Breathless

Chapter 19

CHRISTIAN'S POV

Erin walks in the door, after not answering the phone for anyone, with her phone in her hand, and her wallet and keys.

"Where have you been?" I ask.

She doesn't say anything.

Slowly, she shuts the front door, staying completely silent.

She looks like somebody just shot her.

The look on her face is completely blank.

We all exchange looks.

"Erin? Babe, what's the matter?"

She looks so...so confused.

And then slowly, she removes the promise ring from her left hand ring finger and puts it in my hand, making sure she doesn't touch me.

"You should forget me."

And then she turns around and walks out without another word.

What the fuck.

Nobody speaks for a long time, and then my eyes lower to the ring in my hand, and then I find myself walking outside, and she starts to back the Jeep up, but she backs right up into the fence, almost like she's so...unstable, so unstable that she doesn't even know what she's doing.

And then she just drives off.

"Did she just hit my fence?" Her grandmother asks.

"Yeah." I whisper.

We're all silent.

What the fuck.

"Did you get into a fight this morning or something?" Dad asks.

Slowly, I shake my head.

"We haven't fought in over a year." I say.

I was gonna propose.

I was going to propose.

<><>

I looked for her for three weeks. Her phone number is disconnected.

ERIN'S POV

I've been to that abortion clinic six times.

I sat in the operation room six times.

But just before they do it, right at the last second, every time, I back out.

I can't do it.

I can't throw my baby, my child, my miniature version of me, and Christian, I can't throw my baby away.

I saw online, because obviously I've been stalking Christian's Facebook, and he's never online, but I saw on Facebook, somebody shared something.

Unplanned moments are always better than the planned ones.

And then after that, I saw, A baby is never a mistake. Unplanned sometimes, but never a mistake.

And I was crying for hours, because how am I going to make this up to Christian?

And it's June 28th, and it's pouring, and next Friday, I'll be four months.

It's lightening every two seconds, and the streets are flooded, but I'm driving down Christian's street, entering Marshall again for the first time in three weeks.

I'm so afraid for this.

I pull into his driveway. It's Thursday.

I was expecting him to be working, but his shitty Honda Civic, which he hates very much, is sitting in his driveway.