Jerks
By Tara Laskowski, first published in Coolest American Stories 2024
Over the course of her pregnancy, a woman reflects on her long and difficult friendship with someone she has known since high school.
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Plot Summary
A woman meets her friend at the park, where the friend’s daughter is playing as they talk on a bench. The woman recalls how their friendship was rekindled since she became pregnant, as it allowed her friend to bond with her again after years of separation. On the bench, they talk about the hardships of pregnancy, while the woman still mulls over how they drifted apart in high school due to the friend’s popularity. The friend asks her if the father knows of the woman’s pregnancy, to which the woman says she doesn’t know who the father is.
After hanging out with her friend at the park, the woman goes to 7-Eleven to get a Slurpee. Briefly, she ogles at the male cashier and fantasizes about him. On the way out, she is congratulated by a stranger on her pregnancy, to which she jokingly says that she isn’t pregnant. The stranger gets immediately embarrassed, and the woman decides that it’s for the best not to reveal her joke. In her car, she smokes alone.
A few days later, the friend visits the woman’s house to gift her skin cream for her belly. They then briefly tour the woman’s nursery before sitting in the living room to talk. The friend asks about the baby’s gender, but the woman doesn’t confirm. Afterward, the friend complains about her husband and how he works all the time but otherwise doesn’t lend her any support in parenting. The woman confesses that the father of her child doesn’t in fact know about her pregnancy. They then bond over the loneliness they feel in shouldering the responsibility of motherhood.
Three weeks before her due date, the woman wakes up at night with pain. She immediately calls her friend, who shows up to her house quickly. The friend asks her if she has a night bag, but the woman says she didn’t prepare one. After some time, the friend packs an impromptu night bag for her and drives her to the hospital. She consoles the woman through the whole drive, telling her to do breathing exercises and affirming her success as an upcoming mother. The friend confesses that her husband has been cheating on her all along.
In the hospital, the woman is put on a wheelchair, and the friend identifies herself as her birth coach. In her assigned room, her doctor then tells her that her birth shouldn’t take all that long, and her friend consoles her even further. While she births her baby, she apologizes to her friend for neglecting her and mistreating her in high school. While the woman pushes her baby out, she holds her friend’s hand.
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