Seth* called me!" Allison squealed, leaning against her locker. Until then, I'd been focused on getting my books for my next class. But Allison's excitement caught my attention right away.

Seth had graduated from high school two years ago. He was the type of guy who dated lots of girls but never took any of them seriously. Allison had a crush on him for years, but he'd never given her a second thought until recently.

I exchanged a worried look with our friend, Sarah, but Allison didn't notice at all.

"He asked me out on a date," she gushed. "He has the entire weekend planned."

"Weekend?" I asked, trying to hide my concern.

"He goes to college two hours away," Allison explained. "He says I can stay with a girl who lives in his dorm."

"Still," Sarah said, "your parents will never go for this."

Allison shrugged her shoulders, annoyed. "I'll figure it out."

"Allison," Sarah asked slowly, "Are you sure you should …"

"He's totally changed since high school," Allison shot back.

The bell rang and we headed to class. I had a sinking feeling that Allison was headed for trouble. But I didn't want to upset her, so I didn't say much more about her plans.

Allison knew her parents would never agree to let her visit Seth at college. So she told them she was spending the weekend with Sarah and me.

"I don't want to be part of this lie," I told Sarah after school. "I don't know what to do. I'd hate to get her in trouble with her mom and dad."

"Yeah," Sarah admitted. "What do we do? Tell on her? Hopefully he'll take her out once and then it will be over."

But as the weeks went by, Allison and Seth got more and more serious. Seth became Allison's world. He was all she talked about. She continued to lie to her parents because she didn't want them to find out about Seth. She stopped going to youth group. And I couldn't help but notice that she didn't hand in some homework assignments.

Even though they'd only been dating for three months, Allison spent the weekend of her 18th birthday with Seth. The next Monday, she came back to school smiling.

"Look!" she squealed, flashing a diamond ring as we stood around before class. "We're engaged."

Sarah and I stared at the ring, then each other.

"Allison," I said slowly. "You're a senior. What about your plans for college?"

"Everything will work out," she said.

"But you haven't even told your parents about Seth," Sarah said.

"I'm going to tell them soon," Allison protested.

"We're just really worried," I said. "We don't hang out like we used to. And I couldn't help but notice you've forgotten your homework a few times."

"You're checking up on me?" Allison said angrily, yanking her backpack over her shoulder. "If you were my real friends, you'd be happy for me." She stormed away.

For the next few weeks, Allison didn't speak to Sarah or me. I felt like Seth had stolen one of my best friends.

"We have to talk to her," Sarah said one day at lunch.

I glanced across the cafeteria and saw Allison sitting alone, flipping through a bridal magazine. "What are we going to say?" I asked. "She doesn't want to talk to us."

Sarah shrugged. "But we have to do something. …

Maybe we should tell someone about our concerns."

"Who?" I asked. "If we tell her parents, she'll never talk to us. What about our youth pastor? Maybe he can help."

"I don't know," Sarah said. "She'd think we told just because we don't like Seth."

"She needs help," I said. I felt horrible, like there was nothing I could to help my friend, except pray for her.

The following week, I couldn't help but notice that Allison looked really sick. For the first time in weeks, she sat next to us at lunch.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

A tear slipped down her cheek. "I might be pregnant," she whispered.

"Did you take a test?" Sarah asked, concerned.

"I couldn't," she sobbed. "I'm too afraid."

"Does Seth know?" I asked.

"I told him," she cried. "He broke up with me."

I took a deep breath. "OK," I said. "After school we'll go with you to get a pregnancy test."

Allison agreed, and when the final bell rang we drove to the drugstore and bought a pregnancy test. Then we went back to my house and waited while Allison took it.

A few minutes later, she came out of the bathroom and handed the test to Sarah.

Sarah and I looked at the test, then the back of the box which explained what all the different lines meant.

"It's negative," I told her. "You're not pregnant."

She forced a smile. "I guess I should call Seth."

"He broke up with you because he thought you were pregnant," Sarah said gently. "Do you really want to be with a guy like that?"

"Well, I guess you're right," Allison admitted, then started crying again. "I just feel so guilty about everything."

Sarah and I knew that Allison needed help. So we convinced her to tell her youth group leader everything that had happened. Her youth group leader was really understanding, and even helped Allison tell her parents about Seth. At first, they were shocked and angry. But their relationship survived.

Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that Sarah and I should have tried to convince Allison to talk to someone a lot earlier. Allison made her own choices, but maybe we could have saved her some heartache. It's hard to know.

Even though I'm not sure that we did everything right, I'm glad that Sarah and I were there for Allison when she was feeling alone and afraid. Even though our friendship was strained, we showed love to her. And I'm proud, too, of the promise we made to each other: That we'd always speak up when one of us needed a reality check—and if that person didn't listen, we wouldn't hesitate to talk to a caring adult.

*name has been changed

Read more from 'It Happened to Me'

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