Ashton: You and Ashton both knew, as soon as your daughter had come home the previous weekend, that something had happened. Two hours earlier she had told you she was going to her boyfriend’s, and when she returned late afternoon, her make up was smudged and her eyes red. When you asked her what was wrong she merely whispered, ‘we broke up’, and so you and your husband left it at that. Even so, her mood didn’t seem to pick up at all over the next week. She snapped at her younger sister, Anna, and stayed in her room for the majority of the day, her only exceptions were school, meals and to use the bathroom. Jade was an strong girl, so it surprised you when she took the break up so harshly. No matter how many times you offered a shopping trip (“I’ll pay?”) or Ashton said he’d take her out for the day (“Just me and you, like when you were a kid!”) Jade refused to leave her room, claiming she wanted nothing but to be left alone. However as a mother, it bothered you to the point where you couldn’t take it anymore, and so the following weekend you decided to go up to her room and see if just talking out the situation would help.
You knocked tentatively on the door, and a muffled response was soon heard. You entered your daughter’s room to find her laying face down on her pillow, legs sprawled out on the duvet. She didn’t bother sitting up as you walked in, and so you sat at the edge of her bed, stroking her hair softly. After a while you noticed she was shaking under your touch, and when listening closely you heard small snuffles erupting from her.
"Oh, Jade." You sighed "You really, really need to get over this. There’ll be other boys, people who deserve you."
"Mum.." She croaked, sitting up "I- I need to tell you something." You nodded for her to continue and she bit her lip, avoiding your gaze "S-sam broke up with me… b-because I’m… because I’m pregnant. I’m having Sam’s child, mum.”
Shocked, you remained silent. Pregnant? At seventeen?
"I’m so sorry." She wept, and you quickly pulled her into a hug, desperately trying to comfort her.
"Sh.. shh.. it’s okay, it’ll be okay." You murmured soothingly, sighing in relief when you felt her start to calm down.
"I think we should tell your father, and then we can figure out what to do." You said, watching her wipe her tears. Jade said nothing, and so you took that as an agreement to your statement.
"Ash!!" You yelled out, knowing he was just in the next door room "Come here for a second?"
Your husband appeared in your daughter’s doorway less than two minutes later, and he stared at your distraught faces a million things rushing through his mind.
You motioned for him to sit, and he did so at the end of the bed, eyes trained on you.
"Jade.." Your voice was noticeably shaky and you cleared your throat to try again "Jade is pregnant, Ash." You said softly.
Time seemed to go slowly as a mix of anger, and sadness, and shock passed his face.
"Jade." He whispered carefully, "I- I thought you were more careful than that."
"It was an accident, dad." She was close to tears again "We didn’t know what we were doing and- and…"
"Okay, well we’re going to do this the proper way." He spoke firmly, although there were tears in his eyes "Mum will make you a doctor’s appointment to see how far along you are, and if the baby’s healthy etc. I’m guessing the father doesn’t want to be part of the kid’s life, well good riddance to bad rubbish. But, you need to tell him you’re keeping it, and you should probably tell his parents too because he’s under eighteen. And we’ll tell Anna when you’re a bit further along. We don’t want to scare her."
"Oh dad.." Jade said quietly, hugging Ashton tightly “Why are you taking this so well?”
Ashton smiled slightly,
"Maybe it’ll be fun to be a grandfather.”
