**Not really the prompt**

“Henry just told me his parents won’t be home tonight.” 

I shut my locker door and looked at Sarah. “And?”

“And he invited me to… hang out.” Her lips curved upward in a coy smile. “I think tonight might be the night.”

“The night?” I gave her a curious look. “For what?”

“To… you know!” I smiled at her. “Don’t make me say it, it ruins the fun of it!”

“Of course I know,” I said, laughing. 

“I’m nervous, if I’m being honest. But excited.” We began walking to class together.

“Wait, so you’ve never-”

“Shush!” She covered my mouth. “No, but after tonight that won’t be an issue anymore.”

“I just would’ve expected you to have at least a couple under your belt by now.”

“That’s the reputation I’ve carefully cultivated, so don’t go ruining it.” 

During class, I looked over at Sarah. She sat with her hands neatly folded. Throughout the day, she carried a calm expression. Inside, though, I knew she was as giddy as she could possibly be. She couldn’t hide it from a friend of seventeen years. 

I went home that night and slept by myself in a twin bed. The next morning, Sarah was different.

I shut my locker door and looked at her. “You haven’t said anything about last night.”

She glanced up at me, then quickly glanced back down. “What? Oh, yeah, it was… good.” Her eyes were cloudy, and they wouldn’t look at mine for more than a second. Her hands moved to her mouth to bite her fingernails, a tick I hadn’t seen her have in years.

“So did you… you know?” I teased, poking her on the shoulder. Her arm flinched. “Hey, are you okay, Sarah?”

That seemed to snap her out of her trance for a second. Her mouth opened to say something, but just as the words were about to leave it, the bell rang. 

A sigh escaped her. “We should get to class.”

During class, I looked over at Sarah. Her hands sat in her lap. Throughout the day, her face carried a nervous expression. Inside, I had no idea what was going on. I was worried. Whatever it was, I was going to get to the bottom of it. She couldn’t hide it from a friend of seventeen years.

Could she?

As the days grew shorter, Sarah seemed to, too. Every day seemed to wear her down, until she was a husk of the person I once knew. She started hanging out with Henry, Henry’s friends, and when they broke up, she didn’t run to me like I thought she would. She had new friends, and they taught her things I wouldn’t have thought she wanted to learn. 

Whatever they did, though, it seemed to revive her spirit, and she met each day with the same confidence she did before that night at Henry’s house. I saw her with a new boy every week. She stopped talking to me.

The days grew longer, and the school day seemed to, too. I devoted every waking moment to studying chemistry, biology, and the like. I graduated high school, I went to med school, I became a doctor. 

One day, I received an email from a potential patient, a pregnant woman with AIDS. She wanted help with managing her health during her pregnancy. I gladly accepted her request. 

Her name was Sarah.

I shut the door to her bedroom and looked at Sarah. She looked older, much older than she should have. Her once-beautiful features had been worn out. But she was still Sarah. 

“Hello, doctor,” she said politely. “It’s nice to meet you.” From her bed, she extended her bony hand out to shake mine.

My appearance must have changed over the years as well, I thought, because she doesn’t recognize me. Either that, or she doesn’t want to think about her past.

I examined her and helped her make plans to keep her health in check, and to hopefully prevent her disease from affecting her baby. I also made plans to check in on her weekly. Before leaving, I had a final question for her.

“Who is your baby’s father?”

“Oh, I’m afraid I don’t know. But I do know that I’m her mother, and that’s all that matters to me.” Sarah smiled. Despite her worn out looks, she had a certain vivacity about her. 

Over the next few months, I sat at Sarah’s bedside once a week. We would talk for hours, long past when her appointment time ended. She would tell me stories about her old life, a life filled with grandeur, with men pining after her every chance they’d get. She married a rich entrepreneur and had everything she could ever want. He died in a car crash, and she inherited his fortune, and could have any man she wanted. And she did. 

“When you live your life like that, there’re consequences. That’s what I learned. I only hope she doesn’t learn it as late as I did.” Sarah smiled and rubbed her belly.

The days grew shorter, and soon it was time for her baby to be delivered. We rushed her to the hospital, and she wasn’t looking good. She didn’t have the strength to push the baby out, and we had to perform a C-section. Her baby was small and frail, like her. We worried about her health, so we put her in the incubator. Sarah wasn’t doing much better.

“Doctor,” she called. “Come here.” I went and sat at her bedside. She reached out her hand, and I grabbed it. “I know it’s you.”

“I know,” I whispered.

“I just wanted to thank you. You’re the only person in my life who hasn’t tried to get something from me.”

I shut my eyes.

“She’s going to be okay. She’s going to be strong. Stronger than me.” Sarah said this confidently, and I believed her.  “She needs someone… like you… in her life.” Relaxing her hand, she closed her eyes.

I looked at Sarah. “Sarah?” Her hand was cold against mine. I felt my stomach drop, and my head started spinning. I closed my eyes again. “Please don’t leave me again.” I looked at Sarah.

Then I shut my eyes. Then I looked at Sarah. Then I shut my eyes, then I looked at Sarah, and she had her hand in my hand, and her hand off the side of the bed, and she carried no expression on her face and inside I knew that she was dead and you couldn’t hide that from anyone. I held her hand close to my heart and sobbed. 

I named her child Sarah.