Reaction - Lesley Choyce [15]
When I walked in, she ran to me and gave me a hug.
I could tell she was just as scared as I was. We talked for a long time. And then she said it was time for us to go talk to her parents.
Chapter Fifteen
We took the city bus. As we got closer to her house, I started to lose my nerve. I was cold and tired and even a bit shaky.
“I’ve thought about being pregnant and about the baby so many times,” Ashley confided. “And each time I get more confused. I’m not ready for this.”
“I don’t think I am either,” I admitted. “But we both decided that you’d have the baby, right?”
“I don’t want to change that. I still think that’s the right thing for me to do. I just don’t know about us.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know about you and me being parents.”
“I’ve thought about that too. Some days I feel confident that we can do it. Other times it really scares me.”
She saw the uncertainty in my face. Right now she seemed the stronger of the two of us, the one who was more mature. “What are we going to say to your parents?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. And suddenly I wished we weren’t about to go through with this meeting.
All too soon we were back in Ashley’s neighborhood, and the bus stopped. We got out and walked to her door.
When we walked in, the house was quiet. We sat down in the living room, and Ashley’s mom came in first. She looked at me and then at Ashley. “He’s not supposed to be here,” she said.
“Mom, you had no right to get the police involved. It wasn’t Zach’s fault. Stephen pushed him first.”
Ashley’s mom shook her head. “It was your father’s idea. I shouldn’t have gone along with it.”
“Is he home yet?” Ashley asked.
“He should be here any minute,” Mrs. Walker said. She turned to me and added, “I’m not sure it’s such a good idea that you are here.”
I shrugged and looked at Ashley. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No,” she said emphatically.
A few awkward minutes later, we heard the car in the driveway and the sound of Mr. Walker’s footsteps. Then the door opened, and he walked in.
He glared at me and at Ashley and, without saying anything, started walking to the phone. He picked it up, but his wife marched over and made him put it down.
He stood there and tried to contain his anger. “What are you doing here?” he asked me.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I just know that we need to sort this out.”
“It was my idea,” Ashley said. “Why didn’t you tell me about the restraining order?”
He didn’t answer.
“You need to call the police and tell them you made a mistake,” Ashley demanded.
“I’m not going to do that.”
“I’ve been thinking about how you are controlling my life, and I don’t think it’s fair.”
“You are too young to know what fair is,” he snapped. “And you don’t know what’s right for you.”
“I need a chance to figure that out.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
Ashley was being more assertive around her parents than I’d seen her before, but she was also looking flustered. “I think Zach and I just need to go away together for a while.”
This was not at all what I was expecting her to say.
Her father seethed silently as her mother said, “We don’t want you to do that. We want you here.”
I knew what Ashley was thinking. I’d thought about it before. We’d talked about it. It had always been an option. Running away. But it was all wrong.
“No, Ashley,” I said in a soft voice. “We’re not going to run away together. We’re not going to do that. I’ve already done the rehearsals on that. It’s not the way to go.”
“Then what is the way to go?” her father demanded.
I looked at Ashley and thought of all the conversations she and I had about the pregnancy and the baby. I knew what we needed. We needed more time.
“Look,” I said, “I think everyone needs to back off and let us have a chance to think it through.” I looked her father right in the eye. “You don’t have to like me, but you might just have to get used to having me around. I’d like