Here's the next chapter, hope it's worth the wait!

(10)

They laugh.

Burst out in hard fits of laughter, Andre squeezing his sides and Robbie bending over, laughing so hard that he snorts.

"Man, you are-you are funny," André says as he wipes the tears from his eyes.

"And you look so serious!" Robbie exclaims in laughter.

"That's because I am serious," Beck mutters.

Andre and Robbie furrow their brows.

"Wait, what?" André asks. "You're...you're joking right?"

"I-I wish...no, I'm not," Beck says as he leans back against his headboard. "Jade found out a couple days ago, told me yesterday and we went to the doctor's today," the Canadian informs his friends.

"Wait wait wait wait, you're not joking?" André asks.

Beck shakes his head.

"Jade is really pregnant?"

Beck nods.

"Jade West is having a baby? Your baby?"

Beck nods once again.

"Wow. So Trina was actually right?" Robbie says incredulously.

Beck snorts as he looks at his hands. "Who would have thought we would ever use those words in a sentence?"

"Wait, so when you and Jade rushed out of school today, it was because something was wrong with the baby?" André asks, concern written all over his face.

"Well, we thought something was wrong. It was just a scare. Jade's fine, the baby's fine, everything is fine," Beck says.

"Well, not everything is fine," Robbie says. "Jade is pregnant."

Beck narrows his eyes. Is not exactly...desirable that Jade is pregnant right now, but he wouldn't say it was a bad thing.

"Are you guys...keeping it?" André inquires.

Beck shifts on his bed. His friends are going to think he's crazy, he knows it.

"Jade doesn't know what she wants, but I...I want to keep it."

"WHAT!?"

"Are you out of your mind?!"

Beck smirks despite the seriousness of the situation. They're so predictable, his friends.

"Beck, we're about to go to college. You can't be walking around the dorms with a baby strapped to your chest," André exclaims incredulously. "How are you gonna go to college parties with a baby?"

Beck rolls his eyes. "André, if Jade decides to keep it then there won't be any college parties."

"And if she doesn't want to keep it?" Robbie asks.

Beck rubs the back of his neck. He hasn't really thought about it yet. "I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Andre crosses his armed across his chest. "What have the two of you decided? Because it doesn't sound like you've decided anything."

"We've decided that no matter what, we'll handle this together. One day at a time."

"Jadey?"

Jade rolls her eyes at the nickname that only her brother and Cat were aloud to call her. "What?"

"Are you pregnant?"

Jade almost swerves her car into on coming traffic.

"Why-Why the hell would you ask me that Jasper?" Jade snaps.

"Because you have been throwing up all the time and you just ate three ice cream cones. And you're always touching your stomach," Jasper points out in a matter of fact tone.

"Are you calling me fat!?" Jade snaps as she looks down at her body. She hasn't gained any weight.

Has she?

Oh god, she's the size of a whale.

"I'm not calling you fat," Jasper tells her. "But am I right? You're having a baby?"

She doesn't lie to him. Never has and never will. "Yeah, I am."

There's a long pause before Jasper says, "Dad's gonna kill you."

Jade snorts. "Yeah, I know."

Beck is glad when Andre and Robbie leave, after he promises them to not talk to Jade just yet.

However, he gets yet another visitor, two, actually.

It seems his dad thinks that his mother can "knock some sense into him".

"We just want the best for you Beckett," his mother says.

"And you think that Jade isn't what's best for me," Beck says with a roll in his eyes. "I'm sorry but I don't understand how this is any of your business."

"We're your parents!" Beck's father reminds him.

"Yeah well I'm eighteen and I don't live with you anymore. I don't have to listen to a word you say," Beck barks back.

His father snorts. "You think because you don't live under our roof that you're not really under our guardianship. We still provide you with money son, or did you forget? Your RV doesn't even leave the front yard!"

Beck's nostrils flare. "I'll get a job, I'll move the RV somewhere else if I have to," Beck mutters.

"That's not necessary-" Beck's mother tries to say but his father speaks over her.

"I really thought that when you broke up with Jade that you might have gotten smarter, that you might have realized how toxic she is for you."

"Toxic?" Beck snaps. "There's nothing toxic about Jade and I."

Both his parents scoff.

"Beck, sweetie, I know you love Jade, why I do not know," his mother says with a shake of her head. "But your relationship isn't healthy. She allowed a dog to attack your father."

"That was a present for me! How was she supposed to know that dad was in here he never spends time in here anyway!"

"How about when she practically broke down the door when you were babysitting because she thought that you were cheating on her?" Beck's father asks. "That girl is insanely jealous and it's not good for you."

Beck shakes his head. "I have homework to finish," he mutters.

His father shakes his head. "You're not going to get out of it that easily," the man tells his son.

"I'm not trying to get out of anything," Beck tells his parents. "I'm just tired of talking about this. We're never going to agree, you want me to leave Jade and I won't," I can't, he thinks.

"Don't you just think," his mother pauses as if she's trying to find the right words to say, to be tactful. "Don't you just think that you two need a break from each other? And not what you two did before, but a real break."

Beck rolls his eyes. "Mom-"

"You really think that you two with be together when you go to college?" His father asks, before he adds, "Unless the two of you are going to the same school."

He doesn't say that they are. Or at least, they're thinking about it.

Beck's mother moves to sit beside him, her hand moving languidly through his hair. "You have to understand that we just want the best for you Beck. One day, when you have your own kids, you'll see that the only thing that you'll ever want in this world is for them to be happy."

Silverware clatters against silverware as the West family sits around a large dining room table in audible silence.

Jade doesn't know why they have dinner together every night, why they even attempt to be a normal family. She scoots around the noodles on her plate, plays with the meatballs that she has only taken bites out of.

Shes discovered that morning sickness is not just in the morning.

"So, Jadelyn," Nicole, her mother says, "I got a call from your school today."

"Oh yeah? What did they say I did now?" Jade asks in a nonchalant tone as she moves a meatball from one side of her plate to the other.

"Lane says that you and Beck ran out of school."

Jade hums as she sips on her bottle of water slowly. Even too much water makes her want to vomit.

"I...I also got a call from the insurance company," Nicole says and that's when Jade tenses.

She didn't even think about the fact that the insurance company would call her parents.

Nicole turns her attention toward her youngest child. "Jasper, are you finished playing with your noodles?"

"Depends, do I get to go and play my Xbox?" the ten year old wants to know.

Nicole waves her grand dismissively. "Sure."

Jasper whoops, running from the table the up the stairs toward his room.

Jade swallows roughly as she turns toward her mother. "Is there something you would like to talk about Nicole?"

The older woman raises an eyebrow as he says, "Prenatal vitamins."

Jade looks down at her plate, moves some noodles around. "What about them?"

"Don't play stupid Jade," her mother chides. "You're pregnant. You're pregnant and clearly you're thinking about keeping it because you're taking prenatals."

Jade shifts in her seat as she tells her mother, "Well, Beck wanted me to take them. He wants to keep it. I don't know what I want to do yet."

There's more clinking of silverware.

"When did you find out?"

"Couple days ago."

Clink-clink-clink-clink

"How far along are you?"

"Nine weeks."

"Hm. When I was pregnant with Jasper I had the worst morning sickens as around that time."

"Yeah, I've been puking my brains out."

"Tea helps. Decaf of course."

Clink-clink-clink-clink

"Do you want to keep it?"

Jade pauses. Does she want to keep the baby? She doesn't think that she wants an abortion, not anymore, not since she's heard the heartbeat. But can she actually raise a child? Now?

She doesn't really think so.

"I don't know," she mumbles.

Nicole hums, taking a bite of her meatball before she says, "Well, whatever you decide, I'm with you."

Jade feels her body tense, and she feels tears stinging the back of her eyes (she blamed the hormones, will always blame the hormones) "Yeah?" she asks, her voice cracking.

Nicole nods. "Yeah."

Beck flops down on his bed, running his fingers through his hair with one hand, the other dialing the number that he has committed to memory.

He presses his phone to his ear and smiles softly when he hears Jade's drowsy, "Hey."

"Did I wake you?" he asks as he lies down against his pillows.

"Sorta, but it's fine. I wanted to talk to you anyway."

"Oh yeah?" Beck mumbles, and when Jade hums in confirmation he asks, "'Bout what?"

"My mom knows. Jasper too."

Beck is suprised to say the least. He thought that he would be the first to tell his family that they were expecting. And he thought that they would tell their parents together.

"I didn't tell them, either of them. Jasper, being the smart ass he is, guessed. And the insurance company called my mom about the prenatal vitamins," Jade informed him.

"Oh."

"You okay?" Jade asks after a beat of silence. "You sound...off."

Beck chuckles bitterly before he tells her, "Me and my parents got into it."

"Did you tell them?"

Beck shakes his head even though she couldn't see him. "No, I didn't even think about telling them yet. The school called them and said I left."

"Let me guess, they were pissed and I'm the evil girlfriend that's ruining your life."

Beck chuckles despite himself. Her description is pretty dead on.

"They're going to be so pissed when they find I'm carrying your kid," Jade says in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yeah, well, let them be pissed. We'll be fine without them. No matter what happens."

There's a long pause, and during that time Beck finds his eyes getting heavy.

"I've decided that I don't want an abortion."

His eyes spring open.

"Really?"

"Yeah," Jade pauses before she says, "I don't know whether I wanna be a mom yet, but I couldn't get an abortion. Not after today."

Beck smiles before he tells her, "Now all I have to do is convince you that we'll be the best parents ever."

Jade laughs softly, and Beck swears his heart flutters.

"I love you," he tells her, just because he can.

"I love you too."

Beck smiles, and no matter what his patented say, he knows their love is enough.