Lulu?

Lucille looked at the little stick incredulously. She shook it, just to make sure.

“Luce? What's the verdict? Prego or Chi-Chi's?” Marianne sang teasingly through the door.

“Hold on,” Lu said, her voice shaky. “This first one is broken. I'm going to do it again. Go get some Wendy's, okay?”

“Okay...” Marianne said, sounding less sing-songy than before.

Lucille picked up her half-empty bottle of water and finished it off, then filled it up in the sink and downed three-quarters of that. Then, she sat back on the toilet and waited, sipping on the remaining water. The discarded pregnancy test glared a happy pink back at her from the garbage can. She covered it up with a wad of toilet paper.

In a few minutes, she had another positive pregnancy test in her hands. The pink plus sign quivered with her shaking hands.

“I got you a fish sandwich,” Marianne said from outside the door. “What's the result?”

There was silence from inside the bathroom. Lu was staring at the test, unbelieving.

“Luce? Lu?”

The doorknob jiggled, but it was locked. Lu dug her cell phone out of her pocket and called the first number that came to mind when she was upset.

“Hey, beautiful,” Chanie's rich voice said, caressing her ears and soothing her racing heart.

“Hi,” she squeaked, barely holding back tears.

“Lu! Let me in!” Marianne shouted, banging on the door.

“What's wrong?” he asked, instantly alert. “Is that Marianne?”

“I'm pregnant,” she choked.

Marianne swore on the other side of the door.

“Lu, let me in,” she said.

“Chanie?” Lu whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Lu! Unlock the door!”

“Chanie?” she repeated, barely audible. “Talk to me. Tell me it's going to be okay.”

She hear a muttered curse from his end. She burst into tears.

“No, no, baby, not you,” Chanie said, his words tripping over each other. “I just can't believe – it has to be that one time. It's the only time we didn't have a condom...”

“What am I going to do?” she asked, still crying.

“You have to get an abortion,” he said, like there was no other option.

“That's easy for you to say!” she yelled, her arms crossed over her stomach.

“Lu! You don't want a baby!”

“Well, no, but that doesn't mean I can kill him!”

“'It', not 'him',” Chanie said calmly, reasonably. “It's not even a month old. It's just a clump of nothing.”

“That's going to be a baby.” Lu went back to whispering.

“Going to be. Not now.”

“But you don't understand...”

“You don't understand. Right now you're hormonal. You can't think clearly.”

“Okay, if I promise to think about it reasonably, will you consider keeping h—it?”

She held her breath, listening for any sounds from him. She didn't know what had gotten into her – she didn't want a baby, didn't have time for a baby, but now that she was pregnant...

“Chanie?”

“Maybe. Call me when you get up tomorrow.”

His voice gave no ground, relaxed nothing, but Lu felt a twinge of hope anyway.

“Okay, I'll talk to you then,” she said.

“Alright. I ... love you, Lu,” he said.

“I love you too,” she replied, and hung up the phone.

Inspiration: Seraph's writing prompt for PH and I.