Guilty Pleasures

Naomi opened the door with a shocked look on her face. She self-consciously crossed her arms over her swollen belly, glad that she was wearing an oversized sweater that night, but it still didn’t do much to hide her figure.

“What are you doing here?”

“You weren’t at the prom,” Gerard replied before clenching his jaw. ‘Good one, you prick. She obviously knows she wasn’t there.’

“It seems I’m not the number one choice for a prom date,” Naomi said, avoiding his eyes, only serving to fuel the heartache and anger that were battling inside of him.

“Nae-“

“I’m over it,” she said with a shrug. “The whole ‘Nae gets one perfect high school moment’ thing was just a phase I was going through.”

“Can we talk?” he asked softly, gesturing to the house.

Naomi looked up and down the street, seeing her nosy neighbor looking out her window. Naomi sighed, deciding she shouldn’t take Gerard into the house.
Who knows what kind of badness that could lead to- and not just of the sexual variety.
Pulling the door shut as she stepped onto the porch, Gerard seemed entranced as the soft light illuminated her features.
“What did you want to talk about?” she asked in a small voice.

“Is it true?”

Naomi stiffened, not wanting to have this conversation tonight. Tightening her arms around her body, Naomi spoke.
“If you mean, did I get pregnant? Then yes, it’s true. I would think it would be rather obvious at this point.”

Gerard looked at her stomach, swallowing hard at the sight. It really wasn’t that obvious, unless someone happened to be as intimately aware of her body as he was.

“Is it mine?” Gerard asked, his eyes never leaving her stomach.

Naomi looked at the ground, holding back tears. “Do you think it’s not?”

“I really don’t know.”

“Then you should probably leave,” Naomi said quietly, her voice holding a surprising amount of resolve, considering the feelings that were churning inside of her.

“Nae, if it’s mine, why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Naomi replied sarcastically. “How about ‘theconsequences that come with having sex’ speech? Yeah, I’ve had that running through my head for the last few months.”

“What are you going to do?” Gerard asked, his head tilted slightly as he stared at the woman in front of him.

“I’m going to graduate,” Naomi replied.

“And after that?”

“I have some things planned,” she said vaguely, not wanting to get into with him.

“And you’re not going to tell me?”

“Do you honestly want to know?” Naomi asked in confusion. “You wanted me out of your life, remember? Gone. Well, guess what, I’m gone now. You don’t have to deal with me anymore.”

Naomi watched as Gerard seemed to be raging with an internal battle.

“Look…if this is the only reason you came over tonight, you should probably go.”

Gerard paused for a moment, before turning and walking back to his car. She watched as he drove away, finally letting the silent tears fall as she hugged her body even tighter.
The small swell of her belly that housed her child- their child- was really beginning to show.

Naomi did have things planned. She wasn’t going to waste her life. She wasn’t going to be another statistic. Her mother always said that things have a way of working themselves out, and Naomi believed they would. She just wished she could ignore that nagging part of her brain that made them want to work out with Gerard.
He’d just made it perfectly clear that he wanted no more involvement with her. She knew that Gerard would have put up a fight for anything he wanted. That just cemented her belief that she would be able to do this alone.