Hear My Heart Beat

III

(Warning: Sexual content. For mature readers only.)

My parents' reaction to our news was very wierd. Instead of the shouts of anger and drama I was expecting, this was what I got:

My mother's impassive face, although her hand was shaking a bit. Like she was trying to hide her real reaction. But she stayed otherwise calm and polite toward me and Liam.

My father's whoop of joy. He hugged me, then Liam, then me again. When I asked him what he was so happy about, he said, "I'm going to be a grandfather! Can you believe it? I thought it would never happen. I thought you'd run off with one of those dikes." That made me cringe. "Great job, Son!" He said to a beet-red Liam, who he then proceeded to whack on the back. Fortunately for Liam, he had good stamina and escaped that incident with only a few coughs, and maybe some bruises.

After that anticlimactic meeting with my parents, we got into Liam's car to go to his parents. "I had worked myself up over nothing," I murmured, getting a laugh from him. He stopped when I gave him the evil eye.

Then I worked myself up again when I remembered we were going to another set of parents. We weren't quite safe yet.

I remembered Liam's mom. Yaffa was a goddess of beauty and goodness and light. She and my mother were close, and she was like my aunt or my second mom, though sometimes I thought with a little guilt that I liked her better than my own mother because she was so much more loving and affectionate.

Liam's dad, Fin, was a quiet, serious man. If things went well with Yaffa, Fin might be a problem.

Liam intertwined his fingers with mine during the whole ride. We kept it that way when we faced his parents as a show of solidarity.

Yaffa took one look at our joined hands and cried, hurrying to hug him, and then me. "Oh, my darling girl," she said through her tears.

When we sat down in their living room, Fin turned his grave eyes towards me and his son. "Are you getting married?"

"No," I said, earning a sad face from Yaffa. "Not until we both decide that it is what we absolutely want to do," I amended.

"But you are going to be parents. What will become of the child if you two aren't together?" Fin insisted.

I bristled. I did not think having a child was enough reason to force two people into marriage, at least in this day and age.

"Honey, why don't we listen to what they have to say?" Yaffa told him soothingly.

I looked at Liam, who gave a nod. We had talked about this before we decided to tell our parents.

"I will bring the child up. Liam is welcome to participate in raising him or her in whatever capacity he wishes. He has equal say in decisions regarding the child. The child will take his family name. That's more or less what we've decided for now. Our lawyers will have a meeting later," I said.

Fin did not look happy. "A child has the right to grow up in a normal family," he declared.

Fin had conservative views, like my parents. What he meant as normal was a nuclear family, I knew that much. My parents had not yet voiced their concerns this early in the pregnancy, but Fin had.

I got his point. I came across a study once regarding child psychology. In that study, children had a basic idea in their minds of what a family should be. And that was the nuclear family: the two parents and their children. Anything other than this could cause confusion and have a psychological impact on a child.

But I had met people who grew up with separated parents, and they were okay. I really believed it depended on whether or not parents raised their children with love and understanding.