Rachel tried to smile through her tears, but it was a weak attempt, and it only made her cry more.
Her friend Clara, sitting opposite her merely shook her head, a veiled look of disgust written over her face. "Only you Rachel! Only you can turn such a colossal mistake into an epic fail."
The colossal mistake was falling in love with a public figure like Nicholas, the epic fail was trying to do something about the love – and on his wedding day.
Rachel winced, sure that her friend would think even worse of her when she found out Rachel was pregnant. Everything seemed to be happening so fast, one moment she was ready to go off to college to chase her dreams, and the next, she had been turned into a meme for stupidity, and pregnant for a man that didn't even remember her name!
At the young age of nineteen, and with no living relatives, Rachel didn't know what to do.
"C-clara please you have to help me. I don't know what to do."
Clara snorted. She had been reading gossip posts from her phone out loud to Rachel who had switched off her own phone after her meeting with Nicholas blew up on the internet.
"If you're asking me to still be your friend when we go to college, I'm sorry, I can't. I want to be a popular girl in school, and no one would want to be friends with me if they see me hanging with the stupid fan girl who crashed Nicholas wedding –"
"Clara, I didn't –" Rachel started to say, then she drew in a breath. "Clara I'm pregnant."
Her friend paused a bit, then to Rachel's surprise, the only friend she'd had since grade school burst out laughing at her predicament.
Clara waved a hand, finally recovering from her bout of laughter. "I'm so sorry Rachel, but at this point, I think I'm going to have to stay away from you – nothing personal, just that you seem to be making all the wrong choices, and I need to associate myself with go-getters. I mean what the fuck happened to using protection!"
Rachel remained silent as the tears kept pouring down her eyes. She watched as her only friend walked out on her. She would not beg! No, not this time –
"Clara please don't go. I need you!"
Rachel watched with growing hope as her friend turned around and matched towards her. A small smile curved at the corner of her lips. She knew Clara could be mean at times, but she wasn't heartless. There was no way Clara would abandon her in her moment of need.
Rachel had already stretched out her arms for a hug, only for Clara to shove a phone in front of her face.
"Oh you just have to watch this video Rachel," Her tone was smug, if a little amused.
Rachel winced, but the video was already playing before she could object, and then, she was forced to relieve the moment of her humiliation, replayed with the heightened clarity of a video.
She heard her own voice, naïve and stupid. "I'm pregnant for you!" She saw the guards trying to drag her away. The video was titled 'The crazy stalker fan.'
Even though she knew she should not have, Rachel found herself opening the comments. Maybe she had developed a thirst for self-destruction, but she read through each of the comments that mocked her.
'I don't blame the girl. I got pregnant for him just watching him on TV. Nicholas Grey has that effect!'
Another said, 'POV; when the drunk ho you fucked at a strip club decides to ruin your wedding.'
And still another one, 'People these days are so shameless! Look how she's trying to ruin his wedding, and all for clout!'
She was still scrolling through when Clara snatched back the phone. "If you think I'd associate with such scandal, you have another think coming. I'm off to study performing arts and become an A list celebrity, not someone who got viral for being stupid on camera."
She turned to leave then, but paused by the door to deliver a last bruising remark. "It's needless to say your career as a reporter is over before it even began. If you think you can survive this, you're even more naïve than when you thought Nicholas would ever love someone like you."
She closed the door then, and was gone, singing something about being a go-getter who made the best decisions, and Rachel finally let herself fall apart as nerve racking sobs tore through her throat.
She coiled up on the couch of a home that would soon no longer be hers, if she failed to pay rent in two days time, and let her tears fall freely.
She wept because of the humiliation she had brought on herself, and the fact that Nicholas would never be hers. She wept for the loss of her best friend, her innocence. She wept because she was pregnant for a man who didn't even remember her.
Five hours later, Rachel sat on the same couch. She had showered, eaten a broth, and now she was ready to face the mess that was her life and make something of it. She was nothing if not resilient.
She was going to find a way to get through this, or she would die trying.