Under A Paper Moon.

An awkward silence grew over the whole living room as the Barakat's entered. My father gave Jack a dirty scowl as he motioned for him to sit beside me on the couch, I was still confused as for what they were doing here. I had my gaze set straight but from the corner of my eye I could see Jack staring at me with disbelief scribbled across his features. My mom walked back in, setting a tray of tea and biscuits on the coffee table and motioning for Jack's mom and dad to sit down on the vacant arm chairs as my dad stood at the fireplace. My mom sat on the arm of the couch beside me and rubbed my shoulder, I shivered.

"So." My mom's voice echoed through the dead silence, "We might as well take this whole situation on board before it's too late, there's no point running from it now."

Jack's mom nodded slowly, staring blankly between me and her son. "Wh-" she cleared her throat, "When did this all happen?"

I looked up at my mom and she nodded, "Uhm, I only found out a week ago, I-I was trying to tell Jack myself in person when we were on the beach that one day," I looked at him, "But we got interrupted. That was a day after I found out." I spoke quietly as everyone looked at me.
"I told my mom that day too, when I got home from the boy's practice. I kinda avoided the topic since then though. Well, until now."

My dad squinted his eyes, "Olivia, why didn't I know of this?"

"Not now, John." My mom's tone was harsh, telling my dad to calm down that they could talk that out themselves later. He seemed to disapprove but stayed quiet nonetheless. I didn't know what else to say so I shrugged back into the couch and pushed my hair out of my face. I licked over my lips and tapped my foot eagerly on the floor.

"Well, how far along are you? Or you think you might be?" Jack's dad Bassam asked, he seemed to control his anger and shock since he arrived. I don't think my own dad has though.

I looked over at Jack and he stared back at me, "Uh, two months. No more than that though I think. It kinda started more-or-less after Alex's house party to be honest." They all nodded and then started talking about how I could become home-schooled when I "start to show" and then if I were going to keep the baby or not. I shook with fear of having to actually keep the kid. I can't handle children, not even when I'm babysitting. I freak out a lot.
Listening to them talk about decisions around me started to make me inwardly panic. I didn't know what to think of it all, for me, it was really confusing and I felt permanantly numb.

Soon my parent's and Jack's moved into the kitchen to continue the topic and to make decisions (and more than likely eat.), they left me and Jack sitting awkwardly in the living room. I played with my hands and he got up and paced in front of me, and it made me really nervous. I was waiting for him to say something, but he never opened his mouth to speak. Which made me even more worried.

"What are you thinking?" I whispered looking over at the closed living room door which connected to the hall. I looked up at Jack, who was now facing me. He looked into my eyes for a moment before I broke the stare and looked down at my feet.

"I don't know." He finally spoke - his voice was breaking and hoarse, "I'm scared and.. Words can't form how shocked I am, I mean, it feels like my heart just died because what if we keep it? I'd have to give up nearly everything to stay to care for our family. You will too! We won't have a proper future, we both have dreams that we'd have to break. And it's so frustrating. I mean, we were drunk. I-I.." He looked down and I saw a tear drip from his face.

He knew himself he was getting nowhere with his speech so he gave up and sat next to me again, his face in his hands mumbling things like "Why was I so stupid? This is all my fault." It was literally breaking my heart to see him like this.

"I'm so sorry Jack." I started to cry as I looked at him, he turned his red eyes towards me and I nodded looking down.
"I didn't want this to happen either and it just did."

"I'm going to stay by you." Jack whispered, and that really shocked me. I mean, I really don't know why it did but seeing Jack with other people did make me notice that he couldn't hold strong commitment for long, he'd slightly put a crack in it. And that thought scared me.

I shook my head, "Jack.. You- I-" He looked at me and then half-realised what I was going to say and he moved around to kneel in front of me.

"Rayne, I promise you that I will never leave you during this no matter what. I will always stand by you and support the decisions you make towards this, because I royally fucked up." Jack looked me dead in the eye, I giggled and I knew he was dead serious. I hooked my arms around his neck and he stood, dragging me with him as he snaked his arms around my waist.

We stayed like that for a while, wrapped up in a bundle of nerves. He kissed my neck and I pulled back a little bit so he could kiss me on the lips. When he did, he smiled into it as I raised myself on my toes a little while tingles shocked my back.
I pulled away and he rested his forehead against mine, "We'll do this." He whispered.



Jack and his parent's left seeming a teeney bit happier than what they were when they first arrived. I guess planning this through made them feel more secure and then splitting money for the expenses and all.
My mom told me to move to my bedroom because her and my dad needed to talk, so warily, I did move.

I sighed and sat on my bed, pulling out my ipod and shoving it onto the deck, Blink's "I Miss You." started playing softly, like a hum. I laid back on my bed and thoughts ran wild as I wondered what will happen in the next few months. And about Jack. I know somewhere something's going to get complicated for the both of us, or one of us will screw up again. I can't let that happen.

I know the toughest part of this will be school. If one person finds out everyone else will in a matter of hours. I mean, the last time someone in the school got pregnant was a girl in her senior year and that passed around the school like wild fire, and her bump was really obvious. Rumours upon rumours were spread. And I didn't even know the girl but I did feel sorry for her, but at least she had the guts to come to school every morning and go through the day with all the name-calling and the back-stabbing comments.
And that's when I first moved here, I don't know if anything like that happened before I moved to Baltimore or how it was handled. And that scared the shit out of me. My mom was talking about home-schooling for the last four months of the pregnancy. But you can drop from school when you're sixteen so I might just do that either. At the moment, it seems miles away.

My thoughts rattle away when my parent's voices became louder, my dad's rumbling more. It became full blown screming in a matter of seconds though and that scared me, my dad was yelling on about how my mom should have told him sooner and if she was hiding anymore secrets from him, like an affair. Which really shocked me. I felt my eyes burning. I never heard my mom or dad yelling at eachother before and it was really scaring me. I never thought they'd be the couple to fight because they were always happy.

I shakily stood up and walked to the end of the hall and the yelling and screaming got louder and louder until my dad pushed my mom and stormed from the house. She cried in the hall for God knows how long and I just sat at the top of the stairs listening to her whimpers. I was the worst help ever, regardless the situation and I don't think my mom would want to see my face after all the hardship I caused her. So I sat there.

I don't know what time it was before I decided to go back to bed. After my mom died down I guess, and I toppled into my sheets not caring about what I was wearing and blacked out.
I don't know what's going to lie ahead of me.