just in time for my alarm to go off. I left with him without a word about what had just happened and satisfaction on my shoulders.