Choices

Jacqueline McClain sat up with a start and looked to her bedside table where her radio was playing a song that screamed from the nearest rock station. She would be late for work if she didn’t hurry, and she didn’t want to give her boss any more reason to be wary.
She was young, 18 to be exact, so she didn’t have a great amount of job experience in the first place. It would barely hurt her boss if she were fired – he would only need a sign that posted ‘help wanted’ on the outside of the restaurant. She was only a waitress. She wasn’t hard to replace.
And to add something else on that list, she was two months pregnant. Of course, managements were always weary with pregnant employees because if hurt, the business would receive hell for quite some time.
In conclusion, Jackie did not want to be late.
Slowly, she rolled out of bed, noticing that her fiancée wasn’t around; it didn’t look like he had been around for a while. David was studying to be a lawyer and was in his sixth and final year of school. As he was a work-a-holic, Jackie wasn’t very surprised that he’d already left.
After a quick shower and a bite to eat, she put on her uniform – the standard tan pants, blue polo and apron – and fished her phone and car keys from the bottom of her purse. She found her phone only half charged and remembered that she’d forgotten about it the night before. Jackie opened it with the intent of looking through her calendar for the day but she had a text message.
It’s just Meg, she remembered. Her date with what’s-his-face was just last night. But, surely, Meg would have called and left a message on her voicemail. Soon after she opened the message, she realized it was from David.
[Hey babe. I couldn’t wake you this morning – you looked too cute. I’m going to schedule an appointment with the doctor. Not feeling well. But nothing to worry about. Love you!]
Jackie frowned at the message. She’d known that David was under the weather, but she hadn’t imagined it would be something too serious. He’d insisted it was only a bug, so Jackie was inclined to believe him. The one problem, though it was sadly a large one, was the fact that David had never gotten sick in the entire time that she’d known him, much less been engaged to him.
As she pulled away in her Jetta, she tried to push the dejected thoughts from her mind. She knew that he would be fine so there was no reason to worry.
After getting yelled at by her boss for almost being late, saying hello to her friends that had the current shift, and serving a fighting couple dragging a child, Jackie got into the flow of business and finally shoved her unnecessary distress to the back of her mind. David called her, as promised, at lunch. Jackie never pushed about the doctor’s meeting except to ask when it was, which was that same afternoon.
Having been reminded, Jackie remained stressed and unfocused the entire rest of the day, mixing up orders and forgetting drinks until one of the other girls talked their boss into letting her leave early. She drove home slowly, trying to see through the torrent of rain. She didn’t call David – just in case he was still with the doctor, but that didn’t help her worry any. She arrived at the apartment they shared at around six pm and quickly fished out a parking spot, cutting someone off in the process.
She hurried to the elevator and waited impatiently to get to the sixth floor. Finally, blessedly, she reached her level. After fumbling for the key, trying to open the door next to theirs, and tripping over a pair of shoes and a briefcase, she came face-to-face with her husband-to-be.
David was everything a girl could wish for. He was twenty-five years old as of two days ago, tall, dark, and amazingly handsome. He had a semi-short cut, far enough from his eyes to be able to see their clear baby-blue to-die-for color framed by eyelashes that would make any sensible girl jealous. But he wasn’t just the perfect guy; he was the perfect guy for her.
“Hey,” Was all he needed to say for Jackie to fall into his strong arms, sobbing. She didn’t really know what she was crying for – he was absolutely fine! But David held her and ran his fingers, calming her with soft words. It was probably the damn hormones.
They ate dinner and went to bed early, David claiming that Jackie needed her sleep. But she couldn’t fall asleep. Her mind kept wandering to the conversation they had at dinner. David was going in for testing the next day – his doctor claimed it was nothing and that he simply wanted to do a thorough check-up. Jackie wasn’t taking any of it. There was no way a check-up would include a CAT scan.
So the next day, Jackie skipped work and joined David at the hospital, sitting in waiting rooms for hours and moving to entirely different sections of the building three times. By the time the results came back, Jackie was already on the edge. It didn’t help that the information they gave was nothing good.
David was dying.
At first, Jackie was sure they were joking. She’d laughed and told them to stop fooling around and just tell them the results. David’s heart-wrenching face made Jackie stop and finally accept the worst. Because the worst was that, in any normal situation, David probably could have lived.
His problem was something with his kidney. It had a long, drawn-out scientific name that Jackie didn’t feel like paying attention to. But David was adopted. In any other situation, the parents could donate a kidney and there would be no problems what so ever. They couldn’t save David.
The next week was hard. Jackie and David hardly spoke, both coming home late and tired from work. They ate dinner at home, usually either watching TV or doing more work. There was almost no conversation. David had to return to the doctor’s twice that week for more check-ups, scans, and such. Jackie didn’t join him. She couldn’t bring herself to.
So it surprised her when she got a personal call from the doctor’s office. They said that she had a match. Jackie was the one person that could give David a kidney. He could live. But, like all things, there was a consequence. She’d have to give up her baby.
It was her future husband or her future child.
It was obvious that David came first. The child wasn’t born yet, and it was easy to make more kids, so why would she give up her husband? And yet, Jackie felt attached to the child. She couldn’t seem to be able to make up her mind, knowing her conscious wouldn’t agree either way.
So she didn’t choose.
She begged, pleaded, moaned, and prayed to simply not choose. Could she not wait until the last possible moment, get a c-section and then donate the kidney? She would wait. The doctors advised against it, but Jackie chose her gut.
It would work.
It had to.
Her family depended on it.

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This is a different style from Premonition. I was in a different mood when I wrote this, so it's very different from my normal style. What do you think?