This story touches on rape and abuse, including death threats.

Reap

missed moon
he takes what he wants

It’s my junior year of high school and my period is three weeks late. Two blue lines on a pregnancy test stick indicate that I’m pregnant. I tell no one.

I call and make an appointment at Planned Parenthood. Skip school. Show up thirty minutes early, alone and panicked. As I make my way toward the building, strangers crowd me and shout things that all blur together, but are clearly punctuated with hate.

righteousness and judgment
forcing themselves on me

I make it inside. Check in at the front desk and begin filling out paperwork. When my name is called, I’m escorted to the nurse’s station, where she draws my blood to run a pregnancy test. I’m hoping that the one from Walgreens was wrong.

I sit down with a counselor. She…