Teach Me - Brollins

4.

Colby walked back down the stairs to the living room slowly. He stood at the end of the steps and stared at Rebecca as she sat on the couch still curled up under one of the throw blankets.

He took a deep breath as he looked at her with a shake of his head as he walked over and sat next to her in silence.

"Just so you know.. when somebody says we need to talk as seriously as you just said it.. nothing good ever comes from it" she stated and he nodded
"It's not going to be an easy conversation to have"
"Are you breaking up with me?"
"No" he shook his head "I'm just hoping.. after this we're still intact"
"What's going on?" She asked concern prominent as she spoke
"This fucking no fraternizing rule.." he shook his head
"Oh" she nodded quickly she knew where this was going
"Yeah oh.." he nodded "I love you" he looked at her "I do" he nodded "I love you so much.. more than I thought I would.. you've saved my life, you've brought so much happiness to my life in the last few months and I don't want this to end"
"Neither do I" she shook her head "So what do we do?"
"I think I'm going to look into pulling Cali out of school and going transferring her to a new district"
"Absolutely not" Rebecca shook her head "You're not pulling that poor baby from all her friends"
"Rebecca.."
"Don't Rebecca me" she shook her head "I'm serious. You don't see her when she's at school.. you don't see how she participates in class, how she eats lunch with the same group of girls everyday, how she plays at recess.. she's a social butterfly and you're not going to make her transfer because we want to be together. That's selfish on both of our parts"
"We can't be together if she's still a student there"
"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm okay with hiding this?"
"Yeah well I'm not" he exclaimed as he stood up "I'm not" he shook his head "I want to take you out on dates, I want to be able to drop you off and pick you up everyday, I want to show everyone in this fucking town that I love you"
"And there is nothing more I would love than to all of those things.. but we can't. I'm not letting you pull her away from her friends and you don't want me to quit so what do we do? Is this really just a case of right person, wrong time?"
"No" he shook his head "this is perfect person, perfect time" he grabbed her hand as he sat next to her
"Maybe we didn't think this through.. maybe we just went based off emotions and that's not good. Maybe we are just wasting each other's time"
"Don't say that" he shook his head
"It's true though.." she shrugged "I mean you can be with someone who can actually be with you without restrictions"
"Is that what you want? To end this?"
"God no" she let out a shaky breath as she tried to keep her composure "but you're dating to find someone to help you with Cali, to find someone to love.. in someways I'm dating for the same things.. I'm dating to find a stable partner, I'm dating to marry, I'm dating because my clock is ticking.. let's face it. If I don't have a baby soon I'm gonna be out of luck"
"So you don't think I'll marry you? You don't I'll give you a baby?" He laughed he was now the one that was confused
"I know you will"
"You are confusing the fuck out of me.." he shook his head "do you want to break up or do you want to stay together?"
"I want a life. A real life, I want a husband,  children, a real family and I want that with you.. god do I want that with you" she wiped a tear away quickly as she looked away from him
"Marry me" he said and she watched him stand up and get down on his knee in front of where she was seated on the couch "Marry me and I will give you all of that" He gently grabbed her hand and kissed it "they can't do anything to you if we're married"

She just stared at him

"I will take you to that court house tomorrow and marry you. I will take you upstairs tonight and give you a baby.. is that what you want to hear?"
"How would we tell Cali all of that?"
"You let me worry about Cali" he said "Just think about it"

Rebecca left the house after talking to Colby for another hour. She truly didn't know what to do, did she want to marry him and start a family with him? Yes. Did she want to marry him because they were basically stuck in hiding if they didn't? No.

The following Monday Colby dropped Cali off at school with no word from Rebecca. He had given her a few days to gather her thoughts before they would figure out their next step.

As he picked his little girl up that day, he saw her stomping out of the school with a look that could kill and she opened the door throwing her backpack in the floorboard.

"Whoa! What's wrong with you?" Colby asked as he looked back at his daughter as she buckled her seatbelt
"We had a substitute" the little girl grumbled "She sucks"
"Okay.. I'm sure you'll have Miss Quin back tomorrow just calm down back there" he said
"No we won't" the little girl shook her head
"What do you mean you won't?"
"We are getting a new teacher next week"
"Why?" Colby reached for his phone
"Cause principal Taylor came and got her during morning reading to talk to her  and she got her stuff with one of the security guards.. they fired her cause Brayden's mom told the principal that Miss Quin was dating somebody's dad"
"Are you sure they fired her?"
"Mhmm" the little girl nodded "and they fired her after we played hangman this morning and she told us she's gonna have a baby"
"Wait!" Colby yelled "What?!?"
"Dad.. try to keep up with the tea!"
"Sorry.. you're giving me a lot of tea at once right now" he shook his head
"So they fired her because she's dating somebody's parent right after she told the class she's pregnant?"
"Now you got it.." the little girl nodded and she watched her father make a right turn out of the parking lot instead of a left "Where are we going?"
"You're going to Nana's.. I've got stuff to figure out"