Another TinCan story you might not want to read. This story starts with the scene where Can rejected Tin. Then it'll jump to a few years later with their lives apart. Don't know where this is headed but that's the gist of the plot.
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Dark clouds poured buckets of rain overrunning the gutters and spilled onto the sidewalks, beads of raindrop blurred the window to Paul’s flat. The sound coming from the TV echoed inside the room. Paul sat on the carpeted floor, back against the sofa. He gripped the remote tighter, switching from one channel to another, then stopped at the documentary about tardigrades. He glanced out the window once, then stared sharply. Sighing, his thumb unconsciously traced the power button on the remote, the texture too familiar, yet he was indifferent.
A voice inside his head whispered, “Carla’s pregnant and you’re the father.” For the past hours, he had been trying to ignore it, to divert his attention to his works, or to whatever he could make of his vacant hours, though thinking about other things proved too difficult to do as that voice drowned out every other voice inside his head.
Shaking off his head, he stared harder at the falling drops of rain, his eyes followed as it trailed down. He concentrated on the things happening at that moment, but it could not be done. The clamor of “you’re the father,” was a mighty shout, it stood out against the others.
“I need coffee,” he blurted aloud, then pushed himself up. He threw the remote on the sofa, and stared as it bounced, then he trudged to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee.
“I’m pregnant and you’re the father.”
How could Carla throw that news to him like nothing? He scoffed as his gaze fell into space, his hand absentmindedly stirring the coffee.
It was nothing to her. Like that morning after, she left without a trace. Not a single note or goodbye because it meant nothing to her. Casual sex, one night stand. What did he even expect from it?
It might’ve been a bad decision to ask her to marry him because they weren’t emotionally inclined to each other but being married meant he could give his child a family. It felt weird to call the child his, he wasn’t even sure if Carla was telling the truth. But a part of him knew it was the truth. It still confused him but for some reason he was sure he wanted the child to be his.
Right. Because he could give the child a family. He never had one before. He grew up in an orphanage filled with children like him. Some lost their parents to an accident, while children like him were left there since they were babies. They all shared the same fate of being left alone in this world with all those not blood-related people. They were children he played with, and whose sounds of laughter he had somehow memorized, loved him like a real brother, but they weren’t his family.
After his failed attempt at creating a family of his own with his ex-girlfriend, he thought maybe Can was the one for him. But even that didn’t go well. He knew the fight ended before it even started. No chance he could have Can to himself. He was well aware of that, but falling in love with him proved to be inevitable, his magnetic force simply inescapable causing him to be naturally drawn to him.
