Delinquent

Delinquent - Chapter 26

            I stared up at my ceiling, thinking about the conversation Eli and I had hours earlier. I couldn’t help thinking that maybe Eli had seen Noah do something to Chelsea that night. Maybe he could provide me with clues about it; since Chelsea still hadn’t told me what went on that night. Every time I asked her about it something either came up, she avoided the question, or just didn’t answer. It was really starting to frustrate me. She told me she was going to tell me about it when we got back to my house that day we went to the store, but my schedule quickly got busy, and I believe we both forgot about it for the time being. She hadn’t talked about it at all since then though, and it was just….infuriating. I was about to take out my phone and text her to come over here so I could demand her to tell me when I heard a knock on my door. I eyed the door and told the person to come in. it was Eli, the last person I expected to see at my house. Wait, what was Eli doing at my house? How did he know where my house was? I never showed him that. I shrugged it off though. Chase knew where it was, and he was Caleb’s friend. Sort of.

“Hey…” I said uneasily, wondering why he was here when I’d just seen him a couple hours ago. “You could’ve just texted me.”

“I think we need to talk about this in person.” his face was completely serious. I sat up and pulled my legs under me and looked at him, waiting for him to continue. He gestured with his hand to my bed. I assumed that meant he wanted to sit, so I nodded and he sat. “This baby thing…it’s…I don’t know. I thought about it. Raising a child takes 18 years. I’m not saying I don’t want to raise any children for myself, but that’s just it. This isn’t for myself. Hell, it isn’t even my kid.”

“Which is why you’re going to pretend, right?” I bit my lip. I knew what was coming. He was having doubts. “Playing pretend is something little kids do. Is this like playing house for a little while or is it lying to people for years? I can’t lie to people for years. I can’t take you to my family and say, ‘Hey, I knocked her up. She’s carrying your grandson or granddaughter.’ Do you have any idea how upset my parents would be, not only because I ‘knocked you up’ in the first place, but I lied about it as well? Have you thought about how many people you’d be lying to? Your parents, your friends, your teachers, doctors—anyone else you haven’t told yet.” He paused, but then started talking again. “I mean, the kid probably won’t even look like me. I’m not saying it has to for me to pretend to be the father, but it would be a bit more believable. Anyway, like I was saying, 18 years is a long time. You want to lie to people for that long? The father must be a real jerk for you to want to do that.” I gulped and looked down at my sheet covering my bed. I played with it, pulling on a piece of thread.

                “I just don’t think I can do this. Lying to so many people for so long? Hell, we’d even be lying to the kid. I would be the only father it would ever know and by then, I might as well keep lying. So, I’m just going to stop this before it goes too far.  You’re just going to have to deal with your consequences—“

“You don’t know my situation! You can’t just tell me that I deserve to deal with the consequences, you don’t know anything about me!” I said defensively, though I doubted the words as soon as they left my mouth. He could say that about me I realized. Sure, he didn’t know my situation, but that sure didn’t change anything. If I hadn’t of joined the gang in the first place, none of this would have happened. I wouldn’t have been hurting people for money, I wouldn’t have hurt Chase, I wouldn’t have saved him, I wouldn’t have been forced to be with my brother, I wouldn’t have gotten pregnant, and I probably wouldn’t never ran into Noah.  There were a lot of things that would’ve never happened if I hadn’t of been so stupid, but what could you expect of a money hungry 15 year old? All I wanted was a car, which my brother had at the time. I wanted what he had.