This was it; all the trials that came before this were comfortable by comparison. If there was ever a time to take a moment to scream into a pillow, it was now.
I'm just taking a minute to ready myself.
Maggie's bedroom was feeling more like a panic room; the four walls and locked door protected her from the danger just down the stairs.
Maybe I should just cut my losses and flee to Mexico.
She had been dreading this all day. School had gone by in a blur, her fear and anxiety hazing all the details. What did they learn in Trigonometry? She didn't know; it probably had something to do with triangles. If Henry and Jasper hadn't been there for her, she wasn't sure what would've happened. Their support was what kept her head above water.
Which was part of the reason Maggie changed her mind about letting Henry help her tell her parents. True, she had helped Henry tell his, but that was different. There had been a screen between them, and neither of Henry's parents had weapons training, unlike Maggie's.
Every time she played the scenario in her head, Henry was either shot, stabbed, or had his necked snapped. It didn't bode well. So she told him to stay home.
Once she came home from school, she went directly to her room and curled up on her bed. Maggie needed to be rested and ready, since she planned to talk to her parents when they got home from work. But she was too nervous and only laid there. Two hours later, the sounds of the cars pulling up and the opening of the front door made her heart splash into her stomach.
She had only a couple hours now.
Pots and pans clattered around in the kitchen downstairs. Maggie had always admired her mom's ability to be both a high-ranking member of the CIA and a mother who strives to cook dinner at least three times a week. Her father was likely getting out ingredients for her before retiring to the couch to watch the game. Mrs. Winnock was too much of a Kitchen Nazi to actually let anyone help her cook.
Do I tell them at dinner? Do I march downstairs and tell them right now? What are they going to do to me?
Tick tock, tick tock; the old-fashioned alarm clock on her nightstand taunted her with the sound.
In ten minutes your parents will disown you. Or is it thirty minutes? Or is it two hours? Maybe it's two weeks. Just how cowardly are you going to be?
That's exactly what the clock sounded like. Tick tock, tick tock.
One minute closer to your parents hating you.
Tick tock, tick tock.
Just what might they force you to do?
It wouldn't shut up. The clock on her wall kept ticking away, making her more panicky by the second.
Will they make you kill it?
Will they make you leave it?
Will they make you suffer?
Will they even believe it?
Little by little the hands moved over the numbers, inching their way around the clock's cruel face.
There is bound to be yelling
And cursing and more
Once the Winnocks find out
That their daughter's a –
Hickory, dickory dock. Maggie smashed the ticking clock.
Mrs. Diana Winnock was just about to strain the pasta when she heard a crash coming from upstairs.
"Maggie? Is everything alright?"
There was a brief pause, then:
"I'm fine, Mom. I just dropped something."
Thomas Winnock came into the kitchen to put his beer bottle in the recycle bin.
"Did you hear that noise?" he said. "Sounded like something fell upstairs."
"Maggie dropped something."
Mr. Winnock leaned on the counter. "Has she seemed alright to you lately? Is she going through a teenage girl thing that I could never understand?"
"No and probably." she answered. "She's nearly seventeen."
He smiled. "On Saturday."
"I'm sure she just wants her space."
Ziti with roasted vegetables. Somehow it made everything harder with one of her favorite dishes in front of her. It was like it was sarcastically telling her to have fun breaking her mother's heart.
Maggie's father watched her push a piece of zucchini around her plate.
"Are you making your food ice skate like you did when you were little?" he asked, trying to hide is concern.
She popped the vegetable in her mouth, her eyes never leaving her food. "Mm-hm."
"How was school today?" asked Mrs. Winnock. "Keeping your grades up?"
"As always."
Her mother smiled. "Good girl. So about your birthday on Saturday: do you want something small again? You can invite Henry and Jasper over."
Maggie continued to stare at her plate. "That sounds nice."
Her parents exchanged glances.
"Is there something you need to tell us?" said her mother calmly.
For a moment Maggie didn't move; then she dropped her fork and ran from the room. Her parents followed.
Mr. and Mrs. Winnock looked at each other in confusion. When their daughter's cries emanated from the living room, they sprang from their chairs, leaving their family dinner unfinished.
"Magpie, what is it?" Her father hadn't called her that since she was nine.
Mrs. Winnock sat down next to Maggie on the couch. "If it's about college again, I assure you that you've got a better chance than most – "
"Not anymore, I don't!" Maggie finally looked at her mother. "I... I might not be able to go now."
"Sweetie, What are you talking about?" Mr. Winnock asked as he crouched down beside her. "You said your grades are still great."
"It's not about grades, Dad." she wiped a tear from her eye. "I did something stupid."
Her parents' eyes widened in fear.
Maggie's mom took a deep breath. "Sweetheart, what is it? You can tell us."
She couldn't look. Maggie just couldn't look at them. "I'm pregnant."
Pin-drop silence filled the room like wet cement. For four whole seconds (though it felt longer), no one said a word.
"I'm so sorry." she uttered shamefully.
Her mother gave her a small, understanding smile. "Oh, honey, it's alright."
Maggie looked at her in disbelief. "It is?"
"Of course, sweetie."
Dizzy with relief, Maggie sighed and hugged her mom.
"I'll take off work tomorrow and we can go to the clinic together."
Maggie's heart climbed into her throat. "I can't. I tried but I can't do it."
"It won't be easy but I'll be there with you."
She let go of her mother and looked her in the eye. "You don't understand. I can't." Her mother only looked at her patronizingly. "Dad? Please tell her I can't do it."
Her pleading tone was no use.
"Listen to your mother." he said before getting up and walking out of the room.
"Sweetie," her mother cooed. "It's really not as bad as you think."
Maggie forgot to breathe for a moment. "How would you know?"
"I had it done when your father and I were newlyweds because we needed to focus on our careers, and then again a year after I had you. It just wasn't the right time."
The right time.
"And I came at the right time?" Maggie felt numb.
Mrs. Winnock smiled. "The prefect time. Unlike this," She put her hand to Maggie's stomach. "Do you understand?"
Maggie nodded. It was all she was able to do.
"Good. So we can go tomorrow – "
"No." she whimpered.
"Maggie – "
The tears were back. "Please, mom, I can't."
"You will go tomorrow and it'll all be over soon." Her mother was sounding more stern.
"Please don't make me! I don't want to."
Mrs. Winnock grabbed her daughter's chin. "Pull yourself together, young lady. You will not keep it."
The tears feel harder. "Can I please give it up for adoption?"
Diana laughed harshly. "And suffer the ridicule? The setbacks? Tell me, is that thing worth it?"
That thing. She called it a thing.
"Maybe. I guess I was lucky to have been born at the perfect time. Otherwise I wouldn't have been worth the inconvenience."
"Don't you talk to me that way. They were sacrifices I needed to make. Now you are going to buck up and go to the clinic tomorrow – "
"No."
Mrs. Winnock got very quiet... and very intense. "If you don't do it, then I want you out of this house."
"Would Dad really allow that?"
Oh, please, Daddy, don't let her do it.
"Your father understands that he doesn't get a say in this. Now I'll tell you one more time: go to the clinic, or get out of this house."
There it was: she could either let her parents abandon her, or let a doctor rip the baby from her womb in pieces. Horrible risk and ridicule, or extreme cowardice and selfishness?
"Mom, please – "
"Get out."
Maggie couldn't breathe. "But – "
"GET OUT. Gather your things, get in your car, and leave. I don't want you back here until you've agreed to get rid of that thing."
"Mom." she whispered pleadingly.
Mrs. Winnock delivered her a reprimanding slap. "I mean it. Be out of here in twenty minutes or I'll shove you out the door."
Maggie ran to her room, nearly tripping on a few stairs.
"You're going to have to learn to make sacrifices if you want to succeed!" her mother called after her.
Have fun waiting for the next chapter :) R&R as always.
