CHAPTER 7

Hey guys sorry I took so long to update. I have just been extremely busy with school and everything. But here you are. Please read and review. Hope you guys like it:)

Ruthie was upstairs in her room waiting for Mike to come pick her up. She was staring at her reflection in the mirror trying to decide if she looked okay. She'd decided on just wearing jeans with a cute tank top then her plaid blazer. She didn't want to overdress, she wasn't about to go giving Mike any ideas. She glanced at her watch, almost six. Mike would be here soon. Glancing at herself one last time she headed downstairs. As she walked into the kitchen, she was surprised to see it empty. "Mom?" she called.

"In here," she heard a reply.

She walked through the kitchen, her heels making a clicking sound on the floor. She walked into the living room to find both Annie and

Eric sitting on the couch.

"What are you doing?" Ruthie asked.

"What do you mean?" Eric asked.

"You're waiting for Mike, so that you can interrogate him," Ruthie accused, getting annoyed.

"No," Annie replied.

"We're just concerned about you," Eric added. "We're just not so sure that you going out on a date is a good idea."

"I'm fine," Ruthie told them, "I'm quite capable of deciding who I should go out with. And besides it's not a date, well not really. We're j

ust getting pizza."

"What about Martin?" Eric said getting to the point. Annie elbowed him.

"What do you mean?" Ruthie asked, but knowing full well what they meant. She sighed, and sat down in one of the armchairs.

"Just that we know how you felt about Martin …. And we know that this is a rough time for you," Annie started.

"Look," Ruthie began, "The thing with Martin and I hurt a lot. But I'm fine, sure it still upsets me, but I'm trying not to think about." The

doorbell rang stopping her from continuing. "I'll get it." She walked over to the door and pulled it open.

"Hi," Mike said.

"Hey," she replied. She was surprised, Mike actually looked pretty good. She could tell that he had taken the time to dress up. He was wearing jeans with a nice blue shirt and his hair was brushed out of his eyes. He had bright green eyes, and she couldn't help but smile. "Uhh … come in," she said stepping out of the way. She led him into the living room. "Mike, these are my parents, Annie and Eric," she said introducing them to each other.

"Nice to meet you," Mike told them, "So …. Shall we?" he said turning to Ruthie.

"Sure," Ruthie smiled at him. "We won't be long," she told her parents.

They were both looking at Mike and just nodded at her comment.

"Ok, bye." Ruthie told them shoving Mike towards the door. She was surprised at how quiet they were being. But she could tell by the look on her dad's face that he was about to say something and that it wasn't going to be good.

"Nice meeting you," Mike called out as they walked outside and Ruthie slammed the front door.

"So …" Annie said.

"Yep," Eric replied.

"He looked old!" Annie said. "About Martin's age."

"Yes," Eric said putting his head in his hands. "Why didn't we stop her? We know nothing about this boy. I know Ruthie's been going

through a hard time lately, but we can't let her get away with stuff."

"Let her get away with stuff!" Annie said getting agitated.

"Yes!" Eric replied, "We've always told Ruthie she can't date older guys."

"Well what about Martin?" Annie reminded him.

"They never really dated. And he's having a baby," Eric sighed. "My baby girl is out with some eighteen year old boy, who we don't

know."

Annie didn't know what to say. She was worrying about the exact same thing.

Martin was sitting at the kitchen table just finishing dinner. His dad was working late, so once again he was eating by himself. Surprisingly he liked eating by himself because it gave him a chance to think about things. Lately all he kept thinking about was Ruthie and how badly he had messed up. It hurt him so much to think that he was the reason he had lost the one great thing that had happened to him. Ruthie had been so cold today at school and that was what hurt the most. He realized how naïve he had been to think that they could remain friends. He realized now how foolish that was. They weren't going to be friends. Too much had happened, and too many lines of trust had been broken. He sighed, looking down at his empty plate. He felt his phone vibrating in his pocket; he glanced at the number and saw that it was Sandy calling. He really didn't feel like talking to her right now, but he remembered how he'd promised her that he was going to be there for her. He pushed the answer button, "Hello."

"Hi Martin, it's Sandy."

"Hey, how are you?" He asked.

"I'm good," she replied. "So, I went to the doctor today."

"Oh yeah," Martin replied. "How was it?"

"It was …. Interesting" Sandy told.

"Interesting? Why do you say that? Is something wrong with the baby?" asked Martin starting to panic.

"No, no. The baby's fine," she reassured him.

"Oh."

"Look, there's something I need to tell you," Sandy began, "And I think it is good news."

"What is it?" Martin asked. He wondered what she had to tell him. Anything would be good news at this point. His life was so messed up right now.

He heard Sandy sigh, "The baby isn't yours."

Martin almost dropped the phone, "WHAT!"

"The baby isn't yours," she repeated quietly.

"Are you sure?" Martin asked. He didn't want Sandy to be wrong about this.

"I'm sure." She told him. "Apparently, I'm two months pregnant."

"Oh." Martin wasn't sure how that translated into him not being the father.

"We had sex five weeks ago," She told him. "There's no way that you are the father."

"Wow," Martin didn't know what to say. He couldn't believe this. Everything that he had been worrying about he no longer needed to. He didn't have to worry about getting a job, and supporting Sandy and their baby. He had his life back. He would have loved the baby when it had been born; but it was such a relief knowing he didn't have that responsibility. He just wasn't ready for a kid. A huge grin erupted across his face. Then a thought struck him, "Wait, if I'm not the father, then who is?"

"Uh …" Sandy said, "I'd rather not say right at this moment."

"It's Simon, isn't it?"

Sandy didn't say anything and he knew that it was true.

"Well, I just wanted to let you know," she told him. "You probably want to go tell the news to someone."

"What?"

"A certain curly haired girl goes by the name of Ruthie,"

"Oh my god," Martin said. In all of this commotion he had forgotten about Ruthie. A smile broke across his face. Everything was perfect again. He couldn't wait to tell her. In one night his whole life had changed yet again, and this time it was for the better. He only hoped that Ruthie would be as happy as he was, and that she would have it in her heart to forgive him. "Thanks Sandy, and not to be insensitive, but can we continue this conversation at another time?"

"Sure," she responded sounding slightly sad. "Go get the girl that you love."

"Thanks," Martin told her, "Oh, and don't forget. I am still here if you need me. For anything," with that being said, he hung up. He had to go get Ruthie back. The one girl he had ever truly loved, nothing was going to keep them apart. He felt so happy now, knowing that he could take away all of Ruthie's pain that she had been feeling the past couple of weeks. He only hoped she'd be willing to hear him out. Grabbing his jacket off the chair he headed out the door ready to get back the only girl that he had ever truly loved.

Ruthie sighed, why did she ever think that this was a good idea? This date or whatever it was was horrible. Mike wasn't even remotely interesting. Sure, he was cute and he definitely knew how to dress, but he was so boring. He kept talking about sports, football and baseball, which Ruthie was not into at all. Sure, she went to baseball games to watch Martin but that's only because he was there. Mike had talked about sports, bragged that'd he'd been captain oh his football team back in New York, and then started complaining about the fact that his parents had decided to move his senior year. She was thankful when the waiter brought over there pizza, so that it gave her an excuse not to talk and gave Mike a chance to be quiet. Thinking about it, she realized that he was actually quite conceited, he'd been talking about himself all night. Ruthie took a bite of the piece of pizza in front of her.

"So how long have you lived in Glenoak?" Mike asked

Ruthie swallowed, now he decides to ask questions. "Uh … pretty much all my life actually."

"Wow," Mike replied, "What's your family like?"

Where should she begin? "Well, my father is a minister at the local church. I have an older brother Matt who is med school in New York

and married to his wife Sarah. My older sister Mary is an airplane attendant; she's divorced and has a baby. My other sister Lucy is also

a minister, she's married to her husband Kevin, and they have a baby girl, Savannah. Then there's my other brother Simon, who's in his

second year at college, he's engaged to his girlfriend, Rose," she paused for a second, watching Mike's reaction.

"Wow … uh wow, a big family," Mike said.

"Yeah. Oh, then there's Sam and David who are my twin brothers. They're seven."

"Wow, must have been a fun time for you growing up," Mike stated

"It has its ups and downs" Ruthie said, smiling. "What about you?"

"Uh … well it's just me and then my older sister, Allison. She's in college in New York. She escaped having to move here."

"Why don't you like it here?" Ruthie asked.

"It's not New York," he stated simply. "I miss my friends, my girlfriend, well my ex-girlfriend."

Ah, now Ruthie understood. It sounded like Mike had left somebody he loved behind. Instead of feeling annoyed with him, she actually felt bad. It wasn't easy to lose somebody that you loved, that she could identify with.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?"

"For the fact that you had to leave behind somebody you loved. I'm just getting over somebody myself," she told him. "I just found out

that the person I love is having a baby with someone else."

Mike looked like he didn't know what to say.

"We just confessed our feelings to one another, and everything was perfect. Until, I found out that he'd slept with someone over the

summer and got her pregnant." Ruthie sighed.

"Now I'm sorry," Mike said smiling.

"It's ok," Ruthie said. "Thanks for dinner. This was actually pretty nice," she told him. "Believe it or not I don't have many friends."

"I find that hard to believe," Mike said looking at her. "You're beautiful."

Ruthie just smiled, "Well I just meant that you have one friend here in Glenoak."

Mike smiled at her, "Thanks. Maybe it won't be too bad here after all."

Martin was lying down on Ruthie's bed waiting for her to come home. He'd completely forgotten that she was going out with Mike tonight. When he'd showed up at her house, Annie and Eric had informed him that she was out for pizza with Mike. His heart had sank into his chest. He'd almost considered going to Pete's but instead asked if it would be ok for him to wait up in her room. Annie seemed rather hesitant to the idea, but Eric said it was ok. He hadn't told her parents the good news; he wanted Ruthie to be the first one to know. So, here he was lying on Ruthie's bed staring up at her ceiling. Even her bed smelled like Ruthie, the smell was intoxicating and he wanted nothing more than to have her here right now. So he could hold her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. He leaned back into her pillow feeling his eyes getting heavy. He would wait here until Ruthie was back.

Ruthie walked in through the front door. It was almost 9:00. She had been a bit longer than expected, but after Mike opened up he wasn't so bad. Realizing that no one was downstairs she headed upstairs. She stopped outside her parent's room to say goodnight.

"Hey, you're back," Eric said.

"Yeah," Ruthie replied. "Thanks for letting me go. Mike's a nice guy."

Eric and Annie looked at each other.

"Definitely not dating material," Ruthie continued, "But he's a nice guy nonetheless. I can see us being good friends."

"I see," said Annie.

"Yep. Ok, well goodnight," Ruthie told them. "I love you."

"Love you too, sweetheart," they both replied in unison.

Ruthie left to go up to her room.

"Sometimes, she seems so mature," Eric said smiling. "And then other times … it's like 'what were you thinking'"

"It's a part of growing up," Annie replied snuggling closer to him.

Ruthie entered her room to find the lights on. She looked around and almost dropped her purse when she saw Martin curled up on her bed. What is he doing here? Do my parents know? She wondered. "Martin," she whispered. He didn't stir. She walked over to him and realized he was asleep. He looked so innocent just curled up like that. Just looking at him, made all her feelings come rushing back. She took off her shoes and then lay down next to him. She didn't want to wake him, she'd find out why he was here in the morning. She snuggled closer and put her arm around him. Even if he was having a baby with someone else, right now that didn't seem to matter. For the moment she was perfectly happy just lying next to the boy that she loved.

Sorry for the cliffhanger. I will continue, don't worry. Also, I hope it's not too long. Again, there was a lot I wanted to say. Hope you guys like it. :)