Young and Pregnant

Cassandra

Cassandra and Alec rested idly in the doctor’s office. It had been two and a half months since Cassandra had first told her parents she was pregnant and exactly six weeks since Alec had told his. His parents hadn’t cared much since they traveled often for their business and their son was just a boy able to take charge of his own life.

Cassandra remembered the words Alec had spoken to her once he’d gotten off the phone with telling his parents.

“They don’t care.” he muttered. “They just don’t fucking care. I could be having six kids and it doesn’t matter. They don’t even want to see me go off to the army.”

She remembered her own visit to Summer's house the day after her mother had tried to shove her abortion ideals down her throat. Cassandra had arrived to Summer's house to find the front door cracked open and someone's wailing cries on the inside. She'd arrived into Summer's kitchen to find her friend sobbing over Baby Robert's body.

Summer had fed him some peanut oatmeal and within minutes his throat had closed over due to an unknown allergy. Cassandra had helped Summer rush Baby Robert to the hospital and waited with her until he got better. With all the madness she'd forgotten to even ask Summer for advice and instead she wondered if she could ever go to such lengths to save a human life that she was responsible for.

Cassandra now held his hand, running smooth circles of the warmth of his skin and just tried to think. He was leaving for the army in a few months. She’d been on her own during her second and most of her third trimester. She’d start to put on more weight. The baby would start to move.

“This may be a little cold.”

The cold blue gel went onto her now swelling stomach and she winced. The technician moved the device of the skin near her navel and stared at the screen.

“Can you tell the gender of the baby?” Alec asked.

Cassandra pursed her lips. Alec had mentioned on a few occasions that he’d wanted boy and Cassandra wouldn’t have minded a boy as well. But she wondered how her schooling would go when she started college in the fall, how she’d be able to manage all the work, her classes, her friends, and the prenatal vitamins.

“Not this early unfortunately.” The woman with ginger hair smiled at them. “Are you two excited to be parents? Are you married?”

The question raised the hairs on the back of Cassandra’s neck and she felt Alec’s hand tighten around hers. He didn’t answer, but she did.

“We’re just taking it as it goes. Some things are pretty unexpected.”

Alec’s grip loosened around her fingers. The technician locked eyes with Cassandra for a moment and gave a wary sort of expression that said How are you going to make him stay then?. Alec may have picked it up because he spoke next.

“We’re hoping to just be great parents first. I’m leaving for the army soon.”

Something came up on the screen and the woman spoke again, not really looking at them. “The army? Are you sure that’s best right now? I hear that they’re-“

“It’s just for training.”

“What about after training?” The woman looked closer in on the screen. “What about after that?”

The question sent flames across Alec’s cheeks and Cassandra almost wanted to roll her eyes. It wasn’t this woman’s job to tamper in on their relationship, their ideals, and their future, but she was doing it anyway.

“Oh.” The woman squeaked, looking to them nervously. “Excuse me. I just have to speak to your doctor for a moment.”

Her voice shook as the soles of her shoes went thudding out the room and Cassandra felt her heart go dead for a moment. She and Alec both stayed silent for the longest moment.

“That’s woman’s a pain in the ass.”

She felt his hand and the beads of sweat leave as his grip moved away.

“She’s the best ultrasound technician this hospital has and my dad was willing to pay for extra services.” she said dryly.

“How are your parents?”

“I think royally messed up would justify it. My mother’s been an ice queen, either ignoring me or telling me the importance of our reputation and my dad’s just been amazing.” Cassandra looked to him guiltily. “I always wondered if my parents were actually close in the first place with the both of them always busy, but not I feel like everything’s heading for the rocks. I feel like I need to get a job and I’m wondering how large of a hypocrite my mother is for wanting me to abort the baby, but-“

Her eyes caught sight of the doctor speaking to the technician outside the door. The doctor was tall with salt and pepper hair. The ultrasound technician appeared to speaking miles a minute while the doctor listened intensely.

“But what?”

She never got to reply. The doctor and the technician walked in, both with their hands in their pockets and sullen looks upon their faces. Cassandra rose herself up from the cold table the slightest bit and nearly gasped.

“What’s wrong? Is something wrong with the baby?”

Alec

Alec kicked the soda can rashly along the sidewalk and allowed the day’s slight drizzle to take him over. He couldn’t believe all of his plans so far had failed.

He’d planned to go off to the army and make some proud spectacle of his life. Training would have been the first step, but those plans had been crushed with the news of Cassandra’s pregnancy. With the time that had passed he’d learned to hold nothing against her. He’d actually learned to hold his hand against her swollen midsection and feel the presence of life inside her. His Sundays at church had taught him that all life was important, including the one he’d contributed towards.

But how could he contribute if he was bonded by a government ruling contract? How could he bethere for the baby if he signed up to be deployed after training? Wouldn’t he be in and out of Cassandra’s life, bloodying his sanity in whatever madness this Middle Eastern conflict had in store for him?

It seemed a selfish thing to do now, to even leave her even if she wasn’t expecting a child. He wondered if he’d even thought of her in the beginning. They loved each other after all, so wouldn’t his decisions affect both of them?

And then his plans to hopefully have his parents take care of the child. It had been a long shot considering the one solid aspect of his and Cassandra’s relationship that bonded them together was their strenuous relationship with their own parents. But for once he’d hoped that they’d come through; see that he was their son and that he needed their help.

That plan had failed miserably as well.

Now at today’s ultrasound appointment they’d learned of the alarming rate that their child was growing and by alarming the doctor had meant how under grown the child was. If the child was born while not fully developed, the birth could be traumatic and not end well at all. If the pregnancy lasted too long it could put stress on Cassandra’s body and therefore be a danger as well.

The doctor had prescribed Cassandra with a small slew of growth encouraging vitamins and had even told her to relax for the time being. But the simple fact that doctor had set up more frequent appointments didn’t ease their anxiety. It only made it worse.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Alec plucked his cell phone from his pocket and answered. “Hello? Who is this?”

“Hey Alec! I heard that you’re having a baby! Is it a boy or a girl?”

Alec’s eyes widened and he wondered exactly how Anthony had gotten around to calling him at this time of the day.

“Anthony, aren’t you supposed to be in class right now?”

Alec checked his watch and was insured that the time was around two pm. His twelve year old brother attended a boarding just close to ten miles from where he lived. Their parents paid large money for their son to go there and if Alec had chosen to go to college they would have paid large bucks for him to attend anywhere he wanted.

“I asked the teacher if I could go to the bathroom and I’m inside a stall right now. It actually smells in here and I’m waiting for class to be over so I can eat, but I wanted to talk to you! Dad told me your girlfriend is pregnant! Are you excited?”

Alex plopped down on a bench and pressed the phone closer to his ear. “Anthony, are you okay? You never call me during class unless something is wrong. Are kids messing with you again?”

A long silence transferred over the airwave and the time it held seemed to be minutes.

“No.” his brother said weakly. “Some boys are saying that I’m not good enough at sports and… no one will let me eat lunch with them and they don’t have a church here like the brochure said and you and me used to go to church together.”

Alec gripped his hands into his dark, dark hair and exhaled. “Well, have you tried talking to a teacher or one of the counselors or Mom and Dad?”

“The teachers don’t listen and neither do the counselors. And Mom and Dad… they don’t care. Why can’t I live with you?”

“Anthony,” Alec’s voice dropped off. “I told you when you left two weeks ago that I had a lot of things to figure out. I thought you knew that you were just visiting for the summer. I’m leaving soon for the military and you have school. You know that.”

Anthony took on another one of his long silences and Alec felt the guilt drop deeper inside him.

“Fine. I’ll just stay here since nobody cares anymore.”

The line went dead as Alec sat there.

If he couldn’t even take care of his baby brother, how in the world could he ever take care of a child?