Metamorphosis

Getting Stuff Done

Chapter 35

Getting Stuff Done

Two days into the New Year, Audrey noticed a drastic change in her daughter. The pregnant teen had barely left her room except to eat- she had had her meals brought up to her room- and to use the bathroom 300 times a day.

Audrey was sitting on the couch talking to Leda on the phone.

"Yeah Leeds, I told her."

"Um... to be blunt: she didn't react."

"Well she kind of looked at me with this blank look on her face and nodded. Then she said she was going to go take a nap."

Audrey sighed and leaned her forehead on her palm tiredly.

"I honestly don't know what to do anymore. I can't seem to communicate with her at all. It's really worrisome."

"Yes, I tried that... and that"

The woman's attention was caught as her son walked through the front door.

"Hey mom," he greeted cheerfully. She covered the mouthpiece of the phone and smiled at her son.

"Hey baby,"

"You manage to get Mira out of her room yet?"

"No, not yet. She's gone from barely talking to completely ignoring me now."

"American Adoption Center: this is Lauren Doris. How may I help you?"

Mira sighed in relief, she had been either on hold or listening to a computerized voice tell her which buttons to press to reach someone for the last twenty minutes.

"Hi, um... my name is Mira Pascal. I'm uh, I'm pregnant and I wanted to talk about adoption."

"Alright, Miss Pascal, Can you please tell me the reason why you chose adoption? And how far along in the pregnancy you are"

"I'm choosing it because I'm sixteen and the pregnancy was, um, unexpected. And I think I'm about... 20 weeks" The blonde squeezed her eyelids together, praying that the woman wouldn't sigh or say something judgmental.

"Alright," Lauren said. Mira could hear typing in the background. "The way this process works is I will send you some forms that you will need to fill out. Do you have an email address that I can send them to? Or would you rather I send them through the mail?"

"Uh, Email is fine."

She heard a 'ping' before Lauren answered, "I will send them to you momentarily. Print them, then fill them out, when they are finished, come to the agency and I or someone will meet with you to talk about them. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, um, will I need the father's permission?"

"That depends: is the child's father supportive or unsupportive?"

"I'm not sure if he is or not. I just don't want him to be a part of this decision."

"Oh, well I'm sorry, but unless you have legal papers stating that he cannot be a part of the decision, then you are going to need his signature."

Mira let out a heavy sigh. Crap, if she was going to get Seth to sign the papers, then she would have to see him.

"Ok," she said into the phone, "thank you very much for your help."

"Your welcome, goodbye"

"Goodbye"

Mira ended the call and set her phone on her bed. Reclining back on the pillows, she unconsciously ran her palm over her tummy.

Over the last couple days, she had tried everything to keep her mind off Jake and the fact that he hit her. But when her mother told her about Leda having to move to Pittsburgh, words could not describe how it made her feel.

She was trying to be strong. And so far, she thought she had been. She had survived getting pregnant, her father leaving, the family hating her, her best friends and Seth betraying her, and the thought of adoption. But when she thought of the fact that her boyfriend had actually hit her, her strength immensely drained.

She walked over to the tall mirror on her closet door and inspected the bruise on her cheek. She had always bruised fairly easily, but this was ridiculous. The girl teen tugged her shirt off to look at the damage on her back. Jake probably didn't even realize that he had slammed her hard enough against the car to hurt her back.

Jake had called her up the next day and apologized profusely.

"Babe, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. You know I love you and would never hurt you. Please forgive me, babe, please."

She had forgiven him. She knew that she shouldn't have behaved the way she did and he had a right to be angry.

'I'm not in an abusive relationship' she told her reflection firmly. Girls who had abusive partners were low class and stupid. Those girls knew that their significant others were bad and hurting them, but they refuse to leave. Mira was not one of those types. Jake hadn't meant to hurt her. He had just lost his temper because she had acted badly, and she knew that he was a good person who would never hurt her again.

She had managed to cover the massive bruise on her cheek with make-up, but she was scared that if something upset her or made her cry, then the foundation would wash off and reveal everything.

"I'm not gonna fucking do it," Seth snapped at Brian while flipping through the book in his lap.

"Dude, you're become obsessive." His friend said as gently as possible. For the last several days, Seth had been studying books about custody battles and adoption.

"I'm not becoming obsessive! I don't want Mira to think the she can just take off with Sunshine and never tell me what happens!"

Brian blinked and raised a brow. "Sunshine? When did you start calling the baby 'sunshine'?"

Seth froze; he hadn't meant to say that. "Uh, that's what Mira calls the baby. I figured it was better than 'it'"

The other teen smirked slightly, "why do you have to be such an asshole? Why don't you just call Mira and tell her that you care about your baby?"

"Uh, because I don't." he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "I'm just making sure that she can't run off"

"That and the fact that you're falling in love with her."

The book almost slipped out of Seth's hands, "Are you fucking nuts? I'm not in love with her!"

"Uh huh,"

"I'm not"

"Ok,"

"I mean it!"

"Sure you do, Seth, sure you do,"

"No... no, listen! I told you that I have to withdraw my application."

"Um, because of my situation, I am unable to attend Crest Thorn."

"So if you could just cancel my interview with the principal and get rid of my application..."

"You can? Thank you so much."

"Ok, yeah you too. Bye"

Mira ended the call and looked down at the list on her lap

-Call adoption agency(check)

-Call school and cancel (check)

-Print out adoption papers (check)

-Talk to Seth

She bit the tip of her pencil and stared at the last one on the list.

How the hell was she supposed to talk to the guy who broke her heart?