Saving Hope

Chapter 3

Hello ppl who are reading this story. Thank you by the way. Anyways i just decided to dedicate a chapter to each one of my fans! I kinda tought that hey why not. So plz kind readers tell me what you think because i might want to enter this in the Watty Awards. So if this is complete crap and you think i need to just stop while im a head fill free to tell me. im a biggirl i can take it :)

        Nayla sat in the car staring at the sky thinking about what her mom said. She couldn’t give up the baby. It was apart of Brandon and the only thing of him she had left. There were questions she wanted to ask and the most important one was obvious. Did he know he had HIV? If so then why didn’t he tell her? Did his parents know? There were too many things running through her mind to actually think straight. Her medicine was in a bag next her. She opened it and sighed at all the pills. Many of them were different kinds of antivirals she had to take but about three of them were prenatal vitamins. God why is this happening to me?  She thought before getting out of the car.

        It was on 12 in the afternoon and she didn’t feel like going to school. Her mom was in her room, with the door locked probably crying over this. She didn’t want to be in the house so she did the only thing she could think of; she went to Brandon’s parents house.

        Driving there she was a bundle of nerves. She couldn’t just say hey did you know your son gave me HIV oh and by the way I’m pregnant. Yea, because that would just work out fine. They might not believe her or they might think she was the one who gave it to him. The drive there didn’t take very long and before she knew it she was there. Just sitting in their driveway staring at the house. Taking a deep breath, she pulled the keys from the ignition and walked up to the door. At first she just wanted to run back to her car but she knew she needed to do this. She knocked a couple of times and waited. No one answered for a minute then she heard the door unlock.

        Brandon’s mom answered the door and when she saw Nayla she gasped a little before speaking.

        “Nayla sweetie what are you doing here?” she asked holding the door.

        “Hi I just really needed to talk to you and your husband it’s really important”

        “Ok well come on in” she said then stepped aside and welcomed her in the house.

        When Nayla stepped inside she immediately was engulfed in old memories. Memories of her and Brandon watching movies in the living room, doing homework in the kitchen or just taking a nap together in his room flooded back to her. She was not going to cry. She held back a few tears and made her way to the living room sitting on the opposite couch Brandon’s dad was sitting on.

        Margret walked in and sat next to her husband waiting on her to talk.

        “This is um really hard to say but I recently found out I was pregnant”

        They both looked like they were going to explode. His dad was the first to speak.

        “Brandon is the father?”

        She nodded but didn’t wait for him to continue.

        “I also found out I’m HIV positive”

        “I thought you guys were being careful” Margret spoke up.

        “Did you know Brandon had HIV” she asked completely ignoring Margret’s last question.

        “Yes we did but-

        “How could you not tell me something like that?” she screamed.

        Margret and Jeff looked at each other then sighed. What could they say to her? There was no easy answer. Margret was crying so much she couldn’t speak so Jeff took over.

        “When Brandon was eleven his sister Tiffany was killed. She was two years younger then him so he was the protective big brother. They were playing outside and her ball rolled in the middle of the street so when he was not looking she went to get it. A car came out of no where and hit her. She died on impact”

        Nayla looked shocked but didn’t say anything so he continued.

        “He blamed his self. Said that if he was watching her she would still be alive. We tried everything to make him see that it was not his fault but nothing worked. By the time, he was thirteen he was hanging out in the streets with the wrong crowd and well by 14 he developed a drug habit. Heroin was his drug of choice. For a year, we tried to get him into programs but nothing worked then we gave him and ultimatum. Get help or do not come home. He chose the help so we entered him in his third rehab facility and it worked. He got out and was a different person. A year later, he started to get sick and when we took him to the hospital, they told us he was HIV positive. He got it by sharing dirty needles. It was heart breaking but we dealt with it and for two years, he was fine. Then you came and he had a glow about him as if he was finally able to breathe. I told him take his meds everyday and if you two were getting serious to tell you and use protection”

        “He never told me” she whispered

        “I thought he did and was happy when you didn’t turn away so we never mentioned it. When he started to get sick the doctors told us it was complications do to AIDs. Somehow he developed full blown AIDs and not even the meds were helping him. His body began to shut down and well you know the rest”

        His mother finally decided to talk.

        “So what about the baby is it you know infected?” she asked with a harsh tone.

        “The doctor doesn’t know but he started me on antivirals and if I take them like I am supposed to then the baby could be just fine” she stated glaring at her with a frown on her face.

        “Are you going to keep the baby?” Jeff asked.

        “Yes I am Brandon would have wanted me to”

        “And your mom is ok with that” Margret asked hesitantly.

        “Not really she wants me to give it up for adoption”

        For the rest of her visit they talked about her health and the baby. Overall, both of them were very supportive, they even gave her some options on her situation. Margret’s sister owns a non profit organization that takes in teenage mother’s with health problems. She allows them to stay at a group home she started until the baby’s born and helps them figure out their next step. It sounded like a good idea to her. School was almost out and she could take some time off before starting college. If her mom refused to help her she was just going to do things with out her.

        Before she left Margret called her sister and made plans for Nayla to come and stay their after she graduates. They were lucky and called at the right time. She had one more spot left and Nayla had just filled it. Maybe things were looking up somehow.

        As she left and got into her car she looked at the sky and hoped Brandon was watching out for her and the baby.