Innocence

A month and two weeks later, I’m walking down the hallway at school when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and see Matt standing behind me. he looks distraught and pissed off.

“Hey,” he says quietly. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” I say. “You?”

“I’m all right. Been better, you know,” he goes on.

“Yeah, same here, dude,” I tell him.

“We should talk,” he says.

“Isn’t that what we’re doing now?” I ask with a laugh. He laughs with me.

“Yeah,” he says. “I meant in private though.”

“Yup, that’s what I meant,” I say.

“I know, I was just pulling your leg,” he says.

“So, when do you want to talk?” I ask.

“After school, we’ll go to the coffee shop,” Matt suggests.

“All right,” I say. “I’ll meet you at the shop after last period.”

“Sounds good!” he says, running off because he isn't a student. I head into my English class. I sit in the back and take out my essay on American Literature, which is due today.

The class goes by quick. I hand in my essay and receive the last one I handed in last week. I earned a A plus, which is what I have for all my classes. We go over the next reading and the teacher hands out a homework assignment for us to do for the next class, which isn’t due until next Monday. Soon enough, the bell rings and everyone bolts out of the door. I stay behind.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Jones?” I ask.

“Yes, Maci,” she says, taking off her glasses and putting them on top of her head.

“I’m not going to be here next Monday due to a doctor’s appointment,” I say.

“Okay, well, I’ll give you the assignment for that day and you can pass in both on Tuesday,” she says, reaching in her folder. She pulls out the next assignment and hands it to me.

“Okay, thanks for telling me in advance, I appreciate it!”

“No problem,” I say.

“And Maci, good luck with everything,” she says. I look at her with question.

“Thanks,” I say.

I walk out of school with my keys and shoulder bag. I head up to my car and start my mini cooper up.

“Hey,” I say when I finally reach the coffee shop.

“Hey.” He says, taking a long drag and throwing the cigarette to the ground and putting the cigarette out with his boot.

“What’s up?” He asks.

“Nothing much, just school and shit,” I say.

“So, what’s next?” He asks.

“What?” I ask.

“What’s next with our,” He says.

“Oh, I have an appointment next Monday for the ultrasound,” I say.

“Cool,” Matt says. “Can I come?”

“Sure, if your not busy or something” I say.

“I don’t mind.” He says.

“Okay...can you pick me up? Johnny and Sara won't be home.” I say.

He nods and says, “Sure” Matt says. “So you graduate in a month huh?”

“Yup!” I say looking at the ground.

“What are we going to do?” He asks.

“I'm going to raise the baby, I'm not sure what your doing...but I hope you choose our baby,” I say.

“I just got scared” he says. "I do want to be in his or her life! Don't get me wrong!" He says softly.

“Never leave again” I say. tears falling from my eyes.

“I promise." He whispers in my hair.

“Good," I whisper crying on his shoulder, he pulls his hood off and wraps it around me. "C'mon." He helps me to the car and drives me to his place, I curl up on the couch and fall asleep.

“Night,” Matt says. I smile weakly my eyes closing.

That next Monday came fast. My appointment is at ten in the morning, so I decided to sleep in. Johnny and Sara Matt and everyone else, are at the recording studio finishing the ends of the album, so neither of them will be able to make it to the appointment. But Matt is leaving for me.
I wake up around nine and take a shower to freshen up. After my shower I find a carton of yogurt in the fridge. I down it and pour myself a glass of milk. My cell phone vibrates. It’s Matt.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Hey Maci, I'm coming to Sara's right now,” he says.

“I just got up, so it'll take me twenty minutes.” I reply.

“See you soon?”

“Yup, key's under the mat." I reply.

“Thanks,” he says.

I sigh and grab my keys and shoulder bag, then I take a quick shower, afterwards I pull on a tee-shirt that is now tight, and some jeans that barely fit! I'm gaining weight. and fast.

Just as I tie my shoes, I hear the key click, and Matt's voice, "Hello?" He calls.

“In here” I say. We both get into his jeep, and put our seat-belts on. We drive back on the main road and head to the hospital, which is a good twenty minutes away.

On the way over, we talk about baby shit. Matt wants me to find out the sex of the baby. I try to tell him that I’m a month away from them to tell. But I do agree that I should find out the sex. I would like to know if we're having a boy or a girl.

A little while later, we’re in the waiting room of Dr. Yung’s office. It takes forever for this damn woman to do her job. Maybe it’s because she’s so busy intruding on people’s lives. She fucked mine up pretty well, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s fucked other patients’ lives up as well. I just hope she isn’t nosy in front of Matt, though I highly doubt it. She’ll probably play her twenty questions game with Matt, just like she did with Johnny at my last appointment two weeks ago.

“Maci Caldwell!” a nurse yells out. Matt and I jump up and walk towards the nurse. We walk back into the exam area. I step on a scale and see that I’ve gained five pounds in the past two weeks. Great, I’m getting fat already. What else is this pregnancy going to do to me?
Soon enough, I’m in an exam room in one of those scratchy gowns with bears on it, sitting on a table while Matt sits on a comfy chair in the corner. Dr. Yung walks in five minutes later.

“Hello Maci! How are you? Ooh! Who’s this?” she asks with her high pitch voice of excitement. I cringe.

“This is the baby's dad,” I say. “Matt, meet the Doctor, Dr. Yung, this is Matt.”

“Hi,” Matt says shortly, shaking the doctor’s hand.

“Well, this is nice,” Dr. Yung says, sitting down in her stool. “The baby daddy!” I smile and roll my eyes. “How’ve you been?’

“Pretty good. Still getting the morning sickness, though I think it might be going away,” I say.

“Well, it probably is ending your entering your second trimester and it may be present throughout the whole pregnancy, you just never know,” Dr. Yung explains. “But, you’re still managing to eat?”

“Yup,” I say.

“Fruits and vegetables, not too much junk?” she asks.

“Yeah, I eat the good stuff,” I say.

“Good,” she says, scribbling down a few notes. “Well, you’ve gained five pounds, which is good, you’re probably going to gain quite a few more pounds soon.”

“How much?”

“Well, a normal pregnancy, a woman gains around 40 to 50 pounds, but it varies. Just try to remain active as long as you can, that’s the best thing,” she says. “So, lie back and we’ll try for a heartbeat.”

I lie back and watch Dr. Yung pull out a handheld machine from the drawer. She squirts the jelly on my tummy and rolls the wand around. It takes a few minutes for the fast beating to be heard. I smile instantly.

“There, that’s your baby’s heartbeat,” she says with a grin. I keep smiling.

“Is it supposed to be that fast?” Matt asks wide eyed.

“Yup,” Dr. Yung says. “They’re usually fast at this gestation.”

“Are we going to do an ultrasound?” I ask.

“Mmhmm. In just a few minutes though,” she says. I nod. She takes the wand off and my baby’s rapid heartbeat disappears. She begins to feel my belly, discovering the hardness down towards my pelvis. “This is where the baby is,” she says, as she lightly presses on it. “I can’t tell you where the head or butt is yet, though.”

“Okay,” I say. She takes her hands off of me and sits back in her stool.

“So, you’re probably going to experience a growth in your tummy soon. The baby bump will start to appear around five months, which you still have a few weeks to get to that point, but that’s usually when we start to notice it. So, don’t be afraid of a few extra pounds. It’s okay. The baby needs that, even though you probably won’t like it,” she explains. “ I don’t think we’ll do an ultrasound today. I’d like to wait to do one when you’re ten weeks, just to do be on the safe side. The baby has a heartbeat, which is really strong. So, there’s no problems that I can see. If you do start to experience a problem, go to the Emergency Room and call me.”

“All right, thank you,” I say.

“No problem. I’ll see you in two weeks, all right?” she asks.

“Sounds good,” I say.

Dr. Yung leaves the room and I stand up and pull down my shirt. Matt looks at me and smiles.

“So that’s it?” he asks.

“Yeah, basically.”

“Wow, I was expecting an ultrasound,” he says.

“I know, but I’ll let you come to the next appointment,” I say.

“Good! I want to be here at every appointment, babe” He exclaims, hugging me tight.

“Thanks, Matt,” I say with tears in my eyes.

“We're going to be fine! Don’t cry!” He says, wiping away my tears.

We walk out of the exam room and back towards the receptionist. I set up the next appointment for a Friday after school. Matt and I leave the office and head out to lunch. We sit, eat and talk about normal teenage and band stuff, For once in the past few, I feel like a normal teen again. Towards the end of our lunch, my cell phone rings.

“Hello?” I ask.

“Hi, is this a Maci Caldwell” a male voice asks me.

“Yes, may I ask who’s calling?” I ask.

“Sorry, I’m Danny from your brother's music agency, he said you were interested in working as a Merchant on Avenged Sevenfold's first tour?" he asks me.

“Yes!” I say with enthusiasm. “That’d be great!”

“Okay, I love that enthusiasm! So the band is starting the tour the first week of June?” he asks.

“That’ll work!” I say.

“Great! Welcome to the family!” he jokes.

“Thanks,” I say.

“See you then” he says.

“Thanks so much” I say. “Bye!"

“Who was that?” Matt asks.

“I just got a job on tour with your band!” I say.

“Dude! That’s awesome!” Matt says, hugging me. “See, things are working out!”

“I know!” I say. “Let’s head to the recording studio."

“Okay,” Matt agrees.

We head back to the recording studio and find Johnny’s car in the parking lot. Zacky’s truck is parked next to him, along with everyone else. Matt and I walk inside and everyone stares at us.

"The baby is fine!" I say smiling, everyone does a silent cheer, and then they continue lunch, Matt pops open a beer and splits a sub with me, we all sit around the lunch area laughing and joking, "So I think you should call the baby Cherry!" I raise a brow at Jimmy and say, "Why in the world would I call my baby cherry?" "Because she's gunna be a red head like you!" I roll my eyes and say, "Shut up!" Brian ignores us, and eats the whole bag of chips. "You fat ass!" I yell, angrily throwing the empty bag at him, he shrugs and continues to eat. While Zacky texts his girlfriend, the band is like my family sometimes, they are perfect other times they make me wanna go crazy.

I sigh as I cuddle up on the couch, Smallville is on, and everyone's watching with content, I can feel the baby moving around like a little fish.