Chapter Six

Plans for the Future

Conner looked at his watch and grimaced. It was five after six, which

meant that he'd been helping Tia with her pre-calc homework for over an

hour. He'd had a guitar lesson after school, and had promised Tia to

help her with her homework afterwards. He's already explained it twice,

and she still wasn't getting it.

Tia looked at her workbook and sighed. "But what you said makes no

sense!" she exclaimed. "There's no x in the problem!"

Conner shook his head. "Tee, x is what you use to find the square root

of the curve. You have to figure out what x stands for to find out what

y stands for."

"So Mr. Know-it-all, how do you find that?"

Conner sighed. He'd been over that twice. "Do the equation without the y."

Tia went back over the steps. "Yeah."

"Now find one forth of that."

Tia narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

"Because. Blank equals one fourth times one."

Tia frowned, then looked at the problem. Now it made sense. She quickly

worked out the steps. "Sixty-eight degrees!" She said in triumph.

"Exactly." Conner stood up, and grabbed his jacket, but Tia stopped

him. "Wait a second, you're going to stay and make sure that I get the next one."

Conner sighed. "I want to go and see how Liz is doing."

Tia rolled her eyes. "Jess said that it was just a cold. You're girl's fine. Now help me."

Should I tell her? Conner thought. He'd wanted to earlier, but had

chicken out. Might as well. She was going to know soon enough.

"Actually Tee, there's more than that."

"What do you mean?"

Conner bit his lip. "Liz is pregnant."

"What!" Tia screeched.

"I said that she's pregnant. It was an accident."

"No shit!" Tia hissed. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know! But she's staying with my family. Her dad freaked when

she told him, and kicked her out of the house."

Tia's jaw dropped. "Poor Liz!"

"I know. Now can I go? I need to check on her. She was throwing up this morning."

Jessica stopped by Jeremy's car. It was dark out, and she could see his

face in the haze of a streetlight. He had a cut on his cheek, and two

darkening bruises on an eye and his jaw. There was a little drip of

blood at the corner of his mouth, and his lip was cracked.

"You poor thing. Are you okay to drive home?"

Jeremy nodded. "Yeah." He walked towards his door. "I'm fine. I'll call

you in an hour, after I've cleaned my face up and showered."

Jessica gave him a kiss; careful to make sure she didn't hurt him. "All

right." She walked toward the Jeep and gave him a half wave. Then she

got in and pulled out of the parking lot. An hour would give her just

enough time to check on Liz and then get home.

Conner pulled his Mustang into his driveway. He checked his watch. It

was a quarter after six, and he was glad that he could finally see

Elizabeth. She'd been asleep when he'd stopped by to get his guitar. He got

out and locked the door, at that moment, he saw a white Jeep coming up

the road. No doubt it was Jessica, coming to see her sister. Conner

waited for her to pull in.

"Hi Conner. Can I come in and see Liz?"

"Sure."

Conner walked up the path, Jessica right behind him. He unlocked the

door, and crossed the foyer. Elizabeth was inside, sitting at the kitchen table.

Conner walked over and kissed her. "Are you doing better?"

Elizabeth nodded, and smiled brightly when she saw her sister. "Hi Jess."

Jessica smiled. "Hey. How are things going?"

Elizabeth sighed, watching as her sister and Conner each sat down. "Not

the greatest. I tried to call dad and talk, but he hung up on me."

Jessica bit her lip. "Mom said she was going to call you later. She's

upset with dad. She can't believe that he kicked you out. She said that

now was the time that you needed them most."

Elizabeth nodded. She did need her parent's support. "Yeah. I hope that

I can work things out with him."

Jessica nodded. "I'm going to try to talk to dad. The worst that he can do is yell at me."

Elizabeth decided to change the subject. At that point Conner stood up.

"I'm going to leave you two alone for awhile. I've got to change." He

got up from the table and walked up to his room.

"So, how was your day?"

Jessica shrugged. "Good for most of the day. But Jeremy and Will got in a fight after work."

Elizabeth's brow furrowed. "What type of fight?"

Jessica grimaced. "A fist fight. Jeremy schooled Will's ass. But I feel

bad, because it was over me. Will was hitting on me, and tried to kiss

me, and when Jeremy told him to back off, Will slugged him."

Elizabeth gasped. "Whoa."

Jessica shook her head. "Jeremy's okay, and I don't care about Will. I

shouldn't be worrying you. I'm going to go. I'll call you later."

*********************************************************

Elizabeth sat on her bed, brushing out her hair, when she heard a knock

on the bathroom door. "Come on in." she said, knowing it was Conner.

He came in and sat down, facing her. She set her hairbrush on her nightstand.

"I think that it's time we talk about what we're going to do."

Elizabeth nodded. There was no argument there. "I agree."

"Things are going to change, and you know what I mean with that. It's

time to decide how to handle this." Elizabeth nodded, and Conner

continued. "No matter what you decide to do, I'm on your side."

Elizabeth took a deep breath. "I don't believe in abortion, and neither

do you. So I assume that means I'm going to have the baby. I can do

that. But that give us two decisions."

Conner nodded. "Adoption or keeping the baby."

"Right. And I'm willing to do either. If you think that adoption's the

better option, I'll make the call. But if you want to raise the baby,

I'm ready for that, too." Conner started to say something, and then

stopped. Elizabeth continued on. "But I know that I can't raise a baby by

myself. If we do decide to keep it, I want them to have both a mother

and a father. And I'm willing to be a mother."

Conner paused. At that moment, he realized that his answer would

determine both Elizabeth's future and his own. "I'm willing to be a father."

He gently pulled her towards him, and held her in his arms. "I want what's best for our baby."

Elizabeth pulled back slowly. "Things are going to change. We'll have

to support and take care of this baby ourselves. My dad's not going to

help at all. He's made that perfectly clear."

Conner nodded. "We'll make it through this."

Elizabeth leaned against his broad chest. "I love you."

Conner wrapped his arms around her. "I love you too. And I know that

things are going to work out in the end." She tilted her face up, and he kissed her.

"And I also know that you'll be a wonderful mother."