Metamorphosis

The First Heartbeat

Chapter 18

The First Heartbeat

Matt sighed impatiently and glanced at his sister in the front seat.

"And you need my car on Wednesday nights why?" he asked. She crossed her arms.

"It's not just your car, you know. And I need it for the teen mom/pregnant teen support group."

"A support group? Who told you about that?"

"Who else? Sara. Now can I have the car or not?" he let out another impatient sigh and looked at his sister.

"What time will these meetings be?" she grinned.

"6 to 7:30." The pregnant girl answered.

"Fine, but I want it back undamaged!" he ranted. Mira rolled her eyes.

"You know mom and dad bought this car for both of us, you just use it more."

"Yes, and that makes it totally and completely mine!"

"Whatever." Matt grinned.

"So let me ask you something." She looked over at him. "What happened over the weekend? One minute you're ashamed and now you're going to support groups and acting all positive about this." Mira's body tensed slightly.

"So?"

"So, I know you better than that. The only way you have a revelation like that is when you do something drastic. So what'd you do?"

Mira glanced out the window and saw they were getting close to her school. "Nothing, I just realized that this baby isn't going anywhere and I needed to make peace with that fact."

Matt stopped the car in front of the school. He watched as his sister gathered her backpack and opened the car door. She gave him a small wave and began walking toward the building.

The older brother sighed and watched her go. Her story would have been a lot more believable if he hadn't heard her telling her friends about going to an abortion clinic then chickening out.

Seth had had a rough weekend. Since Mira had told him about the abortion on Friday, he hadn't stopped thinking about it. He had tried calling her a few times, mostly out of guilt, but had been to afraid. He figured she needed time to heal. After all, getting an abortion probably did some damage to her mentally.

He had spent the entire weekend trying to tell himself that it had been her choice. That he had stayed out of it and that it was over.

But every time he had thought about the baby, he got a tightening feeling in his gut. He knew it wasn't guilt. It couldn't be guilt.

But his weekend was nothing compared to the feeling he got when he saw Mira walk into school, small pregnant belly still intact.

He had been leaning against the lockers texting. The phone almost slipped out of his hand.

She hadn't had the abortion.

The tightening feeling seemed to fade slightly. Why the hell was he feeling slightly relieved.

He continued to lean against the locker and wait for her to come over and stutter an explanation for not doing it. But instead, she walked right past, head held high, not even sparing him a glance. He didn't know what it was, but something about her seemed different. She appeared stronger, and much more prideful.

Was she really going to make him come to her?

Seth spent the first part of his day fidgeting. He was so restless. He knew that he would have to talk to her and get some answers sometime today, he just really didn't want to.