All For You

Chapter 13

Foster |5 years ago

"You're really quitting school?" I asked her and she nodded as she unpacked the last box of her belongings into the guest room of my house.

"I already quit school. I'll get my GED," she assured me. "I just don't want to do senior year with a baby in my stomach. I get bullied enough as it is. I'm going to start showing in a few weeks."

I watched her for a while. I had a lot of things going through my mind but I didn't know how to say any of it. I wanted to convince her to stay in school. I wanted to beg her and say that I couldn't do senior year without her, that it would be torture for me. But it would have been selfish for me to say any of that because going to school would have felt like torture to her. I could stand up for her when she got bullied but I couldn't protect her all the time, especially not from the monsters she had in her own mind that grew stronger every time she heard the rumors and Maisy and her friends badmouth her.

But I had convinced myself that I'd still be able to protect her better than Markian who had graduated and wouldn't be there. Problem was, he wasn't in the college that had offered him his football scholarship. I knew because I had contacted them the moment Cassia said that his phone was unreachable and he wasn't at home. His parents refused to give us any information on where he was and what he was doing or even if he had a new number. It was like he had dropped off plant Earth.

Cassia had gotten worse after he disappeared. She started acting like she didn't care about her life or the life that was growing inside her.

"I'll sell my mother's house when I turn 18 and get something smaller so I can move out of your guest room," she tells me. "I don't want to bother your parents with me or a newborn."

My eyes flew to hers in alarm. Did she really think she was a burden to my family? My parents, who were barely at home and loved Cassia just like their own? They offered to take her in when her mom died because they knew she didn't have anyone else to turn to and they wanted to do it. For her and for me. I didn't even have to ask, they did it anyway.

"No, Cas." I shook my head. "You don't have to do that. My parents want you here. They want to help as much as they can."

I knew my words were falling on deaf ears though. She wasn't listening. She had already made up her mind but unlike her decision to drop out of school, at least she told me about this one. That meant I had a little time to think of something to change her mind and that's exactly what I did.

Her growing stomach and hormones that were all over the place were enough to keep her busy during the day while I still went to complete my senior year. And when I got home, I got busy trying to do the things for her that Markian should have been doing since the kid was his. But I didn't complain because I liked doing things for her. Yes, I had gotten over my crush on her and moved on. I even had a boy I liked but Cassia would always come first and I knew she needed me at the moment so I decided not to get into any relationships until after the baby was born and she got used to it.

I spent the nights thinking of ways to make her stay and wondering how I could help her keep her mothers house. And when I thought of something, I spoke to my parents and they agreed to help me. I started working from home, just small side jobs that helped me save up as much money as I could since my parents had agreed to pay the rest. I'd pay them back later, of course. But it was a plan that kept her with me and me with her.

"Is he the father?" I heard the doctor ask her and she shook her head.

She was already five months into her pregnancy and I had been at the clinic every single appointment she had so I couldn't comprehend how hard it was for them to remember that I wasn't the father. She had already asked the first time we met her.

"No but can he come in?" she asked and Doctor Larson who obviously had memory issues nodded. "I want him here."

She waved me in and I shut the door behind me. Cassia was in one of the clinic gowns that her mother had spent a lot of time in. They used to joke about it and how it hard it was not to flash your butt cheeks in them. There was a blanket covering the bottom half of her because her gown was crumpled up to her chest, revealing her stomach. I watched as the doctor squeezed some translucent jelly-like thing on her stomach. Cassia shut her eyes as if it was hurting her and I immediately take her hand even though I know that it's just cold, not painful.

Doctor Larson pressed the device against her stomach and suddenly the screen brightened and we were seeing something. It looked like a jelly bean, not a human baby.

"You hear that? It's the heartbeat," she told us even though we heard it even at the other appointments and I looked over at Cassia.

She had tears in her eyes and I never felt a stronger need to protect her and the little baby growing inside her. I squeezed her hand and she squeezed back. She requested for the ultrasound picture of her baby that day which she had rejected the first time around.

"Would you like to know the sex of the baby?" Doctor Larson asked us later in her office and Cassia turned to me for confirmation.

I wasn't the father and I had no way of being sure that I was going to be in that baby's life other than the determination inside me to fight for Cassia. And a small voice inside me whispered that somehow knowing the sex of the child would change her mind, making her believe her life was worth living despite the mistakes that she had made.

I nodded a beat later and she whispered a soft yes.

Cassia got into my car that day with tear-stained cheeks and a small picture clutched to her chest like it was the most precious thing ever. I said a little prayer before I got into the drivers' side, thanking God for this appointment and the Doctor and the baby and that I still had my best friend.

"Foster, do you think I'll be a good mother?" she asked and I try not to choke at the fact that she even had to ask me. "All these mistakes I've made. Do you think my mom would be proud of me still?"

"You're more than the choices you made, Cas." I took her hand. "And the mistakes you made. Your mother is really proud of you and she always will be."

"I just want to lead a good life like she did, even though it was hard." Her voice cracked and I felt my heartache for her.

"And I want to help you and so I have something to tell you," I said slowly without leaving her hands. "I thought about something and I asked my parents for help. We'll pay them back for it-"

"Foster-" she cut me off but I shushed her.

"Let me finish." I stroked her hand in the hopes of calming her down. "We're going to turn the first floor of your house into an apartment like you wanted and the ground floor into a small cozy bakery like your mother always wanted."

She started crying then, full-on waterworks with loud sobs, enough to make my heart pound out of my chest as I held her close.

"You're going to do right by this little girl."