Once Again

Excerpt

No, it couldn’t be true. Nicole hastily wiped the cold sweat from
her forehead and walked down the corridor to her best friend Karen’s
room maintaining both her gaze and a tight grasp on the white stick that
had determined her fate.
This cannot be happening, she thought as she, trembling, felt
around the dark hallway for a wall to guide her. The small nightlight across
from her friend’s room cast another telltale beam on the stick, and Nicole
paused a few feet from the entrance, once again squinting to make sure she
had seen right.
“Is it positive?” Karen’s tiny eighteen-year-old frame and nervous
expression appeared in the entrance to her bedroom, scaring Nicole out of
her daze and causing her to drop the stick just past the threshold. Karen
scooped down to pick it up and gazed at it with widening blue eyes,
her hands trembling and mouth wide open as she looked up from the
unmistakable blue plus sign of the pregnancy kit.
“You’re pregnant?”
Nicole’s feet led her to the bed and she sank into it as a feeling of
numbness spread throughout her body.
It seemed like just a few minutes ago that her inebriated mother
had warned her about the consequences of premarital sex. “Jusht remember
now, if you don’t keep your pantieeeshh on, you’ll be at home watchin’ a
crying baby while all the girlshh your age are out clubbin’ and havin’ fun,”she’d warned Nicole in much more slurred and sloppy speech.
Even her mother’s alcoholism seemed miniscule and insignificant
compared to the mess Nicole now faced.
From the outside, the Turner family seemed perfect. Born to
wealthy parents, Nicole was known as the “lucky rich princess” by her high
school classmates. If only they knew how “lucky” she was. While girls her age
envied her lifestyle, good looks, and wealth, Nicole envied them for the
things they took for granted.
She often wondered what it would be like to have a younger sibling
to take care of, instead of her drunken mother. Her father was another
story. A well-known politician in the state of Georgia, Richard Turner had
created quite an impeccable reputation for himself and his family. This
reputation came with the responsibility of keeping his outspoken and
irresponsible wife’s alcoholic tendencies out of the public eye. To the press,
they were the ideal family, well mannered, polished, and elite. Few, if any,
knew of the skeletons lurking in their closet.
Most nights, she went to sleep feeling a sense of loneliness and
yearning. She felt a void in her heart that could only be filled with the love
and attention she so desired from her parents—love she knew she would
never be fortunate enough receive.
Things had, however, become somewhat brighter after Nicole
had convinced her father to allow her to leave the upscale private school
she had formerly attended and become a student a Nollin’s Park High
School.
It had taken a lot of convincing for her dad to finally consent
to taking her out of the outrageously expensive private school. She had
become weary of the stuffy all-girls atmosphere, tired of the snobs who
attended the elite school and flaunted their upper-class status. Nicole had
never understood what happiness such people gained from their status,
their clothes, or the type of cars they drove. She understood all too well
how depressing it could be to have all those things, yet nothing at all.
Money could not buy the love she yearned for, a sense of belonging,
or the caring and nurturing family she so desired. All she wanted was to
live an existence with people who understood the value of those things
and whose lives didn’t revolve around the latest style of purse or best brandof lipstick.
Having his daughter enrolled in a public school would allow
him to pull the heartstrings—and votes—of the citizens whose children
attended Nollin’s Park along with his daughter when election time rolled
around. She would serve as a live bulletin for his campaign.
However, she had to be thankful for the fact—regardless of the
reasons—that he’d agreed. It was through Nollin’s Park that Nicole had
met her first, and only, best friend, Karen Parker.
They’d catch midnight movies on weekdays, attend hiking trips
on the weekends, and go to numerous concerts on any day of the week.
During holidays, they’d even register to help out at voluntary events to
feed the hungry and homeless. When Karen was around, there was never
a dull moment. And where Karen was, Nicole was.
It was only upon Karen’s crazy insistence that Nicole had gathered
the guts to take action on her feelings and ask Dario to the prom. Nicole
had always held to the belief that guys were supposed to approach girls,
but Karen had insisted those rules were “old school” and that in this day
and age—which apparently Nicole didn’t belong in—girls had to go out
and get what they wanted.
To Nicole’s ultimate shock and surprise, the sexy quarterback
had beamingly agreed, his dark hair falling haphazardly across his sweaty forehead, helmet in hand, and dimpled smile in place, making Nicole’s own forehead break out in beads of sweat. That night had been one of the best of her life.