Lexi came over and hugged me. “You okay, Molly?”

“Just a stomach bug, guys. No biggie.” I walked to my bed and climbed in, already feeling better surrounded by all the comforts of home.

“I’ve left a message on Rome’s phone,” Ally informed.

“You didn’t have to do that. He’s at all-day practice anyway.”

“Then he’ll get it when he’s done.” She reached for a cool towel, laying it over my forehead, and all three of them piled on the bed with me.

“So what movie we gonna watch?” Lexi asked.

“I plan on sleeping,” I announced as I pressed my fingers to my throbbing temple, eyes closed.

“Well, we’re staying put in case you need us, so we’ll have to choose one for ourselves.” Cass began tearing through my DVD stash in the basket at the foot of my bed.

“Okay, thanks guys.” I propped myself up against the pillows, inhaling deeply, nausea fading.

Ally leaned on her elbow next to me, her Spanish eyes apprehensive. Bugger, I knew that look.

“What now?” I groaned.

“Shelly’s been talkin’ shit again.”

Had to be.

“What’s she saying now?”

“That she’s been spending all her free time with Rome’s momma and daddy and that she’s having Christmas with them… and with Rome… without you.”

“It’s bull. He hasn’t even spoken to any of them since their little messed-up intervention a few months ago. We’re gonna spend Christmas together, here, no family drama. Just us, in case he has to leave for the National Championship in California.”

Ally laid her hand over mine. “My parents wanted to know if you would like to come to our house in Birmingham?”

“Really?”

“Mm-hmm. Y’all should have family around at Christmas and they love Rome like a son and already feel like they know you from everything I’ve said. My daddy despises Rome’s folks and they want to show you that not every Prince in Bama is wacked.”

I swallowed the lump currently caught in my windpipe. “We’d love that, Ally, thank you. It’s been so long since I’ve had a real family Christmas.”

She beamed a big smile and clapped joyfully. “Awesome, I’ll let ‘em know right away.”

I pulled the quilt back and flicked my legs over the side to go to the bathroom.

“You feeling sick again, Molls?” Cass asked, bracing herself on the floor to jump and help me.

“Mmm? No, actually, I feel great. In fact, I’m starving, so hungry that I could eat a bloody horse!”

I turned to walk into the en suite when Cass shouted back, “If I didn’t know y’all better, I’d say you were pregnant! Puking one minute, hungry the next, that’s exactly what my sister was like.” The three of them giggled as Cass wolf-whistled at Tom Hardy’s bare-chested fighting scene in Warrior.

I stilled, intense panic seeping into the pit of my stomach, and I grabbed the bathroom doorframe for balance.

No. I couldn’t be.

I turned slowly, my hands shaking and reaching to cover my mouth. Lexi noticed my strange behaviour first and launched off the bed. She put her thin arms around me, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen with fear.

“What’s wrong, honey? You feelin’ faint? Sick?”

My eyes glossed over as I tried to think of my last period. It was the night of the game against Texas A&M. Romeo was pissed we couldn’t have celebratory sex, so we had to get inventive.

Cass and Ally perched on the end of the bed, eyes glued to me in apprehension.

“How many weeks ago was the game against Texas A&M?” I asked, panic lacing my voice.

They looked at me as though I’d thoroughly lost the plot.

“When was it?” I shrilled frantically.

Ally grabbed her iPhone and flicked open the calendar app. “Five weeks ago. It was five weeks ago,” she rushed out.

My legs collapsed and I slumped to the floor, my shins chaffing on the carpet. “Ohmigod!”

Cass, Lexi, and Ally gathered around me, eyes wide and darting confused glances to one another as I sat in the middle of them, having a complete meltdown.

“Molly, what’s happening? What’s wrong? You’re scaring us! Is this one of the anxiety episodes you said you can get?” I couldn’t speak from fear. “How do we help? Should I run and get Rome?”

I looked at Lexi, unseeing, and whispered, “I’m late.”

All three of my friends furrowed their brows and Cass asked, “Late for what, darlin’?”

“No, I’m late! My period is late!”

Silence filled the room and three mouths dropped open.

I jumped to my feet, unable to sit still. I couldn’t be pregnant. I was on the pill… which could fail… and I’d had non-stop sex for the last few months… Shit!

I began to pace. “I’m a week late, a week late! How have I not noticed? I should have come on days ago. I’ve been so stressed what with school, the project, and the football—shit! I’m never late. I’m like clockwork! I’ve never missed a pill. What if…?”

Last month.

I stopped breathing. “Last month, my period was practically non-existent. I thought it must have been due to stress, but what if… What if…?”

My hands fell to my stomach and I skimmed along the skin from side to side, stupidly thinking it would be bigger if I were with child. It wasn’t. It was still flat. But of course it would be. I’d only be a month, or maximum, a couple months along.

I looked to my friends, who were stone statues on the floor. “What if I’m pregnant?”

I released a loud sob and darted to my bed, lowering myself down, and stared out of my balcony doors at the blue sky, my brain trying to shut out everything, switching to emergency lockdown—my go-to move in times of extreme stress. But it wouldn’t switch off this time. I was pregnant, I just knew it. The girl with no family was going to be a mother… at twenty… with an equally, if not more, damaged guy… whose family hated her… and wanted her gone from his life…

Salty tears spilled onto my lilac bed sheets and I heard the bedroom door click shut. Lexi and Cass sat next to me and took each of my hands in one of theirs.

“Ally’s gone to buy a pregnancy test. She’ll be back in ten minutes,” Lexi soothed.