"Cooper." Hal clears his throat and tries again. "Gertrude Cooper please. She's room -"
"She just went out," the voice on the other line answers. "I can leave her a message if you want. It's Friday. She'll be out late."
He bites his lip, trying to keep the tears at bay. He's done a good job so far. He looks out on the emptiness of Elm Street this time of night, half expecting to see Alice running down the street towards his house.
"You still there, kid?" the voice on the phone asks. Hal realizes he's been nodding instead of answering.
"Yes. A message. Please. Just tell her to give me a call back as soon as she gets home. I don't care what time it is."
"Uh huh." He hears the shuffle of paper and a pen scratching. "You want to tell me who you are? I know Gertrude doesn't have many gentleman callers, so to speak, but -"
"Brother." Hal cuts her off, wondering how he's lost all sense of phone etiquette over the past few minutes. "I'm her brother. Just tell her it's an emergency and to please call me back as soon as she gets this."
The pen stops scratching on the other side. "How old are you?"
Hal swallows the lump in his throat. He feels all of twelve years old tonight. "Almost eighteen."
"Okay, well Gertrude's almost eighteen-year-old little brother. Just remember this. I know whatever's going on right now probably seems like it's the end of the world, but trust me. At your age everything feels that way. Everything in high school sucks. Whatever kid made fun of you or girl broke your heart, just remember, it's not the end of the -"
He hangs up before his sister's floormate can finish doling out unsolicited advice from the other side of the country.
His sister is in college in Los Angeles, a three hour time difference from barely-on-the-map Riverdale.
Three hours ago, Hal's life had been normal. Not turned topsy-turvy with two simple words.
He pulls off the tie still hanging limply around his neck. His fingers itch towards the phone once more. Calling her crosses his mind. Maybe she's sitting in her homecoming dress (a shade of blue his mother insisted made her eyes shine) next to the phone, waiting for him to call and apologize. Maybe she's in bed crying, the very act that Hal was trying to prevent himself from doing.
Or maybe she's still fuming. Sitting on the floor of her bedroom, cutting his face out of every picture of the two of them together. His eyes drift to one of the newer ones of them in the frame next to his bed - them at the shore not two months ago with his family. Their arms wrapped around each other, laughing about something neither of them could even remember.
Had she known back then? Suspected something? Maybe skipping one period didn't alert her much, but a second should have raised a flag, shouldn't it?
Those two words burned into his head. Blurted out of Alice's mouth as mascara ran down her face.
I'm pregnant.
Hal tears off his homecoming suit (light grey with trims of blue to match Alice's dress) and changes into pajamas. Sleep doesn't come.
The cracks in the ceiling never change, no matter how much he stares. And sleep never comes, no matter how hard he tries.
It's almost midnight when he hears it. A car coming down Elm Street. A noisy muffler that was long past replacement. One that sounds suspiciously familiar.
He waits for the sound to pass. Surely it was just someone passing through their street on their way home. Maybe even a fellow classmate killing time before their curfew. Hermione lived right down the street. Was she throwing a post-homecoming party tonight or was there still too sour of a taste in her mouth after she lost the crown to Alice?
He shuts his eyes tight and prays for the noise to keep traveling the rest of the way down his street. To be nothing more than a false alarm. (Hah, if only this pregnancy had been a false alarm!)
The noise does stop, but in the wrong place. The engine clicks off. Someone visiting a neighbor, surely. Hal peeks one eye open and glances at the alarm clock next to his bed. Just shy of midnight. Wasn't this the exact time stuff like this always happened?
A car door slams shut. Hal closes his eyes again. A fantasy somewhere in the back of his head lets him imagine - just for a moment - that it was his sister home for a surprise visit. Here to help him fix whatever awful mess he'd gotten himself and Alice into.
A girl's soft protests come from outside. Instead of rushing to the window, he pulls a blanket over his head. Even Alice's dad wasn't crazy enough to -
Another car door slams. Clomping booted footsteps, followed by the click-clack of heels. Far too loud for the quiet suburban street.
He holds his breath and starts counting to thirty, his heartbeat speeding up with each number.
He only makes it to twelve.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Hal clutches his bed sheets with each hand. I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming, he tells himself.
If you're dreaming then wake the fuck up.
Two sets of feet go past his door. His mother's - fast and soft - and his father's - slower yet heavy footed.
Get up get up get up.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
"What on earth is going on?" His mother's voice travels throughout the entire house. "Alice? What's wrong? What's going on?"
Alice.
Hal springs out of bed and makes it as far as the top of the stairs when he freezes at the sight below him.
He sees right away that both his parents - Lewis and Prudence Cooper, respectfully - are scandalized by the state of their late night visitors. Rodger Smith in his leather jacket and boots, dragging Alice, still in her homecoming dress, through the door by her arm. Lewis finally regains his senses and closes the door behind them.
Prudence shakes her head slowly. "Alice, what is going on? What's happening?"
Alice just stares at the ground wordlessly. Hal stays frozen at the top of the stairs.
Rodger nudges Alice in a not so friendly way. "You were awfully gabby on the way over here. Cat got your tongue?" Even from upstairs, Hal sees her face turning red with anger as she fixates on a spot on the floor. "Girl, I know you're not deaf. Speak up."
"I told you not to do this," she hisses at her father. Her eyes quickly dart to Prudence with a look that screamed kick us out, tell us we're not welcome here.
"Well we're here and we're doing this." He grabs Alice's arm again and she walks forward before he can pull. "It seems my daughter here is in a spot of trouble." His voice drips with sarcasm. Hal could almost swear he was enjoying himself. How many drinks did he have before driving them over here? "A spot of trouble she claims your son has gotten her into."
Hal's heart beats so loudly, he has a hard time believing no one can hear it from downstairs. The voice in his head screams Go down there! Do something! Help her! but his hands are stuck, white knuckled to the bannister.
"Listen here," Lewis speaks up. He was a quiet man in the best of situations, but insulting his family was the one way to get him riled up. "My son does not get into trouble. My son does not get other people into trouble. He is a model student with aspirations far beyond anything you can imagine. With all due respect, your daughter has a record, so if anyone should be pointing fingers here as to who is getting who into -"
"Lewis!" Prudence grabs him by the forearm and pulls him back from where he was getting dangerously close to Rodger. At the very least, he let go of Alice in his stride towards the other man. Even though Lewis had several inches on him, Rodger still gave off the air of someone much larger than he was.
The jacket. It was always the jacket.
"We are all adults here," Prudence insists. She forces a smile at the intruders in her foyer. "That being said, I really can't imagine what couldn't wait until morning, Mr. Smith." She turns to Alice, keeping the plastic grin as large as it'll go. "Did you and Hal get into a fight tonight, dear? He hardly said a word when he came home. Went right to his room."
Rodger let out a hoot. "Oh, a fight is one way to put it." He turned to his daughter so all three adults were facing her. "Go ahead, Allie. Tell these folks about your, ahem, condition."
"Condition?" Prudence glances sideways at her husband, then back at Alice.
Alice's head finally rises. Her eyes travel up the stairs and she finally sees him. They're both crying now. Matching sets of tears from twenty feet away. He shakes his head at her - the only part of his body that isn't frozen - but she only glares.
"What kind of game are you playing here, Smith?" Hal can count on his hand how many times he's heard his father's voice go that cold. "Not only are disrupting our night, you're clearly distressing your own child by dragging her around town. Now," he took two steps towards the front door, "if you don't mind, I will have to ask you to leave and come back at a more reasonable hour."
Prudence finally notes Alice's stare and turns around. Her eyes widen at Hal at the top of the steps. He doesn't recall sitting down but he's somehow slid down to the top step.
"Harold!" He's Harold to his father. He's only Harold to his mother when she's upset with him. Even though her voice is steady and level, Hal can see the anger in her from eleven steps away. "Harold, why don't you come down here and help us clear this mess up so we can all go back to sleep?"
"Yes, Harold." Rodger's mouth breaks into a taunting smile and Hal is unpleasantly reminded of kids teasing him on the playground back in elementary school. "Why don't you come down here and deal with this like a man?"
Lewis makes one more movement towards the door, but Rodger blocks him. "If you so much as lay a hand on my son -"
Hal's eyes stay locked with Alice's as his mom gestures wildly for him to come down the stairs. He stands and takes them one at a time, delaying the inevitable.
Rodger's eyes bare into him, the corners of his mouth twisting into what can only be a smirk. "The only one who's been laying any hands around here is your son, Cooper. Surely you can see that."
"My son has never -"
"Lewis, calm down! Your heart!"
"Oh, I think your son gets up to a lot more than you give him credit for."
"I don't know what you're implying but -"
"Dad." Hal finally makes it to the bottom step, his voice croaking as he tries to speak. "Just let -"
"Harold." His dad turns to him and narrows his eyes. "Back to bed. This doesn't concern you."
"Oh, I think it concerns him very much!"
"Lewis, Mr. Smith. Lets just speak like reasonable adults."
"Does this man strike you as someone who's reasonable, Prudence?"
"Who do you think you're dealing with?"
The three adult's voices garble into one mess of yelling. Hal looks pleadingly to Alice, but there is no love behind her blue eyes now. Just disappoint. Betrayal. Pain.
Her mouth opens and Hal feels everything slow down. The voices all but stop. His mother has one arm on his father's chest and the other on Rodger Smith's arm as she tries to keep a safe distance between them. Hal takes one, two, three laborious steps off the staircase before the words come out of Alice's mouth. The same words she sprung on him hours earlier.
"I'm pregnant."
Her eyes close after the words come out, as if she's bracing herself. Whether for a strike or a scream, Hal isn't entirely sure.
He freezes in place. Prudence's head snaps so quick to look between him and Alice, he's not sure how it doesn't pop right off her neck. Rodger leers at him triumphantly. Lewis looks at Alice as if he's never seen her before.
Hal holds his breath until his mother finally breaks the silence.
"Is this a game?" Her question is directed at Alice. His girlfriend shakes her head, but her eyes don't open. His mother's voice comes through grit teeth. "Alice, I asked you a question."
"No!" Alice's voices comes out way too high. Her eyes pop open and the tears continue. "I went to the clinic and everything. I'm sure. I'm - I'm sixteen weeks along."
Prudence turns back to Hal, tears brimming over the sides of her eyes. Her lip quivers before the word spill from her mouth. "How?"
Rodger's booming laugh fills the room and all eyes turn to him. "How?" he asks, looking between the Coopers. "Well what do you think your son was slumming around with her for?" He juts his thumb towards Alice in such a casual way, one would never guess he was talking about his own daughter.
"My son is not the kind of boy who runs around with girls for," Lewis holds the words in his mouth before he spits them out, "for cheap thrills."
Rodger continues laughing. "Oh, is that so? Well can you think of another reason your son took such an interest in my daughter?" He turns to Alice and scoffs. "You want better for your kids, you always do. But they wind up being no more than disappointment in the end. The one thing I always told her - the one goddamn thing - was that if she was going to tramp it around town, better at least make sure she wasn't dumb about it. Guess when you don't make a guy wrap it up, they just keep coming back for more, huh?" Alice wraps her arms around herself as her father nudges her again. "Isn't that right, Allie?"
"Stop!" she says though grit teeth. Her eyes focus on the carpet running into the living room. "You're just making things worse."
Hal sneaks a look at his father. His face is drained of the red and he's turn a sickly pale shade. A part of Hal wants to reach out to him, hug him, but his father isn't the affectionate type. Never has been.
His mother finally breaks her gaze away from Alice and turns to him. The tears flow freely down her face. "Is it true?"
He looks to Alice, but she keeps her eyes on the ground. He locks eyes with his mother and nods slowly. In an instant, she goes from upset to furious. She raises her arm but quickly brings it back down, clenching both her hands into fists.
"I trusted you, Harold." He opens his mouth to respond but one more look at her shuts him up. "I trusted you and you lied to me. You lied to your own mother. How," she rests both her hands on her hips, "how could this have happened? I want to ask if it was an isolated incident but I feel I already know the answer to that one, don't I?" She closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Well? How long?"
He's not sure if she wants an answer or she's just thinking aloud. She turns to Alice and raises her eyebrow.
Alice's eyes widen at being addressed. "How - how long have we been -" Prudence nods curtly so Alice won't say the word. Bad enough the word pregnant has already been said. Muttering the word sex in front of all those family portraits would be pure blasphemy. Alice shrugs, mouth gaping. "I don't remember exactly. Maybe a month? Two months?"
"If it has only been a month or two ago how can you already be," she swallows hard, "sixteen weeks along?"
As Alice shakes her head, one of the clips holding her curls back behind her ear comes loose. The motion gives her a sad sort of beauty that makes Hal's chest ache. "No, no, no. I mean a month or two after - after we started dating," she corrects.
Prudence's eyes stay on Alice, but she speaks to Hal. "So over a year, huh?" She raises a hand to her head and slowly massages her temple. Hal can hear her keeping her words under control. "Year and a half nearly. So the time I found - that I found contraceptives in your room, those weren't just something Hiram gave you 'just in case' like you said?"
Hal shakes his head, his eyes looking to his slippered feet.
"Harold," she hisses. "I am speaking to you."
"No, ma'am. They were - I brought them." His voice cracks and it's only then his father finally turns to them, breaking his stare with Alice.
"You found what, Prudence?" he asks. His mother jumps, as if she forgot the two men were in the room with them. She looks to her husband and then to Rodger and lets out a shaky breath.
"I found, well I found a box of - of condoms in Hal's room a few months ago." She dares a glance at Hal when she says it. "It wasn't open and he swore up and down to me that -"
His voice is so low that it scares Hal in an entirely different way. "You didn't find that important enough to tell me? Have our children been up to other things you've hid from me as well?"
Her face goes stoney. "Lewis, this is neither the time nor the place to have this discussion. The point is I thought I could trust our son." She points at Hal without looking at him. "I didn't think we were raising a liar under our roof."
Rodger chuckles and both of his parents snap their necks towards him. "Well, you are I guess. And as much as I love standing here and listening to you folks squabbling behind the safety of that thick wooden door so the rest of the neighborhood can't hear," he takes a step forward and claps each of the Cooper parents on the shoulder, "I think we have bigger fish to fry."
Lewis looks in anger at Rodger's hands on them. "Perhaps my son has had - relations with your daughter, but that doesn't mean that he is the one who," he swallows, "who put your daughter in a family way."
Rodger lets go of Prudence and fixes his eye solely on Lewis. Hal feels a lump rise to his throat, like he should get between them, but he can't move. Alice's eyes widen to twice their normal size as she looks on in fear. The corners of Rodger's lips curl into a cruel smile.
"Cooper," he says softly. "Believe me, my daughter is a lot of things I don't like. Lot of bad habits she's picked up from god knows smokes, drinks, stays out all night. But one thing she is not and never has been is a liar." His arm snakes it's way around Lewis' neck and he turns the man to face Alice. "Now Allie. Tell us who got you pregnant." He holds a finger up before she can speak. "And remember. No lying."
Her voice is hardy a whisper. "Hal."
"Speak up."
"Hal," she says a little louder, finally turning her chin up all the way.
"You sure?" Rodger asks.
She looks Hal dead in the eyes and a fresh wave of tears come to him. "Positive."
"Positive," Rodger repeats, stretching out each syllable. He turns Lewis away from Alice and looks him in the eye. "So Cooper. What are we going to do to take care of this little problem?"
The color finally rises to Lewis' cheeks. A deep shade of red that clashes horribly with his strawberry blonde hair. "If you're implying that this is somehow our responsibility -"
"But it is," Prudence interrupts. "If he was really the one who -"
"Harold." His father looks at him. Eyes him up and down and he feels like he's five with his hand caught in the cookie jar. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
He meets Alice's eyes, the scowl on her face deepening with each passing moment. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Prudence lets out a harsh laugh. "You're sorry? And what exactly will sorry do now?" She turns to Alice. "And you? Do you have anything to say?"
Alice's mouth opens and closes before the words come out. Another blurt and she looks like she regrets saying it as soon as it's out. "Hal said I should have an abortion."
Prudence's face screws up. "He'd never."
"He did," Alice says softly. "But I'm not doing it. I don't - I don't want that."
"If you think," Rodger starts, "I am having any part raising this bastard child of yours , Allie -"
Lewis' voice raises. "And if you think we're -"
"Stop!" Prudence's shouts loud enough that the Reyes' down the street can probably hear. She steps back between Lewis and Rodger, her voice much calmer than a moment ago. "I know of a place where they take care of these things."
"I'm not having an abortion!" Alice looks around at the adults hysterically. "I'm having this baby."
"They take care of girls in your condition, Alice." Prudence says the words slowly, as if she was speaking to a small child. "Unwed teenage mothers." She lets out another harsh laugh. "Unless you two think you want to get married. Is that it?" She looks over her shoulder at Hal, not daring to step away from her spot separating the two men. "Shotgun wedding and start a family before you even graduate. You think no one will suspect a thing?"
"I don't care what anyone thinks!" Alice wraps her arms back around herself. Hal can see her shivering in her sleeveless dress but he knows any touch he tries will be met with a smack. "And I definitely don't want to marry your stupid son who doesn't want me or this baby!"
Prudence's face goes blank for a second. She shakes her head softly. "My stupid son is 17-years-old, Alice. Just like you. And as far as I'm concerned, you're just as stupid as he is. You are a child, Alice. Not a mother."
Alice's face stays stoney, but fresh tears glaze her eyes again. Hal finally goes to her and wraps her arms around her. Her bare skin is cool to the touch. She doesn't shove him off, but she doesn't hug him back either.
"And what exactly do they do at this place?" Rodger finally asks. His voice is slow, steady, as if the reality of his daughter's situation is finally settling in on him.
"She stays there until she - she gives birth. And then they arrange for a private adoption."
"Give him up?" Alice asks. She looks towards the ceiling to stop the tears from flowing. Hal hugs her tighter.
"Give the baby a family who can actually take care of him," Prudence says simply. "Yes."
Lewis eyes her suspiciously. "How do you know about this place?"
"Mrs. Johanson from church. She suggested once that we send Gertrude there. They," she sighs, "they do other things there too. Therapy for - for other conditions people think they can fix in their children."
Alice let out a hoot through her tears. "Oh, nice. They try to fix gay kids there too. This place sounds like a real vacation."
"Young lady, this isn't supposed to be anything short of a punishment."
She nods shortly at his mom and a heavy silence fills the room. Alice finally slips an arm around Hal and hugs him back half heartedly. It's as loveless as the way one might hug someone else's stuffed animal just because it's there.
Rodger finally breaks the silence with a cough. "And I suppose you folks will be the ones footing the bill for this? Since, you know, it was your son and all who participated in this mess?"
Phone calls are made. Coffee is poured. She sits next to her boyfriend on the plush white couch and feels like some fucked up Norman Rockwell painting, still wearing her homecoming dress. If only she hadn't left her crown in the Dodge, then she'd really look like something.
Their hands are held loosely in the middle of the sofa, but it's more by habit than anything. They don't speak. When her father leaves, she doesn't rise. He awkwardly plants a whiskered kiss on her cheek and tells her she's staying here tonight. She can smell the Cooper's good scotch on his breath. As if he needed another drink.
Lewis is still on the phone in the kitchen when Prudence comes to send them to bed.
"I'll find you something to wear from Gertrude's closet," she says. When they arrive at the bedrooms upstairs, she plants a finger to Hal's chest. "You stay in your room. Alice needs to sleep tonight."
"Mom, please?" Hal pleads softly. He still looks on the brink of tears and Alice wants to kick him and tell him to cut it out. He's not the one who's pregnant. He's not the one who has to go away. He's just the idiot who didn't know how to pull out of her quick enough and landed them both in his big mess.
Prudence's face is unreadable. She looks like she's aged twenty years over the past hour. "Please what?"
"We're already at worst case scenario." He takes Alice's hand in his. "What harm is there in us sleeping in the same room?"
"I have never been more disappointed in my life, Harold." She takes Alice by arm as she opens Gertrude's room. "It's going to be a very long time before you get any favors out of me again." She closes the door on Hal and lets go of Alice immediately.
Alice takes one look around the room, half empty since Gertrude left for school. Prudence starts rifling through a drawer and Alice takes one deep breath and sits on the edge of the bed. Her heels had long since been discarded somewhere in the Cooper's parlor.
"They'll be a little long on you, but they'll fit." Alice doesn't take the pajamas Prudence holds out to her. Instead she takes the older woman's hand before she can protest and presses it to her stomach. Still flat, but rounding off ever so slightly.
Prudence gasps and drops the clothes to the bed, but she doesn't pull her hand away. Her face is awestruck as she stares down at Alice's abdomen.
"I know you don't want to hear it, Mrs. Cooper, but this is your grandchild in here. Part me and part Hal. We're stupid. I know we're stupid. We were careless and we got ourselves into this mess with nobody to blame but ourselves. But," she gulps, "but no one asked me what I want to do down there, okay? I don't want to have an abortion and I don't want to give this baby away. I want to do this, with or without your son and with or without you. I know - I know it won't be easy. I'm afraid. And I know Hal is terrified. But if we just - just try, you know?"
Her eyes brim with tears once again. Prudence's eyes, softer than they'd been all night, travel to Alice's face. In a second, she snatches her hand away and her entire expression changes.
"I do not care what you want, Alice. This is what's happening." She lets out a quick laugh and Alice can hardly believe this is the same woman from a moment ago. "You want to control your own life? Keep your legs shut and your mouth zipped. Easiest way for a girl like you to keep out of trouble." In a few short strides she makes her away to the door, turning to look at her just before she opens it. "You are not a mother, Alice. You are a child who did something foolish and needs to pay the consequences. My son too." She shakes her head. "I liked you, you know. I know you don't believe that, but I really did. Pity how this played out. But a few months apart will do you good."
"A few months apart?" Alice jumps off the bed. "How far is this place? Hal can't come visit me?"
"No." With a click, she closes the door. Alice waits for sleep to come, but it never does.
The fighting does come though. She hears the Coopers shouting from downstairs and lets the door creak open a sliver to hear better.
"You knew! All this time and you -"
"I didn't know anything, Lewis! He gave me his word and I took it!"
"I am his father! When something happens I should know!"
Prudence's fake laughter fills the whole house. "How about you act like it every once and awhile then!"
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"No teenage boy wants to talk to his mother about," her voice drops but Alice can still hear her, "about sex. That's what a father is for."
"I have talked to our son plenty about -"
"But you haven't! Telling him not to is not having a frank discussion!"
"And I suppose you and Gertrude have had plenty of talks about these things?"
"You know perfectly well it's different with her! We never had to worry about her getting," her voice drops again, "pregnant."
Alice hikes the too long pajamas up and lies back down in bed. Her hand idly travels to her belly and she rubs it.
"I'm sorry," she whispers to it. "I'm so sorry."
A creak comes from outside the door and she shuts her eyes quickly, figuring it's Prudence back to check on her. The footsteps are too heavy and when she opens her eyes, Hal is padding his way across the carpet. He holds out a Walkman to her.
"It helps drown them out," he says. He pauses before sitting on the bed and placing it between them. "I - do you mind? If I stay in here with you?"
"Yes, I do mind." Her words cut him. "I just don't want to get in any more trouble than we're already in."
Hal presses his lips together. "Right, right. So I'll just - I'll go back to my room." She nods and Hal stands up. "I don't know what to say. I wish I knew how to make this better. How to - how to fix this."
"Go back four months and stick a fucking condom in your wallet."
He nods slowly. "I deserve that."
"Or maybe when you say you'll just pull out, you don't take your goddamn time doing it."
He closes his eyes. "You're right. I'll just - I'm going to leave you alone."
"Wait." She sighs and pats the bed for him to sit down. "It's both our faults. It's not right for me to put this all on you."
"I could have - could have taken more precautions."
"We both could have." She takes his hand. "Five months is a long time, okay? But maybe - maybe it'll be good for us."
His free hand goes to her face. "Can we just talk about this?"
"No. Everyone did enough talking for us tonight." She gulps. "Go back to your room, okay?"
He pauses in the doorway. "I love you, Alice." She turns over to face the wall. After a few moments, he sighs and closes the door.
"I love you too, Hal," she whispers at nothing. "I love you too."
Sleep doesn't come for either of them. At 6 am a tired church van rolls down Elm Street to pick up the newest resident of the Sister's of Quiet Mercy.