Harper & Lee Plus Three

You Can't Run

I got out of the car and said, "I can explain!"

    "Oh, terrific. I'm quite interested to hear why you planned to secretly move out of our house," John said.

    "I...I..." I tried, but I just couldn't find the words.

    I looked up at Lee, who was standing behind them in the doorway.

    "They know," he said. "They know about everything. My parents told them."

    "Harper, honey, do you know how far along you are?" Sophia asked.

    "Not like, super far, I don't think...I have a bit of a bump," I said, pulling my shirt tighter.

    I knew I should've been embarrassed to show off my bump, but there was a huge pride aspect to it. I almost wanted to flaunt it. Like, yup, this is my baby.

    "Wow...it's definitely not a few weeks like we thought," Sophia said. "Harper, you don't need to run from us. We love you!"

    "But I screwed up! I'm pregnant. How could you still love me?"

    "Because love is unconditional," Sophia said.

    "You don't have to do this, Harper. You can stay with us. We'll move rooms around and get funding for the baby too," said John.

    "Oh. I was actually kind of looking forward to living with Lee and Etsy..."

    "Hmm," John said, scratching his beard. "Well, as long as we leave our house as your main address, we won't lose our funding for you. I don't see why we can't bend the rules a little."

    "But can you three even afford this place?" Sophia asked.

    "We did the math. We can do it," I said.

    "Okay, but just let us help you if you need to. Have you gone to the doctors yet?" Sophia asked.

    "I have an appointment set up in a few days."

    "Great. I'll go with you."

    "I'd like that," I said.

    "Come on. Let's get you inside. John and Lee can move everything," Sophia said.

    "Alright. Sweet!" Etsy said, dropping her bags in the middle of the driveway.

    She went her own way while Sophia sat with me in the backyard. The patio was full of weeds coming through all the blocks. There was a rusty table and two chairs for us to sit in.

    "I'm very disappointed in you," Sophia said.

    "Why? I never do anything right. My grades are shit because I spend all night eating CBD gummies with Hazel and I'm always skipping class, I run away all the time, I've got three marks against me at work, and now I'm pregnant. I don't know how this isn't surprising."

    "Just because I'm not surprised doesn;t mean I'm not disappointed. There's a difference."

    "I'm sorry Sophia."

    "Getting pregnant isn't something you can say sorry for and make it disappear. This is another human being you need to take care of. It's a lot of responsibility."

    "I know. I'm gonna do it anyway."

    "Alright. We'll help you the best we can," she said, a smile making its way across her lips. "How about we see what everyone else is up to, huh?"

    We got up and went back inside. Talia and Stanley Senior, Lee's parents, were unloading a mattress from the U-Haul in the driveway. I went over to thank them, but they looked the other way.

    "You know how we feel about you two living together unmarried," said Stanley as he went up the stairs. "I'm only doing this because I love my son."

    Lee hugged me from behind. "Try not to be bothered by my parents. They'll get over it."

    "Thanks," I said.

When his parents came back down, I followed him to our room and plopped myself down on the mattress. It was an old one that had been in their basement for a while. We all used to lay on it when we were having game nights or watching a movie down there. Lee sat down with me and kissed me on the cheek.

"Aww!" Etsy said from the doorway. "I'd tell you guys to get a room but you're literally already in one."

"Come on. We need to get the rest of our stuff," I said.

We helped our families bring in whatever was left, which wasn't much. We said our goodbyes around mid-afternoon and looked around our mostly-empty place. We were all starving since we skipped lunch so Lee started ordering us some pizza.

Once he put in our order, I went upstairs to shower because I was a gross, sweaty mess. The master bathroom was hella small. It had a little sink, toilet, and stand up shower.

I grabbed all my toiletries and hung up my shower caddy in the tiny shower. Then I grabbed a crop top and some plain black shorts because it was hot as hell and this old place didn't have central air.

I stripped down and started running the water so the shower could warm up. I looked at myself in the mirror of the medicine cabinet. I couldn't stop staring at my little bump.

I found myself daydreaming while I was in the shower. I couldn't believe that even though this place wasn't great, my little baby would have a mom and dad who loved them and took good care of them: something I'd always wished for.

"Pizza's here!" I heard Lee call from downstairs.

I turned the shower off and quickly got myself dry, then put my hair up. I put on the outfit I picked out and ran downstairs. Two pizzas, a box of wings, and a bottle of soda were on the counter.

I grabbed a slice and poured myself a cup of water, since I wasn't entirely sure I should be having soda anyway. Then I took a seat next to Etsy on the blanket Lee laid out on the floor. 

"We need to get furniture," I said. "We needed to get furniture like, yesterday."

"I don't know when, though. Idk about you guys, but my parents will kill me if I don't go to school tomorrow," Etsy said. She fell backwards and sprawled out on the blanket. "Wait, can they even kill me if I don't live with them anymore?"

"Probably not," Lee said.

Etsy sighed. "I think we should all just go to bed early so we can rest up for tomorrow."

"Same. We already missed today," I said.

"Huh? Since when do you care about school?" Etsy asked.

"Dunno...I think it's the whole maternal instinct kicking in. If I'm gonna have a baby, I should probably get better grades so I can go to college and stop working at Rigby's," I said.

"Valid," said Etsy.

We finished eating and went to bed. We had a whole week of furniture shopping ahead of us, and in less than two days I had my first appointment for the baby. Everything felt like it was changing so fast, but for once instead of running away from what was scaring me, I wanted to run right towards it; run right into the unknown. There was something exciting about it.