Becoming his Surrogate

Chapter 2

    Charlotte shook her head, not sure she had heard Marianne right. "What?"

Marianne took a breathe and held up her phone for Charlotte to see. "You could become a Surrogate." She repeated.

Charlotte looked at Marianne's phone.  There was an article up. She took the phone and began to read;

Surrogacy is when someone carries a baby for another person or couple, giving the child to them once it’s born.
It’s an extremely big decision, but one that’s been vital in helping people have babies who otherwise wouldn't be able to.

She skimmed the rest of the article and stopped at the last paragraph;

The average amount of compensation can range from $30,000 to $50,000 plus expenses, depending on experience and the individual arrangements.

Charlotte gave Marianne her phone back and frowned. "There's no way I'm doing that." She stated.

"And why not?" Marianne asked, raising an eyebrow towards her best friend. "It's your best option. Anywhere else you try to apply to, will barely able to help you pay all your bills and have enough for food. Becoming a surrogate, you could earn around $50,000" She said, emphasizing the amount of money she could earn.

"Yes. I know Marianne, I read the article." Charlotte said. "Isn't there like requirements? There's no way, any woman can just push a baby through her lady bits and simply get payed. There's gotta be a catch"

Marianne looked back down at her phone, reading. After a couple minutes, she shook her head. "Nope, I believe they do background checks, but  you only need to have given birth already, which yo-" Marianne was cut off just as her front door opened, and her husband, Jonathon and son, Sebastian walked in. Charlotte closed her eyes, grateful that Marianne got distracted. There was no way Charlotte wanted to have that discussion again. Charlotte opened her eyes and smiled.

"Welcome back, Jonathon. How was your guy's walk?" She asked, getting up and picking Sebastian up. Charlotte smiled softly as the baby started to giggle.

"It was good.  Though, Sebastian slept the whole.time" He said, kissing Marianne on the head. She giggled and took the baby in her arms.

"I warned you he'd do that." She said, looking up at her husband with a smile.

Jonathan playfully rolled his eyes at his wife "Alright, Alright. You were right"

"As Always" Marianne responded with a smirk, making Jonathon laugh.

Charlotte sat in awe at how adorable Marianne and Jonathon were. They were Middle school sweethearts, which in it self is hard to believe, but was true. They started dating in 7th grade and now years later, were married with a baby.  Charlotte could only dream of finding a reletionship like their's.

She actually had someone like that from a couple years back, Colton. They were together for a little over 2 years. They were the most amazing 2 years of her life. He was her everything. Everyone believed that they were meant to be and get married. That was- until she ended up pregnant with his child. When Charlotte found out she was expecting, she was ecstatic. She had always wanted to have kids. That feeling changed the moment she told Colton. He got furious at her for ending up pregnant, that it was her fault. She quickly broke up with him after that and never contacted him again.

As for the baby, after much debating, she decided to put it up for adoption, once born. She couldn't raise it on her own, she was still in collage, she had a strained reletionship with her father and her Mother, had died years ago, in a car accident when Charlotte was 15, so there was no one to support her. There was also a choice of Abortion. But she knew for ages, that if she ended up pregnant at a young age, she wouldn't be able to abort it. She'd never forgive herself for killing a possible human life.

Once she had learned that Marianne and Jonathon were having problems trying to have a baby of their own, she wasted no time in offering them to adopt hers. It wasn't the same as having one of their own,but the second Marianne held the baby for the first time, Charlotte knew she had made the right choice. She knew he'd have a better life with them. She also knew she'd always be able to watch him grow up.

Charlotte's thoughts were interrupted by Jonathan speaking to her. "So,how'd the job search go?" He inquired .

She shrugged and smiled. "It went well, I guess. There isn't many jobs I qualify for, that will help bring enough money to help prevent me from becoming homeless." She said, taking a sip of her juice.

Jonathan rubbed the back of his neck,smiling softly.

"I'm not sure how I can help you myself, but you're welcome to crash here anytime you need"

"Thanks. I may have to take you up on that offer sometime soon"

"I say, you should really consider what we talked about. I know it's not ideal for you. But it's something." Marianne chimned in.  Charlotte rolled her eyes. Marianne stood and placed Sebastian against her hip. "I'm serious." She said.

Charlotte held up her hands in surrender. "Fine, I will." She looked down at her phone and gasped.

"Crap. I'm gonna be late for work!" She said, standing up and grabbing her stuff. She said goodbye to her friends, left their place and basically sprinted the rest of the way to work. She was fortonate to find work at a fast food resteraunt near her best friend. It wasn't the best job in the world, but it worked for her.

Catching her breathe, Charlotte clocked in, unfortunately a few minutes late.  She groaned as she saw the time. Her boss was gonna chew her out. She was a very punctual person. If any of her employees were late, with no good reason more then once, they usually lost their jobs.

Charlotte changed into her uniform and threw her long blonde hair up into a ponytail, anxiously awaiting for the moment, she'd lose her job. She soon got distracted, working behind the register, customers came pouring in to order their lunch. When it was time for her break, clocked out and paid for a soda before going to sit at one of the tables. She was barely seated when her boss came up to her.

"You were late today" Charlotte looked up from the table and found that her boss had sat down in front of her.

"Yeah. I know, I wa-"

"Save it. This is the 2nd time this week. If this happens again, I'll have no choice but to fire you." Charlotte felt her face turn bright red. She felt like all eyes in the resteraunt were on her. She was close to tears. 'Could today get any worse?' She thought to herself.

Charlotte barely had time to explain, before her boss got up and left. She sighed softly  and drank her soda, trying to avoid anyone's gaze, she didn't want anybody to see her cry.

After her break, she quickly got back to work, making sure to work twice as fast this time, in hopes to change her boss's mind about firing her.

***

Charlotte rubbed her eyes from exhaustion and unlocked her apartment door. Opening the door, she sighed and dropped her stuff by it. She shut the door, and leaned her head against the wall. The day couldn't come to an end quickly.

She walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch. She looked down and saw the letter from this morning. She grabbed it and crumpled it up. She felt herself close to tears for the second time today.

She felt her phone vibrate and pulled it out from her back pocket. She opened her messages to see it was from Marianne.

'In case you change your mind, Here's an application to can send in'

Attached was a application to apply to become a surrogate. Charlotte looked up and glanced at the crumpled letter.  It seemed to be the only logical thing she could do at this point.

Sighing, she opened the application and started to fill it out.