Meant to be

Jakob walks into the coffee shop where he's supposed to meet Stella. He was glad she decided to call him, even though she was the one who broke up with him four years ago. She had her reasons, she was going to college and he was just a high school senior, but now they were both in college and more mature to handle a relationship. He sees her sitting at the back of the café sipping her coffee, from what he could remember she drank mochachinos.

"Hi Stelle," he says as he pecks her lips lightly. "I'm really glad you called."

"Yeah," she says distractedly.

"I really think we'll work out now, we've both grown-"

"Jakob please shut up." He looks at her stunned, "Right, umm I have something to tell you."

"Oh."

"I'm . . . well . . .I'm."

"You have a boyfriend," he says getting up.

"No! Hell no!" she says shocked, "Please sit down and stop distracting me."

"Okay," he sighs as he sits back down.

"Well, I'm pregnant." He stares at her.

"You're what?"

"With child, expectant, carrying your spawn. . .I'm running out of ways to say it."

"My child?"

"Yeah." She nods quietly. "I'm keeping it too. You know I'm against abortion."

"Yeah," he chokes. "Mike is going to kill me."

"No, he won't."

"Oh great, he'll only chop of my balls then," he says comically, she laughs.

"So what do you want to do?"

"Take you to dinner," she laughs again. "Well we'll tell everyone we've been casually seeing each other for a while and whoops we got drunk and forgot to use a condom."

"So, are you going to come with me to tell my parents or are you too chicken?"

"I'll go with you, I'm not a jerk." He says taking her hand, "I'll tell my parents first, that way if Mike tries to kill me my dad can talk him out of it. He's very persuasive you know."

"True."

"I'll tell my parents alone though."

"Sure, whatever you like." She says taking a sip of coffee, "So what time are you picking me up for dinner?"

"Seven?"

"Kay, I'm staying at my Dad's."

"Speaking of that how long are you in town?"

"'Till Saturday."

"Gives us four days to tell our parents then," he mumbles, "I go back to school Saturday too."

Both leave the coffee shop with thousands of thoughts, worries, and hopes running through their heads. Jakob thought it would be best not to beat around the bush and tell his parents right away. He headed home to find only his mother was home.

"Hey Jake, where'd you go?"

"For coffee with Stella."

"Don't tell me you two hooked up again."

"Would that be so bad?"

"No, it's your life and she's a nice girl." She says calmly as she turns the page of her magazine.

"Hey is Dad home?"

"No, he just went out for a minute, should be back soon. Why?"

"No just wondering," he says, going off to his old room.

His room seemed so empty since almost all his stuff was in his dorm down state. He lies on his bed and just stares at the ceiling. Nine months from now he was going to be a father. So it's May now meaning this kid would be born in January. He'd still have five months of college left, he already has promised job at the TV studio, its pay was decent. Everything just seemed confusing, one minute he was care free the next his plate is full with responsibility.

The front door is heard slamming shut and Jakob slowly picks his sorry ass up and down the stairs. His parents are sitting in the kitchen just chatting.

"Hey boy," His father says spotting him.

"Hey," He says sitting at the table, "What would you say if I told you that you were going to be grandparents?"

"Ramona's pregnant!" Billie says excitedly.

"They called you?" Adie questions with big eyes.

"Not exactly."

"They told you before they left then?" Adie says confused.

"Umm no, Ramona isn't pregnant." He pauses, "Stella is, we got back together and well."

"Oh." Billie says glancing at his wife nervously. "I guess that's good too."

"Yeah go ahead and yell or something about immaturity and shit like that. I know you're dying to," he mumbles as he realizes his parents' faces turning red.

"You can't be a father! You're only twenty-one!" Adie practically screeches.

"I'll be twenty-two by the time the child's born," he says hopelessly.

"How could you get her pregnant?!" Billie demands. "Don't answer that."

"Y-y-you," Adie stutters. "What about college?"

"As of July I have a job at a television studio, the pay is pretty good and Stella finishes college this June and she's been promised a job at some teen magazine." Billie paces a bit.

"It's fine," He says finally, Adie stares at him as if to say how the hell is this fine?

"What?" Jakob says looking at his father.

"It's fine, I mean I was twenty-three when Joey was born, only one year difference, it's fine. You two will be fine."

"Are you in denial?!" Adie says pushing her hand through her hair. "They're kids!"

"He's a hell of a lot more mature than I was at his age!" Billie exclaims, "At least he's not going out on weed binges and shit like that."

"But still."

"He has a decent job in the works, he'll be fine, they'll make it through." He says cupping his wife's elbows and staring in her eyes, "Have faith."

"Fine," she says, walking out of the room, "Fine, fine, fine."

"Since there's no blood on your pants that means your testicles haven't been viciously removed, I take it Mike doesn't know yet."

"Nope," Jakob says drumming his finger tips on the table. "We're going to tell him before we leave this weekend."

"You do know he's going to be a hell of lot more pissed then your mom and I were."

"Yup."

"You want some iron underwear to protect your balls?"

"Does that exist?" Jakob asks slightly hopeful. Billie Joe just laughs.

"So you going to marry her?"

"I don't know."

"That's one of the questions Mike's going to ask." He states as he sits at the table with his son, "You better have a damn good answer for him too, he bought new hedge clippers."

"Pleasant."

"I'm just messing with you." Billie laughs, "But I don't want you rushing into getting married or anything."

"Yeah."

"Tre married Lisea because well her knocked her up." He says slowly, "His dad told him to do the right thing and marry her, but they weren't meant to be they got divorced like a year later."

"I know all this."

"I'm just reminding you, if you're going to get married do it once, do it right." Jakob looks his father straight in the eye. His parents went through hard times in their marriage but they always pulled through in the end, Ramona and Joey were just as invincible.

"We're taking it slow," he manages to say as he gets lost in deep thought of his future and whether Stella was going to be there the whole way. He wanted her to be there, he never stopped loving her but did she feel the same way about him.

"I'm going to shower now," he says just above a whisper. He heads up the stairs and as he passes his parent's bedroom he hears his mother crying. "Hey mom." She doesn't say anything. "I never wanted to hurt you."

"I know," she says wiping her eyes, "I just need to get used to my sons growing up."

"Well you'll always be my mom, kay?"

"Yeah, you're going to be a good father, you know that?" she says smiling through tears, "You're sweet and caring and you can control your language. You wouldn't believe the number of times your father uttered cusses when changing diapers and stuff."

"Haha okay," he says light heartedly.

He continues down the hallway into the washroom. He turns on the water and steps in the shower and let the hot water beat down on him. Amazing how one carefree night could lead to such a life change, but right now he was more worried about Stella. She probably had big plans for after college and now she's with child. Also telling Mike, he was as over-protective as a father could get.

Jakob steps out of the shower and dries off before heading to his room. He plucks some clean clothes out of his suitcase and gets dressed. He heads out to his car and drives to the Dirnt household. He rings the doorbell and who else but the bassist answers the door.

"Ahh so you're back." He chuckles as he lets him in.

"Guess so."

"Hey Jakob," Stella says coming into the entrance. She slips on her shoes and grabs her purse.

"Well have fun," Mike utters as he closes the door behind them.

Jakob looks over at Stella, to him she was gorgeous. Her hair is a sleek black, a bit longer than shoulder length. She's wearing a black tank top with bondage style jeans.

"So where are we going?" She asks, breaking his trance.

"Oh umm I don't know, where do you want to go? Any particular cravings?"

"You dummy, cravings don't start till . . .later," she says awkwardly. "How about Condolia's?"

"Uh sure," he says, making a U-turn and seeing he's going the wrong way. Condolia's was an Italian restaurant they used to go all the time after concerts because it was so close to the forum, they'd usually just take-out a pizza and eat it in the nearby park. "So do you want to eat there or in the park?"

"Let's eat there, that park really went downhill lately."

"Yeah, I guess smoking pot isn't a good idea now."

"Probably not," she laughs.

They get to the restaurant and take a seat at a table near the back of the restaurant.

"We should make you a doctor's appointment soon," Jakob says, thinking. He just couldn't get his mind of his unborn child.

"Yeah, when I get back to school." She says glancing over the menu.

"Did you drive?"

"Yeah, you flew?"

"Yup, Joey lent me his car till I go back." He says casually, he was glad their colleges were only half an hour away from each other. "Mind if I drive back with you?"

"What about your flight?"

"I didn't get a return flight," he tries to explain but she looks confused, "For my birthday my parents got me a pass for ten flights so it's open ended."

"Oh, okay," she says, catching on. "Yeah, I'd love it if you drove down with me."

They order their food and catch up on old times, their colleges might have been close but they never hung out.

"I'm sorry I was such a bitch in high school," Stella says sipping her drink.

"S'okay, I deserved some of your bitchiness," he says, laughing.