Free Finding Purgatory by Kristina M Sanchez

both the doctor and Ani had talked to Tori about getting some kind of help. They fed her the usual platitudes about how there was no shame in needing to talk to someone. Her life was upside down, and it was okay to feel scared. Tori chafed at the idea of personal counseling but grudgingly agreed to try a support group for pregnant teens.
    She was doing it for the kid, she told herself. She’d promised she would do whatever she needed to while the thing was dependent on her. At the very least, it would keep Ani off her back. That kind of annoyance had to be bad. Everything was bad for pregnant women. Which was annoying.
    It was a vicious cycle.
    Maybe it would be nice to have someone understand at least. That was the one thing Tori had liked about group before. At least the other kids knew what it was like being in the foster system. That was one of the weirdest things about living in Ani’s house—the way her sister just didn’t get certain things.
    No one in Tori’s current personal sphere understood how creepy it was to have something growing inside her like a parasite. Misery loved company.
    A few minutes to seven, a woman approached. She introduced herself as Dana Goulding, the group’s leader. Though Tori hadn’t asked, she spilled her life story. Pregnant with twins at seventeen, a girl and a boy she gave up for adoption. Third child at twenty. She’d kept that girl. And she and her husband had just had a baby boy last year. She was thirty-two now and had been running this group for going on six years. She asked Tori how far along she was and told her she was among friends.
    “Yeah, I know. No one believes me. Not the first time, anyway.” Her smile was friendly rather than condescending. “But it’s a break, you know? Anyway. Just stick around. Listen. If you want to jump in, that’s fine. If not, that’s okay, too. I’ve never heard a couple of the other girls’ voices except for a hello here and there.”
    Dana then moved off to call the meeting to order.
    They were only five minutes into talking—a girl who looked way too tiny to be carrying a belly that big was recounting a fight she’d had with her mother the day before—when the door opened. Another girl walked in with a proud smile on her face and a car seat dangling from her hands.
    It was obvious most of the group knew her. Tori caught up quickly. This was the first time the girl had been back since she’d had her baby.
    “It’s been hard,” she said. “But also good. I’m really glad I didn’t give him up. I’m glad I have Keegan now.”
    That was cue for one of the other girls to start crying.
    “Talk to us, Alex,” Dana said while the girls on either side of Alex rubbed her back.
    “It just that it makes me feel like a dick that I’m giving my baby up,” Alex said.
    Dana nodded, her expression understanding. “It’s important to remember there are no easy choices here. There are positives and negatives no matter what path you’ve set down.” She leaned forward, hands on her knees, so she could look at Alex head-on. “It’s not selfish to decide the baby is better off being adopted. There’s nothing wrong with making that choice. Nothing at all.”
    Tori scoffed before she could help it. “Sure there’s nothing wrong, if you’re lucky.” There was a bitter taste on her tongue, burning the back of her throat. “You can just leave it all to chance that the assholes you leave your kid with will keep their word."
    The minute she said it, when she saw the pained expressions of some of the others, Tori regretted opening her mouth. She hadn’t meant to say anything so bitchy. These girls hadn’t done anything to her.
    “What the hell do—” one of the girls began, but Dana held her hand out.
    “Meg.” There was warning in her tone. She turned back to Tori. “It sounds like you have some personal experience. Do you want to talk about it?”
    Tori felt bad enough about her callous comment that she thought she owed