Yesterday | Seth Clearwater

Chapter 26

Oh if you knew what it meant to me

You would see, too.

~ Dark Dark Dark "Daydreaming"

Brooklyn decided that she hated road trips. She had never really gone anywhere that required more than a few hours of driving, so she didn't really have anything to compare this to, but she was not enjoying this. Being about eight months pregnant meant that she had to pee a lot, like all of the time. Shawn was nice about it, but they were both pretty sick of stopping in every town to find a rest stop. 

It took ages, but they finally made it to her dad's house. The house was in the suburbs, and it was probably twice the size of Brooklyn's house in La Push. The lawn was immaculately cared for, and the house was a similar beige color to all of the neighboring houses. It was a very cookie-cutter neighborhood, and Brooklyn felt out of place already. Brooklyn texted Seth to let him know that they had made it there safely.

"Should we knock on the door or something?" Shawn asked after a few minutes of them sitting in the parked car.

"Yeah. Probably," Brooklyn said. "I just really don't want to."

"You're gonna have to go in eventually," Shawn said. "But maybe not right now. Let's get food and come back."

"This is why you're my best friend," Brooklyn beamed. "You really get me."

An hour later, they returned to the house with full stomachs and milkshakes in hand. 

"Okay, I gotta be honest about something," Brooklyn said.

Shawn gives her a questioning look. 

"I don't think my dad knows that I'm pregnant," she said. "Because I sure as fuck didn't tell him, but there's a chance that my mom did when she talked to him about having me stay here for a while. But I feel like he would've talked to me or something if he knew."

"Brooke, what the fuck?" Shawn laughs. "You told everyone that you were gonna tell him. Are you kidding me?"

"I know," she said as she covered her face with her hands. "I thought it might be weird to just, like, call him after months of not hearing from him and be like 'Hey, I'm pregnant,' so I just never said anything."

"I am so glad you invited me," Shawn said. "You really can't pay for this kind of entertainment."

"You're such a dick," Brooklyn rolled her eyes.

"I'm kidding," he said more seriously. "If things go really badly, then we can get out of here. Alright?"

"That's not really an option though," Brooklyn said. "I'm supposed to stay here for a while."

"Right," Shawn replied. "Why was that again?"

"Because of my parents custody agreement," Brooklyn lied— her parents didn't have a formal custody agreement. "He could sue my mom for not letting me see him."

"Do you think he would actually try to do that though?" Shawn asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "But I can't risk it."

"Okay, so let's go knock on the door then," Shawn said

"Fine," Brooklyn sighed. They got out of the car and walked to the door. Brooklyn knocked, and they waited for someone to come answer the door.

The door swung open, and they were met by the sight of a little blonde girl— it was her half-sister Olivia. 

"Hi!," Olivia said excitedly.

"Oh... Hi," Brooklyn said, a bit surprised. "Are your parents home?"

Just then, a blonde man came up— Brooklyn's father, Steven Fisher. "Olivia, you can't open the door without me or your mom. It's not safe. Go play, Sweetie, I'll take care of this."

"Hi Dad," Brooklyn greeted awkwardly as Olivia scampered off into the house.

He looked up at Brooklyn and Shawn. Then, he noticed the bump. 

"Oh," he said. "I see you've been busy."

"Yeah. I guess," Brooklyn replied awkwardly as Shawn choked back a laugh.

He eyed Shawn. "I take it this was your doing?"

"Nah," Shawn said. "I'm just here for moral support. But, if you're gonna kick someone's ass, you'll want to find Seth Clearwater."

"Good to know," Steven said. "I'm Steve, it's nice to meet you."

Shawn shook his hand. "I'm Shawn."

"Please, come in," Steven invited. "We can talk inside."

Steven led them to the living room. "Would you like any drinks or snack or anything?"

"We just ate, thanks," Brooklyn said as Shawn shook his head.

The three sat in the living room in an uncomfortable silence. Shawn was starting to rethink his decision to come along on this trip. He had kind of figured that he would drive up with Brooke in her car, hang out and have fun for a couple of days in California, and then Brooklyn would drop him off at the airport and he would go home. Shawn was now realizing that the middle of his plan was a bit different in reality— this wasn't much fun yet, and his hopes of having fun at all were dwindling by the second.

"So, I think I might head out, and explore the area for a while so that you guys can talk or whatever," Shawn said at last.

"Oh, uh, thanks," Steven said awkwardly.

"Just text me if you need me," Shawn said as he left the room.

Brooklyn stared awkwardly at her father.

"So are you going to explain why you didn't tell me you're pregnant?" Steven asked his daughter.

"I guess it just seemed like a conversation that wasn't meant to be had over the phone," Brooklyn responded.

"So you thought that not saying anything at all was a better alternative?" Steven asked incredulously. "I told you that you could talk to me if you ever needed anything."

"Uh— yeah," Brooklyn said lamely. "Look, we aren't very close. I don't really know how to talk to you about how my day was, let alone about how I have a baby on the way. Like what was I supposed to say? Hey, Dad, today at school we learned about why the Articles of Confederation failed as a governmental structure, and oh yeah, I have a baby on the way. I don't think that would have gone over any better than this. At least this way we can look each other in the eye and say what we need to say."

Steven sighed. "Alright, I'll admit that I could have done more— I should have done more— to have a better relationship with you. That's on me, and I'm sorry... I guess I can't really blame you for not telling me. I probably wouldn't have told me either if I was you."

"I'm not going to pretend that I'm okay with this," Steven continued. "I think that you're too young, and I don't know this Seth kid, but I doubt he's ready for this either. I think you're making a mistake, and if I had any say, I wouldn't have let you do this."

Brooklyn rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well you don't have any say in this."

"I know," Steven said. 

"And I really don't appreciate you calling my daughter a mistake," Brooklyn said.

"It's a girl?" he asked.

"Yeah," Brooklyn said. "We're going to name her Eleanor."

"Look," he said. "I don't approve of this, but I can't do anything about it. So, if you're happy, and you're sure that this is what you want, then I guess I can try to be happy about this too."

"I am," Brooklyn said. "I've never been so sure of anything in my whole life, and I know that Seth feels the same way. But I need you to understand— you weren't in my life for so long, so even if you don't approve, you aren't allowed to do or say anything about it. Because I can and will stop trying to have a relationship with you. So I need you to do better than trying to be happy. Either you're going to be happy about your granddaughter, or you don't get to be in her life or mine."