Teach Me - Brollins

5.

Rebecca was finishing up putting in an application at the school district 45 minutes away from her previous one when she heard a loud banging at her door. She looked at the time on her phone and saw it was a little past 4. She didn't have to think hard about who was at the door, she knew.

She steady herself as she stood up from the couch, took a deep breath and walked to the door. She opened it just as he was about to knock, scratch that bang on the door again. He just stood there, staring at her, looking her over, once, twice, three times.

"Can I help you?" She questioned and his eyes widened

"Can you help me?!" He yelled and she pulled him inside before her whole complex was treated to this scene "Can you help me?!" He yelled once more "Yeah" he nodded "You can help.. you can start by telling me when the fuck you were planning on telling me you're pregnant and then you can tell me why the fuck you got fired"

"Cali told you" she folded her arms across her chest

"No shit Cali told me! I didn't just hear it on the playground at recess!" He threw his arms in the air "Did you honestly think she wouldn't tell me what happened with her favorite teacher? She loves you and she's devastated that you got fired! How the fuck did anybody find out in the first place?"

"Brayden's mom"

"Yeah yeah Brayden's mom told the principal, I got that" he nodded "How did she find out?"

"She didn't" Rebecca shook her head and Colby's eyes about fell out of his own head

"What do you mean she didn't? Why would she call the school and tell the principal that?"

"I do. Did have a student named Brayden" she nodded "but it wasn't Brayden's mom who called the principal and ratted us out" she shook her head

"I'm confused" he shook his head

"You know my personal trainer? Mackenzie?" She questioned and he nodded, he knew Rebecca worked out with Mackenzie almost everyday "I spilled everything to her and we came up with the plot and she called the school on Saturday afternoon.. demanding she talked to the principal as Brayden's pretend mother" she put mother in air quotes "She gave him all the information and even provided evidence of how long this had been going on.. she reiterated that she wasn't going to leave this alone until something was done about it"

"So when you came over to the house on Friday, this was all already set in motion in your head?" He asked and she nodded "So when I kept asking you what you wanted to do, that's why you never really gave me an answer.. that's why you kept putting off marrying me because you knew what was going to happen on Monday"

"Now you're piecing it together" she nodded quietly

"So you purposefully plotted behind my back to expose our relationship and to get yourself fired" he said and she nodded "What the fuck?!" He yelled "Why?" He questioned "Why would you do that?"

"Because we can't be together if I still work for that school district and I'm not going to let Cali be pulled out like you wanted her to be, I was the one that was going to make the sacrifice"

"We could have been together like you said and kept this all to ourselves and you still would have had a job"

"That's not going to work" she shook her head "That is so not an option for us to not be seen together anymore" she shook her head

He watched her disappear before quickly reappearing with what looked to be about 5 to 6 white plastic sticks in her hand and she held them out to him and he took them, looking at each individual one. One had a simple plus sign, another had the word YES, three others were two solid pink lines, and the last one simply just said the word PREGNANT in bold black letters. He felt himself beginning to hyperventilate slightly. He was on the verge of a panic attack as he sat down on the couch.

"How long have you known?" He asked quietly as he continued to stare at the tests

"I found out on Saturday morning" she answered and he looked up at her with a nod

"Okay" he nodded "How.. how long have you thought you might be?" He was quiet, calm now as he spoke, it was almost as if he was afraid to speak to loudly

"I started cramping a few weeks ago like I was going to get my period, and then the nausea started a week after that.. I thought it was just something that one of the kids gave me but when my period never came I started adding things up"

"You're on the pill"

"It can fail sometimes.. not often but sometimes"

"How far along do you think you are?"

"I don't know" she shrugged "When I counted in my calendar.. maybe 6, 7 weeks"

"Okay" he nodded and he placed the tests on the coffee table in front of him and ran his hands over his face as he took a few deep breaths to remain calm

"You were the one that just said you were willing to give me a baby anytime.. why are you freaking out?"

"Because I thought we were going to start trying" he nodded "I thought it was going to take awhile.. and in that time I could prepare myself mentally and talk away all of the bad thoughts in my head"

"What bad thoughts?" She questioned and he shook his head

"I just had to mentally prepare myself that when you got pregnant, what happened last time wasn't going to happen this time and it was all going to be fine and we were going to have a family and be happy"

"We are" she nodded "What is stopping those good thoughts right now?"

"Heather" he looked over at Rebecca and she nodded, Cali's mother

"What about her?"

"She died.." He said

"Yeah, I know that" the redhead nodded "She died because she was very sick"

"You don't know the whole story" he shook his head "Heather died because she gave birth to Cali"

"But Cali was almost four when her mom died" she said and he nodded

"It's quite the story if you're up for it" he looked at her "I haven't even told Cali the official story.. I don't want to tell her until she's older, much older. I don't want her to blame herself for what happened"

"Colby.. What happened?"

"For that we have to go back to the beginning.."