Chloe has called in the cavalry.

I know she has as soon as the spare bedroom door hits the wall, causing me to roll over on the bed where I'd been facing away from it. There stands Minka, pissed-off mama bear written all over her face.

"Minks, what are you doing here?"

Her gaze doesn't even flit to my face as she stomps over to the bed and grabs my wrist. She squeezes, and I realize she's timing my heart beats.

"Chloe says you refuse to see a doctor."

It’s not a question, but a ticked off accusation.

"Look I know you're mad I didn't tell you where I was." I struggle to sit up I'm so tired.

"We'll discuss that fucking issue later. Right now we're going to the Ob/Gyn. I won't sit by as you avoid getting the medicines and checkups you need."

So Chloe's told her about the baby. Fuck. The baby. I can't even fathom that those words are running through my thoughts.

I pale, tears clogging my throat. "I don't even know if I'm keeping it, Minks."

I see a flicker of sympathy and sadness wash over her eyes. And then she goes steely. "Even so, you may want to give it up for adoption. And for that you need to keep yourself healthy. We're done with this moping routine. Get your ass up, meet me in the living room in five. Chloe will drive us."

And with that, my bossy best friend leaves me alone. I push up, adjusting myself as the room spins once around me. She's right. I haven't been taking care of myself, or this baby. I've barely eaten at all, the only thing I do is lay in bed. I haven't researched into my options, haven't started taking the right vitamins.

I wish I could drown my days in alcohol or weed. But obviously one of things I want to drown my sorrows about the most is preventing me from that. A baby. Mostly I've been sleeping. My brain has taken all of the thoughts about my father, the baby, Clint...and put them in a sealed off box way in the back. I just can't think about it. If it hits me all at once, I don't know if I'd ever stop crying.

Slowly I get up, pulling on whatever sweatshirt is closest and shuffling out to the living room.

Minka and Chloe sit huddled together at the breakfast bar on the kitchen counter, and both guiltily stop talking when I walk in.

"Traitor." I grumble at Chloe.

She sighs and shrugs, her violet eyes apologizing so profusely that I almost let her off the hook. "I had to. You wouldn't move from the bed."

I don't blame her. I wouldn't know what to do with me either.

"So are we going?"

The cab ride there is deadly quiet with the three of us squished into the dirty backseat. I just lean my head against the glass, trying to wipe my brain of any thought.

Minka comes in to the exam room with me once we're at the doctor. Says I won't be absorbing all of the information, so she needs to take notes.

She's right. I only hear snippets of the conversation. Words like "folic acid" and "abortion" are brought up. The doctor goes into the gestational cycle, and takes what seems like gallons of blood from me though, I barely even feel the needle prick. Minka's face is pinched and concerned the entire appointment. I almost cry when the doctor takes a look between my legs, the cold speculum invading my vagina. As deranged as it is, the last thing to be inside of there was Clint, and I clench back tears at the memories. The whole thing is just awful.

Afterwards, I'm rewarded for my cooperation with a vanilla milkshake from Shake Shack. Which I only take under duress. Who am I kidding? I scowl and ask for a second one.

When we get back to the apartment, I plan to go straight back to bed. But Minka's glare and her wiry body blocking my path tell me I have other plans, so I join her and Chloe on the couch.

Chloe goes first, her sweet disposition designed to put me in an easier mood. I can tell they've talked about how to tackle this. How to tackle me. "Kels, we are so worried about you. We just want to help. What is going on?"

I smile, but it feels sour on my lips. "I'm pregnant if you didn't notice."

"That's not why you left Grover." Minka cuts in, throwing all of the nice bullshit out the window.

I stare at my hands, silently begging for them to drop this. I wish the floor would open up and swallow me.

Chloe touches my fingers with her own. "We're your best friends. Whatever, or whoever, is causing you pain, we will crush it. Together."

My kind, innocent best friend's statement of violence is what finally breaks me.

I choke on a sob before telling them the entire sordid tale. Minka and Chloe’s faces go from sympathetic to horrified to pure rage as I describe everything from the way my mother dropped the biological dad-bomb on me to finding Clint and Jackson conspiring.

They sit in stunned silence as I finish, sucking in a shaky breath.

“Fucking, bitch.” Minka grumbles, and I know she means Madeline.

“I can’t believe Jackson never told you. That he could…keep this such a secret. I can’t believe I never noticed…” Chloe is shaking her head back and forth, trying to make sense of it all.

“Do you really think Clint meant to hurt you?” Minka’s expression is too hard to read, but I know she’s psycho-analyzing me as she loves to do. She wants me to come to a conclusion without her dictating the facts to me.

And I have thought about it. I never heard his side of the story. I ran too quickly to consider that. But no matter what his explanation is, he hurt me.

“You should have heard them in there. Having a conversation that was so personal, so about me. It was like I was being staked through the heart.”

Chloe nods in my direction. “I know. But maybe Clint went there to try and get Jackson to fess up. Maybe he was only trying to protect you.”

“You didn’t see him after you left, Kels. He was a wreck. Like the universe had just taken away his will to live. He couldn’t even pack up his stuff because it smelled like you. I swear I had to send him away with tears in his eyes while I did it.”

The haunted expression on Minka’s face relays just how horrible it must have been to see Clint over those few weeks.

“Even now, Owen says he won’t pick up the phone. And when he does it sounds like he’s withdrawn into himself. He kind of sounds how you look.” Minka raises one eyebrow in that smarts way of hers.

“I don’t…I don’t know what to think.”

Chloe winces before speaking. “Can we change gears? What are you going to do about the baby?”

We all grow silent while a few fat tears escape from my ducts.

“I don’t know about that either. Guys, I am not ready for this. I can barely take care of myself, even when I’m fully functional and happy. A baby? I wouldn’t know the first thing about raising a kid. Look who my fucking parents are. My mother is about as warm and nurturing as an electric chair.”

Minka contemplates, biting at her lips. But Chloe is the one who immediately speaks.

“I don’t know anyone in this world who would be a better mom. You are fiercely loyal. Remember when you almost dragged Allison through the hall when Minka went through that whole thing sophomore year? You think on your feet, which is the best parenting skill I can imagine. You are constantly adapting and changing. Kids are like one big roller-coaster, I can’t think of anyone who would handle that better. You give your whole heart, every time. You know how to soothe hurt, have fun, and you’re the best game maker-upper ever. So yeah, I think you will be an awesome mom. And who is ready for anything in life anyway? If we were never ready for anything, nothing would ever happen.”

Leave it to the fairy godmother of the group to make me all teary-eyed and sappy with her magical, fairy dust speech.

Minka chimes in. “She’s right. You will be an amazing mom. That baby is the luckiest little sucker ever. Plus…he or she will have some kickass aunts.”

I finally smile a true, genuine smile. I feel better than I have in days.

“You are the best friends any girl could have, you know that?”

They smile and Minka clucks her tongue. “Yeah, we know, we’re awesome.”

“Okay, Minks. Time to fill me on every drug, food and beverage I can’t have for the next nine months.”