Chapter 2: Just you and me

~Elara~

The words kept echoing in my head but they didn't make sense. They were just random syllables strung together that had nothing to do with me.

"That's not possible."

The doctor's smile faltered slightly. "The test is quite accurate. We ran it twice to be certain."

"No." I shook my head. My hands were trembling in my lap. "You don't understand. It's not possible. He said…he told me—"

I stopped. How could I explain this to her? How could I tell her that a stranger I slept with once promised me I couldn't get pregnant? How stupid would that sound?

"Miss Vance." The doctor's voice was gentle now. "I understand this might be unexpected. But the test is positive. You are approximately three weeks pregnant."

"Maybe it's a fever." I said desperately. "I've been feeling nauseous. Maybe it's just the flu. Can you check again? Run a different test?"

"The nausea is a pregnancy symptom." She pulled out a pamphlet from her desk and slid it toward me. "This has information about your options. Prenatal care, adoption, termination. You don't have to decide anything today. But I'd recommend scheduling a follow-up appointment within the next two weeks to discuss—"

I stopped listening.

Pregnant.

I was pregnant!

The room started spinning. I gripped the edges of my chair and tried to breathe but the air wouldn't come.

This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real.

"Miss Vance? Are you alright?"

I stood up so fast the chair scraped against the floor. The pamphlet fell from my lap.

"I need to go."

"Miss Vance, I really think we should discuss—"

But I was already out the door.

The walk back to my dorm faded into a rush of sensations. I don't remember the path I took or the people I passed. Just the cold, heavy dread of knowing my life was over.

I can't get you pregnant. Trust me.

He'd been so confident. I had believed him without question because why would he lie? Why would anyone lie about something like that?

Unless he knew. Unless I was just some stupid girl he used and discarded and never thought about again.

I made it to my room before the tears came.

I cried until my throat was raw. Until my eyes were swollen shut. Until there was nothing left inside me but emptiness and the terrible knowledge that I was alone with a pregnancy that I never asked for.

The next morning, I called the number on the card I picked that morning.

Disconnected.

I called it twelve more times that day and even sent messages. Always the same automated message. The number you have dialed is no longer in service.

I tried to find him online. I searched his name on every platform I could think of. Kaelan. Just Kaelan. I didn't even know his last name. I didn't know where he lived or what he studied or if he was even a student at all.

He had given me nothing. Nothing except a baby I didn't ask for.

Maybe I imagined him. Maybe I was losing my mind. Maybe I had some kind of breakdown at that party and invented a beautiful stranger who looked at me like I mattered.

But the pregnancy was real. The test was real. Something had happened that night even if my brain couldn't make sense of it anymore.

A week passed. I went to class like a ghost, sat in the back and took notes I didn't read. Every morning I woke up sick. Every night I lay awake staring at the ceiling and wondering how I was going to survive this.

I couldn't tell anyone. Who would believe me? I slept with a stranger at a party and now I'm pregnant and I can't find him and I don't even know his last name.

I'd completely lost hope…until I saw him again.

It was a Thursday afternoon. I was walking across the main quad, head down, trying to get to the library before the nausea hit again.

I heard laughter first. There was a group of people clustered near the fountain and someone was telling a story.

I glanced over without thinking and my heart almost stopped.

He was standing in the center of the group like he belonged there, his arm draped casually around a blonde girl who was pressed against his side like a second skin.

For a moment I couldn't move. I just stood there staring at him while my brain tried to reconcile this version of him with the one who had held me like I was precious, whispered that I was made for him, and looked at me like I was the answer to every question he had ever asked.

Move. I told myself. Walk away. Don't do this.

But my feet were already carrying me toward him.

The group noticed me first. Their conversation trailed off. The blonde girl frowned. Someone whispered something I couldn't hear.

Kaelan turned and our eyes met.

There was nothing there. No recognition, no guilt, no iota of the desperate hunger that had consumed him that night. He looked at me like I was a stranger. Like I was an inconvenience. Like I was nothing.

"Kaelan." I almost squeaked. "I need to talk to you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Do I know you?"

Hope drained out of me. I stumbled back a step.

"What? Kaelan, it's me. Elara. From the party. We—" I couldn't say it. "You know who I am."

He exchanged a glance with the blonde girl. She smirked.

"I'm sorry." He said, his voice bored. "I think you have me confused with someone else."

"No." I stepped closer, desperate now. "No, I don't. It was you. Three weeks ago at the freshman mixer. You came up to me. You said… you said I was meant for you. You took me to a hotel. We—"

"Okay." He held up a hand, his expression shifting from bored to annoyed. "Look, I don't know what kind of fantasy you've cooked up in your head, but I've never seen you before in my life."

Someone in the group laughed.

"Maybe she's one of those stalker types." The blonde girl's voice dripped with false sympathy. "You should be careful, babe. Crazy girls like this can be dangerous."

"I'm not crazy." Tears were burning in my eyes. "Kaelan, please. I'm pregnant."

The words left my mouth before I could think about it, plunging everyone into silence.

Everyone was staring at me now. The blonde girl's mouth had dropped open. The others were exchanging looks of disbelief and secondhand embarrassment.

Kaelan's expression didn't change. Not even a blink.

"Like I said." He continued, his voice as cold as ice. "I don't know you. Whatever situation you've gotten yourself into, it has nothing to do with me. Maybe try remembering which guy actually slept with you before you start throwing accusations around."

My vision blurred. The tears were falling now and I couldn't stop them. I was standing in the middle of campus crying in front of strangers while the father of my child looked at me like I was garbage.

"I'm not lying." The words came out broken. "You know I'm not lying. You were there. You held me. You said—"

"I said nothing." He cut me off, his tone final. "Because I don't know you. Now please leave before I call campus security."

He turned his back on me and continued his conversation with the blonde girl, as if I were already invisible.

People were staring. Some had their phones out, recording, probably. Tomorrow I would be a meme. That crazy girl who accused some random guy of getting her pregnant in the middle of the quad.

I wrapped my arms around my stomach and walked away, every step heavy with humiliation.

By the time I made it to the library, I could barely hold myself up. I locked myself in a stall and pressed my hands against my mouth, sobbing until I couldn’t breathe, until my whole body shook, until there was nothing left inside me.

I rested my hand over my stomach.

"I don't know how to do this," I whispered to the life inside me. "I don't know how to be a mother. I don't know how to do any of this alone."

There was only silence. No one answered. No one ever did.

But then… something stirred inside me. A tiny, stubborn spark of resolve.

I pressed my hand harder against my stomach, feeling the soft, helpless weight of it.

“It’s just you and me now,” I whispered.

Somehow… that terrified me more than anything he had said today.

Because deep down… I had a feeling this child was going to change everything.