Chapter 36 – Don't Run Away
August 1, 2013
Recap: Ronnie and Will are pregnant and engaged but when they went to his parents' house a huge fiasco started and they hadn't told Susan and Tom anything yet. Ronnie and Will have decided that they will move to Wilmington permanently. Ronnie was attacked behind the bathrooms at the beach by Marcus and he hasn't been caught. Ronnie and Will have also visited Steve and Mikey's graves and talked to them about their lives.
Will waited patiently in the entrance to the living room not wanting to give out their positions so quickly but also wanting to get it over with so he wouldn't have to think of it. Finally he took a deep breath, looked at Ronnie and Jonah before shouting up the staircase.
"Mom! Dad! I need to talk to you," he yelled. Right away he heard scrambling and saw his dad rush down the stairs with a relieved look on his face like he wasn't so sure he would ever see Will again, which he probably was thinking. Susan walked slowly behind Tom not knowing what to do that much was clear. She looked hopeful but when she saw Ronnie and Jonah the hope just drained out of her face and that was enough to set Will's teeth on edge but he had to force himself to calm down before gesturing towards Ronnie and Jonah and then to living room.
"Can we all talk?" He asked hesitantly. As much as his parents annoyed him lately he didn't want them to be mad at him but nothing they could say would change his mind about his child and his wife-to-be.
Tom looked at Jonah and motioned towards the patio where he kept his airplanes. "Would you like to play with one while we all talk?" Tom asked in the voice that he would usually use for Mikey, it was a voice that Will had missed so much that he felt like closing his eyes and just enjoy the sound of his dad. Jonah nodded before following Tom out, Ronnie and Will followed Susan to the living room and sat on separate couches. It was quiet until Tom came out and sat next to Susan across from Will and Ronnie.
Will was holding Ronnie's hand in a way that pleaded with her silently to help him through this speech and when she squeezed his hand he knew that she would always be with him helping him through all the stress that was sure to come. Will sighed before beginning what would inevitably be a long night.
"First off, Ronnie was in the hospital at the beginning of the summer a little while after we saw you last," he told them. Tom looked concerned but Susan didn't look like it was valid information and that made Will just want to start screaming but he kept that in while he looked at his dad.
"What happened?" Tom asked, he looked scared as he looked at Ronnie. It was like he was looking for something that wasn't obvious that would explain why she was in the hospital.
"She was jumped outside of the bathrooms at the beach and I had to rush her to the hospital," Will explained not wanting to bring Marcus' name up. He would if they asked but he didn't feel like bringing that stuff back into the conversation when his mom was just getting over the whole wedding fiasco.
"Oh, my God, are you okay?" He asked her. Will was pleased to note that he didn't notice anything but normal curiosity in the way his dad asked the question, he seemed generally scared of the thought of something bad happening to Ronnie.
"Yes, thank you," she said. She couldn't shake the feeling that she needed to be polite to them to the point of formal but every time she looked at Susan she felt like she was back in school in the principal's office being reprimanded for doing something bad.
"That's good," Tom said. He seemed relieved and then looked at Will again, curiosity coming back into his expression. "If that's all good than what else happened. I can tell by your expressions, Will, that something happened but I can't tell what it is," Tom continued. Will looked at Ronnie needing to get the strength she always had before chickening out. She nodded and just for good measure he looked at her stomach thinking of what their baby would look like when they popped out, he didn't care at the moment if he gave anything away since he was just going to tell them.
"We're pregnant," he announced before he could back out. Ronnie blanched before looking at Susan who was just as white; Will looked at Tom who had an earsplitting grin on his face.
"We're going to be grandparents," he whispered with the smile still lighting up his face. Ronnie and Will looked at Susan who was still sitting on the couch staring at them like they had just told her that they killed her pet dog. Will knew this was not going to be good. They all waited for her to say something and when she finally did Will wished that she had just kept quiet.
"What?" She asked them, when they repeated the words 'we're pregnant' and Susan was sure that she hadn't misunderstood them she leapt to her feet glaring at Ronnie.
"What? You couldn't get enough money out of Will by pretending to love him; you just had to get pregnant in the meantime, didn't you!" She was shouting by this point and Ronnie just took it with no change in her expression but Will's fists were clenching in anger knowing that if he didn't leave soon he would do or say something he might regret.
"I love him," Ronnie whispered as if this would fix everything.
"No you don't. I've seen girls like you before and I know that you are just with Will to get the money, you gold-digging whore!" She screamed the last word at Ronnie and that was the last straw for Will, he stood up and knocked the coffee table to side in his anger.
"Don't talk to her like that!" He yelled back at her. Susan looked affronted at what he had said.
"You're seriously going to stay with her to take care of a baby that's probably not even yours? She's just with you for the money and I've tried to tell you before but you haven't listened to me and now you're going to bring an innocent baby into this mess that you call a relationship and the baby's probably not yours!" She shrieked. Will looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time; he couldn't believe what he was hearing and that it was coming out of his mom's mouth in the first place.
"I love Ronnie and I don't care what you say because I know that she loves me, also. There's nothing you can say or do that will ever change my feelings for her. I know that the baby is mine and I will take care of it and be there for it like you weren't!" He yelled, his mom looked scared but his dad just looked ashamed and Will knew that he would regret that in the morning but he looked at his mom and said everything he had wanted to say before he could run away.
"I didn't tell you this the last time we were here but I proposed to Ronnie that first night we had our apartment and she said yes. We're getting married and if you don't accept this relationship then I don't want you there and I don't want you to be a part of my child's life," he told her. He made sure that she understood what he was saying before he took Ronnie's hand and pulled her to the door and called Jonah on the way.
"I know that you don't think Ronnie is from the proper family but I don't think that it should matter if she is first class or not. I've never wanted to be with one of those girls that thinks she's so much better than others, I love Ronnie and I love who she is and I would think that would be enough for you but it's not and I don't know what else I could do that would make you happy, mom," he told her. She looked ashamed and guilty for one second before she wiped her face clean and he knew nothing he could say would change her mind. He shook his head before turning to his dad.
"If you accept this than I don't want you to be excluded from my baby's life just because of mom. If you want to come to my wedding than talk to me but I can't have her there and ruin the day for me," he said quietly. Susan looked like she was about to say something but decided against it before Will called for Jonah and they left the place with their heads up and their spirits high.
Ronnie knew that nothing she could've said would have affected his parents and everything Will said came right out of her mouth.