this book is really, really good

Katsa had a problem. A really, really big problem. She hadn't been able to talk to Keegan in a while because he was always busy, but today she was going to talk to her two bestest friends, Rhint and Seeley.

They were all at Casa Nova's drinking whatever they had ordered and eating giant cookies. Katsa almost chickened out, but while they were shoving their faces, Katsa suddenly sputtered, "I'mpregnant!"

"Mm...hwuh?" Seeley asked with her mouth stuffed to full capacity, looking up from her food. A few crumbs fell out of her mouth, so she quickly finished chewing and swallowed the enormous amount of food. It kind of hurt her throat, but whatever. She wiped her mouth. "Sorry. What was that?"

She had been good friends with Katsa for a long time, since they were both little girls. And she'd known her brother Rhint for a long time too, so she felt perfectly comfortable with them. She reached across the table and stole a cherry from off the top of Rhint's cheesecake and ate it, smiling, Yum.

Rhint was too shocked at what he thought he heard his sister say. If he heard right, who was the father? When did this all happen? And what were Mom and Dad going to do when they found out Katsa was...pregnant? Oh god, what if they kicked her out, where would she go? Maybe she could live with Seeley.

"Did you just say," he replied with disbelief. "What I think you said?"

Katsa blushed and looked down at her hands in her lap. She nodded, but kept her mouth shut. This was really, really embarrassing. But she didn't know what to do, so she had to tell them.

Seeley looked back and forth between the two. "What? What did she say? What did you say?" she asked, feeling like she had missed something. Which she obviously had, because she hadn't been paying enough attention when Katsa blurted out her shocking revelation. She had been too busy paying attention to her yummy cake.

Rhint sort of ignored Seeley for a moment, but not because he didn't like her, or thought she was annoying or something, but it was because he was so shocked at what his sister just told him.

"When did this happen?" he asked her. "And with who?"

"I-I didn't mean to!" she said, burying her head in her arms. "I was drinking with my friend Keegan and we-we just..." But she didn't really need to continue because Rhint and Seeley obviously knew what they 'just' did.

"Could someone please tell me what you're talking about!?" Seeley demanded, putting her hands down on the table in a kind of frustrated way, but not like, slamming them down. She wasn't angry, she just wished they would tell her what was going on.

"Katsa is pregnant," Rhint mumbled. Those words felt weird on his tongue. Since when did his sister do things like that. Was this her first time? Oh god, she lost her virginity drunk? This guy better want to marry her, and if not he'd have hell to pay. Rhint would make sure of that.

"How are we going to tell Mom and Dad?" he asked.

Katsa made some distressed sounds from her hiding spots as Rhint repeated the news to Seeley. She had no idea what she was going to do. She needed to get a hold of Keegan as quickly as possible, that was all she knew.

Seeley gasped. She almost yelled out 'YOU'RE PREGNANT!?' for the entire world, but thankfully stopped herself just in time. She reached over and pulled Katsa into a side hug when she saw that the poor girl sounded like she was about to start hyperventilating. "Katsa, listen, it's gonna be okay!" she assured her, instantly going into Supportive Best Friend Mode. "Look, if your parents get pissed, you can just move in with me!" She knew how crazy their parents could be.

"Oh Katsa," Rhint mumbled shaking his head. "My poor Katsa." Rhint got on the other side and pulled his sister into a side hug too. He wasn't disappointed in her, he just felt bad for her. He really hoped this guy would marry her, or at least help her with the baby. And he was really worried what their parents would say/do. At least she could live with Seeley.

"When you get the courage to tell Mom and Dad," Rhint told her. "I'll be there for you."

Katsa wasn't sure if she was strong enough to tell her parents. They were crazy and she was really afraid of how they would react. She kinda thought that maybe it would be a better idea to just like, runaway, because they were so obviously going to kick her out anyway, if she told them.

"I-I just," she stuttered, "what's-s gonna hap-pen?" she finally choked out.

"I'll tell you what's gonna happen," Seeley told her assertively, rubbing her arm comfortingly. "Even though you didn't mean for this to happen, even if your parents are insane, you're gonna have a baby, and you're going to be an absolutely terrific mother." Assuming Katsa wanted to keep the baby, which Seeley assumed she would. Katsa wasn't the type to abort, and she probably wouldn't want to go with adoption either. Like I said, these were just Seeley's assumptions, but they were based off of years of friendship.

"Don't worry sis," Rhint said while pulling his sister closer and kissing the top of of head. "We'll help you through this thing. And I'm sure that Keegan guy will want to help out too." Because if he didn't Rhint would beat the shit out of him.

If Katsa had been thinking straight, she would have been extremely happy to have such a great friend and brother. But right now all she could think about was everything that was going to happen. She was going to have a baby. She was going to get kicked out. She was going to get fat. She was going to miss out on a ton of things. She was only sixteen!

So she sat in Rhint's arms for a good while, listening to comforting words from both her twin and Seeley, and weeping.

Finally the sobs turned to sniffing and hiccups, and then she could pull away. She was still extremely upset, and her eyes were huge and red and puffy. "Th-thanks," she sniffed. She was so scared!

"Anytime. Hey, we'll even help raise the baby. I love babies!" Seeley told her, smiling a reassuring smile. Of course that was a total lie, she hated babies, but she would so force herself to like them for Katsa's sake. She pulled a napkin out of the napkin dispenser and handed it to Katsa in case she wanted to wipe her eyes or blow her nose or something. "Here, hon."

Rhint with his arm still around Katsa, rubbed her shoulder comfortably. He felt so protective of his little sister, and would do anything for her. He would take a bullet for her if need be. (Whatever a bullet is.)

"Do you want us to be there," he started asking, "When you tell this Keegan guy or would you rather do it by yourself?"

She sniffed. "I-I can do it," she said. Because she also needed to tell Keegan that she loved him. And that, if she had to be pregnant, she was glad it was with him. And she didnt' want to say those things in front of her brother, no matter how close they were.