Pay for Your Sins

The list that Jolie had started the night she had found out she was pregnant was slowly growing and growing, full of things that she needed to do. A few of the things had been crossed off, like visiting a doctor, which had confirmed that she was in fact pregnant and was about 8 weeks along. She had also crossed off telling someone other than Delilah that she was pregnant. It had been her boss, who was like a second mother to her, and had been surprised when Jolie had told her the news, but said that if Jolie needed anything, she shouldn't be afraid to ask. But while it had felt god to cross these things off, there was still so much she needed to do.

Like figure out if she even wanted to keep the baby. There had been a brief moment when she had considered just getting rid of the baby, washing her hands of this whole thing, but she quickly dismissed that idea. She knew she would never forgive herself if she did that and the chances were that she probably wouldn't be able to even go through with it. So either she was going to keep the baby and raise it or give it up for adoption. But before she could figure that out, she needed to tell the father. Which was easier said than done. She had idea how she was even going to tell him. It wasn't like she could just walk up to him and say 'oh, by the way, I'm pregnant and it's your's'. She needed to plan out what she was going to say.

So that left one really important thing to do and that was tell her parents. She just had to bite the bullet and tell them, even though she was dreading it with every fiber of her being. She would much rather tell the father before her parents. But since that wasn't going to happen, her parents were going to find out first. She could already hear her parents disappointed voices in her head as she grabbed her phone, dialing her parents number.

Jolie held her breath as she waited for someone to answer, chewing on her bottom lip. Maybe she could just hang up and pretend that she had just butt dialed them. She needed more time to prepare herself for this conversation. God. This had been an awful idea. She pulled the phone away from her ear, finger hovering over the 'end' button. But before she could actually end the call, she heard her mother's voice, tiny through the speaker.

"Jolie! I'm so glad that you called!"

Swallowing hard, she raised the phone back to her ear. "Hi mama."

"I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever! Things here have been so crazy! Your father decided to paint the house and I'm going insane looking at color samples. There all starting to look the same to me and I honestly don't care if he paints the house red as long as it gets done. And Julie just made partner at her law firm so we've been planning a little party to celebrate it. I hope that you'll be able to make it back home for the party," her mother rambled on. "But enough about me. How have you been?"

"Things have been good here. Busy with work and all that. The usual. Tell Julie congratulations and that I'm happy for her. I'll try and make it home for the party, but no promises," Julie murmured, curling her fingers in her comforter. "But I actually had a reason to call you."

"Of course. I'm sure that you didn't call just to hear me ramble. Tell me what you called for, sweetie. I'm all ears."

Jolie closed her eyes, forcing the words out of her mouth as quickly as she could before she chickened out. "Mama...I'm pregnant."

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone, Jolie trying her hardest not to start crying as she waited for her mother to say something. Anything.

"Oh baby."

"I'm so sorry."

Her mother let out a sad sigh and Jolie could just picture her shaking her head, the disappointed look on her face. "This is certainly unexpected."

"I know it is. But it's happening and I don't know what to do."

"Do you even know who the father is?"

Jolie flinched, suddenly so glad that her mother couldn't see her. "Yes."

"And have you talked to him yet?"

"No. I've been planning on what I want to say to him."

"So I take it that the two of you aren't together?"

"No, we aren't."

There was another sigh from her mother. "Well, I'm not really surprised by this. And I can't say that I'm happy and your father certainly won't be happy either."

Jolie knew that the words were coming, but they still hurt to hear and the first tears slowly rolled down her cheeks. "I'm sorry."

"You know, Julie would never be in a situation like this. We raised her so right. I don't know where we went wrong with you."

Hearing those words was the last straw for Jolie. She couldn't listen to her mother talk about her like she was some huge disappointment who couldn't do anything right. "I-I know. Julie's perfect. I just...Listen, I have to go. I'll talk to you later," she rushed out, quickly ending the call.

"Fuck!" she exclaimed as she threw her phone down on the bed, tugging on her hair. She could really use a drink right now. Or more like ten drinks. But since she couldn't drink, she was going to drown her sorrows with some mint chocolate ice cream.

Climbing to her feet, she slowly shuffled out of her room and to the kitchen. Though, she froze when she heard someone moving around in the kitchen, muttering to themselves. It definitely wasn't Delilah because she should still be at work and the only other person who had a key to the apartment was Andrew. So she assumed that he had come over to see Delilah after he had returned from the road trip and was just going to hang out until Delilah came home.

But Jolie was sorely mistaken when she stepped into the kitchen and saw that it wasn't Andrew, but Brandon instead. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"These chipotle pickles are actually pretty tasty," Brandon said, which wasn't really an answer at all.

"So you broke into my apartment to eat my pickles?"

Brandon shook his head as he popped a pickle into his mouth. "Didn't have to break in. Shawzy gave me his key."

Jolie rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. Of fucking course. She was going to have to have a serious discussion with Andrew about who he gave his spare key to. "Now that you got the pickles, you're leaving, right?"

"Nah. I thought I'd stick around. Hang out with you for a while."

Jolie tried her hardest to keep the surprised look off her face, but she had a feeling that she was failing. Not like she could help it, though. The two of them had never really hung out alone together. Well, there had been that one time, but that hadn't really been hanging out. It had been more like the two of them drinking with friends and deciding it would be a good idea to sleep together. So that really didn't count. They usually had at last one person with them at all times just to make sure that nothing bad happened.

It wasn't like they hated each other, per say. They just didn't get along very well. They always managed to get into a fight over something, no matter how stupid it may be. It was rare that they ever agreed on something. Delilah liked to joke that they fought like an old married couple, which Jolie thought was completely ridiculous.

"It's not like I have anything better to do," Brandon added with a shrug of his shoulder's.

Of course. He didn't really want to spend time with her. He was bored and all his other friends were probably busy. She was pretty much his last resort. It was whatever. And she knew that she shouldn't be upset about it. But after the phone call with her mother, she really didn't want to deal with anymore bullshit. She just wanted to eat her ice cream and cry.

"Whatever. I really don't fucking care what you do," Jolie grumbled as she shoved past Brandon to get to the fridge.

"Hey, are you okay?" Brandon questioned softly, gently placing his hand on Jolie's arm.

Jolie quickly turned around, completely prepared to yell at him. But all she could get out was a soft 'no' as she shook her head, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey. It's okay," Brandon whispered as he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her into a hug.

Any other time, Jolie would have shoved him away and told him to fuck off. But a hug was what she really needed right now and she didn't care who she got one from. "Everything sucks so much right now."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Jolie knew that this would be the perfect time to tell Brandon that she was pregnant. That he was going to be a father. But as she opened her mouth to speak, it was like the words just wouldn't come out. So she just shook her head, burying her face against his chest.

"Alright. Just know that the offer always stands, okay?"

"Thank you," Jolie murmured, closing her eyes when she felt Brandon's fingers run through her hair. And while she knew that she should feel grateful for the offer, all she could feel was guilt because of the secret that she was hiding from him.