Chapter 11

Rachel hammered on the door of Katherine's house and the tearful eighteen year old let her in, Charlotte was out and Katherine had spoken to her friend on the phone, telling her everything. "Fuck Kat, you really pregnant?"

Katherine passed her two positive pregnancy tests and the blonde girl took a deep breath. "Oh babe. Is this from Christmas?"

Katherine sighed. "Must be. I've not had sex since."

"So this is Callum then. I mean we asked him before and he said he didn't touch you but this shows he is a fucking liar. He was begging me to take him back, the little creep," Rachel ranted and Katherine shrugged. "I'm going to get the little shit."

"Don't," Katherine said. "I don't think it was him."

"Well who was it?"

"I don't know," Katherine cried. "But I just don't know what to do. I don't want to be knocked up." She wiped the tears away from her eyes and looked at her friend. "I can't look after a baby."

Rachel glanced down at her. "What about an abortion?"

Katherine sighed. "Twelve weeks I think. I dunno, I need to see the doctor."

"You've not been," Rachel exclaimed and pulled at her friend. "Come on, go see her."

Katherine stood there motionlessly and wiped her eyes again. "I umm, I don't want Mum to know."

Rachel bit her lip. "Well unless you see the doctor she will know in a few months time." Katherine shrugged and screwed up her face. Rachel was right, and her friend guided her into the lounge and made her drink, getting Katherine to talk to her about what she was thinking.

Katherine was scared, she genuinely had no idea what to do, and certainly didn't want to be a parent at such a young age. She explained about her ambitions being curtailed and Rachel suggested she put the child up for adoption if she couldn't face motherhood, but most of all told her to go see her doctor.

Katherine grunted and Rachel rolled her eyes before walking to the phone and passing it over. "Make an appointment."

"What?"

"Make an appointment and I will go with you."

"I don't know the number," Katherine replied dogmatically and Rachel picked up the phone book, finding the surgery and calling out the six digit number. Katherine reluctantly made an appointment, the doctors' surgery had had a cancellation earlier that morning to see the female doctor at 1pm, just after lunch, and she agreed to take it. She looked at her friend with scared eyes. "Will ya come with me? Please"

Rachel smiled. "Of course. I better go make us some lunch." Rachel left the room and came back with a sandwich and a drink for each of them. Kat picked at the ham in silence.

"You know, the more I think of it, the more I don't think it was Callum," Katherine admitted and Rachel glanced up at her.

"What about the guy who walked you home?"

Katherine snorted. "Matthew? No, he would be too scared to touch me. I was dancing with a barman when I got drunk, Mum told me. I think it must be him."

Rachel pursed her lips together and glanced at her watch. The Doctors' surgery was no more than a ten minute walk and Rachel did accompany her friend inside to see Dr Helen Wickham, who looked at the strips with blue lines and then back at the young girl.

Obviously, she was pregnant and all she could do was to send her for a dating scan but when Katherine told her the likely conception date she rubbed her chin and warned her she was probably out of time for an abortion and referred to be under a team of support workers. Suddenly, the truth hit Katherine: she was going to be a teenage mother, and she burst into tears the moment she left the Doctors' consultation room.

Katherine was still in a daze when she got back home and saw her mother on the laptop, idly clicking away. "You OK," her mother asked and Katherine nodded.

"Busy day," she lied and took a step towards her room.

"You OK?" Charlotte asked, slightly worried by her daughter's quietness and Katherine grunted and trooped up to her bedroom. Rachel had suggested that they talk but Katherine wanted to be alone as much as her friend had tried to console her; she had no idea how she was going to tell her parents anyhow.

Her phone rang as she reached the top of the stairs and instinctively picked it up without checking the phone number displayed on the screen, it would be Rachel worrying about her anyway and she closed her door, as she put the small handset to her ear.

"Sis, it's me."

"Oh hi Lewis." Her heart skipped a beat, had Rachel told him about her pregnancy already?

"Kat, tell Mum not to worry but I am away for a day or two so I won't be home."

"Away? What the hell are you doing?" Katherine asked.

"Holiday," he replied down the end of the phone. "Anna and me, well we wanted to get away from it all," he lied and Katherine grunted.

"Nice. Where are you?"

"Scotland."

"Scotland? But that's bloody miles away."

"Yeah, it's a holiday," Lewis replied. "It's supposed to be. I'll be back at the end of the week. I got a Maths exam."

Katherine snorted and Lewis moaned about "being out of credit" and they said their goodbyes. Katherine was already tuning out of the conversation, she had other things on her mind.

Katherine had to tell her parents, they needed to know and they would find out soon enough, but she had to tell them that she had no idea who the father was. In fact, she had no idea exactly when she conceived, although she knew it had to be around the Christmas Party.

She was certain it wasn't Sam, which in itself would please her father, but was Callum any better? The more she thought about it, who would he want the father to be?

Katherine felt tearful but gazed out of the window, she genuinely had no idea what to do or who to talk to about it. She couldn't be a mother, and certainly not a mother on her own. She had plans, big plans, University, travelling, parties. Something she couldn't do with a little baby.

Charlotte called up the stairs an hour later, she was about to dish up dinner and Katherine was shaken from her daydreaming and worrying. She plodded slowly down the stairs, pausing to wash and dry her eyes.

"Where the hell is Lewis?" Charlotte asked as she set the last fork on the dinner table and turned back to the oven. "He is supposed to be home by now."

"Oh he rang," Katherine said idly. "He's out."

"Oh where is he?"

"Scotland."

Charlotte screamed, dropping the tray of food from the oven. "Scotland, oh my God. Joseph!"

Her husband came running into the kitchen, hearing the voice of his distressed wife panicking and the sound of dinner hitting the top of the worktop. "Lewis has gone to Scotland to get married."