Baby Come On

As Leah entered the strange house she felt a sense of de je vous. She shrugged the feeling off and continued her expedition through the crowd. Soon enough she found the keg. Leah grabbed a cup and began to fill it.

"Hey do you mind giving me a refill?" It was a man's voice. He was chuckling slightly. Leah was hit with a spell of de je vous again. She had seen this guy before. Three other boys were laughing along with this mystery boy. Leah shrugged off the de je vous once again as she took guy's cup.

"I'll catch up with you guys later," she heard him say to his friends. She turned to hand the guy his cup and was able to get a better look at him. He was tall, 5' 9" she guessed, with thick brown hair. His jaw line was strong, his eyes were a pretty green and freckles danced along his nose and cheek bones. His body was slender but his tight clothes showed he was well toned. His skin was naturally tanned. He reached out both hands grabbing the cup with his left.

"Alex, but you probably already knew that." Leah looked at his right hand, still outstretched, and then looked away. She had no interest in making friends. They never kept in touch anyway.

"Wow. Aren't we just Little Miss Friendly," Alex said with sarcasm.

"I don't believe in introductions." This time Alex was the one hit with de ja vous. He'd seen this girl before. Only, unlike Leah, he knew exactly where. He'd heard the rumors. The loner girl got pregnant and dropped out of school. She didn't even know the father. Her sister was into drugs. Her parents kicked her out. She was getting an abortion. She was setting up an adoption. She was a slut. She was homeless.

Alex had heard every single on of those rumors and said nothing. He knew which rumors were true. He also knew he got 'the loner girl' pregnant, but Alex couldn't do anything. He had a rep to uphold. Unfortunately, he lived with the guilt for that whole year. All because he fell in love for one night.

"Oh, well, forget I said anything."

"You up to talking?" Alex smiled as the words escaped her pink lips just as they did that night a year ago.

"Definitely. You got something to talk about?"

"Boy, you would get a headache listening to anything I had to say." Leah smiled to herself.

"I'll have a headache tomorrow anyway. Besides, you look like you need to talk about it."

"Talking about it only makes it worse. When we talk about things they escape our minds and enter other people's. Now, in the other person's mind they can twist and manipulate it into anything they want to. It becomes something different from what you said. If what they want is good gossip then we're in trouble." Yup, this was definitely the same girl.

The night was one whole de ja vous. They both talked and Leah drank. Alex didn't. He would do everything in his power to make sure he wouldn't screw this up. When Alex was with Leah he wasn't his reputation. He was the real Alex, however cheesy that sounds. Alex needed someone he could be real with. Leah was that person. He was determined to win her friendship.

"So what are you doing at this party anyway?" Alex tried. He was taking advantage of her tipsiness. He was becoming his reputation.

"I'm just getting away from the pathetic thing I call a life." Leah's speech wasn't slurred but it was definitely not perfect.

"I'm sure life isn't that bad," he pushed the subject further and the reputation was taking over his judgment.

"Well, I dropped out of college because I got pregnant. I have a lousy paying job. My baby keeps me up all night and I use other people so I can go out and get drunk."

That's when it hit Alex. She kept their baby. The reputation left.

"I think you shouldn't do this. I think you should go home. If you have a baby to take care of getting drunk is not the thing to be doing."

"Too late."