17 and Pregnant -- A True Story

*******ATTENTION!!: I've decided that *eventually* i'll be COMPLETELY overhauling this story and making it into an actual story (you know the kind.. with dialogue and characters and feelings and such.. lol), instead of its current "In your face, here it is, this is what happened" type of story that it is currently. I'm *thinking* that i'll begin *most likely* when "Downfall of the 'It Girl' that i'm currently working on is finished. I have enough trouble keeping up with 2 stories at a time, no way could i manage 3 at a time lol. Thanks! much <3! =)*********

17 and Pregnant 

A True Story

Now, ten years later and a mother of four, I reflect back on the past decade and how so many things have changed. Today, I'm married, have four children, two boys and two girls, live in a house we're buying and I'm a stay at home mom. Things are far from easy, and we're not what you would call rich, or exactly 'well-off' even. Life is still hard, and sometimes I think I started it all and done it to myself. Let me take you back. 

Ten years ago, I was pregnant, and soon to be classified as a teen mom. A few months prior, I had dated a boy I'd met through a friend. His name was Clay. He was, in my opinion, bad boy to the extreme. Just the thing to piss off my 'parents,' because at the time I lived with my sister and her husband, and my niece and nephew. My mom had passed away from a heart attack when I was nine, so I chose to live with them, because my dad, the other 'candidate' for guardianship, was practically a stranger to me. Who wants to willingly live with basically a total stranger? Not me. Anyway, so I met Clay, and things went from good, to bad, to worse in a short matter of time. We started dating, and doing drugs. Taking road trips to a friend of his' apartment in the city an hour or so away to snort Oxycotin, a muscle relaxer. We smoked marijuana, drank alcohol. Clay and my other friend that rode along with had to carry me out of the upstairs apartment, me riding slumped over piggy back style. on Clay's back. I was completely out of it. Well, a couple short months later, Clay decides that we shouldn't date anymore. Fine. I move on. 

Within a week or two, I started seeing another guy, Mark. We had been friends for a short time, and he'd asked me out before, but I was involved with Clay. I finally accepted his offers. Within about a month and a half of us dating, I realized my female monthly visitor hadn't shown up in awhile. I had Mark drive me to the town's WIC office, where the lady there told me I'd have to go across town to the health department and pay five dollars for a pregnancy test, and they would do it there at the facility for me. We hurried over, since it was about closing time, and I walked in (Mark waited in his car) and told the lady what I needed, and she showed me how and where to take the test at. After taking the test, and a few minutes later, she told me the results and handed me a piece of paper. Hurrying back to the car to escape the cold and wind, I sat in the front passenger seat of Mark's small car. "Well?" He asked. 

"Well, it was positive. Daddy." I answered. At this point, the whole thing hadn't quite settled in and hit me full force yet. He needed to go to the library and get something for school, so we went there next, and then it was my turn to wait in the car. He left the car running, and the heat and radio on. Enrique Iglesias' song "I'll be your hero" that was popular at the time came on, and as I listened, tears streamed down my face. This is when the reality of everything really started to sink in. 

Getting back in the car, Mark takes me home and I go in and go straight to bed. It takes awhile for sleep to overcome me, as I lie there, tears streaming down my face in the dark, my five year old nephew sleeping soundly on the bunk under mine. What was I going to do? 

One night, a couple weeks later my sister sits down with me on the couch after I'd gotten in from working at a local fast food place. "I won't beat around the bush, but I hear you're pregnant. Are you?" Up until this point, I couldn't bring myself to tell anyone other than my best friend about the pregnancy. Somehow, word had gotten out, and Jean, my sister, knew. I couldn't lie to her. It was apparent she already knew what was going on.