Plan B ✓

Forever Changed

"Is it ready?" My boyfriend Chris asks as I come out onto the stage.

"Not yet. Box says 3 minutes." I say, sitting down next to him. We had snuck into the theater at the community center his mom ran. I kept an eye on the watch on his wrist, my stomach dropping when I saw that three minutes was up. "I'm not sure if I can look at this." I whisper. Chris takes it from my hand.

"There's two lines."

"What?"

"There are two lines."

"Shit!"

"So that means..."

"Yeah..."

"Oh."

"Oh?"

"What do you want me to say Presley? This wasn't exactly planned."

"Clearly. Maybe if someone wasn't afraid of wrapping it up..."

"I thought you agreed that it didn't feel as good as going bare either."

"And I thought you said your pull out game was stronger." I sigh heavily. "This blame game isn't going to get us anywhere. It's done. What are we going to do now?"

"What do you mean, what are we going to do know?"

"You can't seriously be this dumb?" I search his face. "Chris, I'm pregnant. We're going to need to do something."

"I know that. I just... This... This is a lot."

"You think I don't know that. I'm the one that has a baby growing in them."

He gets up, walking towards the edge of the stage. "I need to go. I... I..." He says before running out. I did my best to wait until I got home to fall apart.

I'm barely in the door when my mom stops me. "Hey. How was school today? I was thinking you'd be home hours ago."

"Oh um... Chris and I were doing somethings for his mom at the theater. She's hosting auditions for summer theater and needed us to clean up the prop room."

"Well that was nice of you." I nod but I'm not giving her my full attention. "Everything ok sweetie? You seem a little dazed."

I turn back to her and I have tears in my eyes. "I'm not sure at the moment Mom." I whisper.

"Did you and Chris get into a fight?" She asks, concern in her eyes.

"No, nothing like that." I reach into my back pocket and pull out the pregnancy test, holding it out to her. "I'm pregnant Mom." I say softly, my voice barely audible.

"What?" She asks. "I couldn't hear you sweetheart."

"Mama... I'm pregnant."

...

"How could this happen?" Lisa asks, inconsolable. We were sitting in my parents' living room, Chris and I on one of the loveseats and our parents across the room from us, like we were being interrogated.

"I thought that part was pretty self-explanatory." I say before I'm smacked across the back of the head by my mom. "Ow." I complain, rubbing the back of my head.

"What are they going to do?" Lisa asks.

Our dads had been abnormally quiet about the whole thing. "They will graduate. Then they will get married. And Chris will come work for me at my bank. Now there's a plan. Can we just stop talking about it now?" My dad ordained before getting up and leaving the room. I'm sitting there eyes wide. I'd never seen him like this before.

We watch as Mr. Evans follows him, wondering why Chris couldn't just go to college and work at his dentist's office. Our moms go into the kitchen for some tea and we're left in the living room. I go to open the door to the basement and all 4 of our siblings fall out onto the floor. "You enjoy eavesdropping?" I ask sarcastically.

My brother was the first to get up and tried to charge Chris. "Elvis stop!"I say, standing in between them. "You can't hurt him."

"He knocked you up! I'll think you'll find I can." He said, trying to get around me. Carly and Shana came up to stand beside me and Scott grabbed his other arm.

"Enough!" Our mom yelled as she came in from the kitchen, Lisa beside her. "You beating up Chris isn't going to change anything. What's done is done." She says before dismissing the siblings who all hung their heads as they marched out of the room. "Now, graduation is 3 months away. That gives us 3 months to plan an acceptable wedding."

"Yeah and hope and pray no one sees the growing bulge under her dress," Carly jokes as she pops her head back in.

"Carly Evans get out of here right now! This situation is stressful enough without your particular brand of comedy. Thank you." Lisa yells.

We spend the rest of the afternoon going over minor details, who we want there and when we'd like to have it. I can tell Chris is still dazed by everything but he holds onto my hand the whole time and nods along to our moms suggestions. Everything was going to be ok. It couldn't get worse, right?