“Have you told anybody?” he said.

“No. Who am I going to tell? My family? You know what they’d say. ‘We told you so.’”

The words stung, but they were the truth. It was one of the things that had drawn them together, her family’s dislike of him. He nodded and the pain shot up his neck again and he rubbed it. He waited for the courage to speak.

“You know, you don’t have to go through this. You could take care of it.”

Her head didn’t move. Finally she said, “You think I don’t know that?”

He swallowed hard. “I called a clinic today. There’s one close to Indy. Nobody would know you there. I could drive you.”

She turned and glared at him.

“Melissa, it’s not fair to have a kid right now.”

“Fair for who?”

“For you. For either of us.”

She touched her stomach. “And what about the baby?”

He thought a moment. “It’s not fair for the kid either. What kind of chance is it going to have? Right now’s not the time to start a family. We need more time. Get our feet under us.”

He stood and sat beside her, the cushions sinking lower. Then he put his arm around her shoulders and she didn’t move away.

“One day you’re going to have kids. And you’re going to be a great mom.”

Melissa looked at him and there was a tremble in her voice when she said, “I’m scared, Brian.”

“It’s going to be okay.”

“You promise?”

“I promise. We’ll get this done and make a new start.”

“And you’ll go with me?”

“Of course. I said I would. I’m here for the long haul.”

“I’ve got some money coming for graduation, I think.”

“That’s great. See, things are coming together. You’ll see. It’s going to work out. It’ll be like it never happened.”

“Like it never happened.”

Those words echoed inside Melissa’s head the next morning as she knelt in the bathroom, her stomach clenching. She wondered if all pregnant women went through this same nausea. Had her mother gone through this with her?

She felt so tired and alone—and yet she wasn’t alone. Brian was there for her and he seemed to care. But was he right? Would she be able to simply move past this and forget it? Would it feel like it never happened?

At a school health fair, she’d picked up a clinic brochure. She’d almost tossed it away. She would never need an abortion. Other people had those. But she read that the “procedure” (the flyer always used a different word than abortion for some reason) was safe and painless. The unplanned pregnancy was not something that needed to put your life on hold. There was a safe way to get on with your life and empower yourself.