Chapter 25

Sutter's POV

"Lil, it's going to be okay, I promise." I try to reassure her for the tenth time, but I can tell by the tense set of her shoulders, and the petrified look on her face, that none of my words are having a calming affect on her.

"You don't get it, Sut. My parents are going to kill me probably." Her voice shakes and I turn on my side to face her, on the hammock we're laying on in my backyard. Lilly's parents and mine have become pretty decent friends over the years, with she and I being inseparable. Tonight my dad wanted to grill out and I told Lilly we need to tell them all at once that she's pregnant.

She hasn't been to a doctor yet, and I've known she was pregnant for a month now, so she could be anywhere from eight to twelve weeks. And as small as she is from constantly playing a sport, her body will definitely start showing sooner rather than later.

"I know it's scary, I'm scared too. But you need to see a doctor, and we need to make sure it's okay for you to keep swimming competitively or not. There's a lot of things we don't know, that they can help us with. I'm more worried about you, than I am about how my parents are going to react."

She looks at me like she doesn't understand. "How can you be more worried about me? I'm fine, and you and I are fine. Our parents however, are not going to be fine. They're going to flip, Sutter. My dad.." Her voice trails off and I literally see her body shaking by how nervous she is.

I grab her face and force her to look at me. "Listen Lil, they are going to be mad and upset at first, and they'll probably yell and say a lot of shit that they don't mean. But then they'll get over it, and they'll support us and our decision, because they're our parents, and they love us." I try once again to calm her, but she just shakes her head at my words and closes her eyes, a couple of tears spilling over.

"You just don't get it." She whispers.

"How do I not get it? I'm going to have to tell my parents the same way you are, mine are going to be upset too. But I'm trusting that their love for us is going to overshadow any other feeling they may have." I'm starting to get a little annoyed that she's acting like I'm not in this with her too.

She just shakes her head. "You're right, okay, lets get it over with."

I take her hand in mine, and notice how much it's shaking. I kiss her knuckles and then pull her inside, where our parents are sitting around the big dining room table drinking wine. Jo is over at a friends house somewhere in the neighborhood, which may be a good thing, depending on how ugly things get.

"Hey guys, what's up?" My mom says smiling at us, she was the first to notice us enter the room.

"We actually have something we want to talk to you about." I say, and feel the sinking nervous feeling take over my chest.

I look to Lilly for some strength, but her face has gone completely white, her lips not even pink anymore.

"Okay, what is it?" Lilly's Dad, Paul, asks. And by the quizzical look on his face, I think he knows it's nothing good.

I go to open my mouth, because I know Lilly is too nervous to even speak, but I can't make any of the words come out. I was nervous and scared before, but standing here in front of all of them, makes it all seem more real.

"We're, um..we," I'm babbling like a damn idiot, but the fear has consumed my voice, and I know looking over at Lilly isn't going to help me either. It's like my throat has constructed and my tongue has swole.

I start to try and speak again, knowing they all are getting more anxious and curious by the second, but Lilly cuts in.

"I'm pregnant." She says loudly.

I glance over to her and then look at our parents, and all of them are just staring at us, mouths open. My mom keeps opening and closing hers, Lilly's Dad has gone beet red, her mom is just looking at her dad, and my father is shaking his head with his eyes cast down.

"Jesus Christ, Sutter. I'm the mayor of this town, how can I tell our townsfolk to keep their kids in line when I can't even handle my fucking own." My dads words are filled with disappointment, but I expected that.

He and I stopped seeing eye to eye a while ago, the only person's reaction I'm looking at, are our moms. If they can accept things, I'm hoping that they'll be able to calm down the storms that our dads are going to be.

"How the fuck could you let this happen?" Lilly's Dad snaps, and he stands up out of his chair so fast that he knocks it over, and then starts to walk towards Lilly.

She rips her hand out of mine, and instantly starts walking backwards. I don't know what the hell is going on, but I move to stand in front of her and block her body with mine.

     "Paul!" Lilly's mom yells, and stands up too to grab his arm. "Calm down, this isn't the way to handle things."

     He yanks his arm out of her grasp, and then throws it up in the air. "How the fuck do we handle the fact that our teenage daughter got knocked up at 15, Cindy?"

     My mom senses things getting out of control, so she tries to calm the situation by being the voice of reason. "Everyone, I know our emotions are all over the place right now, but yelling and cussing at the children isn't going to change anything."

     "Well we obviously need to do something Vivianne, because we clearly gave them too much trust and privacy. Do you know what this is going to mean for my voters?" My Dad stands up as well and starts pacing the floor.

     "I can't say that's my first concern right now, Hal." My mom snaps back, obviously upset that my fathers job and voters is all he seems to care about right now.

     "Oh, it's not? Because that is my career, and what provides this house, food, and money for this fucking family to survive on."

     My mom goes off on a tirade after that, and Lilly's parents are facing each other and having their own separate argument as well. I use their distraction as an opportunity to turn around and face Lilly.

     Her lower lip is trembling, and she has a steady trails of tears streaming down her face. Her arms are wrapped around herself, and she just keeps shaking her head. "We've ruined everything, Sutter, they're not going to let us be together anymore."

     I don't bother trying to answer in a room where four other people are yelling, and instead grab her hand and lead her into the front room where were alone.

     "There is nothing in this world that could ever keep me away from you. Especially now when you're carrying my baby." I tell her after turning around and facing her.

     "Sutter maybe we made the wrong decision, maybe we should have the baby but then give it to a family who can't have children, or have an abort-" I put my hand over her mouth to cut off her sentence.

     "Don't. Don't go back on what we want, just to please our parents. They're upset right now, yes. But they have over six months to get used to the idea of being grandparents, and I'm sure they will. Even if they don't though, we will still have each other, okay? Look at me." I palm both her cheeks and bring her face close to mine and kiss both her cheeks and then side of her mouth. "As long as I'm alive, you will always be taken care of. Even if I have to work as a male stripper." I say the last part as a joke, hoping to ease some of her tension and worry.

     She grants me with a small laugh, and lays her head on my chest. "You would literally be the worlds worst stripper. You have no sense of rhythm, at all."

I chuckle softly, and in return she smiles again. "There she is, I knew she'd come back eventually."

She closes her eyes and shakes her head. "They're so mad at us."

"Yeah, they are. But it'll be okay Lilly, they'll forgive us, and then they'll help us figure this whole thing out."

"Sutter, if something happens to me.." Her voice trails off, like she can't finish it or she doesn't know what else to say.

"Hey, nothing is going to happen to you." I slide my hands down her shoulders and grab her hands. "The worst they could ever do is send you away, and that would solve nothing, because I would just follow wherever you would go."

"How are you so sure and calm about everything?"

I run my hand through my hair, pulling on some of it. "I'm not sure about everything, but I do know that I love you, and that you and I can do anything together. I don't know shit about being a dad, but I'm willing to learn. And I know you'll help me."

She scoffs. "How can I help you? I don't know anything about being a mom either, and the only good example of one that I have, is your mom."

     "Then we'll read books, or go to parenting classes, whatever works. We can do it." I feel myself getting frantic, because while having a baby at fifteen isn't what I ever wanted or would have envisioned for us, it is happening.

And I always knew I would marry Lilly and have a family with her someday, but now we're just starting that a little early.

"You make it all sound so easy, but I don't think it's really going to be that way." She tells me.

"Of course it's not all going to be easy, but everything will work itself out. I believe that."

"You have a lot better faith in things than I do."

I'm about to say something to her, to try and reassure her, but her dad storms into the room with her mom trailing behind him.

"Get your shit and let's go." He barks out.

Lilly puts her head down and goes into the kitchen to grab her bag. My parents walk in the room too, but mine refuse to look at me.

"I guess we will call in a couple days once everyone has calmed down, and we all know what we're going to do." My mom says, like she's trying to still keep the peace between everyone.

My dad doesn't say anything, but instead leaves the room to go into his office, I'm sure. Lilly's Dad lets out a laugh, that's not really a laugh.

"There's nothing to figure out. My wife and I will be taking Lilly to a clinic tomorrow and solving this issue for everyone." He says like there's no room for discussion.

"That's not up for you to decide." I tell him, stepping into his space.

"Don't tell me what's up to me or not boy, you got my fifteen year old daughter pregnant. She's a minor, which makes her our responsibility." He takes a step closer to me and Lilly's mom reachers forward to grab his shirt to keep him from getting too close to me.

"She may be a minor, but this is her body and you can't force her to get rid of our baby just because it would make things easier on you."

"Now let's not-" My mom tries to intervene but her dads not done.

"'Our baby'? You're a fucking fifteen year old child, you don't know anything about having a baby, and neither does Lilly. It's not happening."

"That is not up to you!" I yell again, getting more and more pissed off by the second. "We're not going to go what you want, and that's something you're going to have to get the hell over."

"Have you even asked Lilly what she wanted? She's going to have to give up swimming, and probably school. Do you really think that's what she wants?!" He's yelling so loud it feels like the walls are shaking.

My dad walks back into the room and comes to stand beside me. Lilly walks back in too, and as soon as her dad hears her footsteps, he walks over and yanks her towards the door by her arm.

"Don't expect to ever come back over here again." He tells her, still yanking on her arm extremely too rough.

I run forward and try to grab Lilly myself, to keep her here with me, but my dad wraps me up with his arms and hauls me back.

"Lilly!" I yell, in a panic. They can't keep us apart.

"It's going to be okay, Sutter." She tells me, but her face says otherwise. The door slams shut behind her and I'm still struggling against my dad.

"Let me go!" I yell, and try to pry his hands away from me, but he's too strong.

"I'm not letting you go until you calm down!" He yells back.

I sag against him, feeling deflated and defeated. How could they drag her out of the room like that?

How could they say she would never come back over here? My parents and sister are basically her family.

My mom steps in front of me, and tries to touch my face, but I jerk out of her reach, but still restrained against my dad.

"You have to calm down, you being this upset is helping nothing. Everyone is just mad right now, things will settle and we can decide then."

"You hear what he said, mom," I feel my eyes swell with water. "They're going to try to make her have an abortion, and never let us see each other again. How can I protect her now?"

"Honey, they're her parents, you don't need to protect her from them. Her father is just mad right now, and her mother seemed like she was in shock, like the rest of us. Things will die down, you just have to give it time." My moms voice does calm my racing heart a little, but nothing will cease the worry inside me until I see Lilly again.

"What are we going to do?" I ask, in a cracked voice.

"We're going to go in the kitchen, have a bowl of ice cream together, and discuss what you want, and then we will figure out our options."

And just like that, I feel better than I have in weeks. This time, I walk forward and let my mom hug me. I'm a guy, and I'm supposed to be tough and able to handle all the shit around me, but right now this woman's arms wrapping around me, are making me feel more sure and certain than anything else.

••••

I didn't see Lilly for a week after that, except at school. And we of course couldn't really talk about things there, because we didn't want anyone to know. Her dad made sure her mom took her to and from school, and her phone and computer were both taken.

I started to lose hope again, and think maybe they had changed her mind, and she wanted an abortion and to get rid of our baby too. But then she showed up one night on our doorstep with her bags over her shoulders, and when she told my mom that they kicked her out, she brought her inside and wrapped her in a hug like she did with me the other night.

••••

I never really asked her what it was like when she went home, and or how they treated her. I just assume they had been mad and yelled a lot.

I never would have guessed all the emotional and physical distress she went through. I should have looked closer, I should have paid more attention to the long, fingerlike bruising on her arms and back.

I guess now I know.

Watching her sit up front with Jo in the car on the way to the party, singing and laughing at each other's dance moves to some song on the radio, I can't believe this strong and happy girl is still able to smile the way she does. Still able to walk into a room and light it up with her spunky personality. Her light was dimmed for a little while, but with everyday that passes, I see more and more of her old self coming back.

And I can't believe she's mine again.

A/N sorry it's kinda short, but I wanted to show this scene before we got to the big party scene!

And shit is definitely going to go down there(;

I'm super stoked that my story has hit 2K!! Thanks for all the votes and comments (: