After talking to Nico a little more about the baby situation, Mom comes out of her room still fuming. She’s forcing us to tell Nico’s parents right away. She said there’s no use procrastinating, and she isn’t going to do the dirty work for us. Her last words were, “You better believe I will speak with them once you two have spilled the beans.”

Nico gives me a ride to his house. I’m more worried about telling his parents than I was my mom. I have gotten to know them over the last six weeks, and I like them a lot.

When we get there, Violet has just gotten home from work. Nico walks to her at the table. “Where’s Mom and Dad?”

She’s sitting at the kitchen table eating chips that she’s dipping into a jar of cheese. “They’ll be back soon. They went out to eat for dinner.”

“You didn’t go?” His eyebrows furrow, almost hitting each other.

“No. I wasn’t in the mood for Italian.” She takes a bite of her chip that’s more cheese than anything.

“Oh.” Nico turns to me. “Do you want to tell her, or wait to tell Mom and Dad?”

Violet sits the chip down on her napkin, scrunching up her nose like she smells something bad. “Something is fishy here. You two aren’t running off to get married, are you?”

“No!” we say simultaneously. Why would we be doing that?

She picks up the chip again, as if all things are solved. “Thank all that is holy for that.”

Nico sits down in a chair, and I sit beside him. I give him the nod to go ahead. “She’s having a baby, though.”

Violet stares at us like she doesn’t understand, and then her eyelids become non-existent. “What!” She drops her chip on the floor. “Shit!” She leans over to pick it back up.

Taking over full parental mode, she yells for about five minutes straight. Nico looks lost. I can tell he hasn’t ever seen Violet so angry. Her face has the reddest tint I have ever seen on a person. I want to hide under the table and never surface again.

I didn’t know that her reaction was going to be worse than my own mother’s. “Your lives are officially over; do you know that?” She slams her hands on the table, causing it to rattle.

“Drop it, Violet! You don’t even know!” Nico yells.

“I don’t know? No, I don’t know, because I was smart enough not to get pregnant!” She points her finger right at Nico’s chest across the table.

Oh. That burns. Nico rolls his eyes. “That’s not fair! You don’t even date guys!”

This is true. Violet is into girls, so there’s no chance of pregnancy happening there anytime soon. I don’t want to get into it, so I stay silent like a shadow.

Violet straightens in her seat, as if it’s her own personal throne. “It’s the smartest decision I’ve ever made in my entire life, too.”

Letting out a long sigh, she then speaks again. “Look, I know you two are babies, but you should have searched how to do things correctly.”

“I’m not a baby, Violet. You’re only two years older than me,” Nico says drily.

“By age, yes.” She taps her finger against her head. “Mentally, is a different story.”

Nico throws back his seat and stands up. “I think we’re done here.”

“Drop the attitude and sit down. Have you two decided to keep the baby?” Violet’s face turns into one of concern.

Nico and I haven’t discussed it. I assumed that we would. Some people are fine with other options, but I want to keep the baby. Nico nods at me, and we are silently in agreement.

“We’re keeping the baby,” I say.

“I’m not going to argue with what you guys want to do, but at least you have that part settled. This may be too soon, but I’m always two steps ahead. I will offer to help babysit. Not that I’m a big baby fan, but I know how hard things are going to be. Trust me, I have seen friends go through this, and I don’t ever want to go through it myself,” Violet shudders.

She seems to have calmed down, and I’m surprised by her babysitting offer so soon after we told her, but it’s Violet. She tends to think ahead like she said.

My hands begin to shake. Nico takes my hand in between his and holds it. “We’ll get through this, okay?”

His tone isn’t as solid as I hoped for it to be, but it’s more level than mine.

Charlotte and Tim walk through the door looking as if they are happy teenagers that went out on their first date together.

I have been around Charlotte and Tim a lot since I started dating Nico. Every weekend we have dinner, and play games together—either a board game or charades.

Charlotte walks to the counter and lays her purse on top of it. “Hey, May. I didn’t know you were going to grace us with your lovely presence today.”

“Hey, Charlotte.” I wave. I think I’m going to be the mute mouse throughout this moment. I’m panicking on the inside, and I may hyperventilate, waiting to break the news.

Nico pulls my hand with his onto the table and leans forward. “Mom, we need to talk to you.”

His mom looks at him and blinks quickly about ten times, and her smile erodes into a biting of the lip that then decays into lips pursed extremely tight. “This isn’t what I think it is, is it? Please tell me it isn’t, Nico.”

Nico rubs his hand across his jaw. “I don’t know? What do you think it is?”

“Nikolai Jonah! Don’t sit here and play games with me. This isn’t a quiz.” She turns her head to me and shrieks, “Are you pregnant?”

Nico’s dad walks into the kitchen and stops in place. “Fuck!” The normally laid back and quiet Tim is no longer that way in this precise moment.

There’s a snicker down the hall, and I know Violet is as surprised as I am about her Dad.

“Enough, Violetta!” Charlotte yells down the hallway and then whips her head back to us.

I want to open my mouth and speak, but my eyes are moving between Nico’s parents. Am I paralyzed? I think I am.

“Yes, she is,” Nico speaks for me, looking defeated.

Nico’s mom begins to cry, and Tim lets out a string of curses. Some of the words I never knew existed in the way that he uses them. Tim composes himself and walks to Charlotte wrapping his arm around her to calm her, but he silently gives Nico the evil eye.

After watching Charlotte cry and slowly wipe away her tears, we begin the talk. Well mainly Nico gets yelled at, and I don’t know if it’s because he’s a guy or that he’s their son. It’s equal parts our fault, so I feel like I should be getting as much of a yelling as Nico.

Tim pulls Nico to the side to have his own private chat with his son. Charlotte walks around the table and sits beside me. I’m scared shitless to look at her in the eye. “Look, we all make mistakes in life. I wish you two would have been a lot older, but there’s nothing we can do now except move forward. Have you two considered the options, and what might be best here?” Her mouth pulls down into a frown.

I nod my head. “Yes, ma’am. We’re going to keep the baby.”

She grimly nods her head. “I need to yell at my son now, but if you need to talk, I’m here.”

I sit by myself in silence. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this once the baby is here and becomes a real reality.

 

***

I’m already three and a half months pregnant. Mom is still pissed but has been researching baby stuff and what stores have things the cheapest. She’s already planning a baby shower months down the road and not for the pure enjoyment.

She said she might be embarrassed that her seventeen-year-old daughter is pregnant, but she isn’t embarrassed enough to not have a shower and make sure all the cheapskates at her work give a gift.

Nico is with me in my room with the door open, while Mom is watching TV. I don’t see why the door has to be open since I’m already in the situation that could occur with a closed door. Mom’s rules, though.

Pulling Nico’s arm toward me, I roll the sleeve of his shirt all the way up. I give his bicep a quick kiss, and he gives me a wide smile. “What do you want me to draw?”

“You’re the one that wanted to draw on my arm.” He slides my hair away from my face.

“Okay, I’ll think of something.” I settle on drawing a bundle of balloons.

“I’m not going to get ink poisoning from that pen, am I?” he jokes.

“No.” I hope not. Pen ink washes right off. Do people really get ink poisoning from a ballpoint pen? I haven’t known anyone personally that has before. I use a pen on myself all the time at school to write the classes I have homework for on the top of my hand. Otherwise, I won’t remember.

“What’s that? His beautiful face turns to mine.

I concentrate on his arm. “Have you thought about names?”

“For the baby?”

“Yes, for the baby. Who else?”

“No,” he laughs. “Why, have you?”

“What do you got? I’m not too picky as long as it isn’t some out there name, but I do like originality,” he says.

I stall the pen and look at him. “I narrowed it down to three boy names and three girl names. Maybe you can pick out one from each set?”

“What if I hate them all?” he grins.

“Then, I guess I’ll have to make a new list,” I laugh.

Pulling me into his lap, I lean my back against his firm chest. “Start with the boy names.”

Boy names were the most difficult to come up with. I don’t know what it is, but I could only come up with three. If he hates all three names, then he will have to come up with them himself.

I researched for hours. A name might not seem like a big deal, but you have to live with that thing for your entire life. Then when I was researching and trying to think of names, it was like the same terrible name kept popping up in my head over and over, like that was the only name that existed.

“So, for the boys I have, Journey, River, and Forest,” I say proudly.

“I guess we are going to take a journey through the river in a forest,” Nico laughs loudly like he’s invented the greatest joke ever made.

I sit there and frown. “I thought they were good.”

“Pass on Journey. Pass on Forest. I can do River, though. It sounds solid enough.”

“What’s wrong with Journey and Forest?” I pout.

Nico lightly flicks my arm. “You know what is wrong with the two. Do we need people to bust out in song all the time to the poor child or ask him about chocolate?”

I cross my arms. “Forrest Gump. Really? The spelling would have been different, and I doubt anyone would even think of that. But fine. River works.”

Nico makes a drumroll with his fingers against my headboard, and it vibrates through him into my back. “And the girl names are?”

The girl names were much easier. I had a list of about fifty, and it took me forever to narrow them down to three, but I managed to do it. If he hates all three, it will be much easier to go back to that list and give him some more names.

“After much deliberation, I came up with Charlotte—”

“I’m going to stop you right now, and remove Charlotte from the list. I can’t go through life getting confused between the baby’s name and my mother’s. His warm breath brushes against my ear.

“But I like Charlotte,” I whine. Charlotte’s a great name, and I love it.

“Veto.”

I let out a grunt but proceed. “Daisy or Ruby.”

Nico’s arms tighten around my stomach. “I’m not going to be reminded about a cartoon duck every time either.”

“Not like the duck! The flower!”

“Veto!”

“Whatever. Fine,” I mumble.

“I don’t quite understand what you said,” he laughs.

I ignore him. “What about Ruby? Do you not like that one either?” I huff.

“No. I like that one.” Nico kisses the side of my neck.

“Me, too.” Thank goodness for that, because Ruby is my favorite.

Crawling out of his arms, I find the pen I dropped somewhere on the bed, then continue drawing the balloons on his arm. I feel like they need a little color, so I reach for my box of markers and pick out different colors for each balloon.

 

***

Nico asked me to go to prom with him. I said yes at the time because I was only two months along. I didn’t think ahead to when prom was, or at four and a half months I would feel like I was already nine months pregnant.

It was already slightly noticeable, especially in the dress that I picked out a month ago. I had been around the same size I had always been, and then the other day out of nowhere the ball on my stomach shot forward.

I ordered this fifties style, blue and white polka-dotted dress that’s tight on top and flares out on the bottom. Mom curled my hair and pinned it up in a vintage style, and I did my make-up myself.

“Ruby, I’m going to make sure you don’t follow in my footsteps. Do you hear me? There will be zero boys in your life until after you’re at least out of high school.” I whisper at my stomach, while rubbing a hand across the material of the dress.

We found out earlier this week that the baby is going to be a girl, and Nico almost passed out. He said boys were easier not to worry about as much, and now he says he’s going to get gray hairs before he’s twenty-five.

I’m doing everything I can with school and work to make Ruby’s life okay. I know it isn’t a lot, but most of my money I make is going straight into savings for whatever we might possibly need. Mom recently got a raise at work, but I’m determined to do it myself without making it more of a burden on her than it already will be. It doesn’t feel real besides the progressions of my changing stomach, but when the baby arrives, that’s when everything will change.

I look at myself in the mirror, and a few tears stream down my face. I try to hold them back so I don’t mess up my make-up, but I can’t help it. Instead of looking like a beautiful girl from a different era, I look more like the housewife who got knocked up by the milkman. Except that I’m a seventeen-year-old girl, not the cheating wife.

The doorbell rings and Mom calls my name. “May! Come on. Nico’s waiting.” But I just stand here.

“May, come on!” I leave my room after she calls me down a second time. Mom has her huge camera in one hand, and the camera on her phone in the other; both already ready to take pictures.

After my eyes look at Mom’s hands of distractedness, I locate Nico. He stands there in a dark, blue suit with a black shirt and white bow tie. His auburn hair is right at his chin, and his loose waves have me wanting to run my hand through them. God. Every time I see him, I swear I start to feel more and more for him.

Nico looks me up and down and stops on my stomach before he meets me back at my eyes and smiles. “You look beautiful.”

I don’t feel it, but I can’t help but appreciate what he says. He takes out a corsage from the box that he’s holding, and places it around my wrist. The flower is blue and white and matches perfectly with my dress. “I love it.”

“He asked me what color he should get, and I told him the colors of your dress,” Mom says, as she snaps another photograph. The huge flash on her camera has practically made me dizzy, and when my eyes return to normal, she takes another one.

Then comes the cell phone, and Mom takes each picture from every angle imaginable to get the right photograph. That’s what she says, anyway.

“Mom, I think we’re about finished here. I don’t want us to miss prom.” I tug on Nico’s arm, pulling him away from Mom’s photoshoot.

“One more.” She snaps one picture and starts to put it away, but then does another. “Okay, now I’m finished.”

We start to make way for the door. “Nico, have her home in the morning.” Then she looks at us with a serious expression. “I know you aren’t going to have much of a prom next year, and I know you two won’t be getting into trouble since May can’t drink, and you’re already pregnant. Go have a good time before you can’t put yourselves first anymore.”

I can’t believe Mom is going to let me stay out all night.

Mom pulls out the index finger, pointing it toward the ceiling. “But. Only this one night.”

I run up and hug Mom. I know she’s still so disappointed in me, but she does still love me.

We walk outside to Nico’s car, and he opens the door for me.

“Are you ready for this?” he says as he takes his seat in the car.

“No, not really,” I laugh.

I have never been into dances, and the only thing I was excited about was the dressing up part. Now, that that’s over with, I’m not sure.

“Yeah, me neither. We can stay however long, and then go wherever you want to.”

“Sounds good.”

We arrive at the dance and take pictures. I don’t know anyone at this school besides Lanie. I spot Lanie, and we walk over and talk to her for a few minutes.

There are people everywhere, loads of decorations, and terrible music.

Lanie is with a guy that’s a little shorter than me, so I have to look down when I talk to him. He seems nice, and they look like they are really into each other.

We aren’t there very long when Nico leans over and shouts over the loud music in my ear. “Do you want to get out of here?”

I nod my head furiously. “You completely read my mind,” I laugh.

We get back in his car. “Well, that was a waste of money.”

He shakes his head. “No way! I was with you. It was more than worth it.” If he didn’t already have my heart, he would from that one simple sentence.

“If you want to go to the parties or something, you can take me home and go. I don’t mind.” I don’t want to spoil his senior prom.

Nico looks at me like I have lost my mind. “Are you crazy? This is our night, and we are going to own it.”

“That sounds like a phrase from a movie. Better yet, we can make it into a movie. Pregnant girl goes crazy on prom night.” I wave my hand like I’m tracing a banner with the words etched in.

Nico lets out a deep laugh. “Ice cream?”

“Yes! Even better. Pregnant girl eats ice cream on prom night. But, yes, I could go for some ice cream right now.”

Nico drives us to the ice cream shop. We’re the only two people that have ventured from the prom to eat ice cream, instead of making our way to the beach for all the house parties.

I order two scoops of vanilla—the soft serve kind.

Nico bumps my shoulder with his. “How boring can you get?” He orders two of the fancier flavors that are mixed with all kinds of fruit and nuts.

“Not boring, but classic.”

“Classic is just another term for boring,” he says drily.

“Whatever. You’re the one that eats hamburgers and sandwiches with only meat and bread. Who else does that besides you?” I give his shoulder a small shove.

He thinks on it for a moment. “I would call that simple.”

“Simple is the same as boring.” I roll my eyes.

He lets out a rumble of laughter, and we walk and find a seat. I finish my ice cream before he’s even halfway through with his. I guess I have been getting hungrier lately.

Afterward, we stop by the park and migrate to the swings, talking and swinging like we have no care at all; when we both know that we do.

We end up going to Nico’s house. His parents are already asleep, but Violet is sitting on the couch watching TV with her phone in her hand.

“Aww. My children are back so soon? I thought I wouldn’t see you two until tomorrow.” She runs a hand through her short, purple hair.

“Oh, you know how it is, sis.”

Lowering her eyes to my stomach, Violet leaps over the couch toward me. “You know I don’t totally approve of this, but I’m not a parent here—I’m an aunt and going to be a cool one at that.” She rubs my stomach which is awkward, but at least she isn’t a stranger.

“Before this gets any weirder, we’re going to go to my room now.” Nico pulls me away, and we head into his room.

Nico changes out of his tux and into a pair of shorts and t-shirt. He picks up his guitar, and I watch him strum on it for a little while. Then we lie on the bed and watch a movie together.

Nico pulls me close to him, and I roll over and start to kiss him. We kiss for a long time, until the tiredness hits us both. I roll on my side, and he moves close pressing his body against mine.

“May?”

I turn my head to look at his face. “Yeah?”

He looks like he has something important to say, but then he says, “Goodnight.”

I want to tell him that I love him, but then I change my mind and reply with goodnight back, and we both fall asleep.