"Cassandra, your behavior is not acceptable." I exclaimed. "You shouldn't even be drinking, you are too young."
"Oh like you never at my age."
"Actually I didn't and want to know why I didn't."
"No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me."
"I didn't because I had more responsibility than you and made wiser choices."
Cassandra laughed. "So I'm dumb now?"
"Well you do make dumb choices."
"Oh, I make dumb choices? You're the one who got pregnant at 18. That doesn't sound wise to me if I say so myself."
"And you will also, maybe younger than I was, if you keep this attitude up."
"Keep what up, being a teenager? What's your excuse?"
"Cassandra Marilyn Walsh, don't talk back to me. I am your mother."
"Not a good one." She mumbled to herself.
"What did I do to get you as a daughter?" I murmured to myself. "If you live under my roof, you have to follow my rules and listen to me."
"Your roof, this is dads!"
"Cassandra, listen, you are living under our roof which means you need to follow our rules and listen to us. We are your parents and care deeply for you. We don't want you going downhill with your life like your Aunt Charlie did at your age. She was in a dark, dark place and then lost contact with her after she graduated from high school. I don't want you going there."
"Mom, I'm just 16!"
"Sweetie, you are at the beginning of your junior year of high school which is a very crucial year for you. You need to get your head out of your ass and actually try in school or you will have to go to chicken college. Your father and I will not always be fending for you, giving you everything you want and need. Do you even know what you want to be yet?" She shook her head. "Well what are your interests, what do you like doing?"
She shrugged. "I like fashion and music and shopping."
I smiled. "You're just like me then when I was your age, I mean minus all the bad behavior you've been doing lately. Honey listen, I will shorten your time of being grounded if you promise me you will stop misbehaving and focus more on school. Your father and I won't always be here and we want to make sure you and your siblings will be okay when we're gone. We love you guys."
"I'm sorry, mom…"
I gave my daughter a hug. "It's okay, honey. I love you regardless how you act and always will. It just makes feel as if I failed as a mother when you act like this."
"Mom, can I tell you something?"
"Of course, I'm your mother, you can tell me anything and I won't tell your father depending what it is."
"I mean… I… I don't think I can tell him."
"What did you do, honey?" I asked more concern because of the look she had on her face.
"Mom… I… I…" Cassandra paused. "I'm, uh… please don't get mad, I'm truly am sorry."
"Cassandra, sweetie, what did you do? You need to tell me so I can help you."
She started to cry and hugged onto me, leaning her head into my chest. "I'm pregnant." She murmured as she cried.
"What did you say?"
"I'm pregnant." She murmured.
"You're what?" I asked.
She sniffled and sat up. "I'm pregnant."
My heart paused when I heard those words come out of her mouth. No wonder why she's been so moody lately. I felt like crying myself but I held myself together.
"Mom, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen, it just did and…"
"These things never do mean to happen. Is it Troy's?"
She nodded. "I'm so sorry, mom. Can you please tell dad for me."
"No, we need to tell him together. When did you find out?"
"Like two weeks ago… I found one of your old pregnancy tests in your room and took it. I'm so sorry." She cried.
"Does Troy know yet?" She shook her head. "You need to tell him."
"I know but mom, I don't want to keep the baby. Can I abort it?"
"Honey, we will talk to your father about it. I'm just very disappointed in you. A child is a lot of responsibility and you barely have any for yourself."
"That's why I want an abortion. I'm still a child myself."
"Honey, your father and I are not for abortion maybe you can do adoption instead. But we will discuss it more later when he gets back from taking Braeden to San Diego."
"When is he coming back?"
"Later today."
A few hours later, as I cooked dinner, Spencer came home. He walked into the kitchen and gave me a kiss on my cheek.
"He's gone babe, let's celebrate."
I laughed. "I don't think we'll be celebrating tonight."
Spencer grabbed a couple of grapes out of the bowl I just washed. "Who died?"
"Nobody… yet."
"Babe, who you planning to kill?"
"It's not me, it's you I'm worried about killing someone."
"Teddy, do you know something I don't?"
"Sit down, Spence, and I'm gonna go get Cassandra."
A minute later, Cassandra came down and sat beside me. She kept looking down at her hands, not making any eye contact.
"Spence, please don't get mad and keep in mind what happened to us when we were around her age."
Spencer stared at us. "Teddy, what happened?"
"Cassandra's pregnant, Spencer."
"What!"
"Spencer, please don't get mad, and relax."
"Relax? Teddy our 16 year old daughter is pregnant! Cassandra, is it your boyfriends?"
"Yeah, dad, but…" Cassandra cried.
"You know what I'm gonna go do to him. I'm gonna go…" Spencer got up from where he sat but I grabbed his arm pulling him back down.
"Sit down!" I said firmly. "You are not going over to Troy's house. He doesn't even know and you will not be the one to tell him, Cassandra will."
"Teddy, how are you fine with her being pregnant?"
"I'm not fine with it, but I understand what she's going through, so should you. Remember I got pregnant with Brendan at 18."
"But she's still 16, at least we were adults."
"Cassandra, go up to your room." She nodded and ran up. "Spencer, 16 or not, she is pregnant and we have to deal with it. She wants an abortion but I don't think she should go through with it."
"Teddy, remember that time when Brendan was 15 and got his girlfriend pregnant? You encouraged abortion, why the change of heart with our daughter? You know I'm against abortion, Teddy, but she is only 16. She is too young to raise a baby."
"I never said she would have to raise it. There's something called adoption, Spencer. We could find a nice loving, couple to adopt it."
"I don't know, Teddy. How far along is she?"
"I don't know… I would have to take her to the OBGYN."
"Teddy, why did you have to ruin my night? I was so happy having Braeden gone and then you drop this on me."
"I'm sorry, this ruined my day also. I made her a doctor's appointment earlier today for next week and we'll find out how far she is and discuss it further more. Please don't let the other kids find out till we make a decision on abortion or not."
"If she's going to get an abortion, nobody needs to know."
"We'll see. Now I need to go finish dinner."
Brendan's POV
"So I signed us up for dance classes." Amanda said.
"Why?"
"For the wedding. We're going to do a choreographed dance for our first dance."
"Amanda, I am a good dancer unlike you. I can teach you and I can choreographed the dance."
"Yeah, no, I don't think so. I rather spend the extra money."
"Come here." I got up from where I sat and grabbed my fiancé's hands and started to dance with her. "Let's not spend the extra money so we can do this and this." I scooped her up into my arms and gave her a kiss.
"Hmm… you are very convincible."
"I gotta, I learned from the best."
"And who's the best?"
"My mother of course."
"Fine, you can do it. Now put me down." I gave her another kiss and placed her back down on her two feet. "Oh and before I forget, my parents wants us to have dinner with them one of these nights."
"Why?" I whined.
"I know you don't like my parents but they want to have dinner with us and it's just one dinner."
"It's not that I don't like them, it's just they don't like me."
"Well let's change that. Having my husband and parents to have a somewhat good relationship with each other is very important to me."
I nodded. "Alright…"
