“I need YOU!” She cried out. “I need you and me to be real, not this secret little dirty affair. I want to tell people about you! I want people to know you’re the man I love, not my dad or something.”
I sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. “I’m trying, Christina.”
“Try harder,” Anna spat at me, and I turned and narrowed my eyes at her.
“You should both leave. Go back to school, go...do whatever you want.” I started to turn back to the house. “I’m through with this.”
“Wait.” It was Christina’s voice, and for a second, I paused, standing there in the rain with my back to her. “I- I need to tell you something else.”
I barked out a laugh. “I think I’m all set with anymore fucking surprises today, Chri-”
“I’m pregnant.”
And the world went still. It was like the Earth stopped spinning, and for a second, time itself just stopped. And right then, everything else dropped away. All the rest of it was just bullshit when I heard those words. All the other emotions dropped away, and the anger that’d been building like a brick wall inside of me came tumbling down.
Slowly, I turned back to see her shaking quietly, her arms hugging herself, with Anna’s standing beside her, hugging her tight. Five seconds ago, and see them like that would’ve enraged me. Seeing Anna like that with her would have felt like fucking betrayal and pain.
Only now, it was just...beautiful. It was touching, in a way, and suddenly I found myself letting it all out - all of it.
“You’re what?” I said quietly.
Christina started to crumble. “I- I’m sorry. You know I wasn’t on the pill, and we didn’t use-” She started to cry as Anna puller her to her, hugging her close and rubbing her back.
And suddenly, I was right there too, my arms around them both and my heart choking into my throat. “Let’s get the fuck inside, it’s pouring out here.”
Christina nodded silently as I pulled them both back to the front door, dragging us in from the pouring rain and slamming the door shut behind us.
We stood there, shivering in the semi-dark of my foyer, before I pulled her into me. “You’re seriously pregnant?”
She started to cry again, pushing her face into my chest. “I’m so fucking sorry, I know this is going to ruin-”
“Honey thats the best news I ever heard in my entire fucking life.”
She went still in my arms, and suddenly looked up at me. “What?”
And the grin I’d have never in a million years thought I’d feel again slowly started to creep across my face. “Baby, that’s...it’s-” I tightened my jaw, my eyes blazing into hers. “That’s everything I’ve always fucking wanted.”
She blinked. “You’re- you’re not mad?”
“Mad?!” I laughed, the feeling of warmth of having her in my arms again spreading through me like fire. “Fuck no! You’re carrying my baby!” And before she could say another word, I kissed her fiercely. I kissed her with everything I fucking had inside, holding her tight against me and letting her melt into me as she let out a chocked sob and then a laugh as she kissed me back.
“I should... I should go.”
I turned to see Anna standing quietly to the side, her face pale and her eyes looking everywhere but Christina and I.
“No way,” Christina said quickly, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the both of us. She took a deep breath. “I meant it, when I said it. She bit her lip, her eyes darting between Anna and I and looking so confused.
Anna started to cry. “I did too,” She said quietly. “ But you two are so...perfect, and I don’t fit into that.”
Christina pulled away from me and threw her arms around Anna, and again, the rage I would’ve felt before was just gone, because right there, it all made sense. Right there, I got it.
“You better fucking fit into it,” Christina said, hugging her friend fiercely. She turned and looked at me, her eyes wide and scared looking. “Tyler, I love you, so damn much,” She took a deep breath. “But-”
“But you love her too.”
Slowly, she nodded, and I got it. She couldn’t choose who she felt like that about, and I - the guy who’d fallen for the eighteen year old totally off limits girl from down the street - was the last fucking guy in the world to have anything bad to say about that.