Even the Sun Sets in Paradise

“How did it go with your social worker the other day?” Layton asked as we sat in my room later on that week.
“Fine I guess,” I muttered. We were both sat cross-legged on my bed, facing each other as we discussed the baby.
“You’re a terrible liar,” he laughed, reaching out for my hand.
“Well it was just that…” I trailed off, unsure of how to bring up the subject of his drug abuse, without it causing an argument.
“Spit it out babe,” he laughed, furrowing his eyebrows.
“Well because of my situation, they want to meet with you.”
“Okay, why’s that a problem?” he asked.
“Lorraine knows you take drugs. She knows everything about your lifestyle.” Layton sighed, dropping his head in his hands.
“Jenna, it’s not serious. Weed can’t kill you.”
“What about the other stuff?”
“What other stuff?”
“I found cocaine in your room the other day. Ellis told me anyway,” I explained.
“That’s nothing; I only do it on nights out. It’s a social thing. I’m not some sort of addict.”
“That’s not the point though!” I cried, “As far as the social are concerned, you’re doing drugs. They’re not going to let a child live in those kind of circumstances.”
“I know,” he sighed, pulling me into his lap, “I just don’t get what the problem is.” I fought to control my anger. The fact that he went anywhere near drugs killed me, let alone now it put my baby’s future at risk. All my life, people had constantly chosen drugs and alcohol over me. I guess I’d grown used to that. However I was not prepared to let that happen to my baby. My baby deserved so much better.

At school, more and more people were finding out, but that’s what I expected would happen. What I didn’t expect was the amount of support and respect I was getting. The guys were right when they said to tell the truth exactly as it happened and be completely confident about it. The majority of people had either laughed, not at me but with me, and then offered their support. It was nice to know for once that I wasn’t being judged. I think it really helped having Mel by my side, because people were strangely afraid of her. Another thing that people were…almost in awe of, was that the baby was Layton’s. Their album had obviously just been released and it was becoming successful. Their songs were being played on local radio, and their Twitter account had reached 100,000 followers. Call me superficial but I couldn’t help feeling smug about the fact that a soon-to-be rock star was the father of my child. I guess Mel had finally managed to bring out my inner fangirl.

One night after school, I was helping Julie prepare dinner, and we were having a heart to heart.
“You know as well as I do that Layton can be a bit of a dickhead sometimes,” she explained, “But it wouldn’t surprise me if he had a bit of a thing for you.”
“Would you stop?” I joked, elbowing her in the ribs, “He’s way older than me, and like you said, he is a dickhead.”
“A dickhead that you call your best friend?” she questioned.
“Well yeah…like of course he’s my best friend; he’s the father of my child, I can tell him anything…but I wouldn’t be able to spend like my whole life with him.”
“Jen Jenz, you pretty much spend your whole life with him anyway.”
“But that’s different. He’s helping me with the pregnancy.”
“If you say so,” Julie smirked.
“I do say so. Anyway, I just don’t feel that way about him; it would be weird.”
“Shit, we’ve run out of sauce,” Julie cursed, “I’ll have to go and get some once Ellis is back.” After the attempted burglary or whatever it was a few weeks ago, they were still wary about leaving me home alone. That was good though because I never liked being left alone anyway.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long till Ellis got home. Him and the guys had been doing some interviews, one of which was actually being played on national radio.
“How did the interviews go?” I asked, as he planted a kiss on my cheek.
“It was awesome,” he cried, “We’re gonna be on the fucking radio, I can’t get over that.”
“Me either, I can’t believe my waste-of-space son has actually made something of himself,” Julie muttered sarcastically. Ellis wrapped his arms around her from behind, kissing her cheek.
“Nice to know my mummy’s supportive,” he joked.
“You know I’m proud of you,” she smiled, “Right then, I’m off to the shop. Will you guys be okay for a minute?” We both nodded as Julie grabbed her purse and rushed out the door.
“How’s Layton?” I asked.
“Missing you,” Ellis smirked, grabbing himself a can of energy drink.
“Sure,” I laughed.
“Seriously, he wouldn’t shut up about you all fucking day. ‘I wonder if Jenna’s okay,’ ‘Maybe I should ring Jenna.’ He whinges like a fucking girl. What have you done to him Jenz?” I blushed, feeling flattered that he was worried about me. Even though I’d been living here for nearly four months now, love and affection still felt foreign to me. There was a sudden knock at the door, and I pretty much jumped out my skin.
“Relax,” Ellis laughed, hitting me on the arm, “I’ll get it.” He disappeared off into the hallway, as I stirred each of the pots on the stove. I listened carefully, trying to work out who it was at the door.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I heard Ellis say, and I became curious. I could hear a woman’s voice, but it was barely audible from in here, so I couldn’t work out who it was.
“Would you please fuck off?!” I heard Ellis shout, and I panicked, cautiously creeping towards the hallway. As I came closer, I could hear the woman crying and begging, and her voice was suddenly familiar. It was a voice that caused my heart to pound and tears to well in my eyes. It was a voice from my past. Wiping my tears with my sleeve, I pulled open the door to the hallway, and looked straight at the woman whose very presence sickened me.
“Mum.”