Hearts and Rockets | Hutchpoppe

Chapter 17

Maddie's POV

"What?" Jake says in a blank voice.

"You heard me," I tell him.

He looks at me for a moment, "it's not mine."

"What the hell? Yes it is," I say.

"No, Maddie. Go find one of the other guys you slept with and leave me alone."

He brushes past me, and I have no idea what to say. I feel my eyes watering as I turn and watch him go down the hallway and turn the corner. I sit down, leaning my back against the wall. He isn't going to help me. He can't honestly believe that it's not his kid, there's no way. He just doesn't want to step up.

"Maddie?"

I look up at Caleb, "Hi."

"What happened? Don't cry," he sits down beside of me.

"I told him, and he said it's not his," I wipe my eyes.

"I-I'm sorry," he says.

I shrug, "I'll be fine by myself, maybe."

"You won't be by yourself," he puts an arm around me, "you have me, your parents, my parents, Catie, Gabby..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," I laugh, "thank you."

I get home from school, and my mom is home. I speak to her before going upstairs to my room. I get quite a bit of homework done, and I hear a knock on the door. Assuming my mom will get it, I stay where I am and continue my homework. I smile to myself when I hear a familiar southern accent coming from downstairs.

"She's in her room, you can go on up," I hear my mom say.

I hear footsteps coming up the stairs, and then I hear a quiet knock on my door, so I tell him he can come in. He opens the door and walks in, a plastic bag in his hand. He looks around my room, a small smile on his face, "Wow, you took a bunch of your posters down."

"Yeah, I did," I say, "I'm gonna take the rest of them down and paint the walls yellow this weekend, maybe."

"I am happy to paint it for you," he offers, "I don't think you're supposed to be near paint, anyway."

I shrug, smiling, "You're sweet."

"Just let me know when. I'm serious, I will paint your room for you," he comes over and sits on the edge of my bed, and sits the bag down in front of me, "I stopped and got you some stuff."

I reach into the bag and first pull out a chocolate candy bar, and I giggle, "My favorite. How'd you know?"

"Gabby told me," he chuckles, "I thought maybe you might crave it."

I reach into the bag again, and pull out a book. An information book, well, more like a guide book for 'first time parents', and I let out another giggle, "Wow."

"I kinda sense that you're not a big reader, but just if you had questions or something."

"Thank you, Caleb. Really you didn't have to do this. Thank you."

"It's no problem. I also bought you some ginger ale and saltines for when you feel nauseous. I gave them to your mom and she put them in the kitchen."

"I don't know what to say, Caleb. You've been so supportive and you've already done so much for me."

"That's what friends are for," he says, "even though I would like to be more than friends. But I respect you, I know you have a lot going on and don't want to be in a relationship right now."

I honestly do not deserve him. He is so kind and supportive of me, and has so much respect for me. He really is an angel, and I will never be able to thank him enough.

"Yeah. I'm sorry," I look down.

"Don't be sorry," he tells me, "just know that I'll always wait for you."