Emily is waiting in the campus doctor's surgery, kicking her leg up and down. She is nervous.
Her phone buzzes angrily, demanding attention. She reads the message.
"When are you coming home?" It's from David.
"I'm just at the doctor's," she texts back. "I'll be home in half an hour."
David does not know why she is at the doctor's, nor does he bother to ask. He is probably playing some mindless 90s computer game in his college bedroom, eating ramen and drinking tea. It is the middle of the day. Nobody else knows where Emily is.
Half an hour later, Emily knocks on David's door. He lets her in, and she sits down on the end of his bed. Dubstep music is playing. He goes to sit back down at his computer, but Emily tells him to close the door.
"Why?" he says. She tells him to just do it, for God's sake. He asks what's wrong.
"I've had a miscarriage," she says, quietly. That gets his attention.
"Oh," says David, softly. A pause. "Are you OK?"
"I'm fine," says Emily, and she cries a little into his shoulder.
"You're not fine," David says, and he doesn't know what else to say or do. He knew that she had been pregnant, and that she had been planning on having a termination, and then when her period came he assumed it meant that she'd made the whole thing up. He also knew that had she been pregnant he would have gone along with anything she wanted and that he was lucky to be with someone who could sort these things out with very little fuss. He lets Emily cry a little while longer and then they walk into town together and do not discuss the matter further.
The following evening, Emily gets very drunk and David breaks up with her because he is a coward and because he doesn't feel the same way about her as she does. She loves him, and she needs him now more than ever, and he knows that, but he is not her father for crying out loud and he needs some space to go away and think about what has happened. He doesn't want to look after her because even the sight of her sickens him. He does not know why.
Emily does not tell anyone what has happened because she is too ashamed. She simply accepts the events, or what she remembers of them, allows herself a few days off studying for finals, and takes medicine for the stomach cramps.