A/N: I hope you guys have enjoyed the last few chapters. There was finally a payoff for all of you, which I knew you were dying for.
There is one thing I want to bring up, and it's not even important. It's just a bit of trivia more than anything. The last chapter, Glycerine, was named after the song Glycerine by Bush, a 90's alternative grunge/rock band from the UK. It's a very bittersweet love song. Well, not only is it mentioned in an earlier chapter(when they get the results back for the SATs), but that song is also the main inspiration for this story. It's also a personal favorite of mine. If you've never heard the song before, I urge you to check it out.
Anyway, on to the chapter. I hope you're ready for things to get back on track.
Chapter 25
Micah's Curse
"Elsa, you look beautiful," Micah said with a whistle.
"I'm just wearing my regular clothes. I fail to see how this makes me beautiful," she responded.
"No, I meant your makeup. You normally don't wear any."
Elsa looked at herself in the mirror that was hanging on her closet door. Her hair was back in it's customary braid, she had dark purple eyeshadow and pink lipstick on. To her, she looked plain. "All I did was put on some eyeshadow and lipstick. Maybe a light powdering of blush. It's nothing fancy."
"Yeah, well, it looks great regardless," he reassured her. He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist before kissing her delicately on the cheek.
"We might want to get going soon if we want to be there before the crowds get too bad. As it is we're going to have a fifteen to twenty minute wait."
"Okay. Do you want me to drive or do you feel up to it?"
"I couldn't care less. I just know I'm hungry and I've been looking forward to this date since last night."
Grabbing her purse before walking out the door, Elsa and Micah said their goodbyes to everyone before getting in the car and heading towards the mall. Traffic was rather heavy, even for a Friday night, but it gave them extra time to just enjoy each other's company. Not that they really needed it. They had spent the entire day together, just the two of them. They hung out at Elsa's playing games and talking to their friends, who were more than excited for them finally getting together. It was endearing to know that their friends were so supportive of their newfound relationship. It made both of them feel better about it, like they had made the right choice.
The drive was slower than either had anticipated, and took them over thirty minutes to drive just a few miles. By the time they managed to pull into the parking lot, their stomachs were growling. If they didn't know each other very well, it would have been somewhat embarrassing. It actually almost was, for some strange reason neither could explain. Things felt different since they had officially become a couple. There was this feeling that they were being judged all of a sudden, even if that wasn't the case at all. It was difficult for them to understand what was going on between them. The dynamics of their friendship had forever changed, but it didn't mean that they suddenly had to become different people because of it.
When they stepped inside the restaurant and were greeted by the host, they were told that there was a twenty minute wait, just like Elsa had predicted. Luckily, there was a long, rounded, cushioned red bench for them to sit on, and a big statue of a cartoon red robin holding a burger in one hand stood in the middle of the foyer. They didn't talk much; they just sat there holding hands.
Neither of them were sure that they'd ever get used to it. They had held hands before, but very rarely, and for completely different reasons. It was a type of physical contact they hadn't experienced much of in their previous relationships. Elsa practically refused to touch Jeremy almost the entirety of their relationship, and Micah only really made out with Amber. That was, for the most part, the extent either really went through with their previous significant others besides sex. Neither particularly cared for that experience much either.
After what felt like hours, they were finally escorted to a small booth at the far end of the restaurant. The hostess handed them both a menu before excusing herself, and they started pouring over the different choices inside. As was normal at most places, there were too many good options to decide from. It made choosing one rather difficult.
"Well, I hate to say it, Els," Micah said, "but it doesn't look like they have Pepsi. It's all Coke products."
Elsa sighed. "Yeah, I see that. Guess I'll just get one of their lemonades. Have you figured out what you're getting yet?"
"Nope. Although the one with the jalapeños sounds tasty."
"You can have your spicy food. I might just get a regular burger."
"Wait, you come to Red Robin and just want a regular burger? That kind of defeats the purpose of coming here."
"Not really. Their food is delicious."
"Alright, fine. Be boring."
"I will."
Soon enough, their waitress arrived and took their orders, which ended up being more difficult than either predicted since they couldn't really decide on anything. They only had to wait about five minutes for their drinks to arrive, and Micah was incredibly thirsty, downing nearly half of his as soon as it was set down in front of him.
"Leave some room for dinner, dork," Elsa said teasingly.
"Hey, it's summer time and I'm incredibly thirsty. I'm also a seventeen year old boy. I have plenty of room for food."
"Whatever."
"How's your face feeling? Any better?" Micah asked with concern.
"It still hurts. A lot. I tried to cover up the bruising as much as I could. Hopefully I did an okay job."
"You can hardly tell it's there. But it's going to be pretty ugly sadly. Have you told your mom about all the stuff Jeremy did?"
"Yeah, actually. She was rather angry with me for keeping all of that stuff secret from her. I didn't fight with her though, because I knew she was right. I shouldn't have kept it secret. I should have done something about it when it happened. But I told her everything, I swear."
"Good," he said as he took another drink of his root beer. "I don't like you keeping things secret from us. Especially me. You've done it as long as I've known you, and it frustrates me. You should have confided in me more. Trusted me."
"I did trust you, but for some reason I couldn't open up about anything. But I did finally come clean about my dad at least. But I will make this promise. I won't hide anything from you anymore. Okay? I don't want to do that to you. I hated doing it to begin with, even though I felt like I had to. It's not fair to you, and if we're going to work as a couple then I can't be doing that."
"I'm going to hold you to that. But I won't keep anything from you either. Although, I never could before anyway. You know everything there is to know about me."
"Yes I do. What do you want to do for your birthday?" Elsa asked, changing the subject. "It's only a couple weeks away."
"I dunno. Last year we went to the beach, but that turned out to be a disaster. Not sure I want to do that again."
"It was only a disaster because you were arguing with Amber. You don't have to worry about that this year. We can definitely go do something like that again and actually have fun. We can take Ellie and play with her on the beach. She'd love that."
"Yeah, that actually sounds kind of cool. We can do that if you want."
"Micah, it's your birthday. You get to decide what we do."
"Oh. Are you sure? I mean, I don't want to seem greedy or anything like that."
"It's fine," she assured him. "If you want to go to the beach again, we can do that. It'll just be the five of us."
Micah hummed to himself as he thought. It sounded like it would be fun, and he had to admit he did sort of enjoy it last time, in spite of the fact that he and Amber were at each other's throats. But the time with his friends is unforgettable. It was something he really needed.
"Okay, sure. Let's do that then. Unless real camping is something you'd prefer to do."
"That's up to you. But since it's summer already, odds are the campsites are all booked for the rest of the season. The beach isn't like that. Plus, like I said, Ellie would love it."
"Then it's settled. We don't even have to wait for my birthday if you don't want to. We can go whenever. It'll be nice to go without Amber being a complete bitch the whole time."
After about twenty-five minutes of waiting, the waitress finally arrived with their food. She even offered to refill their drinks, which Micah was on his third one. They ate in relative silence, mostly out of comfort than awkwardness. Even though they felt awkward at first, things had seemed to calm down. Micah had been nervous that he'd screw up the entire date, but so far things seemed to be going quite well. They weren't arguing or judging one another like he had thought, and they were able to talk about normal things with no problem. He felt that this was definitely the best thing that could ever happen to him.
Once they were done eating and had paid for their dinner, they walked back out to the car and looked around. It was barely 8:15 pm. Neither wanted to go home just yet.
"So, now what? Dinner was great, but I'm not really ready to just end the night," Micah said.
"I don't know. I'd like to just hang out somewhere. Oh, I know the perfect place we can go!" Elsa said enthusiastically.
"Yeah, where?"
"It's a surprise. Get in."
They hopped into Elsa's SUV and headed back out to the main road, cutting across town. The drive wasn't that long, but it was quiet. Traffic had died down a bit since they had first left Elsa's house, and it made getting to their mysterious destination much easier. Micah kept looking around, just trying to get a basic idea of where they could possibly be going. Soon they were near the outskirts of town, and Elsa turned off on a dirt road that wound up a hill behind some warehouses. At the top of the hill, they came to a stop that looked out over a lake below. The city lights shimmered on the glassy surface, dancing every now and then when the water was disturbed by something falling in or a fish bobbing up at the surface.
"Here we are. What do you think?" she asked expectantly.
"Elsa, this is a great view. How'd you find it?"
"Jeremy showed it to me. It's one of the only good things to come out of that relationship. It's kind of romantic. Come on."
Elsa climbed out of the car and got up on the hood to sit down, with Micah following her lead. Staring down at the water, he threw his arm around her, and she leaned in to rest her head on his shoulder. There they sat, not speaking, simply listening to the sounds of the night. He didn't know how long they were there, and he didn't really care. Micah loved every second of it.
"What made you decide to bring me here?" he asked quietly. "I mean, this was your spot with Jeremy."
"Because I love it here, and I wanted to share it with you. It's nice and quiet, and it's sort of away from everything," she replied.
"Well, it's pretty awesome. Maybe this can be our spot now?"
"Absolutely."
"Hey, I just want to say thanks for the last twenty-four hours. This has been the best time of my life."
"You don't have to thank me, sweetheart. I'm just so happy that our dreams finally came true. You don't know how much I've wanted this. How much I needed it."
"That makes two of us. I really don't want this night to end either. But at some point we're going to have to go home," Micah lamented.
"I want you to stay the night again. Please?" Elsa begged.
"Will your mom let me? I mean, after last night I don't know what to expect."
"I can call and ask, but I'm positive she won't mind. Besides, all your stuff is there already anyway."
"Well, if you're sure, then I can't say no. I know it might sound kind of cheesy, but I really just want to wake up every morning with you laying next to me."
"It doesn't sound cheesy at all, and even if it did, I feel the same way."
"Cool. Do you want to get going? It's getting kind of late."
"Yeah, but before we do, there's something you need to do for me."
"What's that?" he asked.
Twisting just enough to face him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled. "Kiss me," she whispered.
00000
That night, they were in Elsa's room laying down and watching a movie. It was Terminator 2, but neither one was really paying attention. Micah was cuddling with her as the big spoon, his arm wrapped around her waist. The movie's volume was rather low so it didn't disturb anyone. They were both pretty sure that Anna was still awake, likely talking to Kristoff. They were doing that a lot more now, and Elsa was happy for them. She hoped that they ended up together because they would make a good couple.
The movie was about half over, and it was about 11:30 pm. Neither were all that tired, not since they had gotten a lot of sleep the night before. On top of that, they wanted to spend as much time together as they could. They had always done that anyway, but now it was for entirely different reasons.
"What do you want to do tomorrow?" Micah asked quietly.
"I don't know. We need to get together with Kristoff and Rose again. Maybe we should do that."
"Alright. Maybe we can go hang out at the mall or something. Get out of the house for a bit."
"We can always take Ellie to the park. I know she'd really appreciate it, and we can just sort of hang out and maybe bring snacks or something," Elsa suggested.
"That doesn't sound bad either. We can ask them in the morning what they want to do."
"Okay."
"Have I ever told you that I love the smell of your shampoo?" he asked as he sniffed her hair.
"No, not that I can recall," she said with a giggle.
"Well, I've said it now. Also, your hair is so soft. I love it."
"Thank you, I do my best to take care of it."
"At least it's not like this ratty mess on the top of my head."
"I happen to like your hair. So don't you ever become one of those guys that shaves their head. I'll be very upset with you."
"Duly noted."
Taking a peek at the clock on her nightstand, Elsa groaned in frustration when she saw the time in big, bright red numbers. "We should probably go to sleep. It's way later than we normally stay up."
"That's not true at all. We stay up this late all the time during the summer," he reminded her.
"I know, but we should still go to sleep. At least soon. It felt so nice being able to go the whole night without a nightmare or anything. Then waking up in your arms was the best feeling ever."
"Well, I'm not ready to go to sleep just yet. Although I really am not interested in the movie that's on. How about you?"
"I don't care what we watch. I might go hop online and see if the others are still up. What about you?" she asked.
"I dunno. I'm feeling relaxed right now, so I might just stay here."
"Your laptop is wireless, dork."
"Yeah, but it's all the way over on your dresser."
Rolling her eyes at him, Elsa climbed out of bed and waltzed over to her dresser, tossed Micah's laptop at him, and sat down at her desk in order to open up her own. Once it was out of sleep mode, she hopped onto Skype to see that her friends were in fact still online. For some reason, that sort of surprised her.
Frosty Soul: Hey guys.
Feisty Firecrotch: Elsa! Hi!
Frosty Soul: And who are you?
Mikasa Ackerman: It's Anna. We made her an account.
Frosty Soul: Oh. I was not informed of this. What's with the name?
Dominator: We thought it was fitting.
Mikasa Ackerman: It totally works.
Feisty Firecrotch: I think it's cute and funny.
Frosty Soul: My friends are morons.
Raging Rajang: I hope that doesn't include me.
Mikasa Ackerman: There's loverboy. Enjoying your newfound romance?
Raging Rajang: As a matter of fact, yes I am.
Mikasa Ackerman: Maybe next time you two will listen to me. I've only been nagging you since seventh grade.
Frosty Soul: Yes, we're sorry Rose. We were stubborn and blind. Thank you for being a pain in the ass for so long.
Mikasa Ackerman: You're more than welcome, babe.
Dominator: So what are you two lovebirds doing up this late?
Raging Rajang: It's too early to go to sleep.
Feisty Firecrotch: We should play a game! But something other than StarCraft. I'm not any good at that.
Frosty Soul: We don't really have much else we can all play together. I mean, there's Team Fortress 2, but you don't like first-person shooters either.
Mikasa Ackerman: Well, I don't do MMOs. I don't want to live on my video game all the time.
Dominator: I dunno. Some of them sound kind of cool. World of Warcraft has been around for a long time and is pretty popular, so we could always try that. I think they have a free trial thing. I can look into more if you guys are interested.
Frosty Soul: Sure, why not?
Raging Rajang: This isn't going to turn out to be like that anime Rose really likes is it? What was it called? The one where they're all trapped inside those helmet things.
Mikasa Ackerman: Sword Art Online. And no, because I'm not going to be joining you guys.
Feisty Firecrotch: Come on, Rose! It's just a free trial! You don't even have to stay with it if you really hate it. We don't even know if we'll like it. But we need to expand our library of games to more than just two.
Raging Rajang: I kind of agree with the redhead on this one. Starcraft and TF2 are pretty cool, but I can only stomach them for so long before I get bored. It'd be nice to have something new to do. There are plenty of older games we can look into as well. We don't have to play just new games.
Dominator: WoW is not new. Starcraft 2 has been out for quite a while, as has TF2. So really, we're not playing anything new.
Raging Rajang: There's always Monster Hunter, if you guys would just bring your 3DSes over with you once in a while. Or we can always check out one of the MOBAs that are out.
Mikasa Ackerman: No.
Dominator: No.
Frosty Soul: Sorry babe, but no.
Feisty Firecrotch: Ew no.
Raging Rajang: Tough crowd. Don't say I didn't try.
Mikasa Ackerman: Let's just do the thing Kristoff suggested. Unless you guys can come up with a better idea.
Feisty Firecrotch: Wait. I thought you were totally against the idea of playing an MMO.
Mikasa Ackerman: Yeah, well, if the rest of you are going to try it out, I might as well suffer through it too.
Dominator: I can look into it right now if you guys want. Just, I doubt we'll have time to play tonight. From what I understand, it's a pretty big game, so we'll be downloading all night.
Frosty Soul: That's completely up to you. I'll look into too, but probably not tonight. We have nothing else going on tomorrow, so I can do it when we get up. Although we were hoping you guys would want to get together and hang out tomorrow.
Mikasa Ackerman: Sure. I have nothing better to do. I'm kind of frustrated with the drawing I'm working on right now.
Frosty Soul: Why? What's wrong?
Mikasa Ackerman: It's just not coming together the way I wanted it to. The angle is all wrong, the details aren't as clear as I tried to make them, and I can't get a decent color scheme going at all. I'm about to scrap the damn thing and try something else.
Frosty Soul: That sounds frustrating. Maybe taking a break will help?
Mikasa Ackerman: Yeah, I hope so.
Raging Rajang: Well, we were thinking about spending the day at the park. Ellie would really like it if we took her, and we can bring a cooler with drinks and snacks. How does that sound?
Dominator: Sounds good. Just let us know when.
Frosty Soul: Will do.
00000
The next day, the gang met up at the park that was just down the road from Elsa's house. They had taken Ellie just like they had planned, along with her favorite frisbee, and a cooler full of Pepsi and Barq's root beer. The others weren't nearly as picky as Elsa was, and root beer was just Anna's favorite type of soda. They mostly ended up sitting under the shade of one of the canopies and played on their laptops while talking. It was difficult to pull them away from their computers for very long, and they took them practically everywhere. The only place they never took them to was school, and that was simply because they never had time to use them.
After a couple hours of just hanging out and having a relaxing time, they decided to pile into Elsa's car and go drive around. They had no destination in mind, which made it easy to just drive across town at whatever pace they decided to take. They were free to spend their time however they wanted, and it was rather liberating. It was made that much better by the fact that Elsa and Micah were no longer doing their best to hide from one another. There was less tension, and even though it didn't directly affect them, the others noticed the change in the group's overall attitude and state of being.
At some point during their drive, Micah got a text message he wasn't expecting. When he swiped his phone screen on to check, he was completely shocked. When Elsa glanced over, she saw that something was wrong.
"Hey, is everything alright?" she asked with concern in her voice.
"Um, not really no," Micah replied.
"What's wrong?"
"I just got a text... from Amber."
"You what?"
"What the hell is her number still doing on your phone!?" Rose yelled angrily.
"I don't know, I must have forgot all about it! But that isn't what's important. The text is pretty damn scary."
"Why, what does it say?"
"It says 'Micah, when are you going to come see your baby?'"
There was silence for several seconds. If they hadn't already been stopped at a red light, Elsa might have run into someone.
"Say what?" she asked in confusion.
"Does that mean what I think it means?" Rose added.
"I have no idea!" Micah exclaimed.
"Bro, is that even possible?" Kristoff asked. "I mean, I thought you two were done in January."
"We were. But she's been gone from school for awhile. Maybe a couple months after. I don't think I saw her the rest of the year really."
"Okay, I'm going to ask you a very important question. You said back on your birthday that you two hadn't had sex in awhile, and that you weren't going to anymore. You said that to me. Did you end up having sex with her again?"
"...Yes," Micah admitted.
"Bro!"
"Micah! Why didn't you tell me? You said you hadn't!" Elsa cried.
"It was back in September last year. I wasn't feeling all that well emotionally, and she came over while my mom wasn't home. She said she could cheer me up, and well..." Micah said nervously.
"Did you at least use protection, genius?" Rose asked, more angry than she had been before.
"Yes! I never went without! Elsa, I swear!"
"Then how is this possible, Micah!? How can she possible have your baby!?" Elsa yelled, panicking and having a difficult time paying attention to the road.
"I don't know!"
"Is it at all possible that it's not yours?" Anna asked. She had remained quiet up until now.
"I have no idea! I mean, she cheated on me, and apparently did it all the time, so I don't know!"
"Wait, how do we even know she had a baby? Maybe she's just trying to screw with him?"
"Is there any chance we can swing by her place?" he asked Elsa. "I have to see this for myself."
"I am not taking you to your ex-girlfriends house so you can see her baby! You must be mental if you think I'm going to do that!" Elsa said.
"Come on, Els. It'll help put this whole thing to bed if we can go see what the hell the baby looks like."
"Fine."
Begrudgingly, Elsa took the next turn they came to and drove them halfway across town to where Amber lived. It took a good ten minutes to get there, and it was a very tense drive the whole way. No one said a word, and Micah was afraid to look at Elsa at all. He knew she was furious, but he wasn't sure if it was because of him or Amber, or both.
As they parked out in front of Amber's place, Elsa got out of the car and slammed the door shut. She didn't wait for Micah to follow, though he was right behind her as fast as he could go. When they got to the door, Elsa slammed her fist as hard as she could against it. She looked royally pissed off. When Amber opened the door and saw who it was, she looked genuinely surprised.
"I wasn't expecting you to actually show up right now, Micah," she said.
"What is this bullshit about Micah being a father, Amber?" Elsa asked furiously.
"It's not bullshit. It's true. Take a look for yourself."
Amber disappeared back into the house for a brief moment, only to return with an infant in her arms.
"This is Chelsea, your daughter."
"Amber, that's impossible. We didn't have sex for months. Plus, you slept around, in case you forgot. There's no guarantee it's mine, and we always used protection," Micah said defiantly.
"That stuff isn't fool-proof, Micah. And I didn't cheat on you during the time I got pregnant. The only reason I even did was because you were an asshole and showed zero interest in me."
"Was that before or after your relationship was barely a couple weeks old? Because I caught you making out with other guys before I even knew you were his girlfriend, and you kept doing that after we all found out," Elsa said venomously.
"What business is it of yours what I do? Besides, we never said we were exclusive in the beginning anyway."
"That's your defense? Some insane leap in logic because you got caught red handed? You don't date someone if you aren't going to be faithful, Amber!"
"Why the hell did you bring her here, Micah? Still sleeping with her?"
"We haven't had sex, Amber! I have told you this I don't know how many times! This is exactly the reason I left your ass! You accused me of doing the exact thing you were doing the whole damn time! The only difference is I never did it! You were the only one I have ever had sex with, and that was the biggest mistake of my life! There is no way this kid is mine!" Micah was shouting at the top of his lungs, and it was starting upset the baby.
"Fine. Take a paternity test. It'll prove she's yours."
"If he's doing that, it's going to be at a real doctor. Not one of those kits you see on TV. We'll go to the clinic and have it done there. Who's name is on the birth certificate? Anyone's?" Elsa asked.
"There is no father on the birth certificate. But I know it's Micah."
"If there's no father, he has zero obligation to you and the baby. But just to prove a point, he'll take the damned test and show you that you're a liar and a moron. Then you can leave my boyfriend the hell alone."
"Boyfriend? Oh, so you two are screwing! I knew it!"
"For the last god damn time, Amber, we have not had sex!" Micah exclaimed. "Unlike you, we're not rushing right into that. Everything that happened with you was a damn mistake. I've learned my lesson, but apparently you're too damn stupid to learn yours. I'm going to leave now, and I'll go take that test just to prove to you that you are insane. Then when the test results come back and say that I'm not her father, you can stay the hell out of my life for good."
Before Amber could get another word in, they stormed out of her house and back to the car. On the way out, Elsa turned back towards her and had the angriest look on her face that she could muster.
"If you ever come near Micah again, or contact him in any way, I will personally ruin you. You stay the hell away from him. You do not call him, or text him, or even think about him. Today might have been the biggest mistake of your life, but the next time you bother him, it will be the last time you ever do."
00000
"How did you not notice that she was nearly four months pregnant!?" Elsa asked in disbelief.
They were back at Elsa's house, and everyone was gathered in her room like normal. Only this time, Micah was on trial and Elsa was the judge, jury, and quite possibly his executioner. He stood there in silence, mostly out of fear for his life. Elsa was right though. He had never seen her angry before, and right now, she was both angry and scary.
"I don't know, okay! She did a good job hiding it!" He wasn't helping his case any.
"Micah, you are the biggest moron I've ever met! There must have been signs! She had to have gained weight! Babies aren't small, and at four months there are visible signs! God, you are such an idiot!"
The others were standing off to the side, watching the whole thing go down. They had never seen Elsa like this before either, and it was scary as hell. Each one made a mental note to never piss her off.
"I'm sorry, alright! I've never gone through this stuff before!"
"You went through health class, dumbass! This was basic shit we learned at school! Hell, we learned this stuff back when we had to take sex ed! What the hell is wrong with you!?"
"I said I'm sorry! What do you want from me!?"
"I want you to use your god damn head! Micah, this is incredibly serious! There is a chance that that baby is yours!"
"No, there's not! I used a condom every time!"
"You don't think those things can fail!? Micah, how do you think so many accidental pregnancies happen!? This never would have happened if you had stopped having sex with her like you said!"
"I'm sorry! Okay!? I screwed up!"
"Yes, you did! And now look at the mess you've caused! We wouldn't be having this fight if you had just stopped sleeping with her!"
"How was I supposed to know we'd end up together!? At that point, I figured I was stuck with her!"
"Why does that even matter!? You had sex with her after you said you were done! If you had just abstained from sleeping with her again, this never would have happened! You wouldn't be looking at potentially being a father at the age of seventeen! You're lucky you didn't get any diseases from the slut!"
Micah didn't have anything left to say. He knew she was right on everything. The fight was essentially over, and he was completely in the wrong. He was defeated, and he looked like it too.
Sighing, Elsa sat down on the edge of her bed when she realized he wasn't going to say anything more. "Micah, what are we going to do? There's still a possibility that she can come after you for child support if you are actually the father. You're not even eighteen yet. You don't have a job. You don't have a place of your own. The worst thing is, if she wants to, she can keep you from seeing the baby if it really is yours. I'm honestly really scared."
"I don't know what else to do than to take that test. But I thought you said she can't do anything since I'm not on the birth certificate."
"She can still have your name put on there if the baby is yours. But she has to prove it first, and you have to sign it."
"Then I won't sign it. Simple as that."
"But what if the kid is really yours? Are you going to do that to your daughter?"
"She's not mine!" he declared.
"Micah, until you take that test and we get the results back, there is no way of knowing that. This is exactly why I'm so upset."
"Then Monday we'll go down to the clinic and do this."
"We still have to have Amber there with the baby. They have to take a sample from both you and Chelsea," Elsa told him.
"Okay, then I'll text her and organize it with her. But that's all I'll do. I won't talk to her about anything else, even if she tries to coax me into it."
"I guess it's unavoidable at the moment. But after this, after we prove that the baby isn't yours – which I hope to god is the case – then you can cut her out of your life. Block her number so she can't ever call you or text you again. And if the baby is somehow yours... then we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
Finally, Micah took a seat next to Elsa and took her hand in his. He didn't say anything, he just looked down at the floor and sighed. All the emotions that Amber made him feel before were creeping back in, and it was scaring the hell out of him. The fear, the anguish, the depression, the self-loathing. All of it. Unfortunately, they were all bearing down on him at once, and he wasn't sure he was going to be able to come back from it.