Chapter 4: Because I love her
In the kitchen, Tea grinned. As I thought…
Duke sighed and walked to the lounge, but was grabbed by Joey before he could reach it by himself.
"YOU SON OF A FUCKING BITCH!"
"Mate, wait, lemme –"
"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MY LITTLE SISTER?!!"
"Joey, STOP! That's not his fault, leave him alone!"
Serenity's voice stopped his violence. He released Duke, but still looked extremely mad. Joey pointed Duke.
"Don't you have any idea 'bout what you've done?"
He turned to Serenity:
"And the same goes for you! We begged for MONTHS, Serenity! We begged, cried, we almost kneeled in front of our parents so that you could move to Domino! Do you have any idea 'bout what mom's gonna do when you tell her? She'll take you back!"
"I won't let her! Look, I know how hard it was for us to convince our parents, I know everything you did so I could stay here with you! B-but it's an accident and we intend to take our responsibility!"
"Wait, you're kiddin' me, right? You can't possibly think…"
"Yes we do and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"What do you mean, 'we'? This guy is outta your life right fuckin' now! And I'll make SURE he is, trust me!"
"Joey!" Tea said.
Serenity left and slammed the door behind her. Duke immediately ran after her, without even looking back at Joey.
"Oh, great. Good job, Joey. I expected you to have a bad reaction, but…"
"What? Tea, you KNEW?"
He looked at every of his friends.
"Did everyone but me know it or what?"
Tristan and Yugi shook their heads.
"I was the only one", Tea replied. "She told me this afternoon. Your reaction was the thing she feared the most, and now I see she was right. I hate to say that, but you just acted like a perfect bastard."
"What, am I supposed to be happy about that?! SHE'S FIFTEEN!"
"No, Joey, no one said you had to be happy", Tristan said with a very calm voice. "But as her big brother, your duty is to protect and support her. And your reaction definitely didn't help her."
"Yeah, right, I gotta protect my sister! And I freaking failed! I said she could date Duke and SEE! See what happened! I can't let my little sister spoil her life 'cause she had a kid at fifteen!"
"Dude… it's her life."
Tristan walked a bit towards Joey.
"You know how much it pains me to see her with Duke, how much it pains me to imagine that they… did what you have to do to get pregnant. I am deeply in love with Serenity and to imagine her in Duke's arms, it just makes me sick. But because I love her…"
Tristan deeply breathed in.
"Because I love her, I want her to be happy. And if having this kid with Duke makes her happy, so be it. If you really care about her, that's what you should think too."
His hands in his jean's pockets, he left the apartment.
"Serenity! Serenity, wait for me! Honey…"
Duke finally reached her and grabbed her arm.
"Sweetie, don't cry…"
"Y-you heard him? He thinks I'm a –"
"He doesn't think anything like that. He's just shocked. He can't even see us kissing without complaining. He doesn't want to admit that you're growing up and he's gonna learn it the hard way if we actually have this baby. So give him some time, will you?"
"I've disappointed him…"
"Well… I guess you just… surprised him. A lot."
"No, you don't get it… Joey already worked part-time because of… because of our father, and he had to get another job so our father accepted to let me live here too… so I… I'm spoiling everything because he thinks mom's gonna take me back…"
"But she's not! You told it yourself… here, I'll bring you back home with me tonight. You need to sleep."
Serenity slowly nodded and followed him to his blue car. When they stepped in Duke's lounge, his father raised an eyebrow and smiled at them.
"Quite a long ride, uh? Where have you been?"
"Oh, nowhere in particular, we… we just had fun."
"Yes, I'm sure you did. Is she staying here tonight?"
"Yes, if you don't mind."
"It's fine with me, son, you know me. I can't say no to such a pretty young lady."
Serenity sat on Duke's bed as he closed the door behind them.
"What a day", she sighed.
"Yeah… but, Serenity?"
"Yes?"
"When didn't you tell me before? The doctor said you were twelve weeks…"
Serenity bobbed down.
"I didn't know… I took the test with Tea today… before that, I wasn't sure… I was just afraid… I hoped it would be something else, that my period would came but it never did… so I was just even more scared every day…"
"So this is why you've been acting so weird recently? I thought you were angry because of me or sick…"
Serenity sighed.
"Yes, that's why I was so weird. I'm sorry I made you worry…"
"You should've told me before. You didn't have to keep it a secret for so long. Were you so afraid of my reaction?"
"Not as much as Joey's… but I thought you wouldn't want me anymore. I thought you wouldn't want to spoil your life because of me…"
"Serenity."
He kneeled to look at her directly in the eyes.
"As long as I'm with you, I'm not spoiling anything."
"That's really what you want, Duke?"
Serenity stood up.
"Honestly… tell me. Is it really what you want?"
"Well I… I did not plan to have a baby with you this early, but if it is now… so be it."
"Then promise… promise that you'll really stay with me, promise that you'll take care of the baby, promise that you'll never me alone… promise that you'll love me even when I become as huge as a whale… promise… please, Duke, promise…"
Her voice sounded like she was on the verge of tears again.
"Of course I promise, Serenity…"
Duke softly kissed her.
"But you have to promise you won't doubt about me like that anymore, Serenity."
"I-I promise…"
Their mouths kissed.
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When Serenity woke up, it felt as a whole bunch of leprechauns were dancing inside her stomach. In other words, she was nauseous.
Extremely nauseous.
"Hi, honey", Duke said when he saw her eyes opening.
"Oh, Geez…"
Serenity slowly sat in the bed, her hand on her forehead.
"Serenity, are you all right?"
"Uh… I… I guess…"
Suddenly, she felt the urge of standing up and running to the bathroom. Thanks God, the bathroom was close to Duke's bedroom.
"Is your girlfriend all right, son?" Duke's father asked when he saw him in the kitchen. "She's been in the bathroom for like 10 minutes…"
"Y-yes, she's ok… she's just a bit sick, I think she ate something she shouldn't have eaten yesterday."
"Uh-uh."
Duke opened the fridge and looked inside, searching for something to eat.
"She's pregnant, isn't she?" his father suddenly asked.
Duke's entire body froze. He didn't say a word, but his immobility meant everything to his father.
"You screwed up, didn't you?"
"We… we made a mistake."
Duke was staring at the floor.
"And what are you going to do now?"
"We're gonna take our responsibilities."
"Keeping the baby?"
Duke nodded in silence, and his father slowly shook his head in his son's back.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Duke."
"Hello, Mr. Devlin!" Serenity said with the most cheerful tone she could use.
"Good morning, Serenity. How did you sleep?"
"Very well, I thank you."
Duke's father climbed up the stairs.
"What do you want to eat, Serenity?" Duke asked.
"Nothing…"
"But you should…"
"I'll throw up again if I do."
"You sure? Not even a little something?"
Serenity nodded.
"My father knows", Duke simply said.
"You told him?!"
"Not really. He asked me if you were pregnant and I was sort of unable to lie to him."
"W-what did he say?"
"Nothing. He asked me what we were going to do. I told him we were keeping the baby and the only thing he said was 'I hope you know what you're doing'. I knew he'd be very calm, he's always like that."
When Duke and Serenity stepped inside the school, Duke felt Serenity's hand shaking in his.
"What's wrong?"
"Well… Joey… I'm sure he'll be mad again…
"Forget about him."
"Hey, Serenity! Duke!"
It was Tea's voice. She was smiling and waving at them.
"Hi, Tea", Serenity replied.
"Are you ok, sweetie? You look a bit pale."
"Yes, I feel a bit weird today… I threw up this morning."
"Awww, I'm sorry. Are you feeling… better?"
Serenity noticed the rest of the gang behind Tea: Yugi and Tristan were speaking together. And Joey… well, Joey had his back leaned on the lockers, his hands in his pockets, and was doing absolutely everything he could to avoid looking at his little sister. Tea followed Serenity's eyes.
"Not really", the fifteen-year-old replied.
"Do you wanna spend your lunch time with me? We'll talk if you want."
Serenity nodded.
"Yes, thanks…"
The bell rang.
"Oh, no, I'm going to be late!"
Serenity quickly kissed Duke and ran to her geography class. When she stepped inside the room and almost jumped on her seat, the teacher raised an eyebrow.
"Thanks for bothering coming here, Miss Wheeler."
"S-sorry sir… was sick this morning… won't happen again…" Serenity panted.
"I certainly hope so."
The young man stood up.
"Now, I'll collect your homework."
Serenity frowned, and then it came back to her mind: she was supposed to work on this geography homework the night before but, of course, she didn't have time. Geez, do I really have to do everything wrong to make sure every teacher hates me? When the teacher walked to her, she handed over the blank questionnaire.
"Well, have we forgotten to write our answers, Miss Wheeler?" he rudely asked.
"N-no, that's not –"
"Or perhaps you were sick?"
"No, sir, I… I just… didn't have time, I'm sorry –"
"Really? Well, one hour of detention tonight should give you all the time you need to do your next homework, what do you think?"
Serenity bobbed down as she felt tears coming up her eyes.
"Y-yes sir…"
"And I hope it won't happen again, because I expect you to take more care of your studies than your older brother."
"It won't happen again, I'm sorry."
The geography teacher sighed and walked to the next student. Serenity could hear some girls chuckling behind her back.
It seemed to Serenity that it took an eternity for the lunch time to come. When she met Tea at her locker, Tea immediately suggested that they ate their lunch outside. Serenity nodded.
"So, tell me. What happened when you left me yesterday?"
"I told Duke, and he was such a… sweetheart… you were right, I had absolutely no reason to be afraid. He even came with me to see the doctor…"
Tea saw some sparks in Serenity's eyes.
"We were able to hear the baby's heart… and see the baby on a screen… it was so magic… the doctor said everything's fine with the baby! But you know what happened next. I had to tell Joey…"
"Yes, that must've been very hard."
"Did he say anything after I left?"
"Well he asked us if we all knew it, and I said I was the only one to know. I told him he acted like a bastard. He said he wasn't obviously going to be happy about it, and then Tristan said that even if no one expected him to be happy, he should have supported you."
"T… Tristan stood up for me?"
"Yes. He said it was your life and Joey had nothing to say about it."
Serenity looked down at the sandwich Duke had made for her in the morning.
"I thought he would be even angrier than Joey… you know, Tristan… I see him only as a friend, but Tristan…"
"Yes, he loves you; it's about the most obvious thing in the world. And he said that because he loved you, he wanted you to be happy, no matter what made you happy. Even if it meant you were actually going to have a baby with Duke."
"And what happened after?"
"Well, I stayed with Joey all night long, trying to convince him that you needed him to support you, not to bash you. As you were able to notice this morning, my success is, uh… not very convincing. I'm sorry. But I'm sure that if you give him some time…"
"That's exactly what Duke said."
Serenity sighed.
"How am I going to finish this school year? They will kick me out when they'll find out, they don't allow it here… of course, that's only if I don't manage to get myself kicked out before that…"
"What do you mean?"
"The geography teacher gave me detention tonight because I forgot to do my homework. He was pretty mad…"
"Serenity, you won't be kicked out because you forgot one little geography assignment."
"No, but I will when they find out I'm pregnant. It's against the rules, isn't it?"
"Well… yes but… they can make exceptions… they let Joey work part-time when it's forbidden, so…"
"Yes but it's different…"
"It'll be all right, sweetie, I'm sure it will be all right."
The bell rang: lunch time was over. Serenity stood up.
"I gotta run… I don't want to be late twice in the same day…"
"Yes, I have to go too… call me on my cell phone during the break if you want to see me after your detention, ok?"
"Ok. Thanks Tea…"
The red-haired girl grabbed her bag and ran into the school.
End of the chapter: Hope you liked it ^^