Vanessa hadn’t wanted to go to school. By now everyone would know what she and Mark had done to the popular Maggie. They would know that Vanessa was pregnant and call her a slut, but her mom had forced her to get out of bed, brush her teeth and get ready for school.

‘You’ll have to face it sometime, might as well be today,’ her mom said. Steel ran through her mom’s body, she was sure of it. Vanessa would have to borrow from her strength to get through the next couple of months.

She walked to her locker and saw the word whore spray-painted across it. Well, that answered the question of whether Maggie had shared the news. She looked over toward Mark’s locker. Unmarred. That’d be fucking right.

People were staring. She felt their eyes, their judgment, hang heavy like it was a weight around her neck. She heard footsteps stop behind her. She prayed it wasn’t Maggie. She turned and came face to face with Felicity. A friend, a close one of hers and Maggie’s. They’d been friends since elementary school.

‘Well, if it isn’t the boyfriend-stealing little slut.’ Clearly now a former friend.

Vanessa took a stance. ‘I’m not talking about this with you, Felicity.’

‘Everyone knows what you did, you know. You’re that girl now. The kind of girl that steals her best friend’s boyfriend and then gets pregnant. That’s you, Vanessa. Good luck on making friends now, whore.’ Felicity banged into Vanessa’s shoulder forcefully as she walked past, knocking her into her locker. Vanessa breathed deeply. This was going to be a long day.

Vanessa and Mark were married straight after graduating high school. Vanessa was pretty close to having her baby and although she was excited about motherhood, Mark’s refusal to even look at her during their vows unnerved her. Only their parents were there to bear witness to their marriage. No friends cheered them on from the bench seats, there was no party afterwards. Nothing. Just a marriage covering up a dirty mistake – that’s what they all thought anyway. But not Vanessa. This baby was a gift and would be her hope, her future, her salvation.

They moved into a run-down little house that her parents put down the deposit and first month’s rent for as a wedding present. For the first time in her life, Vanessa fell asleep under a roof that was her very own.