Reaction - Lesley Choyce [10]
When they were gone, I sat down on the floor in front of Ashley, made her look me in the eye. “You okay?”
“I’m not feeling well,” she said, “but I’m okay. I’m sorry about all this. It’s partly my fault. I wanted all of us to sit down together and talk. I don’t like having my parents hate you.”
“But I thought we were okay with what we decided.”
“I thought we were too. But it was more like what you had decided.”
“We’re in this together,” I said.
“I know,” she said. “But it’s been a while since we actually talked about it. Do you still feel the same?”
The truth was, I had been thinking more and more that there would be so many impossible problems ahead. And I wasn’t sure about how I could handle them. But in the end, I always convinced myself I could handle anything. I could do this. I wanted to be there as a good father. I could see it through.
“Yeah,” I said. “More than ever.”
Ashley nodded. “I guess I was thinking I needed to give you a way out.”
“I don’t want out.”
“Okay,” she said. “Then let’s stick to our plan. I’ll keep the baby. You’ll be there to help, right?”
“I’ll be there.”
Chapter Eleven
We had about ten days of some kind of truce after that. Ashley’s parents seemed to have backed off. So had mine. At school, we were still the center of attention whenever we were together. The school counselor had called us both in one day, but she was totally cool about the whole thing. She said that there would be a “plan” for Ashley so that she could stay in classes as long as she wanted and then do work from home when the time came. And, of course, she’d be back in school after she had the baby. It seemed like at least one person was on our side.
I had Ashley over to my house one night to watch a movie, and my parents seemed fine about that, even when they found us making out in the living room. And then Ashley invited me over to her house after school to study together there.
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” I said.
“Yes, it is. If we’re going to make this work, my family is going to have to accept you.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“My dad won’t be there,” she said. “And Stephen has promised to get off your case.”
So I did go to Ashley’s house. We went there on the bus after school. Her mom was a bit chilly but polite. Ashley made me coffee, and we sat in the kitchen and talked. Well, Ashley talked. Sometimes she became a real motormouth. And it wasn’t like she was talking about us or the baby or our future or anything important. She was talking about what her friends were doing. There was Elisse’s new boyfriend, who was from France, of all places. And Jessica, who had gone shopping at the mall. And Maya, who had a new crush on Liam. And about the parties that we had not been going to. And about which guys in which bands she thought were cute. And it went on and on. We sure didn’t get much studying done.
As I sipped my coffee, I was beginning to realize just how young Ashley was. Even though we were just a year apart, I felt like it was much more than that. I felt so much older than her. What had happened? I felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle here. What was I getting myself into with this girl?
Mrs. Walker walked in and boldly asked me if I wanted to stay for supper. I don’t know whose jaw dropped farther, Ashley’s or mine.
But I wasn’t quite ready for that. Not the way I was feeling right then. “No thanks, Mrs. Walker,” I said politely. “Not tonight. But I’ll take a rain check.”
“Sure. What’s your favorite food? I could cook you something special. Just don’t say pizza. I hate pizza.”
I probably would have said pizza, but instead I lied, “Nah, I’m tired of pizza. What about lasagna?”
“Lasagna it is. You pick the night.” As I got up to go, I kissed Ashley right in front of her mom. I knew I had crossed over some kind of a bridge. But that wasn’t exactly making me feel like a rock star. And, as I left the house, I found myself