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I climbed the stairs of the small building where Michelle lived so fast that I barely felt the steps beneath my feet. I entered the apartment with my key and ran to her room. The dog jumped on me, barking as if he knew something was wrong.
"Michelle?" I enter the bathroom to find her sitting in the bathtub, crying desperately. She doesn't say anything, just hugs me, crying on my shoulder. "Why didn't you call me earlier? How long have you been like this? Calm down, let me see." Blood stained her pajamas. "Can you stand?" She nods.
I grab her bag, put in a change of clean clothes, and grab a large coat. I help her out of the bathroom and cover her with the coat before taking her to the hospital. Michelle was a mess of tears and sobs when I handed her over to the doctors.
Now I find myself sitting in the waiting room with not much to do. Suddenly, my phone rings. It's Luke.
"Can I know why you and Michelle are at the hospital at five in the morning?" he's worried on the other end of the line.
"Ah, how do you know?" I ask just to buy some time. I need to think of something.
"The GPS tracker on your phones. Scarlett, I know that tone of voice, what happened? Are you both okay?"
"I didn't want to be the one to tell you this," I run my hand over my face. Michelle will hate me for this.
"Scarlett, spill it, I'm getting worried."
"Michelle was pregnant and lost the baby." I hold my breath and he hangs up the phone on me. I lean against the wall, staring at one of the blood donation flyers that were in a box near a filter in front of me.
"Where is she? How is she?" I hear Luke's voice a few minutes later when he arrives at the hospital.
"Calm down, Luke, everything will be okay. I haven't had any news yet, but she'll be fine, okay?"
"Was it mine?" His voice is low, and he looks at me with pain.
"Yes," he closes his eyes, processing the response. My friend was a mix of anger and sadness.
"Why didn't you tell me anything?" His face was red, and I could even see a vein pulsing in his neck.
"Because it wasn't up to me to tell you. She made me promise not to tell you, and of course, I wasn't going to break that promise."
"How long was she pregnant?" He runs his hands over his head.
"Almost four months, I think," I say.
"Damn it, Scarlett, that's a long time, and neither of you even thought that I might want to know that maybe I was going to be a father?! This is Michelle we're talking about, Scarlett, not just some girl I sleep with. Michelle, Scarlett! Our friend."
"I told her to tell you. She told me to stay out of it, and I did."
"You were irresponsible! You were irresponsible not telling me! You're her boss! You let her work even though she was pregnant! Our job is dangerous, Scarlett!" He paces back and forth, nervous.
"It wasn't my fault, Luke. I only found out a few days ago."
I was about to respond when we heard footsteps approaching us. A short, elderly doctor walks towards us.
"Good evening, are you the companions of Miss Michelle Lopez?"
"Yes," Luke answers quickly.
"Could you come with me?" We enter an office a few corridors away.
"How is she?" I ask.
"She'll be okay. She's sedated at the moment. What the patient suffered was a spontaneous abortion due to genetic abnormality, which may have been aggravated by some trauma or stress. In cases like hers, fetuses usually don't make it past twelve weeks. We performed the curettage process to clean the uterus. Once she wakes up, she can go home. Can you tell me what her relationship was like with the pregnancy? Because if necessary, I can prescribe a referral to a psychologist." Luke looks at me, waiting for a response.
He was confused and angry that we had hidden this from him. Just a few hours ago, he hadn't even considered the possibility of being a father, and now he was in a doctor's office hearing about a spontaneous abortion. I clear my throat, pushing away the sudden urge to cry, realizing how much of a terrible friend I had been and that I shouldn't have kept this from him.
"She can inform you better," I reply.
"Well, I'll take you to her." The doctor says after finishing filling out some papers on the desk.
We follow the doctor to the emergency bed. Luke sits on a stool at the side of the stretcher and strokes Michelle's hair as she sleeps heavily.
"Luke, I really wanted to tell you this when I found out, but it didn't seem right. It's something you two needed to work out, and I shouldn't have gotten involved. She told me that herself. But she was so desperate and so sad to be pregnant that I just had to stand by her because I would feel the same if it were me."
"It's okay, Scarlett, it just caught me off guard. I shouldn't have spoken to you like that." I approach him and give him a hug.
"Well, I'm going to stop by her house and clean up the blood in the bathroom. I believe she won't want to see that mess when she gets back. Then, I'll go home. Dianna is still waiting for me there."
"Are you sure you don't want me to do that?" He asks, already getting up from the bench.
"I'm sure. You two need to talk as well. Anyway..." I hand him Michelle's bag, as well as her coat. "Take care of her. Anything happens, call me, and I'll come running, okay?"