John Meeks wasn’t familiar with compromise. A senior at Napa, he was a standout in football, basketball, and baseball, having lettered in each sport his sophomore year, and Division I schools wanted him for both football and baseball, dangling scholarship offers, but John had his eye on something greater. He didn’t want to go to college. He wanted to go pro right out of high school.
Lauren used to listen to him talk, awed and impressed by his vision for his future. He was going to be big, and he was going to make a lot of money, and nothing and no one would stand in his way.
She’d never dated anyone like John before.
In fact, when he’d first asked her to the winter formal the year before, she’d laughed nervously, thinking he was joking. Even as a junior, he was a big man on campus. Girls loved him. Guys wanted to be him. And Lauren couldn’t believe he would be interested in her.
He was, he insisted, telling her he loved that she was sweet and natural, thinking it cute she did all the aggie stuff like 4-H and Future Farmers of America. Then, once they were a couple, he immediately set about changing her.
Gone were her boots and Wranglers. Gone were the silver belt buckles she’d worn with everything. Gone were the long ponytails. John liked his girlfriend to be feminine, pretty, which meant that every morning Lauren fussed with her hair before school, and wore shoes that hurt her feet. It was a lot of work being John’s girlfriend, but it was also exciting.
People knew John, they followed him, keeping track of his stats and what he’d achieved in his last game—the points, the turnovers, the plays—and now they knew who she was, too.
And her parents, who weren’t easily impressed, liked John. A lot. He was tall, handsome, polite. A star.
A polite, charismatic star, he charmed the pants off his teachers, his coaches, even the school administration.
It wasn’t long before he charmed the pants off Lauren, too.
It actually took more effort on his part than he’d anticipated. Lauren was shy and conservative. But John was persistent. After spending all June and much of July trying to put brakes on John’s advances, she gave in one day late in July, and they made love for the first time in the tiny shed that reeked of the chlorine and chemicals the Meekses used for their pool.
They’d done it standing up, not the most comfortable position for a first time, but he’d gone down on her and made sure she was wet, and Lauren wouldn’t say it hurt badly. It just wasn’t fun. He kissed her after, assuring her it’d be better next time, and he was right. When they did it the next day, back in the hot, sweaty, chlorine-drenched shed, it was . . . okay. She didn’t come, but neither did she bleed. A definite plus.
For the rest of the summer, the pool house was “their spot.” It was set back from the house, and John even added a padlock to ensure they had privacy.
Lauren liked kissing, and got used to the sex, but sex was never the romantic thing romance novels and movies made it out be.
It was a relief when school finally started in September. Lauren loved John, but she was finding it tough studying and helping out on the ranch when she was always so tired.
The exhaustion became almost all-consuming. Lauren couldn’t stay awake. She started to doze off in class. She played hooky one day just to stay in bed and catch up on sleep.
“This isn’t normal,” her mom said, inspecting Lauren’s eyes, touching her face and then her forehead. “Good.”
“Why?”
“I wondered if you had mono.”
“Mono?”
“The kissing disease.”
But no, it wasn’t the kissing disease. It took a home pregnancy test to rule that out.
John didn’t take the news well.
He liked Lauren—she was a very pretty, sweet girl, a very pretty, sweet, accommodating girl—but he wasn’t about to settle down, and had absolutely zero interest in fatherhood.
His parents agreed with him. The Meekses offered to pay for the abortion.
Lauren’s parents told the Meekses to back off and let Lauren decide what she wanted to do.
The Meekses offered her some serious money if she’d end the pregnancy soon.
“John doesn’t need this distraction right now,” Mr. Meeks had said, appearing at the Summers’ house one October evening. “This has to be handled immediately.”
But Lauren couldn’t get an abortion, and after a week of sleepless nights, she announced she’d give the baby up for adoption instead.
Mr. Meeks worked with a prominent attorney who handled adoptions, and a couple was found for John and Lauren’s baby.
Everything went as planned.
Lauren attended school until Christmas break and was then homeschooled her second semester. She went into labor, a week and a half early, on April 25. After twenty-six hours of labor, the baby arrived, weighing six pounds eight ounces and measuring twenty inches long.