‘I don’t want to have this baby’. The second I say this to Wes, my heart sinks. I’m terrified of what he’s going to think of me and what he’s going to say. I slowly look back at him to see that he’s just staring at the wall. All of a sudden, he jumps up and looks at me. “You want to have a fucking abortion!?” He yells at me. At this point, Wes is fuming. I’m surprised I don’t see steam coming out of his ears. I’ve never seen him this mad before and I’m actually kind of scared of him right now. I nod in shock of how he is acting. I had a feeling he would disagree with my decision but I didn’t think he’d go crazy about it. “Why, Tori?! Why the hell do you want to do that?!”
With Wes still yelling at me, I freeze up. What am I supposed to tell him? A small part of me just wants to tell him the truth because I’m sick of all the lying, especially since I’m lying to the man that I love. “I’m just not….ready.” I whisper, but I know that Wes can hear me.
“It’s not all about you anymore!” Wes snaps. “This is about the baby…our baby!”
Now my blood is starting to boil as well. I can’t take him yelling at me anymore. If only he knew that I’m doing this to save our relationship. I’m not being selfish! Or am I? “Wes, we are not ready to have a baby! We’re only teenagers! I haven’t even started college yet and you’re still trying to become a singer. How are you gonna be able to do that when you have to support me and a baby?!”
When I finish my little speech, I’m out of breath. I haven’t screamed this loud at someone since I got into a fight last year with one of my high school friends. Wes just stares at me with pure anger in his eyes. Almost right after I yell at him, he runs straight to my bedroom wall and I watch as his fist makes contact with it. He must have a lot of built up frustration because he punches the wall with so much momentum that it shakes my entire house.
After punching my wall, Wes cries out. I don’t know why but my guess is his hand must be in pain. He leans his forearms on the wall and let’s his head hang in between them. I walk over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. “Wesley?” I whisper to hoping my soothing voice will calm him down. He turns around and leans his back against the wall. That’s when I see tears running down his cheeks. He’s crying? Wesley’s actually crying? This is the first time he’s ever cried in front of me. From the day I first met him he was always so positive, happy and strong. It breaks my heart to see him breaking down, and I can’t believe I’m the person that did this to him.
Seeing him crying hysterically makes me do the same. “Wesley, talk to me.” I say softly. I don’t want him to keep his feelings bottled up inside any longer. I rub his arm and watch as he tries to choke out some words.
He takes one last deep breath, “I just want to do the right thing! I want to be there for you and our baby because I feel like this is all my fault.” More tears roll down his face.
“What’s your fault?” I ask wanting to know more.
“It’s my fault you’re pregnant!” He cries out. He thinks it’s his fault, but it’s not. As if I didn’t feel guilty enough before, I definitely do now.
“It’s not your fault, Wesley.” I say as my conscience tells me ‘Tell him Tori. Now’s the perfect time’.
He looks me in the eyes this time and says, “Yes it is. I was too excited about it being our first time. I should have used…”
“Stop, Wes.” I interject. “It’s not just your fault! It’s mine too. We did this together.”
“I know, Tori, but this is my only way I can make it up to you. I want to show you how supportive I can be and I want to show you that I’ll be a great dad.”
As he says that, his back slides down the wall and he sits on the ground. I join him and sit cross legged in front of him. I put my hand on his knee. “Wes, you’re going to be an amazing dad someday, I don’t doubt it for a second, but now is not the right time. You’re on XFactor right now! What if you guys win and get signed? You, Drew and Keaton have come so far and I want you to follow your dreams without having to worry about me and a baby. I just want to do what’s best for us. So if you want to show me how supportive you can be, then you’ll help me through this.”
By time I finish speaking Wes has calmed down and stopped crying. “I’m sorry, Tori.” He whispers.
“You don’t have to be sorry.” I say sweetly. “Like you said before, we can do this together. I love you, Wesley.”
Finally, the smile I’d been waiting to see appears on his face. “I love you too, Tori.” He stands and helps me up. He wraps his arms around me and for a second, I feel like everything is actually going to work out. Then we pull away and he asks, “So what do we do now?”
“I guess we have to make an appointment.”
I wait to see if he’s going to argue back this time but he remains calm. “Okay. I’ll call.”
“Thank you.” He just smiles and leads me back to bed. He whips out his phone and googles the number to my doctor’s office. He speaks with a lady just in time because she was about to leave. When he gets off the phone, he turns to me and says, “Tuesday at 8.”
Wow, that’s only three days away. He pulls me close to him and I instantly get comfortable. Usually I would fall asleep right away but right now I feel so guilty. Basically everything I just said to him was a lie. I could handle having a baby right now but only if it was his and not Drew’s. So this is my only option. I just hope that everything goes according to plan.
DREW POV
It’s 6 in the morning. I lay awake in bed just staring at ceiling. Today’s the day, the day all of my problems will go away and everything can go back to normal. I won’t have to worry about lying or keeping secrets anymore. Even though this all seems like it’s going to work out for the best, I still couldn’t sleep through the night. I woke up at 5 and I’ve been laying here for an hour.
Finally, I decide to get up and do something to get my mind off things. What would be a better way than going to the gym? I throw on a tank and some shorts and sneak down the hallway. I pass Wesley’s room knowing that Tori is in there with him. I guess because the appointment’s so early today he wanted her to stay here last night. She told me all about this through text yesterday.
I eventually get to the gym at around 6:30 and I immediately start working out. I start with a little run on the treadmill and then make my way over to the weights. I’m so focused at watching my form in the mirror that I don’t even realize someone creeping up behind me.
I feel a tap on my shoulder and look at the person’s reflection. Of course it has to be the one person I really don’t want to see, Hailey. I put down my weight and turn around, “Hailey? Are you like stalking me or something?”
“No, Drew.” She says fixing her bag on her shoulder. “I teach a class here every Tuesday morning. Don’t you remember? This is where we met.”
That’s right. Hailey used to teach many fitness classes here and that’s what made me feel an instant connection towards her in the first place. Eventually she cut down her number of classes and she only teaches on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and that’s the exact reason why I’ve avoided coming here at those specific times. I guess I must have forgotten today. “Oh yeah. Sorry.” I say as I go to turn back around.
“So…” She starts. Ugh can’t she just go away? “How are you holding up after the other night?”
“I’m better.” That was another lie. I wish I was feeling better but all I can think about is Tori and our baby.
“That’s good.” She pauses then continues. “So did you take my advice?”
I don’t expect to her to ask this question so when I go to answer it, I start to feel ashamed. “Yeah…”
“Did Tori go for it?” I nod starting to feel uncomfortable talking to her about this. “Wow, I’m surprised.”
“Why?”
“Because she actually made the decision to kill her baby…your poor innocent baby. But I’m even more surprised that you told her to do it. You always talked about how badly you wanted to have children. I guess that must have changed huh?” She stops as she sees my facial expression change. I can’t believe she just said all of that. She is honestly a bitch. She just doesn’t understand the situation Tori and I are in. It’s very complicated. “Well my class is about to start. So bye!” She says with way too much enthusiasm. I watch as she walks away and enters another room.
I try to finish my workout but I get too distracted by everything Hailey just said. Yes, obviously I want to have children someday. I want to be a dad and I bet that Tori wants to be a mom but we can’t be parents together, especially not right now. We’re not a couple, we’ve never even been out on a date, how are we supposed to raise a child together? But then again, how can I just let my baby die?
In frustration, I throw my weight back on the rack and run out of the place. I drive home with all of these thoughts racing through my head. When I get home and walk inside, I find Keaton on the couch watching TV. “Hey bro.” He says looking up at me. “Where have you been?”
“Gym.” I say grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge and then slamming the door shut. I walk over to Keaton and ask, “Where’s Wes and Tori?”
“They just left.”
“Where’d they go?” I ask but I already know the answer. They’re probably heading over to the clinic.
“Wes is bringing Tori to work.” Keaton says and then quickly looks away. I knew they would lie to Keaton about this. I stand there for a minute thinking more about everything. Keaton breaks me away from my thoughts. “Dude are you okay? You look upset.”
“I’m fine.” I snap at him. I take a seat on the couch and rest my elbows on my knees.
“You’re lying. What’s going on?” Keaton asks. I find his concern funny because Keaton and I have never been this close before. Before Wes was dating Tori, him and I would always be together, but now that he has a girlfriend, I’ve been spending a lot more time with Keaton. I trust Keaton just as much as I trust Wes but I don’t know if telling him would be a good idea.
“Nothing you need to worry about bro.” I say trying to make Keaton forget about all this.
“Well whatever it is, I know it’s been bothering you for a while.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been acting really weird lately, especially when Wes and Tori are around.” Oh no, it’s that noticeable? “Come on man, tell me what’s wrong.”
“I can’t Keats.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not my place to tell.”
“Then who's is?”
“Tori.” I say not wanting to hold anything in anymore. “She’s…”
“Pregnant.” Keaton says finishing my sentence.
“What did you just say?” I ask him. I’m so confused right now.
“She’s pregnant. Isn’t that what you were going to say?” He asks.
“Yeah, but how did you find out?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you the same thing?” Keaton says with a smirk. He thinks this is all a joke but he changes when he sees that I still have a serious look on my face. “I found out from Wes. He told me when we went surfing the other day.” Thinking about it, that makes sense. While they were surfing that day, I went to go and talk to Tori about what she should do. Wes must have been excited about the baby and told Keaton and that must be why Keaton doesn’t know about the appointment today. Wes must not have told him yet. “What’s so wrong about her being pregnant? Wes seemed really happy about it.”
“He was. But things are complicated.”
“How are they complicated?”
In the heat of the moment I stand up and scream, “I can’t tell you!” All of the questions coming from Keaton have me feeling so overwhelmed. I have so much that I want to tell him, but I’m afraid to. I’m scared of what might happen if everything comes out in the open. I start to pace back and forth.
Keaton stands up too, “Why?! You can trust me Drew!”
“I know!” I shout. “I just don’t want you to hate me if I tell you.”
“I could never hate you Drew. You’re like my big brother.” It felt good to hear Keaton’s kind words. They definitely helped me calm down.
I take a deep breath then say, “I did something really bad, Keats.” He just stares at me waiting for more. “The truth is, Wes isn’t taking Tori to work right now, he’s taking her to a clinic…to have an abortion.” Keaton’s eyes widen but he doesn’t know what to say. “Wes probably hasn’t told you because he’s not the one that wanted it, Tori did.” I take a long pause then continue, “And the reason she wanted to is because I told her to do it.”
Keaton takes a second to take all of this is in before saying, “Wait, why did you tell her to have an abortion?”
I knew this question was coming. I hesitate to answer but since I’ve told him this much already, I might as well tell him everything. “Because Wes isn’t the father of the baby…I am.”
“What?” Keaton whispers in utter confusion. I explain to him what happened the night of Kim’s party after out XFactor audition. When I do, he starts to put two and two together. When I’m done telling him everything, he asks, “Drew, if she’s carrying your baby, why would you tell her to do that?”
“So Wes wouldn’t find out. I thought it would solve everything, but it’s just left me feeling really guilty. I made Tori do it and now I’m never going to meet my child.” I pause for a moment as Keaton and I both think about this. “What do I do Keaton?” I don’t know why I asked. How is a 16 year old boy supposed to know what to do? I guess I’m just desperate.
“Go after them.” Keaton says quickly.
“What?” I say, making sure I heard him right.
“Go after Tori and stop her. Maybe it’s not too late.”
“But what about Wes?”
“Don’t worry about him right now. You need to talk to Tori.” Keaton gets up, grabs my keys off the kitchen counter and throws them at me. “Go!” He yells.
“Thanks dude.” I say grabbing his shoulder as I walk by. I run out the door and to my car. Then I start speeding in the direction of the clinic. I don’t care how fast I’m going because I need to get there before anything happens. I need to stop Tori…even if that means having to deal with Wes.
****
Well this chapter was intense!
Now Drew is off to try and stop Tori!
So...
Will Drew be there on time?
Will Tori follow through with it anyways?
But most importantly, What is Wes going to think??
KEEP READING to find out!
Please VOTE and comment!