Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(77)

“What is it?” Alice asked. “What’s wrong?”

Terry could hardly say the words. “I think…I think I might be pregnant.”

Much like Terry herself, no one knew how to react to the news.

Ken snapped his fingers. “I knew I felt like I was missing something about you.”

Terry wanted to laugh. And cry. And scream. She settled for a low accusation: “You are the worst psychic friend of all time!”

“Harsh,” Ken said. “But not wrong, I guess.”

Ken: so nice you could never feel good about blaming him for anything. “I’m sorry.”

He waved it off. “It’s okay.”

“Are you sure?” Gloria interrupted.

“No,” Terry said. “But also yes. Almost certain.”

Alice was staring at her, gobsmacked. “How did we not notice?”

“She’s barely showing,” Gloria said. And quietly, “There are places you can go. No one has to know. A few girls from church have done that.”

“It’s Andrew’s,” Terry said. “If I’m pregnant, this is mine and Andrew’s baby. I can’t give it up.”

Alice got up and began to pace on the sidewalk. “You should call him.”

“He’s gone. I got a postcard yesterday—he was deployed.”

The hell of it was she could imagine Andrew’s actual reaction. He wouldn’t freak out. He’d be happy. She didn’t doubt it for a second.

“Do you think Dr. Brenner knows?” Gloria asked. “They take our blood.”

“He must. He said something that’s part of how I figured it out.” Terry ran through Kali’s demonstration and what had happened afterward. And she added, “He’s untouchable now. You should have seen how those men about-faced. He can get whatever he wants from them.”

Alice had stopped walking back and forth. “He knew you’d refuse to take their drugs anymore if you knew. That’s why he didn’t tell you.”

“He said this baby is the next generation of their exceptional people.” Terry shook her head. “I will burn that place to the ground before it happens.”

“Kali’s still in there.” Alice sighed. “She came to see me today. I think I scared her.”

“How?”

“I might have described a monster to her.”

Oh no. “Alice!”

“On the plus side, she hasn’t seen any.” Alice looked at her feet, then back up. “What do you want us to do?”

“Nothing, just think,” Terry said. “As hard as you can. All of you. There’s got to be something we can do to get free of that place. He can’t have my child.”

Gloria reached over and touched Terry’s hand. “Hey, be gentle with yourself. You just found this out—while you were high—and you need to think. The next step is finding out how far along you are. Whether there are any signs the baby isn’t healthy…”

“I’m sure they’ve been looking at that,” Terry said bitterly.

“But you haven’t. It’ll make you feel better.” Gloria reached up and smoothed Terry’s hair from her cheek, and Terry thought of her own mother and how she used to do that. “You’re going to get through this.”

Terry reached up and put her hand on Gloria’s and gave it a light squeeze. “Thank you. Thank all of you.”

She should go see Stacey. The next step to the next step. Then she’d take the step after that. Ken climbed to his feet too and, without even asking, put his hand onto her stomach with his fingers splayed.

Terry protested. “What are you—”

“It’s a girl,” he said. “I can’t see you or her together clearly, but it’s a girl.”

A girl. A girl. She was having a girl.

At least this time Ken had a fifty-fifty shot of being right. Assuming she was pregnant and not having a paranoid fit.





6.


When Terry let herself in the room, Stacey sat in the center of her unmade bed painting her toenails a rosy hue.

“Thank god you’re here,” Terry said.

The Fellowship—her new friends—could understand what she was going through in one way no one else could. But Stacey was Terry’s oldest friend here. She would understand it in another way, and that was what Terry needed right now.

“What’s up, babe?” Stacey asked, unconcerned by Terry’s obvious panic.

Terry stopped at the edge of the mattress and reached out to pluck the bottle from Stacey’s hands over her protest of “Hey!”

She put it on the desk nearby and then grabbed Stacey’s hand and placed it on her stomach. “I think I figured out why I’ve been the crankiest, hungriest human.”

Stacey looked at her hand and then up at Terry. Her eyes reflected all the shock Terry expected.

“Terry,” she breathed, “what will you do?”

Terry almost laughed. There was something comforting about her friends all reacting with the same level of I don’t know as she had. “I was hoping you’d help me figure that out. I need to confirm that I’m right…But I don’t want to use my doctor. I’m afraid the lab will be watching him.”