Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,58

that him fighting those bastards by himself?”

Cole doesn’t say anything. Instead, with a grim look on his face, he looks past my shoulder and frowns at Kristine who’s whimpering on the floor.

“Is she giving birth?” he mumbles in shock. “What the fuck?”

“I’ve been asking myself the same question since I woke up this morning.”

Kristine’s face scrunched up in agony as the pool of blood grows larger.

This is not good. It’s too much blood, too much. Her face is pale. She really looks like she’s about to pass out. I quickly turn back to her.

“Now is not the time to be a midwife, Mia,” Cole says worriedly, but he quickly gets into action, going around me in a crouched position, but he still looks like he’s listening intently for something.

“Unfortunately, babies don’t follow rules, Cole.”

“I need to get you out of here, now!” I ignore him. “Before the cops get here. I’m pretty sure they’re on their fucking way right now.”

“Yeah, well, this baby is well on its way, so help me, Cole.”

I grab the extra sheet I took and try to wring it clean, dislodging most of the dust. Anxiety grips my throat at the harsh, unsanitary conditions but still, I quickly wrap the sheet in way to receive the baby and then widen Kristine’s legs some more. She protests but manages to keep them wide. “Hold her head up, Cole.”

He does but he’s not happy about any of this. “Didn’t you hear me? I have to get you out.”

“Hold her head and hold her hand!”

“No,” Kristine moans. “Just leave me here… ah!”

That one scream escapes her lips with a helpless kind of torture that makes my heart stop, but the baby’s head is almost out.

“One more pu—”

She pushes and on instinct, I pull. And just like that, an incredibly tiny baby is born… with the cord wrapped around her neck.

Oh God.

“Fuck!” Cole whispers harshly, but I don’t have time to ask him what he knows about nuchal cord.

With an urgency that steals my breath away, fear slamming me every which way, I quickly work to unwrap the umbilical cord from around the baby’s neck with numb, blood coated fingers.

But still, she’s not crying or making a sound. She sounds almost... no!

In that moment, my memory chooses to take me back to a time I flipped through a Obstetrics & Gynecology textbook when I sat next to Nancy at one of her doctor’s appointments a year ago

In that moment, I shove fear down as far as possible. Everything blurs and drowns into the background. The shouting, the cursing, the fighting, Kristine’s cries, the tumultuous waves of agony crashing into my body from my head to the rest of my body, it all blurs as I focus on the child in my arms, covered in blood.

It’s a premature baby.

The baby can’t breathe.

The cord wasn’t that tightly wrapped around her neck so maybe the blood supply wasn’t completely cut off?

But maybe it’s a stillborn?

No! There’s just no way…

“Mia, what’s happening?” Cole questions.

I ignore them.

“Why isn’t there any crying?” Kristine wails, her voice weak and hoarse from crying and screaming. “Is my baby dead?”

I don’t answer, having no choice but to cut the chord with the one of the knives as far from the baby as possible. These blades are not sanitary at all, but what else can I do?

“Oh my god, Mia, is my baby dead?”

Silence.

“Goddamn it, Mia, tell me! What’s wrong?”

I ignore her. Quickly, I put two fingers on the baby’s chest and start performing infant CPR, being careful not to apply a lot of pressure because I can just as easily crush the baby’s chest without even meaning to.

I can hear Kristine scream hysterically, asking questions but I ignore her. I don’t have an airbag suitable for a baby or even for an adult for that matter, so I have no choice but to blow in the baby’s mouth like she’s drowning.

Don’t die.

Please don’t die.

Everything else in my life has been death and darkness, please God, not this baby.

My heart is beating furiously, an urgency to it that makes my eyes well up with tears.

Just then, the baby gasps, her tiny lips parting with the first breath and then… she starts crying.

“Oh my God,” Kristine cries.

For a moment, just one moment, everything holds still. The universe aligns and I think I see its beauty. The bright light. The brilliance of the stars in the sky. The miracle of life… but the truth is, life is ugly, made so when I