We sit silently in car, both staring ahead into the distance. “So, should we go now?” Damion asks, breaking the silence.
I nod, letting out a sigh as I unbuckle my seatbelt. I open the car door and step outside, taking a deep breath as I look to the clear, blue sky. I walk over to Damion who is stepping out of the car, nervously gliding his hand through his hair. You can tell that he’s nervous, although he’s holding a brave face. We begin to walk towards Starbucks and I suddenly spot my parents in the distance, sitting outside talking to a waiter.
“That’s them, you see the woman in the red shirt? That’s my mom,” I say.
Damion nods, “Should I not be holding your hand or something, I mean we’ve got to look like we’re a couple,” he suggests. I nervously look at him, considering his offer. I sheepishly smile at him then hold out my hand. He plants his hand in mine and entwines his fingers in between as the corner of his lips turn up. My small hand fits into his manly hand perfectly.
It’s been a while since I’ve held a guys hand and it feels pretty good. I suddenly remember the times Derek and I would stroll through the park, hand in hand as we would dream of our future together. We would name our children, Isabelle or Jasmine for a girl and Jason for a boy and think of the grand house we were going to buy together. My face falls as the memory fades away and I look to the floor. Damion squeezes my hand, reassuring me that everything’s going to be okay.
As we walk closer towards Starbucks my mother spots me. She beams up at me and waves her hand in the air, signalling me over. I take a deep breath and walk towards her, putting on a bright smile. Damion softly rubs his thumb against mine as my body tenses. My mom’s wearing a red floral shirt tucked into white linen trousers. Her brown but slightly grey hair softly hangs on her shoulders and she is wearing light lipstick. She’s wearing the red earrings that I got her for her birthday. She does try her best to look fashionable, which is good I guess. I look towards my father and I see him sitting back in his chair, relaxed as always. He’s wearing a plain white shirt tucked into his brown trousers and he’s reading a large newspaper.
"You’re here, I thought you would never turn up,” My mother says, gleaming at me as I take a seat in front of her.
I lean in front of her and plant a kiss on her cheek, “I wouldn’t stand you up mom,” I say as I softly laugh, burying all of my nerves. I take a seat and lean forward to kiss my father as he places his newspaper on the floor. He smiles softly at me, his brown eyes glistening in the light.
“Mum, dad, this is Damion,” I say.
“Hi there,” My mother says as she smiles up at him politely.
Damion smiles warmly at her and says, “Nice to meet you Mrs Stewart,” and then softly kisses her cheek as he takes a seat.
“Ooh,” she says, giggling.
“Nice to meet you sir,” Damion says as he reaches out to shake my father’s hand.
My father smiles and shakes Damion’s hand politely, “Hello.” Damion relaxingly takes a seat, not a trail of fear lurking on his face.
“So how have you been darling, I was beginning to think that you were ignoring me,” My mom says.
I nervously swallow and say, “It’s just that I’ve been really busy lately with work and stuff.”
“And how is work?” My dad asks, glancing up at me.
“Oh it’s good, you know, just as normal,” I say.
“Do you want a drink?” My mother asks.
“Yeah, I’ll just have a caramel Frappuccino,” I say.
She nods and then asks Damion, “And what are you having?”
“I’ll just have a coke thank you,” he says, smiling at her.
She nods and then calls over a young worker whose walking pass. The young, short, waiter with black curly hair turns around and comes over to our table. She smiles brightly at us and in her strong Italian accent she asks, “Can I help you?”
“We’re not having anything to eat today, just some small beverages. We’ll have one caramel Frappuccino, one cup of coffee and some hot chocolate and a can of coke,” she informs the waiter. The waiter nods and jots down our order on her notepad.
“Okay, I’ll be just a minute and that will be $14.50,” she says as veers off sharply.
“So how’s Natalie?” I ask as I remember my younger sister’s plea for me to persuade my parents to let her have a party.
“She’s fine. She wants a party for her sixteenth birthday but I’m not too sure. I don’t want boys hanging around my house and I definitely don’t want any alcohol.”
“Oh come on mom, she’s going to be sixteen and she’s barely ever had a glass of wine in her life so I doubt she’s going to pass out drunk on the bathroom floor,” I say as I reminisce on the night that I had to pick up my younger sister from a friends party as she could barely walk home and she was petrified on phoning dad to pick her up.
“Hmm, well I’ll have to think about it. If she gets good grades I might consider it,” She replies. I shake my head at her and then we all sit in silence awaiting our beverages.
“So what was it that you wanted to tell me?” My mother asks.
I look up at her confusingly, “Huh?”
“You sent a text message telling me that there’s something that you need to tell me.” Recognition dawns as I suddenly remember the text that I sent her. She raises her eyebrows in expectation, glaring into my eyes.
I begin to stutter and nervously say, “Uh well-”
Thankfully the waiter comes with our drinks and places them on the table, “Thank you,” we all chorus. We begin to sip our drinks in silent and my nerves begin to surface.I begin to loudly slurp my Frappuccino as I close my eyes.
“Oh please stop that Kayla, it’s rather annoying,” My mother says. I roll my eyes and begin to quietly drink my Frappuccino.
“So how are you young man?” My dad asks Damion, crossing his arms.
“Oh I’m fine thanks,” He replies as he finishes pouring his coke into a glass.
“It’s a nice day today isn’t it?” He says.
“Yeah it is, I like it when it’s like this. It’s nice and sunny but with a nice fresh breeze,” he replies.
My father nods at him and then takes another sip of his coffee. I nervously glance up at my mother; she’s stirring her hot chocolate and adding some more sugar. I take a deep breath and swipe a strand of hair from my face and place it behind my ear. “Okay,” I say, pressing my hands together as I nervously smile. Both my mother and father glance up at me in expectation. I clear my throat and brace myself, “The reason why I’m here...” I slowly say as I fiddle with my fingers.
I turn to look at Damion and he nods at me, gearing me to just tell them. Both of their eyes are completely fixed on me not even moving an inch. Well they’re not making this any easier for me as they’re both staring at me like two scary head teachers. I suddenly imagine my mother shouting at me, her nostrils flaring as her eyes brace out of her head, filled with venom as she gives me a month’s detention. She can be really scary sometimes.
Well you know what, I’m not afraid of them, well I guess I kind of am, but I’ve grown up now. I have a mind of my own and this is my own life and I can do whatever I want with it and I don’t have to ask for their permission anymore. “What is it Kayla?” My mother asks, irately.
Now I wish I had told them over the phone, or maybe by email, because this is much harder than I thought. Taking a deep breath and squeezing my hands tightly together I suddenly blurt out, “I’m going to have baby.”
Silence.
Then More Silence.
Followed by even more deadly silence.
My face suddenly lights up and I let out a sigh of relief as the profound words have finally come out. I let out a laugh and say, “You’re going to be grandparents!” My attempt to lighten the situation fails as the both stare at me coldly in the face.
My smile slowly fades as I stare into their plain faces. I can’t read my mother’s face, but it looks like she is draining of life but then it’s darkening, the threat of a terrible storm surfacing. Whatever it was, I know it wasn’t good. I looked to my father, all emotions in his face washed away as if he’s just received the most horrific news.
They are usually good looking people, but now, they looked like hell. My mother is fifty three and she has aged rather well. There were very few lines on her face and you could barely spot a grey hair. She likes to dress fashionable as she would say, in her Catalogue clothes. My father on the other hand was fifty five and he still looked rather young for his age. I would say that they could pass for mid - forties on a good day, this day was no longer a good day. “What do you mean you’re pregnant?” My mother sternly asks, her piercing eyes glaring at me.
I shrink down into my seat, feeling smaller than ever as I look up into her bearing eyes, “I mean I’m pregnant as in I’m going to be a mother,” I say.
My mother begins to say something but then hesitates. She takes a deep breath and asks, “Is it Derek’s?”
“No...” I whisper, lowering my head.
“Then if it’s not Derek’s who’s is it?!” She yells, getting rather angry.
A few heads turn around and they glare at my mother then mumble amongst themselves.
“It’s mine,” Damion says. I look towards him, shocked but thankful. My father’s jaw tenses as his eyes deepen.
My mother’s mouth hangs open as she looks at Damion. “And who exactly are you?” She asks disgustingly, she then turns to face me and says, “You didn’t seem to introduce your little friend very well.”
I take a deep breath and say, “Well he’s, he’s my boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend!?” She shrieks, “You’ve only just left a relationship and now you’re already in one!” She yells. She pauses and then continues, “You don’t know anything about having a baby and the responsibilities it carries.”
“I’m twenty three mom, not three!” I shout, getting rather angry at the fact that they don’t seem to be the slightest bit happy for me.
“You’re not even married; you’ve just got yourself pregnant for some guy that I don’t even know!”
“You don’t need to know him! What’s important is that I know him and I don’t care what you think, I’m having this baby!” I yell, fury filled in my eyes.
“Darling I know you’re an adult and you can make your own decisions but you’ve got your whole life ahead of you,” My father says, more relaxed than my mother.
“What I don’t think you guys are understanding is that I am pregnant, I’m not trying for a baby I am having a baby and there’s no way I’m giving it up, and besides I think it’s too late now, I’m three months and six days pregnant.”
“What you need to consider is how the two of you are going to live and bring up this baby,” He says.
“I’m going to support her, we’re going to bring this baby up together,” Damion says.
My mother shoots daggers at him with her eyes. “We’ve moved in together and we’re going to get through this together,” he says.
My mother lets out a cry, “Is there anything else you want to tell me? You’re getting married tomorrow, pregnant with triplets, moving to Africa?” She asks sarcastically as she rolls her eyes. I glare at my mother in fury, anger filled in my eyes. Why is she not taking this serious? Does she know how hard it’s been for me the last couple of months? I need her support right now; and what I don’t need is her looking down her nose at me.
“I’m going to get some more drinks, why don’t you help me son?” My father says to Damion. Damion quickly looks over his shoulders but then nervously swallows and then nods. I look at him and softly smile. He smiles back at me, cool and composed as he then follows my father inside.
I fix my eyes back on my mother and we both sip the remains of our drinks in a deadly silence.
After minutes of silence, I finally build up the courage to talk to her. I cross my arms and brace myself, “Look mom, I didn’t want this to turn out like this. I don’t want us to be arguing over this, what I need right now is your support,” I say.
She looks up at me and to a surprise is see that her emerald eyes are filled with tears, “I just don’t want you to ruin your life,” she says.
“How is having a baby going to ruin my life? Mom, I’m an adult now, I have to make decisions on my own,” I say.
“It’s just that it feels like yesterday that you were a baby and now you’re all grown up and you’re having a baby,” She says as she catches a falling tear from her eye with a napkin.
“I know mom, but I’m growing up. I’m twenty three and I’ve got to live my life. I know I should be in a stable relationship and preferably married but sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way you planned...” I say as I place my hand on hers.
She looks at my hand and squeezes it as she nods. She then looks up at me and in a more serious tone she asks, “I don’t even know that guy, for all I know he could be wanted for a serious crime or an abusive drunk and now he’s lingering in your life.”
“Mom, do you know what I find funny? Ten minutes ago you weren’t accusing him of being of being a druggy, a drunk or criminal or whatever, you seemed perfectly fine with him. But now that you’ve found out that he’s the father of my unborn child you seem to hate him,” I say.
“I don’t hate him Kayla; It’s just going to take me a while to get to know him,” she says.
I can’t help but agree with her, it’s going to take me a while to know the real Damion too. “Now tell me, how did you fall pregnant?” My mother questions.
I look at her nervously, wondering whether I should tell her the truth or not. I know if I tell her what really happened she’ll be really disappointed and disgusted and I really don’t want her to judge me. But then she’s my mother, she’s got to understand. She was young once, right? But her life was different to mine, very different. Lies always make things better but they always have a way of coming out. She looks at me expectantly, smiling softly. “Well,” I pause and then say, “I started dating Damion and then... well soon after I found out that I was pregnant,” I nervously say, avoiding eye contact with her.
Her body tenses and she looks at the table and drinks some of her hot chocolate. “So all this time you were dating Damion? But you just broke up with Derek like three months ago,” She says, confused.
“I know I know, but it kind of just happened...” I say.
“But if you broke up with Derek about three months ago, it was three months right? How can you have gotten into a new relationship, gotten pregnant and moved in together?” She questions. She pauses and then continues, “I knew your father for four years before we began a relationship and then two years later we got married and then the following year I got pregnant with you. It didn’t all happen in three months Kayla,” she says.
I slump my head down on the table and bury it in my arms as I mumble, “I know, I know, but can you just leave it mom... Whatever happened has happened, there’s no turning back now.”
“Hmm, well whatever really happened doesn’t matter I guess,” She says, letting out a sigh. “And when did you move in with him?”
“I moved in with him yesterday, we thought it would be for the better,” I explain as I sit upright.
“And is his place nice? Is it clean? I don’t want you living in a dump down town or something,” she says.
“No it’s lovely, trust me,” I say, “And Damion’s nice too.”
“Hmm,” she says as she eyes my doubtfully, “Are you sure you’ve made the right decision moving in so early?”
“Yes mother, I’m sure.”
Letting out a sigh she then asks, “So have you been to the doctors yet?”
“Yeah, we went this morning.”
“Ooh and how did it go?” She asks, seeming rather excited.
“It was great, everything’s fine, in fact I’ve got a scan....” I say as I begin to rummage through my bag as I try to find the baby scan.
“Already? That’s rather early,” she says.
“Here it is!” I say, smiling as I hand it to her. She takes the small squared picture from me and begins to squint as she examines it. She places it on the table and then takes out her glasses from inside her bag and puts them on.
She then takes another glance at the scan and then hands it back to me. “Well you can’t really see anything but I’m sure he or she is going to be beautiful,” she says as she removes her glasses. I smile as I gaze at the small precious image. That’s my baby, my small beautiful baby. I’m going to be a mummy; I’m going to be a mother....
Damion
“I’m going to get some more drinks, why don’t you help me son?” Kayla’s father asks. My head flashes left to right as try to figure out who the hell he’s talking to. My eyes slowly swerve and connect with his as recognition dawns that he’s talking to me. He looks at me in exception as he begins to stand up. For a quick second I wonder if I should stay put but it doesn’t look like he was asking me, it was more of an instruction.
I nervously swallow and then nod as I push back my chair and stand up. Kayla smiles up at me and I smile back at her and then follow her father inside. I can’t help but feel really scared, I’m sure he’s not going to kill me but he really intimidates me. He’s very calm and laid back which is what scares me. He pushes open the door and holds it open for me as I walk inside. “Thank you sir,” I politely say, concealing my nerves.
“Call me Howard, I’ve have enough of being called sir for the thirty years that I was a teacher,” he says.
“You were a teacher? That’s cool,” I say.
“Yes, I took an early retirement in summer,” He says as we walk towards the counter. A young, blonde waiter comes over to us. She’s unbuttoned two of the buttons on her uniform which reveals her rather perky breast. I try not to look at her rather appealing chest so I begin to fiddle with the straws on the counter.
“Hello can I help you?” She asks brightly as she eyes me up flirtatiously. She holds one of her golden locks and wraps it around her finger as she flutters her long eyelashes and leans againts the counter, exposing her breast. I nervously gulp as I put my hands in my back pocket and look outside the window at Kayla and her mother holding hands and talking.
“Well can I have a bottle of water please and uh, I think my wife will have one too and maybe Kayla will like a can of coke. Do you want a drink Daniel?” Howard asks.
“It’s Damion and no thank you,” I reply as I lean forward onto the bar as I can’t help but check the waiter out. She catches me looking at her breast and smirks as she goes to prepare the drinks.
From the corner of my eyes I can just about see Howard staring at me which makes my heart beat rapidly as I begin to feel nervous. “So, what subject did you teach at school?” I ask, trying to lighten the tense atmosphere.
“Let’s cut the silly talk son,” He says.
My face turns red and I slowly turn to face him, “Pardon?” I ask.
“Look, I don’t know you so I can’t say that you aren’t a good man but I just want to tell you this,” he says as he looks at me firmly. He continues by saying, “You’ve gotten my daughter pregnant and I don’t care if you’re her boyfriend or not or if you love her or not, but I just want to say that you better stick by her. You better not break her heart and you better make her feel like she is the most beautiful girl in the whole world every single day.”
“I-I-I promise sir, I will-” My sentence is interrupted by the waiter placing our drinks on the counter.
“Here you go sir, two bottles of water and a can of coke. Can I help you with anything else?” She asks.
“No thank you,” Howard says as he searches in his back pocket for his wallet.
“And you?” She asks as she slips a piece of crumpled tissue in my hand as Howard looks through his wallet.
I look at her confusingly and in disgust as Howard gives her ten dollars, “Keep the change,” He says as he begins to walk away. I follow him and begin to open the crumpled piece of tissue. Messily written is ‘Mandy’ and her phone number. As I’m walking through the door, I throw it in the trash. I’m dedicated to Kayla and this baby from now on, no more distractions.
“Now remember what I told you Damion,” Howard murmurs under his breath as he takes a seat at the table and places the drinks on the table. I nod and take my seat next to Kayla.
“Is everything alright with you two now?” Howard asks.
“Perfect,” Kayla says, beaming as she gazes at the baby scan.
“Good, now I know it’s a shock and maybe we probably didn’t respond the way you expected but we’re here for you.” Howard tells his daughter.
Kayla smiles appreciatively at her father and holds his hand in hers and softly kisses it then says, “I know dad.”
“Well I got you a drink, I wasn’t sure what you wanted,” He then turns to his wife and says, “And I got you a bottle of water.”
“Thank you,” They both chorus.
Kayla takes her can of coke and places it in her bag as well as the baby scan. “I think we better go now,” Kayla says.
“Well we better go too, we’ve got to drop off Natalie for cheer practice at three o’clock,” Kayla’s mother says as she looks at the watch on her wrist.
Kayla stands up and picks up her bag from off the floor. “Do you want me to take it for you?” I ask.
“Uh, okay, if you want,” She says as she hands me her oversized black handbag. Her parents stand up and hug her tightly as they say their goodbyes. Howard offers me his hand and I shake it, “Nice meeting you sir, sorry I mean Howard.”
He smiles at me and says, “Now you take care of yourself and my daughter.”
“I will,” I say. Kayla’s mother nods at me as she begins to walk away. I guess it’s going to take a while for me to end up in her good books. We watch Kayla’s parents walk to their car and wave as Howard drives past in his old black jeep, honking his horn.
“So... That was interesting,” I say as we begin to walk back to the car.
“Trust me, it could have gone a whole lot worse,” Kayla says, “But I’m glad I’ve told them.”
“Yeah, I don’t think your mother really likes me,” I say as I unlock the car.
Kayla laughs lightly and says as she says, “Trust me she’ll change her mind soon, what’s there not to like?”
My head turns to her as I realize what she just said. I can’t help but smile as I step into the car and start up the engine. Kayla grins at me, her cheeks slightly red and her long chestnut hair dangling in her face. She then turns to look outside the window as she places her hand on her stomach.
“Well lets head home then,” I say as I begin to stir out of the parking bay, still un able to stop smiling.
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So how do you guys like it?
Personally i think this was one of my weakest chapters and the ending was a bit blah but please comment and tell me if you liked it or not!
And please please vote :)
<3
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