When I had arrived at the door of David's dorm room, I was shaking I was so nervous. After all, I didn't really know anything about this guy. I did not know the father of my child. I had taken a deep breath to fortify myself and then knocked on the door.

David's roommate, I would learn later that his name was John, had opened the door. "Hey…" I could tell that he was trying to place me, but we had never met before, so he was out of luck. Eventually he settled for asking, "Do you need something?"

"Is David here? I need to talk to him." I had been surprised at the steadiness of my own voice; after all, I was falling apart on the inside.

"Yeah, sure." John had motioned me inside, calling out, "David, there's a cheerleader here to see you."

I had wondered for a split second how he had known that I was a cheerleader, then I had remembered that I had put my hair up using the ribbons that the cheerleaders were given as a part of their uniform.

David had peered around the corner to see who his visitor was. Recognition had flared in his eyes and he'd given John a look that had asked him to leave. I had swallowed nervously as John had tipped an imaginary hat to me and said "I guess I'll leave you kids to it" as he'd backed out the door. The door had closed soundly behind him, loud in the suddenly silent apartment. The silence itself had become deafening to me in the few seconds before David had leaned casually against the doorway and offered, "Make yourself comfortable. You're… Miranda, right? From one of the parties?"

I had dropped onto the edge of a nearby sofa, correcting, "Amanda."

"Right." David had nodded and sat down on the opposite end of the couch. "To what do I owe the pleasure of the repeated presence of a pretty girl?"

If the situation had been different, I would have considered his eloquence funny, but nothing would have been funny at that moment. "Don't get too happy about a pretty girl too quickly." I had said softly.

"Why not?" David had asked, his eyebrows rising as he moved closer to me on the couch.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious alongside being nervous, I had moved away, keeping the distance between us the same as it had been before. "Because you already got this pretty girl pregnant."

"What?" he'd asked, brows creasing in confusion like he didn't understand what I'd meant.

"I'm pregnant." I'd repeated, keeping my gaze locked on my clenched hands. "You're the father."

"What?" he'd whispered again. "Are you sure?"

"That I'm pregnant or that you're dad, 'cause the answer is yes to both questions."

Silence had reigned for a few seconds after my moment of snappishness, but then David had demanded, "Then just get rid of it."

It actually took me a second to realize what he meant, and when I did, my "no!" slid off of my tongue before it ran through my startled brain.

This answer actually made him look at me for the first time since I'd told him. "What do you mean 'no'?" His tone had changed to something darker, but I was already too much of a mess to realize it.

"I mean no. I won't do it. I'm not getting an abortion."

"Why on earth not? You'll recover from it, I'm sure."

"I'm not worried about me," I'd tried to explain it to him. "I don't want to hurt the baby."

"How do you know that it's a baby?"

Then I had noticed the change in him, the way that he'd growled the question meant that I couldn't miss it even if I had wanted to. And I did want to. Just like with my father years ago, I realized then, that I had desperately wanted him to make everything okay. I had wanted him to promise to take care of me, of us – me and the baby. But I also realized that, just like with my father, he would do no such thing.

Even so, I had tried to explain my thoughts to him. "Well, I don't know for sure that it is or isn't, but if it is, I don't want to be the one to kill a child. So, no, I just can't."

"Yes, you can." He was mad now, and it wasn't a request. It was a demand, an irate one at that.

"No," I had repeated softly, scrambling to think of ways to calm him down.

But it had been too late.

Red, green, and blue.

I remember that those were the exact colors of the stars that had exploded in my vision when I fell off of the couch – when David had hit me.

He and I had both frozen – him still on the couch, me on my hands and knees crab-style on the floor – and stared at each other for a long moment. I had gotten the impression that he was just as surprised as I was at the way he had lashed out. Surprisingly, I had won our little staring contest.

He had blinked first, and then surged off of the couch and towards the door, saying stiffly over his shoulder, "Lock the door behind you when you leave."

And then he had slammed the door behind himself, leaving me alone with his baby growing inside of me.

I say that the chapters are going to be drabble-length and then what? The next two chapters aren't. Anyway, we're halfway done with this story! The story gets better, I promise! You'll get a ray of sunshine in the next chapter. Please tell me what you think and stay tuned for the next chapter! Thanks!