Teenage Pregnancy

"Sweetie, why aren't you eating?" My mother shot me a concerned glance across the dining room table. I dropped my fork.

"Mom, I have something to tell you." I swallowed the lump that was bent on preventing me from speaking.

"What is it?" I swallowed a few more times, but I still couldn't speak.

"Let me show you," I said after a moment. I calmly walked back to my room to get what I needed. When I returned to the dining room, I hid the object behind my back as I sat down.Mom's curious eyes waited.
I laid the pregnancy test out in front of her.

"What is this?" she said, looking over it. I felt my eyes fill up with tears as hers did, our blue eyes mirroring each other. "No..." she whispered, shaking her head. She stared at me for what seemed an eternity until I nodded.

"Yeah..."

The tears spilled out both of our eyes. She held her arms out to me, offering what I needed most: a hug.

"My poor baby!" she sobbed. "I can't believe this.I can't believe this. It isn't yours, say it isn't yours..."

"I'm sorry, Mama!" I cried, clutching her shirt in my fists. "I'm so sorry. I know I promised I wouldn't do that. It was an accident, I swear it was an accident!"

"I know, baby, they always are." We rocked back and forth for awhile. I don't know who was doing the comforting, but God knows we both needed it. I could understand why my mother was so upset, aside from the "You're my little girl" thing. I was the youngest of three girls. My sister Nicole had her first child at seventeen, and her second at eighteen, I think. Or nineteen. Then my sister Renee had her child at nineteen. Nicole's first was out of wedlock, as was Renee's, and she has no idea who the father is. I had promised my mom that I wouldn't make the same mistake as my sisters. I was going to grow up, get an education, get a good job, get married, then maybe have children. But that's been ruined now.

After a while we stopped, wiping the tears from our faces.

"It's ok, Laurie," my mother said firmly. "We'll take care of this." I nodded.

"Me and Jack already have an idea of what to do. Kinda."

"What is it? I'm all ears." I took a deep breath.

"Well, we can't keep it. We know that for sure." My mother nodded. "But we're not getting an abortion." She nodded again. "We're going to give it up for adoption."

"Okay," Mom said calmly. She wiped another tear from her face. "You're a smart girl, and I trust you to make the right decision. Have you told your father?"

I felt the blood drain from my face. "No, I can't! Y-you can't! He would kill Jack, he would kill me-- he would kill the baby!"

"Shh,Sweetie, I know. I was just asking. That's why you moved in with me, isn't it?" I nodded shamefully. "Well, we're going to have to enroll you in school-- I haven't done that yet. And we'll have to come up with an excuse for your dance lessons." I nodded, feeling at ease.

I didn't have to worry. Mama would always take care of me. Well, us now.