CONVICTED
Chapter Fifteen
I didn’t know how to feel. I was
going to have a baby. Jack ran a hand through his hair. He seemed to be
thinking over his options.
"Oh, shit," he finally
said.
"Jack…I…I don’t know what to
do!" I nearly screamed.
He sat down and put a comforting
arm around me.
"Hey. Hey, it’s okay. Maybe
this isn’t such a bad thing."
I wiped a tear from my cheek and
looked at him.
"It’s not?"
"No. Think about it for a
second. Now, we are going to be expecting a child of our own to look after, and
sure, it’s a big responsibility, but I’m not going anywhere. Sure, we’re not
married, but marriage causes problems."
I nodded my head in agreement and
ripped up the paper.
"Now, let’s see what we can
do about this, okay?"
I wasn’t sure what he meant, but
I soon found out. Jack tried to get himself a job, which I found rather odd.
But he insisted that we would keep the baby and get ourselves a home.
When he was about to give up, a
man noticed his drawings and offered to buy them. Jack made sure this guy
wasn’t a crook before agreeing to sell.
From that moment forward, Jack
earned money for the portraits he did and we soon bought a small house. It was
nothing fancy, but it was something.
After four weeks, I began to
wonder if this was still a good idea. I could always give my baby up for
adoption, and that was what haunted my every dream.
"Jack, are you sure this is
a good idea? I mean, look what’s happening to us," I asked him one day
when he came back from the store.
"What do you mean?"
"You used to draw for the
hell of it, or because of how you felt or saw somebody. Now you do it to earn
money to provide for me and a baby. We could still be living outside, having a
blast, but instead you’re working your ass off," I vented.
"You’re the most important
thing to me, and this baby will be, too. But if you’re not comfortable with the
changes, we can put this baby up for adoption."
I put my head in my hands and
started to cry.
"I…I don’t know what to do.
This was all just so sudden!" I sobbed.
"Listen, I don’t care what
we have to do. We will make this work, okay?"
"Okay, Jack. Okay."