Fourteen and Pregnant

I Do, I Don't

“John, I-I don’t know what to say.”

“Just say what you feel.”

“Ok then, yes. I’ll marry you.”

He stood up and hugged me. 

He put the ring on my finger and hugged me again.

I looked down at the ring. It was beautiful. It looked really expensive though. It had two small ring bands crossing over each other, one with small circle diamonds on the top and in the middle was a square diamond.

“John, this ring looks so expensive! How did you get the money for it?”

“I have my ways… My mom did help with some of it though.”

“Your mom. So she knows?”

“Yeah, she was the one who called me last night telling me that your ring came in the mail.”

“Do my parents know?”

“Yeah, I asked them last night before I left.”

“So we have everyone’s approval?”

“Well, not quite.”

“What do you mean?”

“We have to tell my mom’s new boyfriend.”

I cut in. “Well, that shouldn’t be too hard should it?”

“No, he’s a good guy. I think he’ll understand, but we also have to tell my dad.”

“Oh no. Do we really have to tell him? I mean, he’s not gonna approve of this! You know how he reacted when we told him I was pregnant!”

“I know, but he’s my biological father and we have to get his approval. If we don’t, then we can’t get married until we’re at least 18.”

“When are we gonna tell him?”

“He’s gonna be by our house sometime today to get some of his other stuff that he left there. So I was thinking we would ask him today.”

“Ok. When are we gonna ask your mom’s boyfriend?”

“Well, he really isn’t as important since he isn’t really related to us in any way, but I was thinking today before my dad got there.”

“Ok. I wanna go show my mom my ring. And I need to tell Rebecca, Saara, Jess, and Ronnie.”

“Hold on Lexi! Don’t you think we should wait to tell our friends until we know for sure?”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

“Yeah.”

I went downstairs to the kitchen to show mom my ring.

It looked like she was making pancakes and eggs.

I tapped her on the shoulder.

She jumped and turned around. “Gosh Lexi! You scared me half to death!”

“Sorry mom. I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to show you something.”

“What?”

I lifted my hand up to show her my ring.

She grabbed my hand and lifted it up closer to her eyes. “Honey it’s beautiful! Is this your engagement ring?”

I smiled widely. “Yes.”

She looked behind my shoulder. 

I turned around to see what she was looking at. 

John was standing there with his hands in his pockets staring at the floor.