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Veronica's POV

The following weeks were amazing to say the least. Just days filled with JD and I watching TV, reading and talking. It felt like we'd gone back in time and I really appreciated that. I enjoyed being treated like a person, as anyone does.

After being in my new room for roughly a month, I woke up next to JD. He had a book in his hands that he closed, sitting it down to the side and smiling at me. "Good morning, beautiful." He said to me, telling me he was already in a good mood. I expected it to be just like any other day.

I tried to speak before getting incredibly nauseous, bolting up from the bed and running into the bathroom to throw up into the toilet. I lifted my head up and realized JD was standing in the doorway. I reached up a weak arm to flush the toilet as he walked up to me and bent down.

"Are you okay?" He asked me.

"I feel really sick." I answered. He gently felt my forehead for a fever and sighed.

"You're not feverish at all." He commented. The rest of his sentence was not spoken but I knew what he was thinking.

"I can't be pregnant." I mumbled to him. I didn't want to believe it, despite knowing it to be true. JD stood up and left the room, returning with one of the just in case pregnancy tests in his hand. He handed it to me with it still in the plastic wrapper.

JD gave me the privilege of privacy as I peed on the stick before capping it back up and sitting it onto the sink. I sat on the toilet seat, with the lid closed as my nausea had subsided. JD came back in a few moments later with the entire box of pregnancy tests to see how long we'd have to wait.

Five agonizingly slow minutes crawled by us silently until JD glanced at his watch and told me that time was up.

"I can't look at it." I told him and he sighed, picking up the stick and reading it for himself. His look of pure fucking fear told me plenty. "It's positive, isn't it?" I asked him.

"Yeah," He commented, almost in disbelief. His voice made me want to scream at him. What did he expect to happen when we had sex without any protection?

But the second he confirmed what I already sort of knew, I burst into tears. JD bent down in front of me and tried to comfort me. "Hey, it's okay." He told me.

"How is it okay?" I asked him, challenging him to come up with any reason for all of this to be a good thing.

"You've always wanted to be a mom." JD reminded me.

"Not at eighteen! Not here!" I cried at him and his face grew stony.

"Let me guess, not with me." He remarked as he stood up.

"I didn't say that!" I whined at him, my mouth falling agape.

"You didn't have to." He replied, leaving the small bathroom and me behind him. I followed him.

"So I'm just supposed to be excited about this!?" I asked him.

"Yeah!" He yelled back to me. It caught me off guard because he'd been so kind lately. I didn't expect him to shout at me, even if I had started it. "This is something you've always wanted and I gave it to you!" He added, even louder.

"I didn't want it like this! I don't want to raise a fucking baby in this basement, never letting them see the real world!" I screamed at him.

"They'd be able to go outside." JD scoffed at me but I knew he was lying to me.

"How much money do you have from your father, JD? Because babies are expensive. You can't just sit here hoping that the money will last when you add another mouth to feed." I said to him, folding my arms over my chest from annoyance.

"It's none of your business how much money I have." JD told me, his voice filled with that awful venomous tone again.

"It is my business!" I yelled at him.

"No, it isn't!" He barked at me. "You get to stay home and play mommy, just like you've always wanted. I gave you that bullshit 1950s life, so let me handle the money." He argued with me.

"How dare you say that's what I've always wanted!" I cried out, tears running down my face again.

"It is!" He bickered, his voice still louder than mine.

"I wanted to be a writer!" I reminded him.

"Like you can't write a fucking book while taking care of a baby. Write while the baby sleeps." JD told me, genuine advice delivered in that nasty tone.

"So when am I supposed to sleep?" I asked him facetiously. "Are you going to help at all or were you under the impression that I'd do everything?" I questioned.

"Of course I'll help!" He insisted. "I've always been up earlier and to bed later than you." He added, giving credence to this. As if chronic insomnia proves that you'd help with a baby.

"Do you have a nursery set up? Or will the baby sleep in here their whole life?" I asked him.

"They'd sleep in here until we could find a better place." JD answered.

"What? Like a place with multiple rooms in the basement?" I asked sarcastically.

I shouldn't have been surprised when he shoved me to the ground. But as I landed on my ass, I knew that I had caused this reaction with all my snide comments.

They always did.

JD stood over me with his fists clenched. "I don't want to hit you." He told me. I looked up at his eyes and saw they were teary.

"Then don't." I said quietly, my voice lowering to a kinder tone so he would calm down.

"You can't speak to me like you did." He reminded me.

"I'm sorry, okay?" I asked him. "You took Sex Ed multiple times, you know how crazy my hormones are right now." I said, giving myself an out for my behavior.

JD reached his hand towards me and helped me stand. "I know." He replied, shaking his head shortly. "I'm sorry I pushed you." He apologized, kissing my head.

"It's okay." I lied to him because it's what I was supposed to do. "Am I going to be able to see a doctor?" I asked him.

"I have to contact my father, to see if he's gotten the things we need." JD explained, giving me the answer of probably not.

"What do we need?" I questioned softly. JD wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Fake IDs and stuff like that. So I can get a job and you can go to a doctor." He explained, not going any further than that. "I have to get to a pay phone. Do you want to go?" He asked and I nodded.

"We have to get groceries too." I said.

"Maybe we'll stop for a slushie on the way back." He added, smiling at me.

meant to be yours // heathers au // EDITINGWhere stories live. Discover now