Main POVs: Dallas, Bianca, Eli
Dallas was waiting in the maternity ward as Vanessa was in labor. She had been for several hours. With each scream he overheard from in the hallway, he felt his anxiety increase further.
Fatherhood was a push or two away at this point and he still didn't know what he was going to do. He didn't even want to be in this situation in the first place but after Marisol dumped him, he really had nothing left to lose. No girl at Degrassi wanted to hook up with a guy that knocked a girl up. And as for his parents? They were furious. He had to live with Drew and his family for a few days because his old man kicked him out. The only reason why he was allowed to come back home was because they didn't want to alert child protective services. Now, they just pretend he doesn't exist.
His phone beeped, and he took it out of his pocket to see that he got a text message from Drew. "How are you holding up, bro?" The message read.
"Terrible," he texted back. Since he's been in the hospital, he's been doing nothing but watching TV or staring at white walls for six hours. He had dinner at the cafeteria and the pizza there was the worst he had ever eaten. He also didn't know just how horrible it was to constantly hear the sounds of machines beeping until now.
"Stay strong, man. You got this," Drew replied with a fist emoji. Dallas rolled his eyes. While he could appreciate the support, there was nothing Drew could say that would make him feel better right now.
Dallas looked at the clock at the nurse's station. It read two a.m. in the morning. Any normal guy his age would be in bed sleeping in preparation for school tomorrow or playing NBA 2K but not him. He was at the hospital waiting for his kid to arrive. 'I guess it wouldn't hurt to finally get some sleep,' he thought to himself.
Just as he was about to lay down on the benches, Vanessa's screaming stopped and the cry of a baby was heard instead. A nurse came out of the birthing room.
"Congratulations, Michael. You have a son! Are you ready to meet him?" The nurse asked him kindly.
A boy. He had a son.
"Sure…..," Dallas answered in shock as he slowly stood up and followed the nurse inside the room. Vanessa was there on the bed, looking like hell, with a tiny blue bundle in her arms. With each step he took to approach them, he felt light-headed.
He looked down at their son for the first time. The baby was more red than brown at the moment, and was barely bigger than his Jordans. Yet, he was still terrified to interact with him.
"A guy like you can't be too shy to say hello to his son," Vanessa said to him with a crack in her voice. Her hair was all over her head, her eyes were watery with tears, and her skin was slick with sweat. The last time she looked like this was after they had sex for the first time all those months ago. It was crazy (and terrifying) how two entirely different situations could lead to the same result.
Dallas held out his hand to the baby, who opened up his eyes to look up at him. He didn't even know how to properly introduce himself to a newborn baby.
When the baby grabbed onto his finger tightly, he nearly jumped out of surprise. But an unfamiliar warmth also crashed over him, a warmth he never felt before.
Bianca had never been so pissed after sex in her life.
"It was by accident, B," Owen said defensively as she angrily put her clothes back on, "It just slipped out."
"So this is what's going to go down between us from now on? You crying out the name of that dumb bitch you're dating while fucking me?" She demanded sharply while turning to glare at him.
They were having their usual casual sex in their favorite tent at The Ravine. Only this time, Owen made it blatantly clear he was thinking of his girlfriend while he was inside of her by moaning out her name.
"She's not giving me any pussy, what do you expect?" Owen asked, annoyed. "I thought with the rumors flying around about her that she would have given it up to me already."
"Maybe she actually is smart enough to see what a bigger idiot you are and realize that it's not worth it," she replied darkly.
Owen's new girlfriend, Marisol Lewis, was stupid, vapid, and let Owen control everything she did. So her best friend had finally found his dream girl. The only thing she was apparently doing wrong was not having sex with him so her and Owen were continuing their regular friends with benefits affair.
"I'll fuck her soon, believe that. She's crazy in love with me, I'll just have to keep buttering her up," her best friend replied. Then a dark smirk fell on his face. "The one bright side of this is that I'll be the one to pop that little cherry of hers. She's a virgin, B, isn't that beautiful?"
Truthfully she found it creepy how guys fixated on being with virgins, even if Owen was her friend.
"So, I'm just someone to fuck until she's dumb enough to sleep with you?" she accused.
"When you put it that way, it makes our friendship look terrible, but you and I have a special understanding, B. It's why I love you," he reassured her, "Besides you don't really mind. It's not like that Torres boy is taking you out on any dates."
Drew was another person she was regularly hooking up since the Valentine's Day dance. They were always meeting up in the Boiler Room, so she could give him blowjobs. He surprisingly refused to go any further than that, saying that he only wanted to go all the way with someone special. It was obvious she wasn't that someone. It was something she was repeatedly trying to convince herself that she was fine with.
But regularly being used by two guys for sexual purposes until they got something by girls they actually liked stung.
"He isn't," she agreed, "But at least he isn't disrespecting me by saying the name of some other bitch while I'm blowing him."
Fully dressed, she stormed out of the tent without another word to her friend.
In another part of the city inside a movie theater, Eli was sitting next to Julia on their first date while feeling incredibly nervous. He hadn't been on a date in a long time and was scared of fucking this up. Admittedly a part of it was because he had far more interest in Julia than he ever did Imogen while they were dating.
On the big screen, the final girl of the slasher movie they were watching was going through the upstairs of an abandoned mansion her and her friends were partying in. All of her friends had been murdered in grisly ways throughout the whole movie by the killer and this was the scene where she was most likely about to discover their bodies.
"Don't go in there dumbass," he heard Julia say next to him. She was furiously digging in their big bucket of popcorn to shove a bunch in her mouth at the same time while he had their large cup of cherry coke on his side.
When the main girl entered a dark room and turned the lights on, she screamed at the sight of all her dead friends. One had her throat slit while being hung up by arrows on a door, another was tied down to the bed by his own entrails. The one black guy in the movie who died first had a hook embedded in his skull. The "slutty" girl was somehow folded into a pretzel in a way that shouldn't be humanly possible but no one watches slasher movies for medical accuracy.
The killer jumped out from underneath the bed in a weak attempt at a jump scare but neither him nor Julia even flinched while everyone else around them screamed. In that moment Eli boldly reached for her hand, running his fingers over her chipped black nail polish.
She looked at him, and even in the darkness he could see her soft smile.
Early in the morning, Dallas was taught how to properly hold the baby by a nurse while Vanessa slept in the bed. It was the first time in a while that she actually looked at peace.
The warmth from his son was something never felt before along with the smell of a newborn. He looked down at him as he tried to find his features in him. The paternity test he and Vanessa had taken will determine if he really was this kid's father but he already knew the answer. It may have sounded dumb but he already formed a bond with the baby.
The baby smiled in his arms while sleeping, and Dallas smiled back. Then his nose crinkled in disgust as a foul stench filled up his nostrils.
The baby had farted.
Bianca bit into her breakfast sandwich as she sat in the cafeteria before school started. It was a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich that was bought for her by Owen, who was currently kissing on his girlfriend's neck while she sat in his lap.
"Owen, stopppp. Not here," Marisol urged, giggling as she tried to push him off of her.
"Why not? There's no one here to stop us," he replied as he slapped her ass, making her squeal. Bianca felt her stomach turn at the sight.
"I'm actually here and ready to projectile vomit on both of you," she gruffly said. Marisol glared at her and she glared right back.
"I have to take a kiss, I'll be right back babe," Owen announced to Marisol before giving her a quick kiss. He pushed her off of his lap and left the table, leaving the two of them together and the boiling tension.
"Why do you hate me so much?" Marisol demanded from her.
"Because you're annoying and your head is full of bubbles," Bianca bluntly answered.
"Well you're a burnout bitch that's going to end up dead in a crackhouse in five years so who's really the loser here?" Marisol countered. The question was offensive, and not just because crack was in the league of drugs she would never try.
'You because I'm fucking your boyfriend," Bianca wanted to say but couldn't. Owen would be pissed at her for causing him drama even though it was his fault. Instead she just simply smirked at her.
"I bet you think you're better than me because you're a popular cheerleader with a popular jock boyfriend that eats sushi and iced coffee for lunch instead of McDonald's and booze but I promise you that once high school is over, you won't have anything to aspire to afterwards because you reached your peak. And then you're going to be the one who's dead in a crackhouse in five years," she replied. Marisol bristled at her while tightly gripping her large cup of iced coffee. Bianca could tell she wanted to throw it on her. She hoped she did. She wanted to rip out Marisol's diamond encrusted hoop earrings and shove them down her throat.
"You're only telling yourself that to make yourself sleep better at night but honey, I have dreams that I'm going to achieve after high school. From what I've seen of you so far, the only things you like doing are showing up to class drunk, falling asleep in class, and hanging out in the Ravine. You have no dreams and any goals to better yourself. You live to be a loser and you're most likely going to die one," Marisol fired back and the sickeningly sweet smile she attached to her statement made Bianca want to deck her.
By the time Owen came back, she was sitting there silently with her arms folded, steaming, while Marisol drank her iced coffee with an annoying slurping sound she knew was happening just to piss her off.
After class, Eli found Julia at her locker getting her books out. "Hey," he greeted her while approaching with one of his hands behind his back. She looked back at him with a smile as she closed her locker.
"Hey yourself," she greeted back at him, "I enjoyed our date last night."
"Hopefully that means you'll enjoy the next one," he declared before pulling out a single black rose. He had Bullfrog drive him to the nearest flower shop that was open to buy one.
Her eyes widened at the gesture as she took it. He watched with pride as she ran her finger over the rose to see if it was real. It was real, just dyed.
"Are you some sort of big romantic?" She asked him.
"No, just a guy with a flair for the dramatics," he answered with a smirk, "And only for the right girl."
She smirked back. "So I guess you want me to be your girlfriend, eh?"
"Yes," he said as he held out his arm, "Twist my rubber arm, girlfriend."
Her smirk turned into a genuine smile as she wrapped his arm around her shoulder. They then walked down the hallway together.
Dallas was sleeping with Vanessa and their son in the hospital bed when a nurse came into their room. "Someone is here to visit you," she announced as Drew pushed past her with a teddy bear. It was brown with a big blue bow tied around its neck.
"I have bought a gift for the little tyke!" He said cheerfully as he came to his side of the bed.
"Thank you," Vanessa said politely with a smile as she took the bear. She showed it to the baby, who opened up his eyes. He looked at the bear curiously. Drew took a seat by the window.
"Can I hold the baby as an honorary uncle?" He asked while holding his arms out. Dallas looked at Vanessa, and they both shared a look of hesitation. He loved Drew but he didn't know if he could trust him with a baby, especially since his little guy was so small.
He took the baby from Vanessa's arms and slowly and carefully handed him to Drew. "If you drop him, I will kill you," he warned Drew, who happily took the baby. To his surprise, his best friend was holding the baby properly.
"I have so many little cousins on my dad's side, I know how to hold a baby," Drew explained as he made playful faces at the baby, who just stared in response.
"Have you guys named him yet?" He asked them.
"Not yet, I mostly picked out baby names for girls," Vanessa admitted sheepishly, "The only boy names I have in mind are Munro, Justin, and Demetrius."
"All of which are lame," Dallas replied bluntly, "Our son needs to have a cool name, something powerful…"
An idea came to his head.
"What about Rock?" He suggested and Vanessa looked at him like he was stupid.
"Rock? You want to name our son after a form of mass?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"No, I want to name him after one of the greatest wrestlers of all time who is now a badass actor," Dallas corrected as he looked over to his son. "What do you say, Little Rocky? Daddy has the right idea, doesn't he?"
It was hard to see, but Dallas could have sworn he saw a tiny smile appear on his son's face.
After school, when it was time to have sex with Owen at The Ravine, she fucked her friend with a rawness she had never done before. Just to stick it harder to Marisol. When they were, she rolled off of her friend and wiped the sweat off of her forehead.
"Wow," Owen commented in amazement, and she knew that he was most likely fantasizing about Marisol screwing him like this, "Maybe I'm with the wrong girl."
"Don't think about your regrets because I'm not interested in being your girlfriend, I just hate that stupid bitch you're with more," she replied flatly before taking a moment to pant.
"Does she really bother you that much?" He asked while putting his arms behind his head.
"She said I'm going to die in a crackhouse in five years Owen because unlike her I don't have any dreams," she answered.
"Well, she might not be wrong," he replied as she scowled, "I mean between you, me, and Fitz, I'm probably going to be the most successful out of the three of us with my football career."
"If you don't get a career ruining injury that has you working at McDonald's for the rest of your life. Then you'll be a loser just like me and Fitz," she pointed out.
"Highly doubt it. My future is written in the stars. A highly successful pro NFL player with a hot trophy wife, seven million dollar cars, a bangin mansion, a bunch of sons, and a sea of pussy for me to swim in," he countered, "What do you even like to do besides drinking and blowing guys in boiler rooms?"
"Dancing, remember asshole?" She reminded him. She was in the dancing club at Degrassi. She just didn't attend any meetings because she thought it was stupid.
"Yeah, well, you're not doing anything with that so you probably are going to die in a crackhouse somewhere after graduation," he replied before cringing in pain when she smacked him in the ear. He really was a terrible friend sometimes that had been equally terrible at sex lately. Why did she even hang around him and Fitz at this point?
A small part of her feared that he and Marisol were right. Every day of her life was miserable. She had an aunt that hated her that kept bringing sketchy men into the house and had her living off of scraps. When she got to school, popular girls like Marisol turned their noses up at her. Teachers looked at her like a lost cause. One friend was using her for sex while the other was just someone to get drunk with. It was never ending. She couldn't even have a moment of peace when it was finally time to go to bed at night because she slept on a hard ass mattress that was barely a step above sleeping on cardboard.
Her life sucked, and she was starting to fear that it wasn't going to get better unless she did something.
Eli was in the middle of playing a Street Fighter match against Mo while Jake watched them when he heard a knock on the front door. He paused the game and went to open up the front door to see Julia standing there in the rain. Her black mascara was running down her cheeks.
"Let me in," she commanded and he did, stepping aside to let her through. When she did, she turned around to look at him.
"I got into a fight with my stepmom and my dad kicked me out of the house. I don't know when he's going to let me back in," she explained.
"Then you can stay here with me. I'm sorry that your dad is such a dick," he replied. His parents wouldn't care considering how many of their drunk friends they let stay the night countless times.
"Can we go upstairs to talk? Just you and me?" She asked. Eli looked at his friends for approval. Mo looked like he wanted to say no while Jake shrugged and went back to munching on his Funyuns. He was eating them out of a whole big bowl due to the munchies kicking in.
"Sure," he accepted while overhearing Mo suck his teeth in the background. He led her upstairs to his bedroom and closed the door behind them.
He was caught off guard when she grabbed his face and slammed her lips onto his. He quickly grabbed her hips to hold himself steady. She ran her tongue over his lips and he opened his mouth to deepen the kiss. They made out for a few minutes before parting away from each other, both of them panting heavily.
"You're the only good thing in my life, Eli," Julia said with watery eyes, "Please don't ever leave me."
"I would never," he assured her sincerely. She smiled before grabbing his neck and pulling him down into another kiss.
Before he knew it, they were making out on his bed and he forgot all about his friends downstairs.
The next morning, Dallas showed up to school and he tried not to let everyone's staring get to him. A freshman having a baby was a pretty hot topic but knowing Degrassi, there would be an even bigger scandal to replace it soon. Probably another gonorrhea outbreak or something.
As he opened up his locker, he couldn't stop thinking about Rocky and Vanessa. It would be another two days before they were allowed to leave the hospital and he didn't know how everything was going to go down afterwards. He was still trying to cope with the fact that he was officially a father.
"Look boys, it's the face of someone who's life is pretty over," he heard Owen say to some of their teammates as they walked past him. They all then laughed while he glared. Normally he would have some smart remarks up his sleeve but he really wasn't in the mood. Usually, he could take the remarks because all he and his teammates did was take the piss out of each other but what they were saying was true and it stung. He didn't have a life anymore.
In his locker was some vodka hidden in a big water jug. He grabbed it, opened the top of and downed as much liquor as possible.
He might show up to classes a little tipsy but he figured he was owed that with the situation he was currently in.
During the time period allowed for club periods, Bianca headed down to a small room in the gym. There, a bunch of girls were stretching on some floor mats while some music played on one of the girl's iPods. She cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. They all froze when they saw her.
"What? I'm here to practice," she said as she set down her backpack.
"I don't even remember your name," the leader of the dancer club replied with narrowed eyes.
"Bianca DeSousa, memorize it, write it down, tattoo it on your forehead, I don't care," she introduced dryly as she approached them with her hands on her hips. "Now are you guys going to tell me what's on the agenda today or are you all going to continue staring at me like idiots?"
The other girls looked at each other with hesitant looks on their faces. Then one of the girls spoke up.
"You're not really missing much because no one is inviting us to any cool events," she grumbled.
"Well then, let's give them a reason to invite us," Bianca urged.
"Why do you care?" The leader of the club questioned her.
"Because I'm bored and need some excitement," Bianca answered, and that was a part of the truth.
She had a passion she wanted to tap deeper into, and she wanted to prove both Marisol and Owen wrong.
At lunch, Eli chose to sit outside with Julia instead of his friends. He was sure Mo and Jake wouldn't mind. Julia really needed him right now.
"So your parents don't mind me crashing over your place for a few days?" She asked him.
"Nope, they're actually quite happy to see a girl in my room again after Imogen," he answered. When Bullfrog walked in on him and Julia cuddling in his bed, he cracked a joke about how they better practice safe sex because him and Cece were too young to be grandparents. They truly didn't give a fuck.
Julia bit her lip, and he was briefly reminded of how Marisol did the same when she was nervous. He quickly pushed away thoughts of Marisol. He was completely over her. One hundred percent.
"I love you Eli," she confessed and he was surprised at how quick she was to say it considering their relationship just started.
"I love you too," he replied as they shared a tender kiss on the school ledge.
He had only known Julia for a short time, but he wanted to protect, prove that he was a good boyfriend.
After all, there was no other perfect match for him.
The paternity test results from the lab were ready when Dallas came to visit Vanessa and Rocky at the hospital later after school. They revealed what he already knew but denied for so long. He was the father.
"He seems to be a hungry boy," Vanessa commented with an amused smile as he fed their son with a bottle while holding him in his arms. After he was done feeding him, he burped Rocky. Dallas then wiped his mouth with the baby blanket. Rocky was staring him down the entire time, and Dallas felt like he was on trial for his life.
"He gets it from me. He already knows he needs to eat a lot if he's going to be a big strong athlete like Daddy," Dallas replied with a smirk. Then Rocky started crying.
"He's crying because he wants to be a theater kid when he grows up," Vanessa mused. He snorted at the idea. He hoped his son never wanted to be involved with that group of overdramatic freaks in the school's drama department.
Dallas handed Rocky back to Vanessa and watched as his baby mama tried to soothe their baby. After a few minutes, the baby cried himself to sleep. He had a feeling it wasn't going to always be that easy.
Dallas sat back in his seat by the window. He looked outside to watch the sunset while cars drove up and down the streets of Toronto.
Everything about his life was about to change and he probably wasn't ready for the challenges that were coming.