Hazel wanted to smack her. She also wanted to throw up, cry, and maybe eat Natalie’s hand. She leaned forward, intending to push the burger away… and took a huge bite.
Natalie stopped laughing as Hazel grabbed the burger from her and chewed guiltily.
“Whoa. I was just kidding. I didn’t want to push you to give up your values.”
“Shut up for once, Nat. You’re such a jerk about this.” Hazel put the burger down. “Is that cheese on there?”
“Um…”
“Crap.” Hazel shot up and darted for the bathroom.
It was almost ironic how she’d fought for the better part of two weeks not to throw up and had to force herself to do so now. It was either this, though, or being even sicker for the next few days, with a bonus rash. When she came out of the stall, Natalie was waiting there with a wet paper towel. Hazel glared at her as she wiped her mouth and went to the sink for some water.
“Hey, I didn’t make you eat it,” Natalie objected.
“You have all the empathy of a mollusk. Has anyone ever told you that?” Hazel leaned over the sink and groaned. Her new joy of the past two days had been cramping in her lower abdomen. She half-hoped it was her period showing up very late. She knew it wasn’t though.
“Are you actually sick? I didn’t think that thing about vegans getting sick if they ate meat was true.”
“Oh, it isn’t. I mean, it’s harder to digest at first, but we’re built to eat it, so your stomach enzymes bounce back pretty fast.” Hazel wanted to sit, but one look at the floor told her to just lean back against the wall. “It’s not the burger, Nat.”
“Do you have the flu or something?”
“No. I’m, um.” Hazel closed her eyes. “I think I’m pregnant.”
Hazel would’ve laughed if she didn’t feel like she wanted to die. Natalie’s eyes were bugging out so hard, like the idea of Miss Save the World getting herself knocked up was beyond human imagining.
“How?”
“The usual way,” Hazel drawled. “I think a condom must’ve broken. Or something. They say condoms are only effective ninety-eight percent of the time, so if you have sex a hundred times…”
That broke Natalie out of her shock. “Oh, stop it! You’d have a lethal UTI if you were having that much sex. And I would’ve seen the guy.”
“You wouldn’t. I never brought him to the apartment.”
Natalie put her hand on her hip and shook her head. “God, Haze, I think I’m proud of you.”
“You’re the worst.” Hazel headed for the door.
“No, wait. What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been able to let myself think about it yet. And I haven’t told him, although with all of his ‘let’s just enjoy this’ talk, I’m pretty sure what his reaction is going to be.” Hazel threw her hands in the air. “How did I let this happen? Why did I do this to myself? I’m supposed to know better than this!”
Natalie rolled her eyes. “Look, I know you know better. The whole campus knows you know better. You’re smart, but you’re not a robot. You’re allowed to have feelings.”
“I wish I could manage to have feelings for a guy who could want a future with me.” Hazel felt tears stinging her eyes and moved her hand to cover her face.
Natalie took her hands. “Haze, you are not the only girl on the planet with daddy issues, okay? There are lots of girls, and guys, who are attracted to people who can’t love them back. But if you haven’t talked to him, if you haven’t really tried, then how do you know what he’ll say? Some guys are different when it comes to children.”
“So, what, trap him into a relationship with me because I can’t take hormonal birth control as a backup? That’s also not the kind of woman I want to be.”
“Stop being mean to yourself. That’s your mother’s job.”
Hazel couldn’t help it. She laughed.
“Okay,” Natalie continued. “How about we go out there, order something you can eat, and you let yourself off the hook if you need a protein boost via some meat? You look like you could use it, and one burger in the face of a lifetime of veganism isn’t going to send you to hell.”
“Alright,” Hazel said weakly.
“Then, when your blood sugar is stable, we can decide what to do with Mr. Commitment Problems.”
Hazel nodded and returned to the table with her. “It’s a little more complicated than that though. It isn’t that he just doesn’t want to commit, it’s that if he does, we could both get into trouble.”