Be My Baby

Story about love and how quickly things can change.

4:14 p.m.

It felt like it was just days ago, but instead, it was almost three months ago, today. I still thought about it, while I’m lying alone at night staring into the darkness of the night. It haunted my dreams, and I woke up in sweats, screaming without making a sound my heart pounding making me feel like I’m dying. Then, I would get up and either throw-up in the toilet or just hack out my juts, nothing coming up. No one there to comfort me.

 I stood on the sidewalk, and just beyond me was a yard. A forbidden place, one I’d never visited before then: off limits. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. My breath was coming in gasps, like I’d just run a marathon. My shaking hands sweat, and I rubbed them against my jeans.

Then, I took that first step, like one into a minefield. It was cautious and carefully placed. Soon, I found myself on the porch, my fist lightly tapping on the door in front of me.

It opened to reveal a familiar face. The woman smiled at me, the corners of her eyes crinkled, making her seem older than her thirty years.

“Hello, Linney,” she said in her soft, comforting voice.

“Hi, Mrs. Johnson,” I said back, my voice cracking slightly. I wrung my hands nervously. “Is Trent here?”

“He’s practicing in the park. Would you like me to give him a message?”

“No,” I said, turning, “that’s fine. I’ll just go see him right now.”

Mrs. Johnson grabbed my arm softly to keep me from going any further. She turned me towards her, the smile now gone. A concerned look replaced it.

“Are you alright, Linney?” she asked me, and I knew it’d be hard to lie.

I gave her my most convincing smile. “I’m fine.”

I hurried off the porch and crossed the forbidden lawn before she could say anything else.

 

4:25 p.m.

I made it to the park in record time by cutting behind Mr. Al’s paint shop and the bakery. At the far end of the park, on the soccer field, I could see Trent. He was running down the field, doing a quick touch-pass with the rest of his soccer team. He looked normal, like nothing happened. His life went on. He probably didn’t have nightmares of that night.

I walked towards him, trying to keep all of my nerves bundled up. Just as I neared the edge of the field, the coach called a break. Trent spied me, raised a hand in ‘hello’, and jogged over to me.

“Hey,” he said, pulling me in for a kiss.

I backed away, trying not to look him in the eyes. I could see his smile out of my peripheral vision.

“I’m not too sweaty,” he joked, pulling in for a hug. When I pulled away again, his smile disappeared. “What’s wrong, Lin?”

My throat dried up then, tears finally breaking away to roll down my face. I sobbed, trying to keep control. Though, I knew I’d lost it. I fell to my knees with Trent’s arms around my shoulders, holding me to him.

 

4:03 p.m.

The door chimed as I pulled it open and entered the store. The man behind the cash register looked up from his magazine and gave me a half smile. I couldn’t smile back, so I continued on into the store.

I walked down the isles, pretending to just look around, like I wasn’t there for something. The next isle over, I found them: the pregnancy tests. I looked at them, considering which one I should buy. I had no idea which one’s best.

I picked a box with two tests, and then continued on browsing. To try to make it less embarrassing for me, I grabbed a bag of chips and a coke. Then, I made my way towards the cash register.

The guy sat up straighter on his stool behind the counter, putting down his magazine. I placed my three things on the counter, staring at something behind his shoulder. He looked at my items and then at me, and I tried not to blush.

“Is this-“ his voice cracked, and he cleared it, “is this all?”

I nodded my head, still avoiding eye contact. He quickly rung up my stuff and gave me the total amount. I handed him a twenty, took my change, and hurried out of there.

A couple minutes later, I stood in the bathroom attached to my kitchen. I stared at the two little sticks in the bathroom sink, in shock. I looked at the pink lines again, making sure that I saw them right the first thirty times.

I felt light headed then and sank down to the floor. I hugged my knees to my chest and tried to think. Suddenly, I got up, grabbed one of the sticks, and quickly walked out of the house, slamming the door behind me.

 

4:29 p.m.

I finally stopped crying enough to control my sobs. Trent rubbed my back and made comforting sounds. When I looked up at him, he had an expression of concern.

“I’m sorry,” I said, pushing at his chest, trying to get some distance between us. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

It didn’t fool him. “What happened, Linney?”

Back on the field, his coach called out to him. He turned to signal him to give him a few more minutes.

“I-it’s stupid,” I stuttered. “I can tell you later. It’s not really that important.”

“No, tell me now,” he said, the look of concern not going away.

I opened my mouth a few time to tell him, but ended up closing it again. I pulled out the pregnancy test stick from my back pocket and handed it to him.

Trent stared down at it, not knowing what to do, when he looked back up at me, he gave me a concealed look.

“What does this mean?” he asked.

I took in a deep breath then let it out. “I’m pregnant, Trent.”

“Is it mine?” he asked, glancing back at him team, like he expected them to know what was going on.

I gave him a look of disbelief, hurt that he’d asked that. “Of course it is.” I looked at his friends too and lowered my voice. “I told you it was my first time.”

“You could’ve lied.”

My mouth dropped opened and I stood up quickly. “How could you. You’re calling my a liar? I don’t believe this.”

He stood up too, blocking me from his teammate’s view. “Well,” he said quietly, “what are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know.” He shifted his feet, looking down at them. “Can’t you like…do something about it. Maybe get rid of it.”

I took a step back, completely shocked he’d even suggested it. We were supposed to be in this together. We were supposed to love each other.

“I’m not going to have an abortion,” I whispered violently, angry at him. “If you can’t man up, then you can just leave. Go back to your friends instead of help your girlfriend.”

His coach called out to him again, and we glanced over at him. The whole team was watching them now. Trent to a step towards them, and then glanced back at me.

“Go,” I said, tears filling my eyes again.

He winced, but turned and jogged back to the group. I wiped away my tears, picked up the stick and walked home.

 

4:38 p.m.

They say that the pain is a relief, but as I stared down at my dad’s gun, I reconsidered it. It didn’t seem right to waste a baby’s life just to take my own.

I glanced down at my belly that had just begun forming. I took the hand that didn’t hold the gun and rubbed it softly. To think that there was a human inside of there.

I took a shaky breath and raised the gun to my head, prepared to pull the trigger.

“Linney, no!”

A body slammed into mine, throwing me off the couch. We went rolling, my head slamming into the coffee table. The gun went off, the sound ringing in my ears.

Trent and I stared at each other in silence. Then we both glanced at his arm, where blood was soaking his shirt around a small hole. He winced, grabbing his arm.

I gently shook him, trying to stop the blood flow at the same time.

I grabbed the phone off the side table while handing a hand to his arm. I dialed the numbers I’d memorized as a little girl. Telling the woman who answered what was going on.

 

4:52 p.m.

They’d brought in a stretcher and gently lifted Trent onto it. When they wrapped gauze around his arm to keep the wound from bleeding, he woke up. He grabbed my hand, keeping them from taking him to the ambulance.

He said something softly and I leaned in to hear him.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked. “I was wrong.” He took a deep breath, clearly using all his energy. “I want you to keep it. I want to have a kid with you. I love you.”

I leaned down to whisper into his ear. “I dont," I said harshly. "I know now that I don't need you."

I pulled back and saw that he was looking at me in confusion. Then, his eyes glazed over and shut.

 

(Most Unique)

Reviews

[Ni1408]

wow

[tamari-haruma]

THIS is amazong! i loved how it flowed througout!i could understand how she felt at that time! but i would like to ask you something? why did she say that she could live without him? the last bit? she said she doesn't need him when clearly she does?? anyhowz this a great story i enjoyed reading it well done!

[Maurizio]

Great writing! Technically, it sounds and reads very nice. Like a song that flows pleasingly to the ear. As far as the subject matter, well, I can't relate to it. But what's more important is that you have the skill and ability to write in a clear and defined way. It's not confusing and the reader can easily follow! Great job. Keep it up.

[Bette]

this is great! i want to know did she keep the baby???????

[Emily Quinn]

i loved this, what a great ending showing strength, yet very tragic at the same time. Throughout the story you think it is going to be merely a well written tale of young pregnancy and the difficult decisions that come with it, but you developed it that much further and made it that much more compelling. There were a few spelling and grammatical errors but thats an easy fix with a quick edit. great job

[Aldora Sparrow]

Wow. This really shows that so much can happen in just an hour. I love the sort of one-shots that you made with the time. great job! Thank you for submitting to my contest!

[Jade Mayhew]

I liked this a lot. Teen angst, and sadly, such a common thing. :/ Unfortunately, it doesn't always have the happy ending where the guy decides to stay with the pregnant girl.

I found a couple of minor typos that you may want to consider fixing. In the first paragraph, it says, "juts" instead of "guts."
And where she's getting the pregnancy test, you wrote it as "isles" instead of "aisles."
Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Thanks so much for entering it in my contest! Best of luck!

[Bachman]

I liked this, very well written, and I really like how you did it instead of chapters or what have you you have times, I've not read alot of writings that listen times. It's more something you see in movies. I like this story.