This chapter will speak for itself. Be prepared my readers. (Review!)

Before I could even close the front door, my mother was yelling at me. "Where have you been for the last four hours?"

I touched my stomach, still not fully comprehending that something was growing inside of me. "I was out with my boyfriend."

Mom came running down the stairs. "You were with him?"

I looked her in the eyes. "Yes, I was with him. You never said I couldn't date him. Not once. Not even when you were screaming at him," I yelled back at her.

"Well, I forbid you to see him."

I gasped. "What?" I whispered, not even sure if she could hear me.

"I forbid you to ever see him again." Rage and sadness filled me.

"You can't do that! You've met him once. You have absolutely no reason not to like him!"

"I have my reasons, Caressa," she said, annoyingly calm.

"Oh, yea? Tell me these reasons. Inform me of your wisdom."

She pointed her finger at me. "Don't you dare talk to me like that."

"Why not? You're a terrible person and a hypocrite! I'm embarrassed to be called your daughter!" I screamed at her. I pushed past her on the stairs. I covered my mouth, trying to conceal the ugly sound I made when I cried.

"I just want to protect you," she pleaded. I stopped on the stairs.

"Exactly what are you protecting me from? The big, bad world? I've gone through a hell of a lot. I'm not an idiot, mom!" I faced her again.

"You know why!" She screamed. My eyes went wide at her booming voice. "I don't want you to be blinded by love! I don't want you to end up like I did!"

"Mom! You may think I'm like you were in your teenage years, but I'm nothing like you! I will continue seeing Jared, whether you like it or not!" I stomped up the stairs and into my bedroom.

She didn't say anything back to me, so I assumed I'd won that fight. We fought constantly, but that was the biggest we'd ever had.

I collapsed onto my bed, clutching my stomach. "I'm sorry for stressing you out," I spoke quietly to myself. "I suppose you're a 'you', right?" After a few seconds of silence, I sat up and talked to my stomach. "Don't be freaked out if you hear me scream, okay? Or if I get butterflies in my tummy. Because, let's face it, those things are going to be happening a lot." I smiled to myself.

A pang of guilt hit me. Am I becoming attached to the baby? This wasn't supposed to happen. Oh god. Before I could have any second thoughts, I rung up Jared.

"Hey honey. Is something wrong? Do you need me?"

"Jared, could I come over? I'm having second thoughts and I don't want to be by myself right now," I whispered into the phone.

"Of course. I'll come pick you up right away," he reassured.

"Thank you," I uttered. "I love you," I added, quickly.

"I love you, too," he said. I sensed he was smiling from the little pick up of his tone.

Five minutes later, Jared arrived. He didn't come to his door just in case my mother was there.

I was at the last step of the stairs when I heard my mother's voice. "And where do you think you're going, missy?"

I spun around to see her at the top of the stairs. "I'm hanging out with my boyfriend. Because he's the only person that I'd like to be around. I'm not going to be stuck in this hell hole for the rest of the night. Goodbye," I snapped at her.

I ran to his car and hopped in. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my head. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Well, I guess. But, could we go to your house? I don't want to be here anymore."

He nodded his head. "Of course, Caressa."

I smiled weakly.

The car ride was completely silent. He pulled up into his driveway and we sat together, the darkness of the night flooding the car. And suddenly, I burst into tears. All the stress of the day finally overtook my weak mind and destroyed me all at once.

I felt arms surrounding me, but before he could try and comfort me, I had to tell him something. "Jared, I don't know if I can go through with it. I just don't know," I cried.

"Go through with what?" he insisted.

"I know not having this baby is the best thing to do. My parents will never have to know and the stress of having the baby is gone. But I'm not sure if I can do it."

He ran his fingers through my hair. "Caressa, I'm okay with any decision you make. It's your body; you deserve to choose what you want to do with it. If you want to have this baby, I'm fine with that and I'll be there with you through everything. If you decide having this baby is the wrong thing to do, then I'll support that decision and I'll never judge you." He kissed my forehead. "This is your decision and nobody else has a right to tell you what to do."

I smiled. "You are such an amazing person."

He pulled my head to his chest, his heart soothing me with its rhythmic beat. "I learnt it from you."

I pulled away at my sudden realization. "Jared, I've made a decision."

We pulled up to the abortion clinic at 11 P.M.

He squeezed my hand as we walked in together. My heart was pounding with terror. This was it. One of the biggest decisions I would ever have to make. I knew it was the right thing to do.

After signing papers, they asked if the father would like to be in the room. "I want to be by myself," I admitted, letting go of his hand.

"Okay," he whispered into my hair. He kissed my head and let me go.

"Alright, miss. We're going to set you up in this room," the nurse said calmly. She pointed to the reclined chair. "Go ahead and sit down and we'll start the x-ray."

I proceeded to sit down, lifting my shirt up to get ready for the gel. She walked over and squeezed the cold, blue gel onto my bare stomach.

After a couple seconds of 'searching for the baby', she pointed to the screen. "There's the baby. Right now it's no bigger than an olive. At this point it's not actually a baby, only a fetus, but calling it a baby is easier."

The baby, although hard to see, was in full view. "Wow," I mumbled to myself. There's a baby inside of me; well, not really a baby.

"It seems that you're a few weeks along, so if you would like, we can proceed with the abortion process." A pang of guilt and relief went through me. "Some mothers start having second thoughts, so I'll give you a minute to think about it alone." The nurse left the room.

Do I really want to do this? I realize that it's not even a baby yet, but what if I regret this decision later on in life? What if this isn't right for me? No, you know this is the right thing to do. No second thoughts.

The nurse entered. "Do you need more time to think about it, sweetie?"

I grabbed my bag and ran out of the room.

"Caressa, what's wrong?" Jared shouted at me. I ran outside, but before I could reach the door, he grabbed my wrist.

I flung myself around so I was facing him. He quickly wiped away the few stray tears on my cheeks. "I can't do it," I cried. "I don't know anymore."

He put his hands around my head and pulled me into his chest. "You are so brave," he whispered. "Just remember that."

It was a quiet car ride back to his house. I held my stomach, replaying the image of that popped up on the screen. Jared reached over and grabbed my hand, running his thumb back and forth. "It's okay," he said, kissing my hand.

"Caressa!" he yelled. His hand suddenly flung protectively over me as the car wheels skidded against the road furiously. Before I knew it, the car was on its side.

My head was pounding in my skull. I moved my body, finding that nothing was broken. I went to hold my head and felt something wet. There was a huge gash across my forehead. Jared's hand was no longer by me. I turned my head to find his body was gone.

I looked up, seeing his car window completely smashed to pieces. I grabbed the car door and pulled myself up. Across from the door, Jared lay motionless. "Jared," I whispered. Around his head was a pool of blood and I could already see his leg was badly broken.

My body screamed with pain as I heaved myself out of the car, falling onto the hard pavement. I crawled towards Jared.

I placed my hand on his cheek. "Jared," I whispered again. No response. "Jared, it's me." I took his hand, which was stained red. "Jared, please. Please don't do this. Please." My hand felt the tiniest bit of pressure. His eyelids flicked open.

His lips moved, but no sound was coming out. His eyes began watering. "You-" he began.

"Shh," I hushed him.

"You-you-You're okay."

I nodded my head, tears dropping onto his face. "Yea, I am. And so are you."

He shook his head and moaned in pain. "Where does it hurt, Jared?" His shaky hand slowly pointed to his stomach. His shirt stuck to his body from the blood. I carefully lifted it up.

I caught my breath. On his stomach was a long, deep cut; if a person could even call it a cut. It ran from side to side, bleeding profusely. I looked back into his eyes, trying to hide my fear. "You'll be okay," I whispered, running my fingers through his wet hair.

A sound came from his chest, which I assumed was a laugh. "You-you've always been-so bad-bad at lying." His lips quivered, forming a slight smile.

I managed to smile, too. His chest was falling and rising quickly, not to a specific rhythm. "We'll just get you to a hospital. It'll be okay," I said, trying to convince myself everything was going to be fine; I knew it wasn't.

"We're in-in the middle-of nowhere." I looked around, realizing he was right. No houses, buildings or cars were around us.

He was wheezing, trying so hard to breath. "I'll go find somebody, don't worry." I began standing up, but his hand stopped me.

"Please-please stay," he cried out.

"Okay," I said, sitting back down next to him.

"I just-wa-want to say," he wheezed out, "that I-I- love you, Caressa."

I shook my head in disbelief. "No, don't tell me your goodbyes. You're okay. You're going to be okay," I cried out.

His hand tried to move to touch my cheek, but he was too weak. I put my hand over his and brought it to my face. "I-I love-love you-Ca-Caressa."

He wiped his finger across my cheek. "I love you too, Jared." His head nodded slightly and he smiled.

His fingers went limp on my cheek. Slowly, his smile faded, and his eyes went blank. I placed his hand onto his chest.

"Jared," I said between cries, "Jared please. Please, Jared, don't do this." I grabbed him into my arms and held him to my chest. I cried into his shoulder. "Jared, please don't," I said into his neck. "I love you, too," I said again, holding his last words.