Two Kids, No Consequences

It was somewhat shocking when Elizabeth called me and told me she was pregnant. I know I yelled a lot and jumped around and looked like I had ants in my pants. After I calmed down, I went back into the room with Alex, Jack, and Rian. We told Elizabeth that it was an important meeting, but we were just sitting there, spouting ideas about what could be on the record this time, what seemed to work and what didn’t, and, now, what we were going to do about the baby.

Don’t get me wrong; we were all really excited to be expanding our band family like this. Everyone was happy for Elizabeth and I, and I was happy, too, but I still needed it to set in.

I also needed to talk to her about what this means for us. I mean, think about it: we’re both famous, at least within the All Time Low fan base, and people are bound to talk and rumors are bound to fly. I want to wait until the band as a whole is ready to make the announcement.

It is a bit difficult to keep it a secret. At first, Elizabeth could get away with going out in loose shirts to cover the tiny baby bump that was beginning to form. But as she got bigger, it got harder to keep it a secret. Now she only leaves the house when she absolutely has to, like for doctor’s appointments and things like that. Even then, we have to be careful that people don’t recognize us. I really hate having to go through back doors everywhere we go, but it’s what’s best for the band. Elizabeth and I sat down and talked about it, and keeping the baby a secret until we’re ready for everyone to know was her idea. She said that there’s already so much stress on the band with recording and making final changes on the album before the release date, not to mention the stress from press releases and photo shoots, publicity, and the fans, that telling them about the baby can wait.

I am somewhat worried that word will get out before the band is ready. I know that it’s really just between Elizabeth and me, but the band is our family. Even in the short amount of time that she has been with us, Elizabeth has shared all of the difficulties of the group. Sometimes it gets ridiculous since we’re all around the same age and basically siblings, and it gets to be a little petty, but we handle it like adults (mostly) and fix whatever the problem is. Because Elizabeth is younger than all of us are, we have to play the big brother card sometimes, but it’s worth it. Of course, I have to play the boyfriend card, but that’s beside the point.

The day that Elizabeth told me that we’re going to be parents; I went home and we had a conversation about what this means for us as a couple, and for the band. Even if we weren’t famous, she’s 19. That’s not exactly the prime age to start a family. Factor in our five-year age difference and the fact that we’ve only been together for seven months, people are going to judge us and I know that we’re going to lose some fans. Elizabeth made most of the decisions, which was somewhat surprising to me. She hates confrontation and makes it a point to never make decisions because she’s afraid that people won’t like what she has to say.

“I want to tell my parents soon so that they don’t hear it from some gossip website or magazine. I mean, not like they report on you guys regularly or anything, it’s just that I’d rather them hear it from me. They’re not going to take it well at first, but they know that I’m happy with you and that you have a lot of money. Not that it matters…but it does factor in because then they know that I won’t struggle to take care of our little sunspot.”

“Did you just call our baby a sunspot?”

“Yeah, haven’t you ever seen Hercules? That what Hades calls him when he’s at the baby shower,” getting no response from me, she continues: “Anyway, I don’t want people to find out about this until the whole band is ready to make an announcement. There’s so much stress right now with trying to put things together for the album and doing press releases and interviews and photo shoots and TV things that I think it will be easier and more convenient for the band to keep our baby a secret for a few months. I’m not talking about the whole pregnancy here, just long enough for some of the stress to go away and then we can let people know. In all honesty, the way the album is going, I think that you guys are going to have to start over anyway. But that’s just my opinion.”

“Okay,” I say, silently agreeing with her about having to throw this album out. Alex is taking over and it’s his way or the highway these days with recording, so we’re just going to let him see how much it sucks when it’s done (but hopefully before then) and then we’ll start over. “What about going out in public? If you want to keep this a secret, we’re going to have to be careful once you start showing.”

“I think that for the first couple of months, it will be fine. I can just wear big shirts and loose pants. Or I could get one of those band thingies that pregnant women wear under their jeans so I won’t have to buy tacky mom jeans…anyway, I think that around the fourth month, we’ll be cutting it really close, so I’ll only go out when I absolutely have to, like doctor’s appointments. I guess I could still go outside because we’re pretty deep into the neighborhood, and the guys at the gates won’t ask questions if we tell them to not let in people without specific clearance. We could always have them call us if someone suspicious tries to get in. What do you think, Zack?”

“Well, you haven’t given me much space to talk,” I said, getting up off the couch and walking over to her, standing behind her and wrapping my arms around her, placing my hands on her belly. “But I’m glad you’re making all of these decisions yourself. Do you want to run them all by the band now, or later? Or at all?”

“I think that we should have an official meeting sometime soon, maybe like, now. It’s not that late, and everyone loves me, so I’ll just text everyone…” she types out a quick text message on her phone and sends it in less than a minute. “I told them they should be here in the next ten minutes because we have things that we wish to discuss with them.”

So that night we sat down with everyone in the band and told the guys what Elizabeth decided. We worked out some particulars such as having different people take her to the doctor so it doesn’t look suspicious when she and I leave to go to the same place twice a month for three months straight. That’s also a precaution for if people follow us. We’re going to look up different routes to the doctor’s office and call sometime soon to make sure that we can get in relatively easily and unnoticed.

I’m so excited that I’m going to be a father, and that Elizabeth is the mother of our child, but I can’t help but fear that something is going to go wrong, either with her pregnancy or with keeping it a secret. She’s so young and she has so much of her life before her, I don’t want this to slow her down or cause her to not be able to achieve her dreams. I’m sure she will need to go to the doctor more often because of her young age and her family history. I’m going to give myself fits over this, I’m sure, but I only want the best for Elizabeth and our baby.