My husband and I (yes we got married young, and yes we are in school) already knew I was a couple days late and we tossed around the idea of me actually being pregnant. I could tell he was a little concerned.
"Don't worry." I said. "This feels more like a period than any of my others." I was cramping, bloated, and just felt like I would start any minute. To ease our doubts, I playfully agreed to take a pregnancy test.
"That way, it will show up negative.." I said, as my husband finished the sentence, ".. and we can concentrate on the paper easier!"
Sure why not? I had to pee anyway. When I went into the bathroom, I got cold feet and ran back out of it.
"Should I really do it?" I asked him. He looked over at me from his laptop.
"Sure." He said with ease. "Why not? It comes with two anyway, right?"
So I did it. I had to read the instructions over and over, but I did it. It said it had be on a flat surface, so I let it rest on the sink. Except, I didn't leave it there and come back. I watched it. I could see a wave of purple being absorbed from the stick to the two circles that would determine whether or not our lives were about to change. The line on the right circle came first. That line was the same no matter what the outcome (which I never fully understood anyway). But then.. the circle on the left, almost instantly became a distinct plus sign!
But maybe it starts off as a plus, and then fades to a minus. Besides, it says it could take up to 60 seconds, and it had only been 5! So I watched it longer. I blinked more in that 60 seconds than any other minute in my life. The horizontal line was a little faded, but it was definitely there! Or was it? No, it was there. What do I do? How do I tell him? I don't feel good..
I opened the door, which my husband later told me that that's when he thought it had really happened. I walked over to the living room and he looked at me and asked,
"Are you pregnant?"
"I.. I don't know. I think so." He rushed in there and looked at it. Maybe it had faded by now. But then he got excited. I smiled a little and he hugged me and picked me up. He may have said, "I'm going to be a dad!" I know he said something, but it when in one ear and out the other. Maybe it was because I was shaking.
"Baby, you're shaking!"
"I'm scared."
"It'll be okay! We can do this! God is good!"
I felt a little better after that, but I was still shaking. My husband instantly went on the computer to look up pregnancy costs and insurance information (we have major medical, but it covers nothing). I picked up the phone and called my school's after-hours nurse.
If someone had told me in first grade the sort of impact a silly little plus sign could make on someone's life, I wouldn't have believed them. I also wouldn't have believed that 1+1 could equal 3.
