Joy's POV
"Are you going to get an abortion?" Vincent asked.
"I respect your decision, Vincent, but no," I told him.
"Let's say whoever does give birth to this baby in seven months gives birth to it; who is going to take care of it then? How are you going to handle going to school and taking care of the baby all at once? What about your future?''
Mercilessly, he went on.
"You're on your own right now, and you'll continue to be in the future unless your parents support your decision completely, and we both know that doesn't look like it is going to happen.
"If circumstances were different, I would be helpful. But they aren't, Joy! I can't marry you out of obligation. For Pete's sake; we're in each others' bodies. How can a child be tossed into the mix?" he pointed out.
I ran a hand through my hair, ''I know you are hurt and worried. But, I can only handle one problem right now.'' I pleaded with him. He breathed out several times but it seemed like he understood.
"Should we continue the examination,'' he asked. With a curt, numb nod, I fetched the doctor.
"Have you decided to keep the baby or abort it?" she asked us, glancing up from her notepad.
"We're not sure yet," Vincent said.
I nodded in stiff agreement.
The doctor smiled, trying to ease the tension.
"So, do you want to see the baby?"
"Yeah, we do," I blurted out before Vincent could reject her offer. Grumbling, Vincent laid on the hospital bed. The doctor, adamantly, covered the fetal doppler with the ultrasound gel and moved it around his belly until she found the spot where the baby's heartbeat could be detected.
I could not wait to listen to my baby's heartbeat. Dr. Ang turned the volume up so we could listen to it.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
The beating of the baby's heart sounded like the thunder of galloping horses. Screaming, screeching against my ears. Strangely, I could faintly hear another heartbeat as well.
Is it Vincent's? How weird is that? I internally laughed but Dr. Ang looked at the screen and seemed a bit startled.
"Is something wrong?" I asked her, now, heart in my throat.
"It's up to you to decide whether it's good or bad news, but you are having twins!" she exclaimed.
Twins. Not one, but two babies!
Intense emotions swirled through my body as I stood there, speechless. I did not want to think of how Vincent would react to this.
Surely, there would be something we could settle with, right? But what if he did not want them? I had barely scraped through, supporting one baby, let alone two!
"They're beautiful," the female voice piped up, shaky and cutting off my internal rant. Vincent's huge smile and watery eyes were on my face. Gripping his–my–hand, I let out a sad smile. If only my parents were here. Maybe, if they saw the twins for themselves, they would be as happy as I was.
Dr. Ang printed two ultrasound pictures and gave them to us. Vincent and I wished her a good day and left the clinic together, lost in thought about our future. I knew I wanted to spend it with Vincent, but I knew that I wanted my twins more.
I won't marry you out of obligation.
That one sentence kept echoing in my mind, no matter how hard I tried to push it out. Although I had told him not to date me just because of the babies, I could not help but wish otherwise.
"So..." we said in unison.
My cheeks flushed red, and I looked away from him.
"You can go first," I said, still turned away from him.
Vincent cleared his throat.
"No matter how much I think about it, I still believe it would be best to get an abortion, Joy."
The very thought of aborting my children caused me to clench my fists. Even after hearing those two heartbeats, he still wants to stop me from having them?
"Luckily, that's not your decision to make," I responded icily. "I'm not expecting you to take responsibility for my children. I didn't even want you to know about them, but then again things have changed and you're back in my life again, for no fault of mine. But you figure that this means you can take over—walk all over me again? I just can't believe you!"
Just then, a bus pulled up to our stop, and I boarded it without a second thought. It did not matter where the bus was going, anywhere would be fine as long as I was far away from Vincent.
Was this Vincent the same boy I had known just two years ago? Was he the same guy who would walk me to school every morning?
God, he had changed so much that he'd almost become unrecognizable.
I hated it.
But I got it at the same time.
School was starting soon, which meant while I would go to high school, he would move on to college. Our number of interactions would be reduced dramatically. If Vincent had my body until then, he had better not do anything stupid, or God forbid, I wouldn't mind killing him with my bare hands.
I hated him. God, in this situation, I hated him.
And I loved him.
With bated breath, I leaned against the bus' window and shut my eyes.
If only there was an instruction manual which came with behaving like Vincent. Then maybe I'd come out of this alive.
I know I haven't updated in a month! I'm so sorry about that. I was well busy with my life. I was planning to put this book on hold but recently I realised that there were still quite a number of people who were reading my novel. I was really happy to see the book stats of new readers and the messages from my new fans so I've decided to continue writing this novel. Thank you to all my new readers and fans! I love you guys :D
For those of you who are wondering why there are awkward endings for the first part of a chapter and awkward beginnings for the second part of a chapter, I had originally written the two parts of a chapter as one chapter. But since wattpad readers usually dislike reading long chapters, I had to break the chapters into two parts. So this chapter is actually my fourth chapter, not eighth.
And okay now for the happy news, my book has won the following awards in the past 3 weeks:
- First place in the July Awards humour category
- 2nd runners up in Story teller awards humour category
- 1st place in Crayon Awards humour category
- 2nd place in Q and K awards humour category
YOU ARE READING
Swapped For Love
Humor#393 Humor - 30/09/17 Joyce's life took a turn for the worse when her boyfriend decided to break up with her. The only thing Joyce ever hoped for was to be able to spend one more day with him. Vincent managed to get into the school he had al...
