White is for Virgins

by Necks, S. Eva

  Oh geez…

  “Have fun, Evans,” Nick smirked as he flicked the needle taped inside the crook of Fox’s arm before running off. Fox winced and swore at him before smiling and looking over at me.

  “It isn’t that bad, Em,” he assured me. I believed him, for some odd reason.

  “Ugh, that’s what everyone says,” I sighed, skeptically plopping down in a chair next to him.

  The nurse came over with the needle, and I turned my head towards Fox. He stared at me intently, and I winced as the needle poked through my skin. I bit my lip and squinted.

  “Oh, come on. You can’t tell me it hurts that bad,” he smirked.

  It didn’t. But every now and then, when we had to squeeze the stress ball to get more blood out, I winced as I felt the sharp needle moving inside my vein. Ugh. I would forever hold a strong dislike for sharp objects.

  The nurses went to the kitchen to get their lunches leaving Fox and I in the room.

  “So, what would you be doing today if you weren’t here?” he asked me.

  “I would be… sleeping,” I sighed, closing my eyes.

  “Sleeping?” he asked in a ‘you’re-so-boring-it’s-almost-unbelievable’ tone.

  “Yeah, a whole day at the daycare takes a lot out of you,” I explained.

  “Oh yeah,” he nodded, “I forgot you take care of those rug rats by choice.”

  “Ehh, they’re not that bad.”

  “You don’t have to live with one. Holly smothers me in my sleep,” he said, shivering for dramatic effect.

  I smirked, “I doubt that.”

  “She’s evil. Don’t let those eyes fool you – I’ll be sleeping peacefully and then out of nowhere she starts jumping on my stomach or pulling my hair.”

  I started laughing, picturing Holly torture her brother. The images were adorable.

  “I’m glad you find my trauma entertaining,” he muttered.

  “You’re such a drama queen, Fox. The Terrible T’s got to you,” I sighed.

  “Terrible T’s?”

  “Teresa and Trisha,” I clarified. His lips formed an ‘O’ and then merged into a sly smile.

  The nurses came back shortly, pulling the needle out of my sore arm. I got a Barney Band-Aid for my services.

  Fox and I flexed our arms as we walked back to the lobby and took a seat on the couch.

  “Speak of the devil,” he smirked as Holly waddled toward us.

  “Oh, stop,” I laughed, picking her up and settling her on my lap so that she was facing me. My sore arm ached as I lifted her.

  Fox watched as I cooed Holly and held her hands in mine. I would bounce my legs up and down, imitating a trotting horse, and then abruptly I’d split my legs so that she’d fall through. She laughed viciously at this, and I brought her back up and pulled my knees together, once again bouncing my legs beneath her.

  After a few more rounds, I stopped and turned her to the side in my lap.

  “You can keep her if you want,” Fox smirked.

  I set Holly back on the floor and she walked toward Nina’s office.

  It stayed quiet for a bit, and then I remembered something.

  “Hey Fox, I um–” I started.

  He looked over at me curiously.

  “I never really got the chance to thank you. So… thank you,” I smiled sheepishly as I twirled my ponytail with my fingers. It’d been tied up today, and it felt strange not having it in my face.

  “For what?” he asked.

  “You know, for making your Grand Cafeteria Speech on Monday,” I stated, staring at my own hands now.

  “Oh,” Fox said simply. I could hear him inhale, and looked over at him. He looked like he had more to say, but he didn’t.

  Holly came waddling over at lightning speed, her knees threatened to buckle.

  “Easy there Holly, the speed limit is 3 miles per hour,” Fox laughed as we both turned to her attention.

  She tugged at his pant leg. “Fox, come,” she said tugging at his khaki pants urgently.

  “Ok,” he said, giving in as he stood up and followed her.

  She led him to Nina’s office, and I took a few steps in that direction myself. Curiosity killed the cat, I know.

  “Holy shh – Call 911!” Fox shouted from the office.

  I ran over to the office, panic setting in. The image of a body on the floor was enough to bring on the tears. The nurses ran into the room, as well. Fox picked Holly up off the floor and got out of the way.

  “She’s unconscious,” one of the nurses stated, checking for a pulse.

  “Maybe we took too much blood,” the other suggested.

  “I need an ambulance, my friend is unconscious!” I said desperately into the receiver. My voice was shaky and my heart was beating so fast I considered asking for two ambulances. Cardiac arrest is possible amongst teens, right?

  I handed the phone over to one of the nurses because aside from the fact that she could speak clearly, she also knew what she was talking about and what we were dealing with. It made things easier, and a hell of a lot faster.

  The ambulance arrived within a few minutes and the paramedics rushed in with a stretcher.

  “Come on,” Fox said urgently grabbing my arm and pulling me toward his car. I got in, holding Holly in my lap as he followed the ambulance to the nearest hospital.

  All sorts of thoughts were running through my mind and the warm tears trickled down my cheeks. Holly wrapped her chubby, warm little fingers around my arm as we drove.

  We finally reached the hospital and Fox dropped me off at the entrance with Holly while he went to park his car.

  My legs were shaking, and I could barely feel them as I went to woman behind the counter.

  “Hello, how may I –” she started. But I didn’t have the patience to put up with her sweet, calm, bullshitted tone.

  “Nina Santos. She just arrived, where’s her room?” I blurted.

  “Are you family?”

  “She’s my sister,” I growled.

  The woman eyed me strangely before looking at Holly.

  “The little one isn’t allowed to go with you,” she stated.

  “It’s her kid,” I lied again.

  “I’m sorry.” Pshh, no you’re not, lady!

  Fox appeared at my side and I handed him Holly.

  “They won’t let our sister see her own daughter,” I said incredulously as I handed Holly to Fox. He caught on quickly and placed a hand on my shoulder.

  “It’s okay sis, we’ll simply take turns,” he said softly.

  I tried not to smile. That guy was a natural.

  “Room 108,” the biznitch behind that counter informed me. I ran.

  ***

  “She was in need of a blood transfusion,” a big, tan man by the name of Doctor Lorenzo informed me.

  I nodded, and stepped into the room with him.

  Nina stirred and sat up, looking a bit tired and confused.

  “What’s the prognosis doctor?” she laughed, gesturing for me to sit by her bed. I hugged her real quick and took a seat, looking up at the doctor expectantly.

  “Ms. Santos,” he began.

  “Call me Nina,” she said easily, smiling a bit.

  “Nina,” he restarted, “Why did you donate blood? I’m sure you’re aware of the risks?”

  “Of course I am,” Nina nodded, “I suppose just a little too much blood was drawn.”

  The doctor nodded and skimmed the papers in his clipboard once more.

  “Well then, I am happy to report both you and your baby are fine,” he stated smiling.

  I turned to Nina, unsure of what I’d just heard.

  Nina gripped the sheets on either side of the bed and her face drained of color.

  “M-my b-bay… baby?” she stuttered, shaking.

  “Yes…” the doctor said, eyeing her strangely, “You’re about seven weeks along.”

  She pressed her lips into a painfully tight, straight line as she stared at her stomach.

>   “Congratulations,” Doctor Lorenzo said cheerfully, obviously oblivious to the fact that this was shocking news. “Oh! And please refrain from donating any more blood until your nine months are up.”

  He left us in the room, and the silence proved too much.

  Nina burst into a silent fit of tears, and I immediately wrapped my arms around her. It was all I think of at the moment that might help soothe her, even though I knew she was far from calm. Sometimes the best form of comfort was the silent kind.

  “Emery,” she sobbed into my shoulder, “What am I going to do?”

  ***

  I was already halfway through the school day, completely fine. But even as Monday approached noon, I was skeptic as to how long my good fortune would last.

  “Hey you,” I said, plopping down into the seat across from Lily.

  She looked up from her salad. “Hey love,” she replied before popping a baby tomato into her mouth.

  Baby. I shuddered.

  “So, what’s new?” I asked her, trying to strike a conversation.

  “Are you blind?” she laughed, gesturing to all the walls of the cafeteria. They were covered with banners and posters advertising the Halloween Party the school was hosting as well as the Haunted House that was being set up on the football field.

  “No, just uninterested,” I smirked. Which was… kind of a lie. I just was never a big fan of Halloween.

  When all the high school girls thought it’d be cool to dress up all provocatively and hang with the boys, vandalizing people’s houses and smashing pumpkins and, of course, getting candy… I was at home.

  So to conclude, Halloween just brought back unwanted memories of wasted nights.

  “You don’t like Halloween, or something?” Lily asked, eyeing me strangely.

  “Aren’t we all a little too old for this?” I countered.

  “No one’s too old. I took my grandmother around with me last year. She ended up getting twice the amount of candy I did.” Lily laughed kind of spacing out for a moment.

  “Well, I don’t think I want to dress up and walk around my neighborhood,” I said truthfully, “There’s a lot going on these days…”

  “Then we don’t have to walk around, we can just chill at my house and watch movies.”

  “Scary movies?”

  “Yeah, like Halloween, and Friday the 13th, and Scream, and – oh! White Chicks!” she laughed, remembering I still hadn’t seen that movie.

  “Ok, sounds like a plan,” I replied. “I’ll be at your place sometime before eight.”

  “Do you have a costume?”

  “I thought we just said we were staying home…” I replied, confused.

  “Yeah, but we can dress up for our movie night, can’t we?” she smirked, taking another bite of her salad.

  “I don’t have any kind of costume,” I told her, drumming my fingers on the table.

  “Good, then we can experiment with mine. Cause I have a million of them! We can always just mix and match,” she said gleefully.

  “Do you have any black wigs, slutty clothes, stilettos, or vampire teeth?” I asked her, grinning wickedly.

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” she said narrowing her eyes, “Why? You wanna be some vampire vixen?”

  “Something like that,” I giggled, “I wanna dress up as the evil Teresa.”

  Lily stiffened.

  “Ha, ha, what a coincidence, I’d probably go as Trisha,” someone next to me smirked.

  I turned in my chair to confirm his identity. Fox sat there, leaning against the table with his chest pushed out. He was twirling a straight strand of his pale blonde hair and making obnoxious chewing noises with his gum. His emerald eyes were rolled back.

  I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. His eyes widened and he smiled at me, while I continued to laugh so much so that I rested my head down on my arm to cover my face.

  I looked up to see Lily laughing, too. Then I noticed Nick sitting on the other side of me.

  “That’s cute, you guys will match,” Lily laughed. “We should totally reconsider our movie night, Em. It appears you have an escort to the Haunted House, Friday.”

  I tried to hold in my blush as I continued to glare at Lily. I didn’t dare move to see Fox’s expression, nor wait for him to reject me. Who’d want to go with me? Certainly not the school’s number one Sex God…

  Why am I even considering this?

  “It’d be way cuter if we doubled,” I played along. “You could go with Nikki over here.”

  Nick stiffened beside me. I assumed it was because of the feminine nickname I had just bestowed upon him.

  I looked back at Lily, who was pretty quiet herself. She was moving her plastic fork around in circles, lightly grazing the last few pieces of lettuce in her salad.

  My last resort was Fox. But before it got too painfully silent, and before I could turn to look at him, he beat me to the punch.

  Fox cleared him throat, “Uh, sorry ladies, Nick and I already have dates for Friday. Maybe next year,” he offered.

  I smirked. Next year? Ahh, the beauty of rejection.

  “Alright then,” Lily said, still looking down at her salad. She got up to throw it away.

  Fox turned to me.

  “How’s Nina?” he asked, looking concerned.

  “You’ll see after school,” I replied, chewing on my lower lip. I wasn’t quite sure how she was myself, but it wasn’t good.

  “Right, well we gotta go. Coach needs us,” Nick said from behind me.

  I spun around to look at him. I felt guilty, completely forgetting he was even there.

  “For what?” I asked curiously.

  “Varsities have to help set up the Haunted House,” Fox muttered, getting up from the table just as Lily returned.

  “Oh, that’s why you missed creative writing,” I nodded, and added just for fun, “And why you smell so bad.”

  He put his hand to his chest in mock-hurt, “Hey,” he said. He dropped the act and smirked, “Don’t act like it’s not attractive Em. I know you’d prefer a guy who worked his ass off on the field than one who spent his time frolicking through the flowers like Nikki over here.”

  Nick looked pissed. So I stifled my laugh for his sake.

  “Love you too, Fox,” Nick muttered sarcastically as he went for the exit.