Someone nudged Chloe. She whined and turned to the other side. Someone nudged her again and she swatted their hand away.

"Chloe, baby?" Axel's voice fell on her ears.

Chloe smiled in her sleep. "Axel" she whispered sleepily.

"Did you eat anything?" He asked

She fluttered open her eyes and saw Axel kneeled beside the bed watching her with adoration in his eyes.

She slowly shook her head. "No..."

He sighed. "I knew that. Come on, I brought us food"

"I want to sleep" she murmured.

"You need to eat too"

"Axel, it's two in the morning"

"Chloe, get up before I make you" he threatened. "I'll bring the food here"

Chloe groaned and sat up, she waited for him. He came back holding a tray. "I bought Chinese takeout."

They sat on their bed silently and ate their meal. Not saying a word to one another, not addressing what had happened earlier. After they were done, Axel took the dishes to the kitchen. He came back and saw Chloe sliding under the duvet again.

"Um... I'm gonna take a shower" he told her and she nodded before laying back.

He showered and changed into his nightwear. He slid under the duvet and held Chloe close to her. "Chloe" he whispered

"Hm?" She asked

"I'm sorry"

"For what?"

"I lashed out on you earlier..." He trailed off

"It's okay..."

"You are not mad at me, are you?"

"No..."

"I love you"

"I love you too"

-ˋˏ ༻𐀔༺ ˎˊ-

The next morning, Chloe's stomach hurt. She felt like vomiting but it never came. She held her head in her hands and slumped her face over the kitchen counter.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Axel came strolling into the kitchen.

"My stomach hurts" she groaned

"Yeah, mine too" he replied.

"Maybe it was the food we ate last night" she grumbled

"Why don't you go to a doctor, hm?"

"Yeah" she squirmed with pain. "Why don't we go together?"

"I can't" he shook his head. "I have to be at work in about fifteen minutes"

"What? Why? It's five-thirty in the morning!" She asked bewildered.

His expression dulled. "I have to go to work early for a week. Chloe, I messed up so badly in the past two weeks, now, Jayden wants me to work on some old cars so that I'd know my job a little better and he wants me to work overtime"

She suddenly remembered what had happened with Kyle last night. Axel already looked tensed, she didn't want to trouble him anymore. So, she decided against telling him.

She nodded and plastered a fake smiled on her face. "You'll get the hang of it. You are trying so hard and I'm so proud of you" she told him honestly.

"Thanks..." He cupped her face. "Your love keeps me going"

"Ugh!" She bent over clutching her stomach.

"You okay?"

"It hurts so bad" she almost cried.

"Come on, I'll take you to the doctor"

Axel called a taxi and took her to a hospital. The whole ride he kept her close to him. She was his strength, whenever she was near him all the doubts and miseries seemed so far away. The car came to a halt.

Chloe stepped out and turned. "You are already late for work. I'll go to the doctor alone. Don't worry about me. Go!" She told him.

Axel stared at his watch and glanced back at Chloe. "Are you sure?" He asked

"Yes... Now go!" She smiled

"Ok, call me when you are done and do tell me what the doctor said, okay? I love you" he pecked her lips.

"Okay, bye" she waved as the car drove away.

She walked into the hospital and exhaled, releasing some of the tension that had built up in her shoulders. She went to a small public hospital as they charge less. She paid the fee at the reception and they gave her a card with a number. She went to the waiting room and waited till they called out her number. She walked in and sat on the chair.

"Chloe Jones?" The doctor read from the form she filled earlier.

"Yes..."

"You are seventeen?"

"Mhm..."

"What seems to be the problem?"

"It's my stomach, I feel like vomiting and the pain is too severe for me to do anything" she explained clutching her stomach.

"Did you eat something that might have incited this"

"Um... I ate Chinese takeout last night and then slept afterward"

"Okay," the doctor nodded and wrote something on the paper before.

"What is it?" Chloe asked

"Food poisoning, it's completely harmless. You'll be fine in an hour or two."

Chloe played with her fingers. "There also this dull ache in my ovaries like period cramps... And I'm also late."

"How much late?" The doctor asked

"Um... Like a week or two?"

"Can you give me an exact number?"

She nodded. "Yes, I'm sixteen days late"

"Okay, and are you sexually active?" She asked

"What?" Chloe asked stunned

"You don't have to be ashamed in front of me, I'm your doctor"

"I mean, it's just been a month" she shrugged

"Are one of your parents here with you?"

Chloe shook her head. "No... I don't have parents, I'm an orphan" she lied

"Oh, do you have a guardian?"

"No, I live with my boyfriend"

"And how old is he?" The doctor straightened up.

"Seventeen"

"So, you both live alone?"

"Yes..."

"I need you to urinate in this cup, please" the doctor handed her a cup.

"Why?" She asked

"I'm gonna check if you are pregnant"

Chloe's face whitened. "I can't be pregnant"

"Do your boyfriend use protection?"

"No..."

"Are you on birth control?"

"It's just been a month... It's not like I can get pregnant that fast"

"Why don't you urinate in this cup first then we'll figure it out."

Chloe was ignorantly trying to dismiss the fact that she might be pregnant. They had been having so much unprotected sex in the last month. It always just happened and it felt like they completely lost all the other senses while they were intimate.

"I don't feel like peeing" Chloe answered

The doctor pinched the bridge of her nose. "Chloe, drink some water and urinate in this cup, please or else I can't treat you"

With a shaking body, Chloe went to the restroom stall and urinated in the cup as the doctor told her to. She came back and told the nurse. She waited for a few seconds before the doctor called her again. She went inside and the nurse dipped something into the cup. It came our pink.

"Pink means pregnant" the nurse announced.

"No, you're wrong" she shook her head ignorantly and turned to walk out of the clinic. She completely forgot about her stomach pain. She could hear the nurse calling her but she ran straight out of the hospital's building.

Beads of sweat rolling down her temples as she thought about it. Her heart pounded against her ribs as if trying to fulfill a thousand beats. Her stomach seemed to rose to her throat.

She went inside a local drug store and picked up five to six pregnancy sticks. Her hands shaking so hard she could barely see them. She paid for them and ran all the way to their apartment. She fumbled with the keys and tried to stick them into the keyhole. She missed several times because of her trembling hands. The keys fell to the floor and she again picked them up. This time she succeeded in opening the door. She waltzed in and locked the door.

She ran to the kitchen and drank a whole bottle of water. She peed on the first stick and waited for the result.

She shook her head. "No! No, no, no!"

She drank water again and again until she felt sick. She peed on all of the sticks one by one and all of them gave the same result.

A big black

She didn't know when she started to hyperventilate. Her breathing was uneven, she took long deep breaths. Her fists clenched so hard that she drew blood from her palms. Tears stained her face.

Moans escaped her lips through the suppressed sound of hiccups.

"Please no!" She looked towards the ceiling with tear-filled eyes. "Why me? Why do you hate me so much?!" She cried

She wasn't ready to be a mother. She just got out of mothering her father. She was finally happy and now she was pregnant. A child was a huge responsibility. She wasn't ready, Axel wasn't ready.

Axel...

How will she tell him?

He has been so stressed out lately. He'd get more stressed out. It was both of their mistakes, she wasn't alone in this but she couldn't do that to him, so, she decided to get rid of it before she could even tell Axel.

Picking up her cellphone, she walked out of the apartment. She practically sprinted down the stairs. She searched for an abortion center but then she stopped. She is just three to four weeks pregnant. She could easily eliminate it with medicine, right? Her thought tortured her even more. She mindlessly followed the path on the map.

After almost an hour, she reached her destination. Upon arriving, she couldn't bring herself to walk in. She put a trembling hand on her flat stomach.

It was her child.

It may be a burden right now but still...

"Hey" a voice startled her.

Chloe breathed heavily and swallowed. "Hi..."

"Why are you here?" She asked

"N-no reason..."

The girl looked between the center and Chloe. "Are you pregnant?"

"Yes..." A pathetic little cry escaped Chloe.

"And are you here to abort it?"

"Not abort it like... Surgically... It's only been a month, so, it's not a baby yet... It can be ended with medicine or something..." She explained in a shaky voice.

The girl laughed weirdly. "Do you know your baby has folds at the sides of his head that will form into ears soon? It has a head and a body and tiny buds at the sides that will eventually grow into arms and legs. Most importantly, it has a heartbeat. One month, two months, or three, it's still a life. It's still your child." She said

"It doesn't have a heartbeat," Chloe said in a small voice.

The girl placed a hand on her stomach. "It does, I can feel it. It is also a mortal sin."

"I'm not religious..."

"But that doesn't change the truth" she stepped forwards and Chloe stepped back. "Our Lord Jesus Christ blessed you with this child for a reason. Don't do this... In the future when you will have children, you always feel guilty that you killed this one. Whenever you'd look in your children's eyes you'll remember how you shut this one's eye before they were even opened. You don't want to murder your child."

Tears rained down Chloe's face. In her innocent seventeen-year-old mind, she believed everything the woman said. "I can't have a child right now..."

"Then give it up for adoption after it's born but don't kill it. You won't ever forgive yourself like I never did" she said solemnly.

Chloe's eyes widened. She couldn't listen anymore. The guilt of almost murdering her child hit her like a truck. She walked back in a hurry leaving that the woman there.

The woman smiled and intertwined her hands. "I have devoted my life to save people from committing this mortal sin, my lord. As a reward, please bless me with a child" she prayed and pulled out her rosary. She sat in the corner waiting for the more distraught girl to brainwash.