(Silent Treatment)

YEARS AGO

(Evan)

I hadn’t slept in days. I tried to figure out the right way to handle it all. I couldn’t believe Anna was pregnant. This young and pregnant. As much as it scared me it pissed me off because she was fitting every cliché that people painted her to be. It was like she wanted all of this. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. Or how much more I could do for her.

My breaking point had come and gone a long time ago, but there I was, standing at the side of the house, smoking another cigarette, trying to figure out what the rest of my life would look like. I was too young to feel like time was against me, but the truth was a real bitch sometimes. Time had been against me since the Saturday morning I was watching cartoons, eating waffles with tons of extra syrup, and some guy kicked down the front door and put his foot through the TV. He stepped on my waffles and left syrup prints through the house until he found my mother. No more innocence for Evan. No more Saturday cartoons either.

I finished my smoke and dropped it to the ground. I wasn’t sure where Anna was. Inside, throwing up? Didn’t girls throw up when they were pregnant?

I ran a hand through my hair. My heart was racing and I couldn’t get it to calm. I got into a huge fight with Andy the night before. He was acting like an asshole after smoking something Scott gave him. They were all pestering me, wondering why I was so uptight and serious. So I hauled off and cracked Andy in the jaw. It was a warning punch, not the start of a fight. But Andy came after me. We tangled up for a few minutes in Scott’s garage until we broke some glass thing that meant something to Scott. He kicked all of us out. Then I had to walk with Andy, in dead silence, until he got to his house. His goodbye was spitting a chunk of blood on my shoe.

I looked down at my shoes and there was still a small stain there.

I heard the front door of the house shut.

I made my move. Creeping along the house.

If it was Beth, I’d hightail it back. No way I was facing her yet. Anna wanted to wait until the right time to say something. I had no idea what that meant. One thing Anna made sure of was that it was her body and she’d decide when and how to tell people. So I tried to be the good guy and just go along for the ride.

When I was able to see the porch, I smiled.

It was Adena.

She turned to walk off the porch. I hurried to the front and gave out a quick whistle. Adena looked at me. I gave a wave.

She turned and walked.

What the hell?

I ran along the sidewalk and caught up to Adena.

“Dena, hey,” I said.

“Evan.”

She wouldn’t look at me.

“Where are you going?”

“For a walk.”

“Okay. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” she said.

“Hey, talk to me,” I said. “What’s wrong?”

I reached for her hand and she ripped it away. She made a quick right and walked down a narrow alley between two apartment buildings. Houses that were split into apartments. All of them rundown. People forever moving in and out of them. The only person living there for longer than six months was Mrs. Genning, who lived on the first floor of the building to my right. She’d been there for ten years, if not longer.

I stayed with Adena.

At the end of the alley she took another right, going toward the back lot behind her house.

“Adena, what’s wrong? What happened?”

I took her wrist this time.

I pulled at her and she finally stopped walking. She turned and swung her hand. I think she meant to slap me in the face but she hit my shoulder.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she yelled.

“What?”

“She told me. She’s pregnant?”

“Adena…”

“No,” she yelled. “Everything that’s happened… and now this? Pregnant? Are you kidding me, Evan?”

“I don’t think you understand, Dena…”

“Oh, I understand. You want her to finish ruining her life? Fine. You want to ruin your life? Fine. But how is this fair to Aunt Beth? Who do you think is going to have to pay for everything? Who do you think is going to have to raise the baby?”

I didn’t speak anymore. I let Adena vent.

“Every time I think it can’t get worse, it does. She keeps topping herself, over and over. And then you do it… you step into this, Evan. You’re nothing but trouble, too. You bring more trouble to her!”

I swallowed hard. “Wow. Right.”

“Right? Yeah. Right. You sneak around like you don’t give a shit about what Aunt Beth tries to do. You’re the problem, Evan. You!”

“Dena, can I talk for a second?”

“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say,” Adena said. “I don’t. I came out to go for a walk.”

“Is Anna…”

“Is she home? No. She’s not home. I have no idea where she is. Probably hurting herself… and now… another life…”

“It’s not what you think,” I said. “I’m trying to help. I’m trying to do the right thing.”

“You don’t know what the right thing is, Evan,” Adena said. “I mean, you met her after stealing a car. You met me because she tricked me into breaking into a house. You two actually deserve each other.”

“No,” I said. “No, Dena.”

“Fuck you,” she yelled.

She turned and started to walk again. She looked back, pieces of her hair wrapped around her face. That was my chance to chase after her. But there wasn’t anything I could say. Not without hurting everyone any more than they already were.

The thing was… the truth was…

I didn’t get Anna pregnant.