I was waiting for Dania after her first prenatal appointment at the free clinic three months ago. I was still hung over from my bender the night before. I had gotten wasted and ended up sleeping with Lyle Katz, a guy six years older than me and with a lot less prospects. I had kicked him out and proceeded to empty my stomach into the toilet.

Two hours later I was driving Dania downtown while she teased me about taking my shirt off at the party. I was notorious for doing dumb crap when I was drunk, so the news was no surprise. I listened to her tell the story of my craziness with an encroaching sense of embarrassment.

Dania described a pathetic, nasty, and downright loathsome person who got into a fight and hooked up with some dude who had come to the party with his girlfriend.

That person was me. And I hated it.

Dania had gone back to get checked out and I had been sitting in the waiting room, trying not to be mortified by the things I had done the previous night and thumbing through a magazine ten years old. Something had made me look up and take in the room around me.

It was depressing.

These were people just as stuck in their destructive patterns as I was.

Underage moms. White trash. Meth addicts. The tired and useless.

And I was one of them. I had allowed myself to be.

I had been going through the motions for so long. With no self-respect and little to no pride. Looking at these people, so much like me, everything inside me screamed at me in realization. Life sucked. I was tired of life sucking. I was sick of being okay with my life sucking.

Something had sunk in deep. At the next visit I found the brochure for the community college and while it hadn’t been an “aha” light bulb moment. A tiny, dim flame had been lit and it had been there ever since.

Sure everything else in my life tried to overshadow it. But it was there. Slowly burning. Just waiting for me to allow it to grow.

And looking at my best friend, with her ever growing belly and good looks that became more tired and haggard every day, I could admit that I was starting to get scared that this was all there was to my life.

This was it.

The end.

How sad was that?

“I’m pretty beat,” I said lamely. Dania hopped off the counter, grabbing a candy bar and unwrapped it.

“I’m beginning to think you have a vitamin deficiency or something. You’re always tired. You used to be so much fun, Ells. You kind of suck lately,” Dania pouted, taking a bite out of her Hershey bar. She grabbed a bag of jalapeno chips and opened them as well.

“Yuck!” I made a face. Dania shrugged, taking a bite of chocolate and then popping a chip in her mouth.

“Cravings. They’re weird,” she remarked breezily. I wished I could get a read on what she thought about her pregnancy. You would think her constant drinking and partying would be answer enough.

But there were moments when I almost thought she cared. That she even looked forward to bringing that new life into the world.

She kept her prenatal appointments. She went every month. And I knew she still took the vitamins she had been prescribed. Once I had even caught her looking at baby clothes online.

Though when I tried to bring up what her plan was for after the baby was born, whether she’d keep it or give it up for adoption, she absolutely refused to discuss it.

I didn’t understand Dania. I don’t think I ever did.

“So you’re coming. One of us has to show off the body they still have. And Reggie’s thunder thighs are enough to make my eyes bleed. Plus, Shane’s been bugging the shit out of me to get you to come,” Dania said dismissively.

I snorted. That so was not going to happen this side of sanity.

I popped my bubble gum and wiped some sweat off my brow. The air conditioner had been on the fritz for the past two weeks and Jeb had yet to call a repairman. He was such a cheapskate. Right down to his shiny pants and bad toupee. He was the walking, talking stereotype of a weaselly, middle-aged shop owner.

“It’s hot as hell and with this thing cooking inside me, I need to cool off. Stu said he’d bring a keg. Come on!” Dania wheedled. I hated it when she wheedled. It grated on my nerves.

“Fine whatever,” I mumbled, giving her the victory she had been looking for. I was such a hard ass in most situations but was somehow unable to stand up to my best friend.

It was a serious character flaw.

“So what happened with you and Reggie the other morning? Did you rip her hair out?” I asked, though I probably shouldn’t have bothered to ask. I had seen Reggie yesterday and she was sporting a split lip. Dania apparently hadn’t been very forgiving.

Dania rolled her eyes and hopped down from the counter. She rolled her tiny tank top up over her belly. “I can’t stay mad at Reggie. She’s too stupid to know what she’s doing half the time,” she dismissed.

I came out from behind the cash register and started straightening the cans of whipped cream in the cooler knocked over from a teenage whip it raid.

“Why do you care though? You and Stu haven’t hooked up in years,” I asked. I didn’t expect Dania to answer me. This was one of the topics she would shut down each and every time.

“So, you and Shane gonna get naked tonight?” Dania asked, doing just what I knew she’d do. Change the subject.

I made a gagging noise. “Yeah if I want syphilis,” I smirked. I had slept with him when I was young and stupid. When I had been trying to fill the void in my heart by spreading my legs. I had thought sex would help me feel connected to someone.