I'm A Father

Chapter 22

Jack's POV

"Is your mom here?" Of course his mom is there. He is just a little boy. Stupid me. "Mommy! My son yelled. "What?" She yelled back. "Someone is here for you." He yelled back. I saw her walk out of the kitchen. She stared at me then spoke up. "Oh. Hey Jack, I didn't expect you to come." "Yeah, sorry. Late notice." I said. "Well I cooked Tanner and I some food, so if you want, you can eat with us." Mandy said. "Sure." I said. It will give us the chance to talk more.

I sit at the table with Tanner while Mandy was finishing the food. "You my mommy's friend. She needs friends. She gets bored." He said with a smile. "Yeah. I guess you can say I'm your mommy's friend." I said back then smiled. "Yay! You can hang out with us more. We can play ball again! Also! We can throw frisbee!" Tanner said so excited he almost fell off the chair. I just laughed. Mandy walked out with three plates. She then brought the food out. I knew she made the food Tanner likes. It was chicken nuggets, green beans, and Mac-n-cheese. "Looks good." I said. She looked at me and smiled. "Thanks. It's Tanner's favorite."

We ate and talked for about fifteen minutes. We haven't talked about the son deal yet. It was just random conversations like how are you, what you been up too, do you have a job, and stuff like that. "Um, Mandy? When we have the chance, I would like to talk to you in private." I said after taking my last bite of food. "Yeah. Me too." She said. Tanner was playing with his dinosaur chicken nuggets, so he really didn't pay any attention to us.

Mandy took all of our plates and set them in the sink. "Tanner is it okay if I leave you out in the living room, while Jack and I talk?" She asked Tanner while walking out of the kitchen. "Yes mommy." He said. She walked over to Tanner, picked him up, and carried him over to couch. "What you want to watch?" She said. I'm going to take a guess and say the Power Rangers. "SpongeBob!" He said. Awe. So close, but yet so far away.

Mandy walked over to me. "Come on. Lets go to my room." I followed her to her room. She had a white comforter, a desk in the corner of her room, a TV, and a night stand. She patted the bed to let me know that I could sit down. "So Jack? What you want to know?" She asked. I had tons of questions. I couldn't wait to get them off my chest. "My son. Tanner. How is he mine?" I asked curious. "Okay. Well you remember when Sammy invited us to the sophomore party. Well you and I drank too much. You took me up to Sammy's room. We had unprotected sex-" "Wait. I thought you were on birth control pills?" I interrupted her. "Just wait. Let me get to it. Okay, so we had unprotected sex. After the week of the party, I drove to Rite-Aid and got a pregnancy test. I got home and found out I was pregnant. I ran to my room and looked through my drawer for my birth control pills. I found them and saw I haven't took any for two weeks. So, that's how I got pregnant with your son. I told my mom the next day. I couldn't tell you Jack. You wouldn't want anything to do with your son. That's why I moved. You were a party animal and smoked weed-" "You partied and smoked weed too!" I said. "But when I found out I was pregnant, I quit doing all of that stuff. Life was hard being pregnant. No one wanted to be friends with me Jack! No one! I just knew you wouldn't want nothing to do with your little boy. If I told you, you would think your world was over with, so I just kept it a secret. I honestly don't know if you want anything to do with your son now." She said sad. "Listen Mandy. I just need time to think about this-" "Think about it! It's yes or no. If you say no it's fine because I raised him this far by myself! I think I can raise him more now." She got off the bed and said it in front of my face. "Mandy! Please just give me time to think. This is a big life changer-" "Jack. How about you leave. I think it is time to go." She said. "I haven't said anything bad." I got up and said. "Just leave. I don't want my son to end up having a dad like I did. If you don't want anything to do with him, then I'll find a man who will accept that I have a son and love him like it was his own son." She said with tears forming in her eyes.

I left her apartment. I stood at her door thinking. I couldn't believe she told me that. Maybe I do want to be with him, but it just happened too fast. It's like I blinked my eye and BOOM! I have a son. I don't want Tanner to end up with a dad like Mandy's dad was. I do want my son. I'm going to show him that daddy is here now. I'm going to show him what having a dad really feels like.