The Kingdom Lights

2

July 18th, 2009

"Alex I don't know what to do!" Nineteen year old Rebekah whisper-yelled as she threw herself down onto her bed.

Alex, who was only a few years older than his sister, was stunned into silence as he leaned against her desk. All he could do was stare. His baby sister was not a baby anymore.

Rebekah, Beck to her friends, was pregnant. She knew it was a possibility, seeing as her ex boyfriend hated using any and all protection, but she thought she'd been safe enough with just the pill. She was definitely wrong.

She never thought that she'd be entering her junior year at SCAD with a baby, but stranger things had happened. She was almost twenty, a baby wouldn't be too hard to handle. The issue was their parents.

Jeanette and Marcus Sr. were hardasses and had been since the day their children were born. Everything had to be their way or it wouldn't even happen. Alex had to be at the best university and had to be top of his class. He had to be on track for the best law school or he wasn't a Monroe. Beck had to be a vision of femininity, with no room for error. She was required to have the perfect boyfriend who would become the perfect husband and help her create the perfect children. She was expected to go to the best school and become a doctor. Beck pushed back hard on that. The last thing she wanted was to spend her life doing something she knew she'd hate. So she applied to SCAD to get a fine arts degree. They refused to pay a penny. Had she not gotten a scholarship, she would've been stuck in her parents' miserable vision. They hated everything about where her life was going. The only thing they had liked was Phillip.

She met Phillip in high school. He was the star quarterback by sophomore year and their parents worked very closely together. It was only natural that she start dating him their freshman year. He ended up at College of Charleston, another reason her parents had reluctantly let her go to SCAD, seeing as she'd only be two hours away from him. What they didn't know, was they had broken up two months ago, right after their child had been conceived. She couldn't do it anymore. She felt nothing for him and she never had felt anything for him. Probably because she was gay, but her parents would never allow that, so she suffers through a relationship with him until she couldn't handle it anymore. He was actually really cool about it and felt horrible for putting her in situations that she felt uncomfortable in. But it wasn't his fault, she hadn't discovered she was gay until a week before she had broke up with him. He was a good guy.

"What are you going to tell mom and dad?" Alex finally spoke up, having collected his thoughts. He was happy if she was happy, he just didn't want their parents to freak.

Beck shook her head. "Beats me." She sat up and looked him in the eye. "The Larkin's are coming over and Phillip and I were going to tell them that we broke up, but now...fuck! I have to tell him!" She began to panic. "And how am I going to tell them I'm gay! Fuck they're going to hate me!"

Alex rushed to his sister's side, pulling her into his arms to calm her down. He didn't care if she was gay, he just wanted her to be okay. "Beck, calm down, it's going to be okay. I promise."

She clutched his arms, tears spilling down her cheeks. "You don't care?" Her voice was small.

"I don't care." He sighed. "I don't care that you're pregnant and I don't care that you're gay. I'm here for you."

She couldn't answer, she could only accept his embrace.

----

The Larkins hasn't changed at all. Bill and Amanda talked over their son at every chance while Phillip sat quietly, doing whatever his parents required of him. It got to the point where the kids were able to slip out of the room and No one even cared.