Getting Pregnant In College

I was sitting on the doctor’s chair for nearly 20 minutes now. The nurse had taken in a sample of my urine for lab tests. I really was hoping for her to come in and tell me I was just being paranoid. I began staring at the clock in the room, keeping my eyes fixed on the seconds hand. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…

As the seconds grew into minutes, Dr. Hurley entered with a beaming smile and her nurse following behind.

“Congratulations, Fiona! You are pregnant!” she gushed.

The world toppled over me then. I feared I was pregnant ever since I missed my period this month and had vomited twice at school in the morning. I had been using protection with Rick, how could this have happened? I was still in college, my dad was going to kill me. With these thoughts, nausea washed over me.

I went home to talk to my mother, but found my dad’s car in the garage; he had come home early today, of all days. This talk would be very hard I knew. U entered the house with a heavy heart, and found Rick sitting between my parents watching “Brothers & Sisters” on TV.

My parents jumped up seeing me and began gushing how Rick and I had to take Pat, younger brother, to the mall for shopping. I followed Rick and Pat to the car and sat in the backseat. My head was pounding. I had to tell Rick when I got a chance alone with him.

But Rick spent an hour in the toy shop with Pat. The two ignored me and asked me to sit outside while they shopped around. At that moment, I swore never to love a man again.

We headed back home in the afternoon. As we approached our house, I did not notice the parked cars outside my house. Rick asked me to take the lead and open the main door. Puzzled and still stressed out, I did as he said. When I entered, I saw my parents and friends in the living room staring at me. They all exclaimed “Surprise!” together.

My birthday was till seven months away, so what was this all about, I wondered.

Rick hugged me from behind and whispered in my ear, “Your parents can’t wait to be grandparents.”

I truly was surprised. My mother took me by my hand into the living room, telling me Dr. Hurley was in her yoga class and she had told her about my pregnancy over the phone as soon as I had left her clinic. My mom was ecstatic and told my dad, who came home in a temper. But my mom had soothed him and called Rick. Everyone was happy and excited about this news! Hope and warmth entered my heart as I touched my belly where a person was growing within. I told him everything was going to be fine and he was going to be loved.