"GOD! Fuck this shit, honestly." Gabby's shout could be heard through the rickety bathroom door.

"What's wrong now?" Natalie called from the small kitchen.

Two other voices echoed from the singular bedroom, though you couldn't quite hear what they'd asked.

It was distracting and chaotic, but that's what you dealt with when you lived with 5 other girls in a one bedroom apartment. I jotted down some quick math, calculating out my paycheck and my upcoming bills, "Yeah, what's up Gabby?" My voice sounded distracted, even to myself.

The bathroom door swung open, slamming into the doorstop. If it had weighed more than wet cardboard it might have been more intimidating, "You know what's fucking wrong? This is what's wrong," Gabby held up her hand showing off a sleek metal bracelet around her wrist. A sister to the bracelets all of us wore, except hers had a small red blinking light in the center of it.

Natalie looked concerned, "That can't be right. You're a week and a half early."

"I fucking know. What absolute garbage is this? We're all on a schedule. I cannot possibly be about to bleed. This cannot be happening. I don't have the money to pay the fertility due and rent this week. I've got $300 to my name right now." Gabby tore into her bag on the floor by the couch, pulling out her wallet and her phone.

"It could be wrong," I murmured.

"It's never wrong, though," Nat spared a glance in my direction. She looked worried.

I'm sure the emotion was mirrored on my face. If Gabby was early, that'd mean all of us would be earlier than normal as well. we'd been synced for the last 7 months and any change -- even just a few days -- in bill dates could make or break our bank accounts. I glanced back down at the dates I'd marked for bills; water, electricity, phone, rent, and lastly fertility dues. I moved it forward a week. I could still make my payments, but just barely. The offer to front Gabby the $200 to pay her bill this week died on my lips.

Charlotte and Alicia, stepped out of the bedroom, clearly dressed in pajamas, "What's wrong?" "Why are you yelling so loud?" They both asked. They both worked nightshifts down at the hospital, no doubt they were more than a little miffed they'd been woken up.

"Gabby's a week and a half early," Nat filled them in.

The annoyed expressions melted off their face, leaving behind only worry.

"No"

"Oh, God."

"Ffffffffff," another curse was building on Gabby's lips as she threw her wallet back into her bag. She pulled up her bank account on her phone before finishing with an, "UCK!" She tossed the phone carelessly back into her bag, "Yep. I'm done for. I have $342 to my name. I'll have almost $700 after my paycheck next week, but nah my uterus couldn't wait. It had to slice itself up real good. If only it could have sliced my throat while we're at it. That would have been faster."

"How much do you need?" Natalie continued buttering the toast she'd been making. Her thoughts were likely on the same train as ours, wondering what the best course of action would be: lend Gabby money to pay her bills and risk not paying ourselves, or risk her eviction which would not only endanger her but also raise our own rent as well. It was a lose-lose situation.

"I need another $200," she sounded so young and lost. As much as Gabby tried to sound tough, she was just like the rest of us, scared.

We liked to try to put it out of minds, but sometimes in the dark of the night one of us would break down under the strain. The singular bedroom had the entire floor covered in mattresses. It was where we all slept. During those moments in the dark, we would all huddle close and tell happy memories to each other. We'd draw strength from each other, from the bonds of our friendship. It was the only way to keep the haunted feeling from creeping in and stealing our sanity.

There was only one option. "I have $50 I can spare until you get your next check." I dug the crumpled fifty out of my wallet. I'd shut myself away in the freezer at work to cry for a second when the older kindly gentleman had left it as a tip for me. It was a security blanket, but if it kept Gabby, or even just any of us, safe for another month then I didn't mind parting with it.

Natalie was next, and Charlotte and Alicia followed offering their own small gifts of money.

Gabby was silent for a moment before she broke into sobs, "I can't. I can't keep doing this. It's always me. I'm sorry. God, I'm so sorry. How can you always keep supporting me." It was true that out of all of us, Gabby had the income that fluctuated the most. She'd managed to snag a job as a cashier at a local boutique, but her hours weren't regular and the management conveniently misplaced her application for full-time employment. She made enough to survive, but only just barely.

"Oh sweetie, no," Nat came over and tried to pull Gabby into an embrace, but she shrugged it off. "We know you're good for the money. We all have had rough patches where we needed help. We've gotta stick together you know?"

As touching as Nat's speech was, Gabby was already wiping off her tears, a look of steely determination graced her features. "I can't keep doing this to you guys. I refuse. You shouldn't have to support yourself and me. I'll deal with it. It's my own uterus' fault, not yours."

"What are you going to do?" Charlotte leaned against the doorjamb, skepticism laced her words.

Gabby was shoving her phone and wallet into her faded blue jeans, "I'm gonna enter the lottery."

Nat lunged for her, "No! Listen to me Gabby don't do that. You can't. I hate it. I hate it every day knowing that the possibility that they could call me up there at any second is looming over my head. You don't want to live with that on your shoulders, trust me please." There were tears in her eyes, "I was stupid. It's a lot of money, but it isn't worth your sanity or your peace of mind. I shouldn't have ever entered. I was such a stupid bitch."

The sharp language from sweet gentle Natalie was offputting, to say the least. We'd known that she'd entered into the lottery only because the day that Cecilia Bird had broken the news to the world she'd sheltered herself in the only bedroom and cried for hours.

"Please. Don't make the same mistake I did, Gabby." Nat had stepped away from the group, she stood hugging herself as much for comfort as well as protection.

"Mistake? No one has been taken --"

"--That we know of," Charlotte muttered.

"Charlotte," I sent her a disapproving look, clearly that wasn't wasn't the kind of commentary Nat needed to hear at the moment.

She shrugged in response and mouthed a 'sorry'.

"No one has been taken," Gabby continued. "Even the government came out and mentioned the chances were slim to none since our races evolved on different planets in completely different galaxies."

I mean to be fair that was to save their asses from getting in trouble over misleading the female populace, soooo, I kept that thought to myself, though. It wasn't like me to be quite so cynical about life, but I'd been following Ms. Bird's blog ever since she'd outed the whole Temani Bercari ordeal, morbidly fascinated with the fate of those we knew that had entered. I sent a small prayer of thanks to whatever divine being had been looking out for me for the last 426 days, constantly throwing small inconvenience after small inconvenience to keep me away from the Tampa Val'Dornn Genetics Lab.

"I have to do something for myself. I don't...I can't keep mooching off of you guys like a parasite. That's not how I wanted to live my life." Gabby's voice cracked. We'd all had aspirations from before when we were young and the world was a little more forgiving. "I love you guys. I'll be back by 7."

"Gabby, please!" Nat tried to beg, but Gabby was already out the door. For a second Nat just stood there frozen before she grabbed the toast that she'd been making and fled into the bedroom locking the door behind her.

Charlotte and Alicia shared a glance, "Well. I guess it's time we got up then and got ready for the day...or night I suppose."