Chapter One
I made the biggest mistake of my life dumping Ginger Foutley. And it took me awhile to realize it. By then I was too late, or so I thought. After her mom's wedding, Ginger moved into the new home, and even though we didn't talk just knowing she was in the house next door was comforting. But when she moved it really was a lot different. Simone must have known something was up, and after the wedding seeing Ginger with her boyfriend Orion really hit me. I should have manned up to tell her how I felt, but I couldn't. So I put the thoughts of Ginger out of my head. Well I tried to anyway.
It had been a month since the wedding, and surprisingly Ginger and I were on good terms. Well not really friends, I couldn't blame her when she said she couldn't be friends with me but at least we were civil. We said hi to each other in the halls, but we never hung out outside of school, mainly because of Simone.
I was standing at my locker when Simone walked up to me wearing my letterman's jacket. "Hey babe, we still have plans for tonight?" she asked blinking her eyelashes at me.
"Yeah dinner and a movie" I replied smiling and closing my locker closed.
She walked away with the rest of the pep squad behind her and I shook my head to myself.
High school had changed me, and I was starting to miss the old dorky me, not the head gear of course, but the me who didn't need to find acceptance with the rest of the football team and his cheerleader girlfriend.
After school Simone was really distant we rode in my car and she barely spoke, just talking about the pep squad. We rode in silence to the theater and when she had not said anything for ten minutes I knew something was wrong. Simone was the kind of girl who never shut up. She always had something to say, most of it was boring and didn't really mean anything but I knew that when she wasn't speaking she was lost in thought, serious thought. That was very rare for Simone.
"Simone, what's bothering you?" I finally asked as we waited in line to buy tickets.
She shook her head and lowered her head and then she pressed her hands to her face. "Can we please go?" she asked. "I have to talk to you in private."
So we went into my car and she began to sob. I really didn't know what to do so I just sat there until she was ready to talk.
Finally she wiped her eyes, "I have bad news Darren, really bad."
Thoughts raced through my head, Simone having cancer, her moving away, and others worse even. "Okay, just tell me,"
She took a deep breath and said quickly, "I'm pregnant!" before breaking into sobs.
I sat there for a few minutes taking in this news. We hadn't had sex, just fooled around a little but so I was confused as to how this happen. I learned how later on.
When she was done crying I reached over the seat to hold her. I had no idea what to say besides, 'it's going to be ok' and 'we'll figure something out'.
These five minutes changed the course of my life forever.