Helen stared at her daughter with so much disbelief that Clare almost thought she had just lied, but she continued anyway. "Parker is- was my boy friend; he's the father, but he doesn't want anything to do with it. He told me to get an abortion!" Clare felt that her mom would be less hostile toward Eli after hearing that he was being supportive, unlike Parker.
Helen seemed to have taken Clare's words in another direction entirely. "Have you considered it? There are a few options that we can look at, but that is one to think about." Helen's demeanor had changed in three seconds flat, and now she was the perfect embodiment of calm.
Clare was disgusted with her mom in that moment. She had always been taught that abortion was wrong. Her parents had gotten divorced, but Clare didn't realize they had thrown all of their morals out the window. "You always told me abortion was a sin, and now you're asking me to kill my baby. Is it just an inconvenient time to be a Christian or more convenient to be a hypocrite?" The words tasted like venom in her mouth, and Clare hoped they felt like it to her mom.
Clare's hopes were well placed, because her mother stepped back as if being physically hurt. "Sometimes there is no other choice, and this will ruin your life. Even if you put it up for adoption, you're going to be dealing with rumors and people talking about you and possibly friends deserting you. Do you really want that?"
Eli saw how Helen's words were effecting Clare, and he hated it instantly. He couldn't believe her mom wasn't hugging her to cushion the blow or something minimally supportive. He couldn't stop himself from breaking into the conversation. "With all due respect, Mrs...er...Martin, I think that you should respect Clare's decision if she's willing to take responsibility for her actions. Doesn't it seem like asking her to take the easy way out by pushing abortion on her when she's trying to give her child life?" He tried to keep the angry sarcasm out of his voice, but Clare's mom was wrong, and he wouldn't be shy about telling her that.
"I know what's best for my daughter, and I don't know why you're here. You have nothing to do with this. If this is just some ploy to dig your way back into Clare's life then you can forget about it!" Helen was grasping at anything that would make Eli angry enough to leave. He was only going to interfere in her decisions.
For his part Eli stayed fairly calm. Therapy had taught him more than a few ways to stay calm, so he took a few breaths and said, "I think that's Clare's decision as well." Helen stared at him speechless, and Clare stared at him in admiration.
Her mom seemed to be trying to string together a coherent sentence, and she realized this may her only chance to give her own input. "I want him to stay. He offered to help me with whatever I choose, and he didn't have to. I'm having this baby, and I want to raise my baby.", Clare declared proudly.
She was happy with herself for standing up to her mom until she saw the expression that passed over Helen's face. He eyes darkened in rage, and Clare expected steam to rise out of her ears like in the cartoons. "If you think you are keeping that baby then you are sadly mistaken. You don't have the money to properly raise a baby, and I don't think I need to remind you that college isn't an option for a teen mom, assuming you graduate high school. I refuse to raise your child while you're at school all day or at some friend's house. Your father certainly won't help you, so you don't have a choice in the matter." Helen's tone said that the conversation was over, and the decision had been made.
Clare's eyes over flowed with tears as she realized that her mom had told her she wasn't allowed to raise her own child. "You can't make me get an abortion, and as the mother I have to sign papers for an adoption. You can't make me do that either, so it is my decision. I can do this, and I will. With or without your help." Clare's words were as final as her mother's had been, and in all of this Eli stood at the side lines ready to take up Clare's defense again.
Helen looked between Clare and Eli, and seemed to have made a choice. "If that's how you feel then I can't stop you." At these words Clare breathed a sigh of relief, but Eli was not as easily taken in by simple words. He watched Clare's mom with the same suspicion he would watch a lion. "As long as you live in my house, you will live by my rules. If you don't want to live by my rules, you can leave. Now." Helen refused to meet her daughter's gaze which gave Eli some hope that she was bluffing, but he wouldn't have bet money on it.
Clare's eyes widened in horror at what she was hearing from her over protective, loving mom. "A- are you kicking me out, because I refuse to do what you called sin? You told me abortion is wrong, and now you're kicking me out because I won't do it?" Clare was having trouble forming the words and forcing them out, because none of this made sense to her.
"I understand why you don't want an abortion, and I shouldn't have suggested it. However, you should give the baby up for adoption. Don't you want it to have a family with both parents who have the money to take care of it?" The words made sense rationally, but in her heart Clare couldn't make the correct translation.
"No one else could love my baby as much as me, the mother. I'm the one who's going to carry it for nine months and give it life. How can I do all of that and then throw it away?" Further arguments were raised and rejected until Helen finally said that Clare's options were simple. She would either give her baby up for adoption or leave her home. Without another thought Clare said sadly, "I'll go pack"
So...thoughts, comments, criticisms? Btw, I tried to proof read a little more, so did it help?