"Lindsey, wake up!" Ruth shook him from his nap. "Barbara Nicks just called in a panic, I think something happened to Stevie!" She jumped back as he sprang out of bed
"Stevie?!" He looked panicked, changing his clothes and quickly fixing his hair before heading out with his family. His mind was racing. What could have happened? When he saw her last, she was fine.
Lindsey ran ahead of his family, banging on the Nicks door as Jess opened it angrily, "How could you do this to her?!" Grabbing Lindsey but the shirt

"Jess, stop it!" Barbara pulled away, letting he hand his family inside. "Lindsey, go talk to Stevie."
He went up to her room and the door opened easily.

"Stevie" he whispered and Stevie began to cry all over again. "Stevie, what's wrong? Your dad said I did something to you. Did I hurt you?"

"No" she whispered. She sat up in bed, and he immediately hugged her. She cried into the crook of his neck.

"Angel..." He moved her face off his shoulder and placed his hands on her cheeks. Tears streamed down her face. "What happened?" he asked.

"I...I'm..." she began before losing her composure.
"Stevie, please tell me..." pulling her back into his arms tightly. He could feel her body trembling.

"I'm-" the words just made her want to gag, she couldn't get it out
She bolted from her room and into the bathroom, diving onto her knees. She was instantly sick and Lindsey followed, wanting to comfort her but not knowing what to do. He swept her hair back, holding it away as she hung her head over the toilet bowl.

"You're sick" he said.

"Pregnant" she said, wiping her mouth with toilet paper.

"Pregnant" he repeated and she nodded. "We're having a baby" A smile began to creep across his lips but quickly faded as she began to cry again.
"My life is over..." she sobbed

"No it's not...its beginning! This is great!" Lindsey encouraged
"It's not great, Lindsey! I'm graduating this year and I'm going to college...I can't do that now"

"We will figure it out." he told her.

"What if my parents want to send me away?" she asked, looking to him for the answers. She was at a loss. She had heard of girls being sent to relatives and the talk around school was always that she had a baby.
"I'll go with you then. We'll raise them together."

"Lindsey, we can't be parents...we aren't ready," she cried, "I'm not ready..."

"What do you want to do?"

"Daddy knows a doctor..."

"For what?"
"Lindsey..."

"No. We can do it, Stevie. Just think about it, please." he begged and she turned away from him. He pulled her up and took her back to her room. She sat down on the bed, her eyes blank. It's like she wasn't in there anymore. "Stevie, Stevie..."
"Lindsey we can't do this..." she finally looked into his eyes, "I'm scared...I don't want to go away...I want to graduate and go to college..."

"I want that for you, but Stevie this is a baby!" He smiled

"No, Lindsey! This is an accident!" It was the first time that she had ever shouted at him
He cowered slightly as she stood and paced about her bedroom. "An...accident"

"This shouldn't have happened."

"But...you love me."

"I do"

"And I love you."
"That doesn't mean that this is the right time...you're sixteen and I'm seventeen. Our lives are over if I have the baby..."

"Stevie...let's talk to our parents about this..."

"Mine are ready to kill both of us."
"They can't kill us. I think it's illegal." he said with a smirk and she giggled a little through her tears. "See, it will be okay."

"If you say so."

"Hold my hand. I will take care of you, I promise."
"They're so disappointed in me..." Stevie said sadly, "I never meant for this to happen..."
"Neither of us did. If it means anything to you, I'm proud of you."

"You are?"

"You're brave. You told them first."

"I have to face your parents now, as well as my own."

"We can face them together." He told her with a smile.

"Okay" She took his hand and he led her down the stairs. The adults were sitting in the living room with cups of coffee, barely a sip taken from any of them.
Ruth and Morris were seated on the couch, shocked expressions on their faces.

"Mama..." Stevie said softly, catching everyone's attention. "Come sit," Barbara said, ushering her to a chair
"Thank you" Stevie avoided eye contact. Lindsey's parents motioned for him to sit between them on the sofa.

"What does your daughter plan to do?" Morris asked, purposely not using her name while speaking to Stevie's parents.
"We haven't discussed that yet, but I think her mother and I will decide to sent her to her Aunt's in Colorado."
"Colorado?!" Stevie objected. "No, I can't go there."

"Stevie, it's what's best. What do you think they will say about a girl like you?"

"A girl like you?" Lindsey asked his girlfriend, confused.

"A girl like her- unwed, in trouble" Morris told him.

"I'll marry her then. I don't want her to go. I love her." Lindsey said. He was clearly upset, his fists balled up by his sides.
"Son, you're not of the legal age to marry- neither of you are. I think that this is the best thing for everyone in this situation. The Nicks's can find a special school for girls in Stephanie's...condition."Morris said
Lindsey got up, unable to hear anymore. Stevie was crying and he could do nothing to comfort her while their parents were around. He shoved himself or the front door and Stevie looked up, calling after him. It's as if he didn't hear her. She got up too, following after him despite her parents' pleas to stay inside.

"Lindsey, please!" she begged.

"You can't go, Stevie." he shouted, turning to face her.

She looked around. "Keep it down, you're making a scene."

"So what? I love you. Don't you love me?"

"Of course I do, but I have to do what they say. Do you really think I want to stay with my stuffy old aunt in Colorado?"

"No" he interjected.

"No, I don't"

"Run away with me. I know we'd be happy. We could be a family." he said. She could see the sincerity in his eyes and that's what scared her the most.
"No Lindsey....that's no possible. We wouldn't make it..."

"We could...." tears flowed down his cheek

"Honey, come back inside, both of you," Barbara called out to them from the house
"I can't go back in there, Stevie. My choices are letting you go to that doctor your dad knows or losing you when you go to Colorado."

"I don't like them either."

"Don't go. Your parents can homeschool you and we can raise the baby together."

"Lindsey...."

"Please" he begged, holding her face in his hands. She was crying just as hard as he was, both of them looking deep into each other's eyes.
"We will have to talk to them..."Stevie wiped at her eyes, sniffling softly

"I'll move to Colorado with you..."
"How? Your parents won't go for it and you have no money of your own to move anywhere."
"I could find a job somewhere...."

"Lindsey, please just come back in and let's talk this out."
"There's nothing to talk about. I want you and our baby." He tried to touch her stomach but she pushed his hands away.

"No one can know anything yet. It has to be a secret."

"Private?"

"Yes, private. Now let's go inside"
Lindsey followed her from a comfortable distance, returning to the house, "I'm moving to Colorado with Stevie...."
"You absolutely are not!" his mother protested.

"I have to. I want to be with her and if she can't stay, then I'm leaving too"

"You're sixteen! You have your whole life ahead of you. It's best we leave this little...mishap...in the past" Morris said, agreeing with his wife.
"I'm not just going to leave her to care for herself!" Lindsey yelled, he had never come out of his little quiet shell but now a new side of him was definitely showing through...

"She will be cared for by her aunt. When she has she baby then she can come back..." Barbara tried to explain to him.

"I-I can't let you make that decision." Lindsey shook his head, standing up and walking over to Stevie, "Stevie, what do you want to do?"

"I want to graduate...and go to college..." she couldn't look him in the eye as she knew that she had broken his heart

"W-what if I took the baby?" Lindsey asked
"You couldn't!" Jess, Stevie's father, said.

"My mother could help me. Couldn't you?" he asked innocently. "No one has to know. I will keep it a secret."
Everyone was now looking at Ruth, including Morris. For some reason, this seemed like a great idea. "All I want is to be able to spend time with Stevie while she's pregnant, to get to know the little thing."

Stevie smiled a little hearing the tenderness in his voice, her hands folded in her lap.

"Well?" Morris said. "We can take over financial responsibility once the child is born. She will not have to be the mother of the child, won't even have to see it if she chooses not to."

"What do you think, TeeDee bird?" her mother asked her gently.

"I...Can I think about it? I'm just..."

"Overwhelmed. It's the hormones." Her mother was still disappointed of course but knew her daughter needed comfort. All the yelling that had gone on was enough to do both of their heads in.

"Maybe we can reconvene in a few days." Morris offered and Jess nodded.

"Yes, when she's got a clear head about it."

"A few days?"

"I'm calling you in sick at school on Monday so you have all weekend to think."

"Okay" Stevie cast her eyes downward, not wanting to look at Lindsey. She was afraid he would be disappointed in her too.
Barbara wrapped her arm around Stevie's shoulder, leading her to shoe everyone out the door. Ruth gave her a small smile while all Morris could manage was a nod...then came Lindsey, dragging behind like a puppy. "Can I get you anything?" He asked quietly, she could tell that he was upset
"No..."

"Okay" he said, withdrawing. "I'm sorry"

"Lindsey...wait." she said but he didn't turn around or even notice she had spoke once again. She turned away from the door and went back to her room in tears.
Lindsey sat down with his parents at their dinner table that night, "So Lindsey, what do you plan on doing?"
"About what?" he said, picking at the food on his plate.

"The trouble that Stevie's in."

"I wish people would stop calling it trouble, there's no trouble."

"Lindsey, the implications..."

"I don't care about the implications" He stood up form the table.

"These outbursts of yours need to stop. I will not have you throwing your weight around acting like a big man because you got a girl pregnant" his father shouted.

"She's not just a girl. She's my girlfriend and I love her. And I love that baby too. I will take care of it and give it all the love I can."

"It's not that simple, Lindsey."

"Why not? Huh? I can get a job! I can drop out of school!" He stood his ground

"What future will you have with a baby? What are you doing? Do you know how to care for a baby?"

"Everyone is so against this baby! Why am I the only one who cares!?"
"We all care, Lindsey it's just..." Ruth began but she was cut off by Lindsey leaving. She didn't even move as she heard the front door slam.

He ran down the sidewalk, just wanting to escape for a while. After a few moments, he turned and ran the opposite way, knowing exactly where he should go.
Lindsey hid in the bushes beside Stevie's window, throwing pebbles at her window until she opened it. "Lindsey where are you?" She sniffled, seeing him pop out of the bush. "I need you," she cried
"You need me? I wanted you! I wanted us..." Lindsey said in a near shout. "You want all this to go away...you want to forget about me"
"I don't want to forget you! I love you!" Stevie cried, "I don't want to have a baby now...."
"But the baby is here...the baby is coming!" he told her and she backed away from the window a moment. He hung his head, thinking she had given up. Then he heard her voice.

"Come up here...or better, take me away, anywhere!"
"We'll go! Right now!" Lindsey climbed up to her window and into her room, "I'll take you wherever you want to go..."
"I'm scared, Lindsey" she sobbed and he held her in his arms as her body shook with tears.

"I know"

"Aren't you?" she sniffed and he shook his head.
"I really want them...." he said quietly, "I'll raise them myself, I swear that I will go get a job tomorrow."
"But we can't"

"You said you can't but I can."

"This baby is mine too" she said.

"Yeah, it is but you said you didn't want it, you couldn't have it and raise it..."

"I feel like I have no choice. I'm 17, I can't be a mother. I'm doing my best to keep my gpa up to get into the school I want."

"Then do that and let me handle the rest." Lindsey got up and moved toward the window again.

"I thought we were going somewhere" she asked, wiping her eyes.
"I don't think that I could love you anymore if you got rid of it..." Lindsey said seriously as he climbed out of the window
"I won't...I don't want to do that." she called after him. "Please don't leave me!"
"Why is no one agreeing to my solution? All you have to do is have the baby and I'll take care of the rest! Everyone is going around in circles!"
"I'm scared!" she wailed.

"You think I'm not? I'm losing the woman I love and the baby we created together out of love. We could get married, we could be a family...we could have it all!" he said, finding clarity in the chaos.
"Lindsey why can't you understand that I want a good future! If we got married all we would do is struggle!" Stevie cried

"I want you to have a good future...that's why you should give me the baby!"
"Fine!" she shouted, tears streaming down her face. "I'll tell my mother. I'll..." She wiped her cheeks with the sleeve of her night gown. "I'll have her call your mother and...and see what we can do."
"Thank you," Lindsey jumped down and sulked back to his house. He felt guilty for not being a comfort to her but Lindsey never thought that he would get the chance to be a father... he was not going to give that up