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Now on with yet another chapter of mindless babbling.
Promise
"To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing." ~Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Clare stared at her reflection in the mirror the morning after her appointment. She was just staring at herself, looking up and down. She looked like normal Clare, the girl who was innocent and naïve. But on the inside she was impure. She was one of the girls that people would stare at and whisper about.
She had promised abstinence. She had the ring on her finger to prove it. Virginity was something scared in the church. She had gone and wasted it in a moment of traitorous lust. She couldn't get it back even if she tried.
No, she was pregnant. And standing in front of that mirror at that very moment made her realize it was real. She was really going to have a baby.
The blond girl walked over to the sink and ripped her ring off her finger. She felt tears starting to form on the brims of her eyelids. Her head lifted, blue eyes meeting identical ones. And with the flick of her finger, the ring was tumbling down the drain.
Clare looked down at the sink. She let out a relieved sigh and ran the water just to make sure it was down. She gripped the sink tightly and cried the rest of her tears. Her body shook and convulsed, racked with raw emotion. She'd have to get it all out before leaving to go to school.
Another day. She would have to endure yet another day with the scar of a broken promise on her. She felt like she should stitch a huge red "A" onto her blouse. She'd have to go on with the thought of people staring at her, as she got bigger. People would whisper. Rumors would harbor in every conversation.
She felt a shudder go down her spine and stood up straight. She wiped her eyes and left the bathroom, hurrying down the stairs. She ran out the door before either of her parents could say anything. She wanted to walk to school. She needed more time to think.
Eli knew he should be getting out of his car the moment he arrived at school. Yet something was keeping him from moving a muscle. He needed to think even more. He'd been doing a lot of that lately…
His mind was on hyper drive. He couldn't stop his thoughts from controlling each and every one of his actions. Not like that was very different, but yet it was. It was like he had to think through everything before he acted. He had to think how it would affect Clare. How it would affect his baby.
His baby.
Finally something was going to be his. There was something that no one could take away from him. He was going to care for that child until the day he died. He didn't care what Clare said. He was going to be there.
He sighed and opened the door, stepping out to start the day.
"No one is staring at you," Eli reassured Clare as they sat at their normal table outside during lunch on the same day. He watched as she looked around, a paranoid glint in her eyes.
She turned to him, "I know no one's staring at me…I'm just imagining what will happen when they start to."
Eli let out a long breath. He looked back at her and took her chin in between his thumb and index finger. "Screw what they think. People are jerks."
She nodded, her face so soft and trusting. She looked absolutely radiant. And in a split second, his mind finally not thinking everything through, Eli leaned forward and captured Clare's lips in a tender kiss. She pulled away slowly and stood up.
"I…um…have to go," she sputtered, grabbing all her things. She raced off quickly, leaving Eli mentally kicking himself.