Chapter 8

  The next day, Anna woke up feeling feverish. Her head was pounding and her mouth felt like sandpaper. She felt very nauseous and lightheaded, and not to mention dizzy.

     Something was definitely wrong with her. She dreaded pills and hospitals but it looked like she didn't have a choice because immediately Nicole saw her; she got her car keys and drove her straight to the hospital.

   At this point she could barely even keep her eyes open, her vision kept swimming, and she wanted to throw up, assuming there was something in her stomach.

   When they got to the hospital, the nurse took one look at her and rushed to assist Nicole in taking her to the consultation room to see a doctor. The doctor asked the normal questions, as they took her blood sample.

    To Nicole's absolute horror, her friend passed out after they collected her blood sample, she couldn't help but panic as the nurses set up an iv infusion for her friend. Horrible memories threatened to resurface.

   Visibly shaken, she was assured that her friend would be okay as they escorted her to the waiting room. Time seemed to have slowed down, and she felt physically and emotionally drained. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of hospital disinfectant as she contemplated the sudden illness that seemed to have plagued her friend

    Suddenly feeling alone, she called Bianca for moral support and it didn't take long for their new friend to arrive, ready to comfort and support her new family. She too wondered what was wrong with Anna.

   Thirty minutes later, a nurse came to escort them to Anna's room and as they got there they couldn't help but be worried about the ashen look on Anna's face.

    Assuming the worst, Nicole almost burst into tears at her friend's pale form.

    "Doctor, is she going to live?"

     The doctor looked at her in amusement. "She is."

     Confusion settled on Nicole and Bianca at the doctor's amusement. Here they were fearing for their friend and the doctor was laughing.

    On closer inspection, it was shock written on Anna's face and not fear or anything melodramatic. Before Nicole could comment on that, the doctor beat her to it.

   "Presumably, pregnancy is not a death sentence so your friend is not dying soon," she corrected herself, "that is if she takes the correct precautions and eats like she's supposed to," and with that, the good doctor left them alone.

    The tension in the room was so thick Anna could barely breathe in it. She was still in a state of shock and denial. She couldn't be pregnant, Alex was always careful, maybe it was all a dream. It all made sense now, she was asleep and if she could just wake up from this nightmarish dream all would be well.

    Bianca had yet to say anything, but Nicole was almost on a roll.

   "You're pregnant, I can't believe it. I'm an aunt, oh my God this is all too much to take in at once." She mumbled.

  Anna was roughly pinching herself. "This is all a dream, I just need to wake up."

     It was as if the two girls were running out of their minds, with Nicole almost hyperventilating and Anna mumbling and pinching herself. It almost was comical if not for the fact that there was a serious matter at hand.

    Bianca, being the only level-headed one at that moment, gently cajoled Anna into not pinching herself to death and brought Nicole back from the point of hyperventilating.

   "Breath in, yes just like that and slowly breathe out, breathe in, out just like that". With the way, Nicole was behaving one would assume that she was the one pregnant.

    It seemed like Anna was slowly accepting the fact that this was, in fact, not a dream but reality.

    "I'm pregnant." She just had to say it out. This was certainly not a dream.

     "Did you experience any symptoms like nausea, food craving, and the likes?"

    "No, I don't know, maybe?" Her thoughts were jumbled, but something's were becoming clearer to her.

    "Nicole said you were feeling feverish, and you fainted, are you okay or is something else wrong?" Bianca was concerned.

      "I'm fine, I think? The doctor said I passed out because of low blood pressure, which now makes sense now because I barely ate yesterday." Things were certainly getting clearer.

     Bianca looked at her in a certain way. She looked almost as if she had experienced this. Maybe she had a child? But she definitely mentioned nothing about having children to them. Anna wanted to comment on it, but she resisted.

      As if she was talking to a child, Bianca held her hand. "We need to change that Anna. You aren't eating for one anymore, and regardless if you eat or not your baby would still feed from you and we can't have you passing out on us like this, right Nicole?"

   Nicole still looked stunned. "I'm an aunt."

    Anna almost gave in to the temptation to laugh at her friend's bewildered tone, but this wasn't a laughing matter. It was a life-changing one.

   The doctor entered the room when she was satisfied the girls would have come around the news. She brought Anna's prescription and with stern instruction of what to eat and whatnot; she gave Anna a clean bill of health and advised her to eat frequently, especially more fruit, and to visit her gynecologist as a precaution.

   The only thing on Anna's mind as they drove in silence was that she was having a baby, Alex's baby.

  Her life had spun a complete 360 degrees just in a span of two hours. She didn't know what to think about it but one thing she was sure of, was that she was keeping the baby, even if the father wouldn't be involved. It was her baby, nothing else mattered to her at that moment, she was having a child and she was two months into the pregnancy.