I've Hoped For Change, It Gets Better Everyday

I woke up to the sounds of yelling. I was pretty confused as I rolled out of bed, put on my glasses and looked at the clock. It was only midnight. I walked down the stairs to find Jack and his parents, Linda and her parents, and my parents in the living room.

“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to rub the sleep from my eyes and focus.

“You!” My Aunt Tanya pointed a finger at me. “You introduced them; you are the reason that she’s pregnant!”

I blinked and stifled a laugh. “Right, because I held a gun to her head while Jack screwed her.” My parents shot me a look that told me to shut up. “What? It’s true.”

Jack was staring at the floor, not sure what to do. His mom, Joyce, was rubbing his back consolingly, but his dad, Bassam, was sitting on a chair next to him, staring at Linda’s stomach, trying to imagine his grandson or granddaughter in there, I guess. Linda was on the opposite end of the couch, next to Joyce, my Uncle David next to Linda, and my Aunt Tanya pacing before them.

My mom spoke up. “I don’t see how this has anything to do with Abigail. Yes, Linda’s her cousin and yes, Jack is a friend of hers, but other than that, there’s nothing more to discuss.”

Tanya shot her a look. “So what are you saying? That it’s not your problem?”

“Yeah, pretty much. This really isn’t our problem,” my mom shot back. She and Tanya never got along; they used to fight when they were kids too. Sisterly love, I guess.

“I can’t believe you, Kathy! If it was the other way around, you’d be at my house yelling at us!” Tanya yelled back.

“Well my daughter wouldn’t be knocked up by some boy she barely even knows.” My mom crossed her arms. I wondered vaguely if she still thought I was a virgin. She looked over at me. “You wouldn’t do that, right?” I shook my head quickly and looked away, catching Jack’s smirk. He was probably thinking about the fact that I’d jumped him in the parking lot.

“She was dating him; it’s not like she randomly had a one night stand and ended up pregnant! How can you insinuate such a thing about your niece?” Tanya’s yelling was giving me a headache. “Now what is she going to do?”

“I’m not keeping it,” Linda mumbled. Everyone stopped and looked at her in shock. She hadn’t said a thing this entire time and now when she chooses to speak up it’s with that?

“What?” Jack spoke for the first time since I’d been down.

“I’m not having this baby. I don’t want it and Jack doesn’t either,” Linda told us.

“I never said that!” Jack defended. “I’m just freaked out, but I’m here and I’m willing to do my part.” He looked up at me. I nodded reassuringly.

“Well I don’t want it,” Linda repeated. “I’m not doing this.”

“Linda, you can’t just get rid of it,” Tanya reasoned. “It’s not the baby’s fault that you and Jack were irresponsible.”

“It’s my body, it’s my choice,” Linda argued.

“Linda, you’re mom’s right,” Jack whispered. “We need to just calm down. It’ll be okay, we can do this.”

Linda looked unconvinced, but didn’t say anything. Joyce sighed and stood. “It’s late; everyone needs to get some sleep and just rest.” She turned to Linda’s parents. “The kids obviously know what they’ve gotten into, so we don’t need to keep yelling about this. It’s not going to change anything. We can talk about this later and figure out what to do then.”

With that everyone started lining up at the door, heading out. Jack walked over to me and hugged me. I hugged back with all my might hoping he’d understand that I was here for him.

“Can I stay the night here?” he whispered in my ear. I nodded. “I’ll be back when everyone’s asleep, then.”

“I’ll leave the window cracked,” I whispered back as I let him go. My Aunt Tanya was eyeing me suspiciously, but ignored my questioning expression.

I said my goodbyes and tried to get back to my room as quickly as possible, but my mom and dad stopped me.

“Well, this was unexpected. I didn’t realize Jack and Linda were that serious,” Dad sighed. “I don’t know if Jack’s someone I want you to be around, Abby.”

“What?” I asked. “You’re kidding right?”

“No we most certainly are not. It’s our job as parents to keep you safe, so we don’t think that you should associate yourself with Jack or any of the boys, really. Maybe you should find more girls to hang out with instead of these boys.” My mother suggested.

“No, there’s nothing romantic between us. Alex and Rian have girlfriends, Zack and I are friends, and Jack has Linda!” I defended. “Don’t start dictating who I can be friends with.”

My mother shot me a warning glance. “Don’t be disrespectful. Look at Linda, she’s pregnant now. Her life will never be the same because her parents didn’t keep a close eye on her.”

I scoffed. “Well that was Linda’s problem. I’m not her. I’m not going to get pregnant anytime soon. Okay? Don’t start picking my friends for me, I’m not five anymore.”

My parents sighed. You know that ‘oh-what-are-we-going-to-do-with-her’ sigh? That one. “Look, we just don’t think it’s a… wise idea to be around these boys all the time.” My mom tiptoed over the words in her head.

“Well it’s my decision; I’m old enough to make them on my own.”

“Listen Abigail, so long as you live under our roof, you will follow our rules,” my mom stated firmly.

I fought the urge to laugh. She was really going to play that card? Fine then, let’s play. “Very well, can I have some time to look for another place, or do I need to be gone now?”

“Okay calm down both of you,” my dad interrupted. “Abby, you don’t need to move out; I doubt you would make it on your own anyway. Katherine, we can’t stop her from being with her friends.”

“That’s not the-”

“Katherine,” my dad raised his hand like it wasa stop sign. He turned to me. “Abby, we’d really appreciate if you would, at the very least, make sure you’re not the only girl around and that you don’t find yourself in tempting situations.”

I nodded. What my dad says, goes, that’s how we’d been raised. My mother was a vital part in the family, and my dad listened to her opinion and respected it, but at the end of the day he made the final decision. She simply shook her head and stomped up the stairs. My father half-smiled and shook his head as well.

“Thanks dad,” I said. “She’s really mad now, isn’t she?”

My father shrugged. “She’ll get over it; it’s not a big deal. But please, don’t get pregnant and prove her right. I’m not ready to think about what it took for you to get pregnant. No father wants to think about that.”

I smiled. “Okay dad, I’m going to bed, good night.” I walked up the stairs into my room. I was about to get into my bed when there was a tap on my window. I’d forgotten about Jack coming over. I slid the window open and he stepped in.

“Hey,” he said rather lamely, his face pale.

“Hey,” I replied. “You okay?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m still kind of freaking out. I’m going to be a dad.”

“I know. It’s scary,” I agreed. I got in bed as he kicked off his shoes. I pulled the blanket over me and turned off the light. I felt the bed shift as Jack laid himself on top of the covers. His arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me in closer. I felt a sense of déjà vu as I remember my dream months ago. I knew it was wrong, but I moved closer to him and flipped over onto my side, my back against his chest. He stroked my hair as he situated himself better.

“Is this okay?” Jack asked, referring to the way he was holding me.

I nodded before remembering he probably couldn’t really tell what I was doing. “Yeah, it’s okay… not right, but it’s okay.”

Jack sighed, but didn’t move away from me. “It’s not wrong, Abby.” His hand rubbed my side gently. “If anything, it’s meant to be.”

“Jack, you got Linda pregnant. You’re forever tied to my cousin, it’s weird for me.” I argued back.

“I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t think about that. Look, Abby, this isn’t the end of the world. We can make this work. I know it’s going to be difficult with the fact that I’m going to have a kid, but other people do it all the time. How many people get together even though they have kids? Tons.”

“That’s not the point, Jack. I don’t want to worry about my cousin hating me or if she’s going to always spin it so that I look like a whore who took her boyfriend slash baby-daddy.” I flipped over to face him. I could barely make out his features in the moonlight that filtered in through my window. “You were never mine; you chose to be hers.”

I pulled away from him, got off the bed and walked to the closet, pulling out extra blankets and laying them on the floor next to my bed. “I think you should sleep on the floor,” I sighed.

Jack said nothing, but moved to the floor. I got back in bed and handed him a pillow. “Goodnight, Jack.”

“Goodnight, Abby.”