CHAPTER TWO

October 30th

10 weeks

Cat paced back and forth, worry filling her with every second that passed. Today was the day she was telling Robbie about the baby. Today was the day their lives changed forever. Today was the first day of the rest of their lives.

As she heard a knock on her bedroom door, she gasped and froze, unsure of what to do. "Um... come in," she said.

The door opened and Robbie stepped in. "Hey," he said. "What's up?"

"Close the door."

"But... your mom..."

"She knows what this is about. Close the door."

"Okay..." Robbie shut the door and put his hands in his pocket. "So..."

"We have a problem."

"What?"

"It's huge, Robbie, it's gigantic - like one of those big dinosaurs with the long necks."

"That's pretty large..."

"I know!"

"Well then, what is it?"

Cat sighed, running her hands over her face. "Okay... um. Remember at my sister's party? We came up here. We... played Pirates."

"Sex."

"Shh, don't call it that!"

"Fine, Pirates. What about it?"

"Remember how you said you pulled out?"

"Yeah."

"You missed."

"What?"

Cat bit her lip and she walked to her bed, sitting down and patting the spot in front of her for him to take a seat as she got into her nightstand drawer. As Robbie sat down, the redhead pulled out the ultrasound picture she'd been given last week and handed it to him.

"What is this?" Robbie asked. "Kinda looks like a baby alien."

"That's our baby alien."

"What?"

"Robbie."

Robbie looked at her.

"I'm pregnant," she whispered.

Robbie stared her her for a few seconds before looking at the picture again. "...Oh my god, Cat..."

Cat's eyes filled with tears. "I - I'm as confused as you are, but my mom made a really good point about the pull out method not being reliable..."

"I don't... I don't know what to do... I don't know how to take care of a baby, Cat. I'm seventeen years old. You're only sixteen. Oh my god..."

"Please don't be upset with me..." Cat begged.

"I'm not!" Robbie defended. "I'm not, I'm... I'm upset with myself, I'm the one that got you into this mess."

"We both had sex, Robbie..."

"I thought you liked calling it Pirates."

Cat shrugged. "That's when I was more immature."

"That was forty-five seconds ago."

They stayed silent for a while. Robbie stared at the ultrasound and Cat stared at Robbie. That was until she broke the silence by jumping up from her bed and rushing into her add-on bathroom, only to kneel in front of the toilet and start vomiting. Robbie laid the picture on the bed and rushed in after her, holding her hair back. It took a few minutes for her stomach to settle, but when she was finished getting sick, Robbie flushed the toilet and helped her stand up and walked her to the sink so she could rinse out her mouth and brush her teeth. She took twice as long to brush her teeth and tongue than she normally did in the mornings. Once she was done, Robbie walked with her back into the bedroom and they took their previous places, Robbie looking at Cat, and Cat leaning against her headboard with her hand on her stomach.

"...Are you gonna leave me?" Cat asked.

"What? Why would you ask me that?" Robbie asked. "I'm not going to leave you."

"We're kids... having a kid. Most guys would run off."

"Those guys are cowards. The guys that run off can't even remember to count to three."

Cat's brows furrowed. "I forget three sometimes..." she muttered, messing with the strings on her hoodie.

November 2nd

"Sikowitz!" Cat shrieked as she dodged a ball.

"Yes," Sikowitz said.

"Stop throwing balls at my face! My cheek still hurts from last time," she said, sitting in her seat.

"Stop being late to my class."

"I had to use the bathroom, it was an emergency. I thought I was gonna faint, then I thought I was gonna puke, then I though maybe I was gonna fuke, but it turns out I just had a burp bubble."

"That's a really interesting story, Cat," Jade said, leaning forward with her scissors in hand. "If you don't stop telling it, I'm cutting off all of your hair."

"It'll grow back," she muttered.

Jade picked up a piece of Cat's hair.

"No!" Cat shrieked, slapping the goth's hand away.

"Smart talk me again and I'll shave it," Jade said, putting her scissors in her boot.

Cat's hands went straight to her hair, a worried expression upon her face. Tori sighed and turned around to face Jade.

"Do you have to torture her?" Tori asked.

"It's my job," Jade said. "And she's driving me nuts."

"Then ignore her."

"We all know you can't just 'ignore' Cat. She's just there."

"I'm sitting right here," Cat muttered, crossing her arms.

The bell rang and Sikowitz threw his hands up. "Fantastic, everyone get out of my class right now, go on, get out."

The class grabbed their things and exited, Cat and Tori walking slowly together.

Cat sighed, tucking her hair behind her ears as they exited the building and Tori couldn't help but put her hand on the smaller girl's shoulder.

"Cat, what's wrong?" Tori asked. "You're out of it."

"She's always out of it," Jade said as she walked past them.

"You don't have to talk down to her like that."

"Oh, come on, I always talk to her like this."

"And it clearly bothers her," Tori said, gesturing to Cat, who now had tears in her eyes as she stared at the ground.

"Oh for Christ's sake... Cat," Jade said, placing her hands on her shoulders. "Stop getting so emotional."

"I can't help it!" Cat whined. "It's not my fault..."

"What's going on? Is everything alright at home?" Tori asked.

"I don't know..."

"Cat... is someone hurting you?"

"No. It's not like that."

"Did your brother hit you in the head with a hammer again?" Jade asked.

"No..."

Jade sighed and she grabbed Cat's hand, leading her off of school property with Tori in tow.

"Jade!" Tori said. "We cannot leave school, we have three classes left."

"We're dealing with this right now. Cat's more important than school."

Tori knew education was important, but if she'd said that she knew it would have hurt Cat's feelings, and the poor girl already had enough emotional issues, she didn't need to be the reason for more.

They finally stopped walking once they got to the park and Jade crossed her arms, looking at Cat.

"Talk," Jade said.

"Jadey..." Cat said.

"Jade, she might not be ready to talk about whatever this is," Tori said. "You can't force her."

"Watch me," Jade said. "Caterina Hannah Valentine, if you don't start talking right this second I'll cut your tongue out and you'll never be able to talk again."

"Jade!"

"I'm pregnant," Cat blurted out.

This made the other two girls stare at her.

"What?" Tori asked.

"I... I'm pregnant," Cat repeated.

"Oh my go... Cat..."

"Did you forget to take your special vitamins today?" Jade asked.

"Jade."

"What? She's obviously not telling the truth, this is just one of her stories."

"I'm not telling stories," Cat sniffled, digging through her backpack before pulling out her ultrasound. "I'm pregnant."

Tori took the picture and stared at it for a few seconds. "Oh, Cat..." she whispered, pulling the redhead into a hug.

Jade took the picture from Tori and looked at it, studying it for a moment. "Cat... who did this to you?" she asked.

"Nobody did it to me," Cat said.

"They had to have. You don't have sex."

"I've had sex before," she said as Tori pulled away from the hug. "Sophomore party."

"That was two years ago Caterina, don't be stupid."

"I'm not! Nobody did anything to me. Robbie and I had sex, Jade, that's how it happens."

"Puppet boy did this?"

"We both did this," Cat said, taking the picture from Jade and putting it in her backpack. "This isn't just one person's fault, it's mine and his."

"Why didn't you use protection?" Tori asked.

"...He pulled out."

"Apparently not," Jade said. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you having sex in the first place? You're Cat, you don't do that stuff, and you damn sure don't call it sex, just last week you said Pirates was 'icky'."

"That was before I found out I'm gonna be a mom..."

"You're not seriously thinking about keeping it."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because you're a child? A space headed child at that. Cat, you don't even know how to use a microwave half the time."

"Stop being mean to her," Tori said.

"I wasn't being mean, I'm serious. She forgets how to use the microwave. Daily."

"I do," Cat said. "I forget what buttons to push."

"If you forget how to use the microwave, how are you going to remember to feed a baby, or change a baby's diaper, or give it a bath?"

"I'll figure it out, Jade. I'm not gonna negligee my baby."

Tori looked at Cat. "Negligee?"

"Neglect," Jade said. "The word is 'neglect'. You don't even know simple words half the time, and you're having a fucking baby. That's fan-fucking-tastic."

"Jade, she's gonna be fine. Putting negative thoughts in her head isn't going to help."

"You're my best friend, Kitten. But what you're doing is stupid. You're being stupid," Jade said before walking off, leaving Tori to comfort a crying Cat.